A physician who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort an...
DalaalApril 17, 2020
Again, why is B correct and E incorrect?
Hi there,
I read the previous explanations and still do not quite understand the structure of this question.
When u don't feel ill -> unwise to get medical checkup is the conclusion. However, obviously, there is a disconnect w the provided premises on physicians' thoroughness.
Answer choice E seems to be saying that if a patient was ill and had something specific hurting him/her, then the physicians can be more guided in their medical checkup because they can eliminate certain possibilities. Isn't this a connection that makes the conclusion logical. If patients went to physicians without feeling ill, they wouldn't be able to guide physicians and would make the thoroughness test more difficult.
I can see how answer choice B might function to support the conclusion, but I feel it is more of a stretch than answer choice E.
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Thanks for the question! Let’s first take a look at the stimulus. We’re told that physicians who are too thorough in conducting medical checkups are likely to subject patients to unnecessary tests, which are uncomfortable and not free. But ones that aren’t thorough enough might miss serious problems. We also know that physicians can’t judge how thorough to be. The conclusion is then: it’s generally unwise for patients to have medical checkups when they’re not feeling ill.
Now the question is asking for the answer choice that provides the most support for the conclusion above. Let’s first take a look at (E). (E) tells us that physicians can eliminate the need to order certain tests with careful questioning. If (E) is true, however, then physicians can ask questions to make it less likely that they are too thorough, which makes it less likely that they order unnecessary tests. But this is a reason that patients shouldn’t go to the doctor when they’re not feeling ill. Thus, this (E) attacks an idea that supports the conclusion, and thus weakens the argument, not strengthens it. Thus, (E) cannot be the right answer.
(B), on the other hand, is correct. Let’s say that unnecessary medical tests can cause healthy people to become ill. Then if a person isn’t feeling ill, but goes to the physician to get tested and is given unnecessary tests because the physician is too thorough, there’s a person that that person will actually get sick. This supports the conclusion that people who don’t feel ill shouldn’t go to the physician, and so strengthens the argument.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any further questions that you might have.
