The Economist Reading Challenge Week 1: Article 1

The summary of the passage:
Because of few evidence of blood clotting after AZ vaccination, people and countries in Europe, except Britain, stopped taking AZ as a precaution, but the author thinks that this practice will cost more. The author encourages people to take the vaccine. The author support his claim by providing examples, result of experiment, etc.

Q. 1) According to the passage which of the following statements is true?

a. European Medicines Agency (EMA) has ignored the warnings issued by the EU countries [Opposite. EMA urged and no warnings are issued by the EU countries]
b. Separating causation and correlation is hard [CORRECT answer. Reference line from the passage: "Any confusion lies in the difficulty of disentangling (means separating) causation from correlation." ]
c. Norway was one of the first countries to suspend vaccinations [Norway reported four cases of blood clotting but it is not mentioned whether it was one of the first countries to suspend vaccinations]
d. Side effects of thromboembolic events were not remarkable [Side effects of thromboembolic events are not mentioned in the passage.
e. The AZ vaccine appears to have a higher side effect rate than the Pfizer vaccine [No comparison regarding side effect is made between AZ and Pfizer.

Q.2) According to the passage the author implies which of the following?

a. As long as the AZ vaccine causes less than 0.0005% side effect rate, it is worth taking [CORRECT answer. Reference line from the passage: "Even if it turns out to entail a minuscule (i.e. extremely small) risk of clotting disorders, vaccination is likely to be many, many times less dangerous than catching covid-19." ]
b. The Pfizer vaccine has been administered more widely but has the same side effect rate [The scope of using Pfizer is not mentioned or implied in the passage.]
c. People are willing to take the AZ vaccine even if there is a small risk of thromboembolic events [People are not willing to take this.]
d. The AZ vaccine is not as popular as Pfizer vaccine due to the recent concerns surrounding thromboembolic events. [Popularity of vaccine is not discussed in the passage]
e. People who are likely to get blood clots should not get the AZ vaccine [The author suggests the opposite. If it is not AZ vaccine, people sometimes experience blood clotting due to some other events. Reference line from the passage: "People routinely undertake activities that involve a small risk of blood clots, such as flying, taking birth-control pills, smoking and eating unhealthily." ]


Q.3) The main purpose of the passage is:

a. To outline the risk of the AZ vaccine [NO. The overall tone of the passage favors taking the AZ vaccine even if there is some risk]
b. To dispel the rumors surrounding covid-19 vaccines and encourage people to get vaccinated [CORRECT answer. Matched the summary of the passage. The author encourages people to get vaccinated because he thinks it will save millions of people.]
c. To argue that caution is not the right approach with covid-19 [Partially true but does not cover the whole idea of the passage.]
d. To highlight a flaw in the vaccine deployment plan [Vaccine deployment plan is not mentioned in the passage.]
e. To provide examples from past vaccination campaigns and how certain events negatively impacted vaccine distribution [Providing examples is not the main message of the author. Vaccine distribution is not discussed in the passage.]

QUESTION 1:-C
QUESTION2:-A
QUESTION3:- C

Q 1 - Answer - option B

Q 2 - Answer - option D

Q 3 - Answer - option C

1. C. Suspensions began AFTER Norway reported 4 cases
2. A. Author mentioned only 30 out of 5m got side effects and proceeded to say that was remarkable
3. B. seems to be straightforward

1) A, D (Both are correct)
2) D (Inference question)
3) B

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Best.

beautiful questions, thanks Sajjad1994 for starting this.

Primarily, I want to highlight that this RC fun reading is great movement to diversify GMAT content.

Concerning the Q3. I intentionally missed the title of article to check whether my title of the passage match with original title and then with Q3 answer. So, my pre-thinking main point matched with article title, but diverged from Q3 answer.



P1. Caution of people is not good
P2. How it was. Urge to keep vaccination
P3. Causation and correlation
P4. Some statistics and conclusion that all causes are mild
P5. Risk is minuscule - exhortation to keep vaccination
P6. Example: Other vaccines have side effect too
P7. Opinion why some countries are suspended vaccination and negative aftermath

Therefore, main point is Benefits higher than risks, keep AS vaccination.
Article title is similar: How Europe’s vaccine caution can cost lives

I was inclined to following answers:
B. To dispel the rumors surrounding covid-19 vaccines and encourage people to get vaccinated
C. To argue that caution is not the right approach with covid-19
But the answer is

" D: To highlight a flaw in the vaccine deployment plan"

Could someone enlighten how to come up to that "main point of the passage"?

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