Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailme

Question

Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailments. At the more trivial end, orthodox medicine is largely ineffective in treating aches, pains and allergies, and, at the other extreme, it has yet to produce a cure for serious, life-threatening diseases such as advanced cancer and lupus. People turn to alternative medicine when orthodox medicine fails to help them and when it produces side effects that are unacceptable to them. One of the reasons alternative medicines is free of such side effects is that it does not have any effects at all.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following can be properly inferred from them?

(A) Practitioners of alternative medicine are acting in bad faith.

(B) There are some medical conditions for which no orthodox or alternative treatment is effective.

(C) There are some trivial illnesses that can be treated effectively by the methods of alternative medicine.

(D) There are no effective medical treatments that are free from unacceptable side effects.

(E) Orthodox medicine will eventually produce a solution for the diseases that are currently incurable.

Mac3921 · Answer

Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailments. At the more trivial end, orthodox medicine is largely ineffective in treating aches, pains and allergies, and, at the other extreme, it has yet to produce a cure for serious, life-threatening diseases such as advanced cancer and lupus. People turn to alternative medicine when orthodox medicine fails to help them and when it produces side effects that are unacceptable to them. One of the reasons alternative medicines is free of such side effects is that it does not have any effects at all.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following can be properly inferred from them?

Argument reasoning: 
Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends: for normal diseases and some serious, life threatening diseases.

In addition Orthodox medicines also have some side effects so patients switch to alternative medicines, which do not produce any effects at all.

(A) Practitioners of alternative medicine are acting in bad faith.
- It might be true but it can not be inferred from passage.

(B) There are some medical conditions for which no orthodox or alternative treatment is effective.
- Yes this is true let's mark it for possible answer as per reasoning above.

(C) There are some trivial illnesses that can be treated effectively by the methods of alternative medicine.
- out of scope

(D) There are no effective medical treatments that are free from unacceptable side effects.
- extreme answer choice, according to passage some are not effective. Not all.

(E) Orthodox medicine will eventually produce a solution for the diseases that are currently incurable.
-This can not inferred from passage.

Hence my answer is B.

Hope this helps.

Posted from my mobile device

RohitSaluja · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma   AndrewN  can you please help me with the question? No where in the passage is mentioned whether alternative treatment is effective or not.

AndrewN · Answer

Actually,  RohitSaluja , the end of the passage tells us that    does not have any effects at all , so we can deduce that, according to the passage, alternative treatment is  not  effective for treating  some medical conditions . (In fact, the passage would take the statement one step further and say that alternative treatment on its own would not be effective for treating  any  medical conditions.) Provided the passage also indicates that  no orthodox  treatment can effectively treat these same unnamed medical conditions, we cannot find a way to argue against (B). The second line of the passage does just that, presenting a range of medical conditions for which orthodox medicine is either  largely ineffective  or  has yet to produce a cure , not to mention that line three specifically outlines a situation in which  orthodox medicine fails to help   . I felt good about (B) right away, but I checked the other options, just in case. Nothing else agreed with the passage, so I was left with a single answer, a best case scenario.

I hope my response helps you with this question. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

unraveled · Answer

Highlighted text is easily the most important part of the passage which gives direction to the passage.
Since AM has no effect, it can be assumed that it does not treat any medical conditions effectively. On the other hand, OM also has some conditions that it does nto treat effectively. So there is a likelihood that some conditions might not be treated effectively by both OM and AM.

B spells the same clearly.

Answer B.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailme

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Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailme

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