Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associate

Question

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.

If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them ?

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.

(C) Aspirin inhibit the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.

(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be.

(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.

rjacobsMGMAT · Accepted Answer

Let's say that under normal conditions, your body produces 100 white blood cells per day (no idea if this is true

, but bear with me). Then you get a fever, and now you make 200 WBC's per day. Then you take some asprin, your fever goes away, and you go back to producing 100 WBC's per day. Big question: Is asprin inhibiting WBC production? No, it's just returning WBC production to normal. Rembember, "not stimulating" is NOT equivalent to "inhibiting" - there's something in between: neither stimulating nor inhibiting (i.e. normal conditions). Besides, it's the fever doing the stimulating, not the asprin itself. (C) doesn't work for this reason. (D) is a problem because there's nothing in the premises to indicate scale. In other words, the problem tells us only that WBC's fight disease, but maybe there is a threshold number of WBC's before they can become effective, or after which they become ineffective. Furthermore, the severity of the disease depends on the type of disease (about which we have no info) as well as the WBC count.

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Let me explain why C is wrong.

There are three reasons:

1. We know that Aspirin eliminates moderate fever, and moderate fever stimulates THE ACTIVITY of WBC (White Blood Cells). So, we can say that in a way, Aspirin has a negative effect on the ACTIVITY of WBC. However, we can't say that Aspirin has a negative effect on the GROWTH of WBC.

2. Let's say that the passage mentioned that moderate fever stimulates the GROWTH of WBC. In such a case, we can say that Aspirin is not allowing the stimulation of growth to happen. However, can we say that Aspirin inhibits the growth of WBC? I'll be doubtful. Not allowing stimulation doesn't necessarily mean inhibition. Not allowing stimulation may mean stagnation too.

3. The option says that WBCs are necessary for fighting some illnesses. Remember we're doing an inference question. Do we have any information in the passage to be sure that WBCs are necessary for fighting some illnesses? Nope.

Vict0R · Answer

My Answer :  B 

seems to be the best fit.

C - "Aspirin inhibit the growth of white blood cells" - wrong 
 "Aspirin stimulates the growth of white blood cells"

A - Wrong
D - We cannot conclude that directly from the sentence given
E - We cannot conclude that about the focus of todays medicine

msrinath · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria. 

If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them ? 


(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses. 

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.  Corrrect 
(C) Aspirin inhibit the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses. 

(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be. 

(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body. 


Moderate fever serves two purposes
1.stimulates the activity of white blood cells
2.inhibits growth of disease causing bacteria

Aspirin serves one purpose
1.eliminates moderate fever

from these two evidences we can conclude  B 
Aspirin eliminates moderate fever which is helpful in fighting some diseases

We cannot conclude  C  because nowhere it is stated that Aspirin inhibits growth of white blood cells

other options are irrelevant

Anon · Answer

Explanation.. ???

why did you eliminate C ??

GMBA85 · Answer

The original paragraph does not mention any direct link b/w Aspirin and WBC. Aspirin decreases fever which inhibits growth of WBC's.

Choice B seems to be more appropriate.

Ashwin_Mohan · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.
If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them?
(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.
(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.
(C) Aspirin inhibits the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.
(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be.
(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.

Since you narrowed it down to between B and C, I am not going to look at the other options.

It is not C, because the option is way too extreme. No where in the passage does the author mention that Asprin completely prevents the formation of white blood cells. Also there is another piece of evidence that the author makes that a moderate fever stimulated the activity of disease fighting white blood cells, but can we infer that no white blood cells form when there is no fever?...nooo that's a wrong assumption.

Thus it is B.

Hope this explanation helped.

smartmanav · Answer

Can someone plz explain, why D is incorrect. last 3 lines did talk about D , then why it cant be the answer ?

perfectstranger · Answer

I made this question wrong two times . But I understand finally

C is wrong because it is not inhibiting the growth of blood cells , it stops to produce even bigger numbers.

D is wrong because it says less severe the ilness will be but in the argument it mentions just a process . It never told that it eliminates severeness. Maybe it will be more severe but the body will heal more quickly.

The OA is B

It is understood from the question that doctors do not want to give patients asprin because it stops to to produce big numbers of blood cells and it says it inhibits many strains of bacteria . It can be said that taking aspirin can prolong the normal disease by eliminating to produce more the important cells.

nandetapuri · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.
If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them?

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.
  Wrong english grammar. How can something alleviate pain of an illness

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.
 Concludes it all.

(C) Aspirin inhibits the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.
 Could have been a potential answer. But it used a word " some " illnesses. It should have been the patient's illness.

(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be.
  No direct relationship has been established in the premise.

(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.
  Totally out of scope.

EP2620 · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.

If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them ?

Got confused among options A, B and C, and posting my lessons from this question. This is an inference question and what follows from the statements above  MUST BE  true

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses
 The statements say that aspirin has been proven to eliminate ' fever associated with some illnesses ' , does that mean it has anything to do with 'pain and discomfort of many illnesses'?
Even if we don't know the exact meaning of alleviate, we can't say that this MUST BE true.

(B) Aspirin  can  prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever  helpful  in fighting  some  diseases.
 Notice the usage of moderate words - can, helpful and some.  Aspirin can do something, not must do something. Fever is helpful, not necessary. Some diseases, not all . 
This seems to be as good as any statement that you might ignore it just like I did! However, it doesn't say anything that you cannot derive from the given statements. 
Does Aspirin eliminate moderate fever? Yes
Does moderate fever stimulate production of 'disease fighting' white blood cells, thus helping body to fight 'some diseases'? Yes
Hence, can aspirin inhibit production of 'disease fighting' white blood cells? Yes
Can aspirin prolong an illness by eliminating moderate fever (leading to WBC production), helpful in fighting some diseases? Yes

(C) Aspirin inhibit the growth of white blood cells, which are  necessary  for fighting some illnesses.
 Are white blood cells necessary? We don't know! Bamm, wrong, just like that!

Emma2511 · Answer

Can someone pls explain why the answer is B ?
(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient???s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.

While I originally marked C & understood from the answers why its incorrect however I still cant get why B is correct: 
Its is not moderate fever that is helpful in fighting some diseases, a moderate fever stimaulates activity of WBC which help in fighthing some diseases

egmat · Answer

Yes, that means moderate fever is a necessary condition to actually fight the disease, while all aspirin does is alleviate the symptoms. By alleviating the moderate fever, it prevents stimulation of WBC activity and thus prevents faster recovery.

kagrawal16 · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.

If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them ?

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.

(C) Aspirin inhibit the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.

(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be.

(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.

This is causal reasoning.

Moderate fever stimulates/produces WBC and inhibits bacterial growth.
This doesn't mean that there are no other causes.
Something else can also stimulate or produce WBCs

But since you are about to eliminate one of the causes (moderate fever), chances are the effect might not (can or cannot) occur.
else with moderate fever you are sure that the effect occurs.

So Aspiring "can" delay. Not "will" delay, as explained you only eliminate one of the causes. The others that could bring about the same effect are still out there, though we cannot say.

GMATNinja · Answer

We have a couple facts here that we can turn into a chain of events. 
 
 Fact 1: Aspirin can eliminate a mild fever. 
 Fact 2: A moderate fever stimulates the immune system and inhibits the growth of bacteria.

By linking these facts together we get the following chain of events.
 
 If you take aspirin it will eliminate your mild fever. 
 Elimination of the mild fever will mean that your immune system  won't  be stimulated and the growth of bacterial  won't  be inhibited.

So taking the aspirin results in a loss for your immune system and a win for the bacteria! That probably means you're going to be more sick or sick for longer if you take the aspirin. It also looks a lot like answer choice (B):
 
Keep in mind that we're looking for the answer choice that is  most  strongly supported by the statements. It doesn't have to be  perfectly  supported -- (B) is more strongly supported than the other answer choices, so (B) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

CEdward · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.

If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them ?

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller,  alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.

This really goes beyond what the passage says...The passage states that aspirin eliminates moderate fever associated with SOME illnesses. This choice goes and says that aspirin alleviates PAIN and DISCOMFORT of MANY illnesses. That's not a conclusion we should be drawing.

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases. Correct

(C) Aspirin  inhibit  the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.

Careful. Trap choice. Just because the fever stimulates the activity of the body's disease fighting white blood cells (in the absence of aspirin) does not mean that aspirin INHIBITS wbcs.

(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be.

Totally out of left field. Out.

(E) The  focus of modern medicine  is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.

Does not follow at all. There are millions of foci in modern medicine. This passage certainly doesn't give us any reason to think that fighting off disease-causing bacteria is one of them.

sahuanamika · Answer

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria.

Here Aspirin just eliminate moderate fever.
Moderate fever stimulates WBC and inhibits the growth of many bacteria.

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.
-- here according to paragraph Aspirin eliminates fever , so this is out of context.

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient’s illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.
-- correct this can be inferred , as here aspirin is eliminating fever.

(C) Aspirin inhibit the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.
-- Aspirin does not inhibit the growth , moderate fever does this , so not correct.

(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be.
-- this is out of context , paragraph did not say anything on what WBC does.

(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.
-- This is also out of context , paragraph did not say anything on modern medicine

Correct Ans B

Sneha2021 · Answer

If we pay close attention to C and D, it shifts our focus from the  activity  of WBC to the  growth  of WBC. 
Realize that passage didn't mention anything related to the production or growth of WBC. (A moderate fever stimulates the  activity of the body’s disease-fighting white blood cells )

(C) Aspirin inhibits the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.
No, Aspirin might inhibit the activity of WBC but we don't know about growth (increase in no. of cells)
(D) The more white blood cells a patient’s body produces, the less severe the patient’s illness will be. 
No, the activity of WBC helps in fighting against some illnesses, but how more production helps is not given in the passage. 
High production doesn't mean high activity

ArnauG · Answer

To determine the most strongly supported conclusion based on the given statements, let's examine each option:

(A) Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.
The statements do not provide direct support for this conclusion. The focus is on the use of aspirin for fever reduction, not pain relief.

(B) Aspirin can prolong a patient's illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.
This conclusion is directly supported by the statements. The statements indicate that moderate fever stimulates the activity of disease-fighting white blood cells and inhibits the growth of disease-causing bacteria. If aspirin eliminates the moderate fever, it may interfere with the body's natural defense mechanisms, potentially prolonging the illness.

(C) Aspirin inhibits the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.
The statements do not provide any information about aspirin inhibiting the growth of white blood cells. This conclusion goes beyond the scope of the given information.

(D) The more white blood cells a patient's body produces, the less severe the patient's illness will be.
The statements mention the stimulation of white blood cell activity by moderate fever but do not establish a direct correlation between white blood cell production and illness severity. This conclusion goes beyond the scope of the given information.

(E) The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.
The statements discuss the inhibitory effect of moderate fever on the growth of disease-causing bacteria but do not provide information about the focus of modern medicine. This conclusion is not supported by the given statements.

In conclusion, the most strongly supported conclusion based on the given statements is (B): Aspirin can prolong a patient's illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases. The statements suggest that moderate fever plays a role in stimulating the activity of disease-fighting white blood cells and inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria. If aspirin eliminates the moderate fever, it may interfere with the body's natural defense mechanisms, potentially prolonging the illness.

Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associate

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Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associate

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