#11 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[mshaheen14]

Hi Powerscore,

I was wondering where the passage stated that the cultural conventions of Chinese society were a factor of acceptance of Western Women into Chinese hospitals.

I chose (A) because of the author's reference to the notions of female modesty in the middle of the second paragraph. This led me to infer that if female modesty is a factor in medicine, that a high number of male practitioners in the region could be seen as a negative, being that they would carry the increased burden of respecting female modesty. Therefore, the Western women would have been all the more needed because they wouldn't carry that additional burden beign that they are women themselves.

I know that this entire inference is very shaky, but being that I could not see the support for answer (C) its what I came up with on the spot.

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi mshaheen14,

We don't know about the number of male physicians in this area. From the passage, it's not clear if there were male physicians that women wouldn't go to, or if there were no physicians at all. Both are consistent with the facts given.

However, the point you made about modesty is EXACTLY what leads us to answer choice (D) here. It's a cultural factor that lead to the acceptance women physicians. So I think you were looking in the right spot on this one, but you went too far in assuming that we knew anything about male physicians.

Hope that helps!

[tug59567]

I am having a lot of trouble validating answer choice D as the correct answer choice. I am mostly referring to lines 45-50 for evidence. I originally chose answer choice A for the following reason:

- Physical modesty is connected to medical practices since it has an impact on the number of individuals seeking medical attention.
- Since there is a (very loose) connection between the cultural emphasis on physical modesty and those seeking medical attention, any lack of physical modesty could point to a non-Chinese practice.
-Lastly, since "many Chinese women were "avail[ing] themselves to western medicine", and western medicine would be non-Chinese medical practices, it isn't that far-fetched to infer that there was a dislike for, or suspicion of, western, or non-Chinese medicine that was keeping the general population from embracing it in the first place. If there wasn't any, why would there be hesitation to accept western medicine?

I can't see the support for answer choice D. It seems like the evidence for it would come from lines 36-38. But in these lines, male physicians are not even mentioned. And furthermore, we only learn about the "conventions of female modesty". While I am starting to see the inference that female modesty could be in relation to not being exposed to male physicians, it seems like those lines lead more to the inference that fewer women were pursuing medicinal attention. Even more so, if there were ONLY male physicians at that time, that it would have been customary for male physicians to see women patients, even though this flies in the face of the conventions of "female modesty".

This is my reasoning and I do believe I am seeing the inference for answer choice D but I still think it's very weak and that Answer choice A is simply more supported. How do I not fall into this trap?

Thank you very much for your time and help.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi tug!

Based on your reasoning for answer choice (A), I think your question might actually be referring to question #12 in this section. So I'm going to assume we're talking about question #12 here and hope this explanation makes sense!

For answer choice (A), it's a big leap to jump from "many Chinese women were availing themselves of Western medicine" to a suspicion of non-Chinese medical practices. Look at that full sentence: "The presence of women physicians in Canton mission hospitals led many Chinese women to avail themselves of Western medicine who might otherwise have failed to do so because of their culture's emphasis on physical modesty." There doesn't seem to be anything here about suspicion of non-Chinese medical practices. The only reason these women weren't going to the mission hospitals in the first place was because the doctors were all men, not because they distrusted non-Chinese medicine. Based on the passage, it seems that having women doctors was all they needed to encourage them to avail themselves of Western medicine. Nothing in the passage indicates any suspicion of non-Chinese medical practices. It's all about women patients being more comfortable with women doctors rather than men doctors.

Answer choice (D), on the other hand, is strongly supported by the excerpt above: "It was not customary for female patients to be treated by male physicians." The sentence tells us that it's the "presence of women physicians" that "led many Chinese women to avail themselves of Western medicine" and, furthermore, it tells us that these women "might otherwise have failed to do so because of their culture's emphasis on physical modesty." The women doctors caused these women to avail themselves of Western medicine. And if there had not been women doctors, these women would not have used Western medicine because their culture emphasized modesty. Combine that with the sentence from the previous paragraph that "a woman physician could attend women patients without offending any of the accepted conventions of female modesty" and you've got some pretty strong support for the statement that it was not customary for women patients to see male physicians!

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey