#17 - Herbalist: While standard antibiotics typically have

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Method of Reasoning—AP. The correct answer choice is (A)

In this somewhat bizarre analogy, the author argues that herbal antibacterial remedies will remain
more effective against resistant strains of bacteria than standard antibiotics because it’s easier to
make a good meal for one guest than preparing a single meal that will please all of several dozen
guests. In this example, the cook is like the bacteria, the meal is the bacteria’s resistance, and the
guests are active ingredients. Thus, herbal remedies have several active ingredients, not all of which
will be resisted by the “meal” offered by a given bacteria. Of course, the argument overlooks the fact
that active ingredients in herbal remedies are present in such small quantities that all of the guests
together would have no discernible “appetite” and so poorly targeted that even a hungry guest would
probably enjoy any “meal” the bacteria offered.

In the answers below, we will establish the equivalent for each element of the analogy, in which
element corresponds to a standard antibiotic.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. A single guest = a standard antibiotic. This
guest has one approach to the meal and some bacteria may be able to successfully resist the guest’s
appetite.

Answer choice (B): Several dozen guests = an herbal remedy. The guests correspond to various
active ingredients, although these guests would be infinitesimal and eat just about anything.

Answer choice (C): The pleasure experience by a single guest = roughly corresponds to the degree to
which an antibiotic is effective at targeting a bacterial strain. If the meal is pleasing, then the bacteria
is resistant to that antibiotic.

Answer choice (D): A cook = a strain of bacteria.

Answer choice (E): The ingredients available to a cook = this element is not present in the analogy,
but would most closely correspond to the various strategies by which a bacteria develops resistance
to remedies.

[Rita]

Hi, could you please explain why A is a better answer choice than C? In the analogy, I assumed that the difficulty for the cook is not having a single guest, but rather trying to achieve the pleasure of that guest. Similarly, the difficulty for the strain of bacteria is not in encountering a standard antibiotic with a single active ingredient, but rather in trying to combat that ingredient.

Is the correct interpretation that the standard antibiotic represents the single guest, and the active ingredient represents the pleasure experienced by that guest?

Could you please clarify?

Thanks!
Rita

[Claire Horan]

The single guest corresponds to a standard antibiotic. You can see why if you create a sentence that works for both the bacteria and the dinner party.

A cook encounters and attempts to manage guests, while a strain encounters medications.
A cook can please one guest more easily than she can several all at once.
A bacteria strain can resist one active ingredient in a standard antibiotic more easily than it can several ingredients all at once in an herbal remedy.

So, the cook corresponds to the strain, the single guest corresponds to the standard antibiotic, and multiple guests needed to be pleased represent the herbal remedy.

[bk1111]

Hi, I am having trouble identifying the type of question this would be. Is it a Must Be True?

[AthenaDalton]

Yes, you are correct!

This one is a Must Be True question.