#23 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Main Point

[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!

[bella243]

Could someone please explain why D is a better answer than E or even C? I spent quite a long time picking D over E. C put me off because of the word "only," which isn't explicitly supported by the passage. E, on the other hand, sounds reasonable, because the broader topic is that medical professionals are different from other professionals.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi bella,

The reason answer choice D is the best answer here is that the primary question the author spends the passage answering is why we should continue to think of physicians as professionals, rather than as members of a trade (as consumer groups and others are trying to view them, from the first sentence of the passage).

That question is posed in the first paragraph: "Why should physicians (or indeed all sensible people) resist such efforts to give the practice of medicine a new meaning?" The author then spends the rest of the passage talking about why we should stick to the old meaning attached to the practice of medicine, i.e. why it should be viewed as a "profession." Ultimately, as the author concludes the passage, "[a] profession engages one's character and heart, not merely one's mind and hands." So since medicine is a discipline engaging the character and heart, it is appropriately thought of as a profession.

What answer choice E is missing is any reference to the nature of medicine as a profession, which is the main theme of the passage that the author spends significant space discussing in every paragraph. An additional minor problem with answer choice E is that it is not physicians who the author is worried about having departed from this ethical view. Rather, the author is concerned with those outside the medical field who are trying to put it in a smaller (inappropriate) box. You can see this in the first paragraph, where the author says that physicians need to "resist" this outside view (not necessarily "reorient" themselves).

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[Canadianlaw1100]

Hey!

I haven't posted on these before so I am not sure if this is active and I will get a reply... but I had such a hard time with this passage despite feeling like I did fine (2/8.. yikes).

I don't understand why A is incorrect. At the beginning of the passage the author states "We can gain some illumination from etymology." and then goes on for almost all of the passage to explain the etymology of the word profession to provide evidence as too why physicians are professionals.

Thank you!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Canadianlaw1100!

You're correct that in the first paragraph the author poses a question and then states that etymology can provide some illumination to the answer to that question. But the entire passage is not about the etymology of the word profession. Rather, the passage is an argument as to the definition of "profession," and the etymology or origin of the word is just one bit of support for that argument. The author is not arguing that medicine should be defined as a profession solely based on the etymology of the term. Check out the last two sentences of the first paragraph: "A profession is an activity or occupation to which its practitioner publicly professes, that is, confesses, devotion. But public announcement seems insufficient; publicly declaring devotion to plumbing or auto repair would not turn these trades into professions." Thus, publicly professing devotion to an occupation--which fits the etymology of the term--is not enough to actually constitute a profession.

Take it paragraph by paragraph:

Paragraph 1: There are efforts to redefine medicine as a trade rather than a profession. Why should we resist these efforts? The etymology of the term offers some illumination. The term derives from "to profess" and thus entails a degree of publicly professing devotion to an occupation. "But public announcement seems insufficient."

Paragraph 2: Some people think a profession has to involve learning and knowledge. But what makes a profession a profession is not just the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge.

Paragraph 3: Some people think a profession is based on prestige and honor. But "Physicians are not professionals because they are honored; rather, they are honored because of their profession." "Being a professional is thus rooted in our moral nature and in that which warrants and impels making a public confession to a way of life."

Paragraph 4: This last paragraph sums up the author's definition of a "professional": "Professing oneself a professional is an ethical act because it is not a silent and private act, but an articulated and public one; because it promises continuing devotion to a way of life, not merely announces a present preference or a way to a livelihood; because it is an activity in service to some high good that insists on devotion; because it is difficult and demanding."

So, again, the author's argument is about more than just the etymology of the term "profession." It is about fact that physicians have publicly professed themselves as devoted to a higher good, as described by answer choice (D). The etymology provides us with the "professing" part; the rest of the passage lays out the arguments for what exactly you have to profess to in order to be considered a profession.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey