Juvenile Delinquency

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Research Match2% picked this

   Since medical research shows that untreated melanoma almost invariably leads to more­ serious and generalized lesions, it is a common policy to treat

   With melanoma, medical interventions are a good idea! The problem gets worse without interventions. With juvenile delinquency, incarceration is a bad idea. The problem gets worse with intervention.

   2%
2. B

   Weak Match12% picked this

   It was once a common policy to treat sore throats by removing the tonsils, but medical research has shown that tonsillectomy is generally not

   This is pretty good, because we have research showing that a well-intentioned intervention is actually not that effective and can even lead to harmful effects. That matches reasonably well with research showing that incarceration is a well-intentioned intervention that seems to make the problem worse. There is a gap between "not effective / can lead to harm" vs. "ensures that the problem we were trying to avoid actually ends up happening", but I would keep this answer around in case that's the best we get. It is also a mismatch to say "it was once a common policy to remove tonsils, but research has talked us out of doing that", because in the passage, the research has not yet talked us out of incarcerating juvenile delinquents.

   12%
3. C

   Weak Match4% picked this

   It is a common policy to treat viral sore throats with antibiotics, but medical research shows that antibiotic therapy

   This is somewhat good, because, like the intervention of incarcerating juvenile delinquents, the intervention of antibiotic therapy is shown to have bad effects. Where this answer and (B) are lacking is that it sounds more like there are harmful side effects. They don't mimic the relationship in the passage in which incarceration doesn't just have some harmful side effects, it literally makes the problem we were trying to solve worse. To match that, this answer would need to be saying that "antibiotic therapy virtually ensures that you'll have a sore throat for even longer".

   4%
4. D

   Correct79% picked this

   It is a common policy to treat heartburn with antacids, but medical research shows that the use of antacids often leads to rebound acidity,

   Why this is right

   This beats (B) on two counts: - it is a common policy vs. it was once a common policy after all, jailing juvenile delinquents is still a common policy - the intervention causes the problem it's meant to prevent vs. the intervention is usually ineffective and can by harmful just as incarcerating juveniles seems to actually make it more likely that they will go on to do criminal things as adults, this antacid intervention actually makes it more likely that people will have too much acidity in their guts, causing more heartburn. This answer is assisted by the outside knowledge that heartburn it caused by acidity in the gut, but they weren't relying on our knowledge of that. They used the phrase "causing the very condition that it treats" to signal to us that this has the similar relationship of "ensuring the very problem it was meant to prevent".

   Skill tested: Analogy · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   79%
5. E

   Bad Match3% picked this

   Since medical research shows that allergic sinusitis treated with decongestant therapy has several accompanying side effects, it is now a common policy to let

   This gets it wrong on two levels: - it acts like research has put a stop to this counterproductive intervention (whereas in the passage it is still common policy to incarcerate juveniles). - it only says that the intervention had some side effects (whereas we want to know that the intervention actually made the problem worse).

   3%