Reading Comprehension

PT122 · S3 · P3 · Q17 Women Doctors

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Surviving sources of information about women doctors in ancient Greece and Rome are fragmentary: some passing mentions by classical authors, scattered references in medical works, and about 40 inscriptions on tombs and monuments.

Topic

Women doctors in ancient Greece and Rome

Framework

Highlight Noteworthy

Main Point

Even though the evidence is fragmentary, there is clear proof that women were working as doctors (not just midwives) in ancient Greece and Rome, and their existence was considered a normal part of society. (Most Valuable Sentence: Towards the end of paragraph 1—)

P1: Fragments of Evidence for Ancient Women Doctors

The author introduces how little concrete information survives about women doctors in antiquity, but emphasizes that the available evidence—including literary references and inscriptions—clearly demonstrates that women worked as what we would now call physicians, long before the modern era.

P2: Social Context — Unremarkable but Real

The scattered nature of the evidence actually shows us something meaningful: women doctors, while not common, were viewed as a regular part of ancient life. Plato's casual mention of female doctors in support of a philosophical point is used to demonstrate that their presence wasn’t considered remarkable.

P3: Their Work Was Not Just Midwifery

The author argues that women doctors weren’t limited to delivering babies. Ancient languages had separate words for “doctor” and “midwife,” and surviving texts and epitaphs credit women with curing diseases and being knowledgeable healers—not just attending births.

17.

Which one of the following could most logically be appended to the end of the final paragraph?

  1. So it is only by

    Too Strong: only / complete

    This answer is talking about "constructing a fairly complete account of their lives". Nothing in this passage is about doing a biography on the lives of these women. The passage is just about conveying to its audience that back in ancient Greece and Rome, they had female doctors as a normal feature of the world just as we presently do.

    11% picked this

  2. Correct

    That there were women doctors

    Why this is right

    This segues out of the current final sentence: these works give excerpts from the female authority's writing without biographical information or special comment. The works didn't need to offer a special comment that this was a female doctor, because it wasn't an unusual thing for females to be doctors (the main point of the passage). The 2nd paragraph was making a similar point with Plato. He refers to female doctors without making any big deal out of that idea, which suggests that people of that time didn't find female doctors to be anything out of the ordinary. This functions as an ending to the passage because reiterating that people of that time didn't find female doctors to be unusual is helping to reiterate the main point.

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

    70% picked this

  3. Although the content of each

    Out of Scope: reevaluate Plato

    This feels like the sort of Backpedaling trap answer. The author brought up Plato as part of her support for her argument. If she ended the passage by saying, "I guess we should reevaluate Plato's claims", that would be undermining her own argument.

    3% picked this

  4. These texts indicate that during

    Goes Against Main Point

    To say "it is unclear whether there were female medical practitioners" is to basically undermine the main point. The main point is, The evidence shows that in ancient Greece and Rome there were, in fact, female medical personnel who were the ancient equivalent of what we now call medical doctors.

    2% picked this

  5. Nevertheless, these writers’ evenhanded treatment

    Goes Against Main Point

    (C), (D), and (E) are all undermining the author's main point or watering down the conviction with which she was selling it. To say "a conflicting picture of ancient medical practice emerges" makes it sound like we're still not sure what was really going on back then. Meanwhile, the main point is, The evidence shows that in ancient Greece and Rome there were, in fact, female medical personnel who were the ancient equivalent of what we now call medical doctors.

    14% picked this

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