Science Mini-Passage Drill Passage #1 Question #2

[Legalistic]

Hi,

I feel defeated with Science passage because I've gotten almost every Science passage question wrong and I don't understand if it's my lack of knowledge in that realm, lack of attention to scientific details in the passage, or genuine disinterest in the field. I feel like I'm not even able to comprehend the passage accurately, the text says something and I comprehend something else. Is this just the beginning and I need more practice? What should I do to ensure that I'm comprehending the passages accurately?

My question is about q. 2 and q.3 on pages 68. In q2., I chose A as my answer. Upon checking the answers, I understand why A is wrong. However, I wrote out an explanation about why B is wrong (as I do for all answer choices I discount as contenders). This was my understanding about the first paragraph in the passage. Lines 1-4 -- SLE is an autoimmune disease characterized by not normal (unlike innate) and chronic stimulation of the innate immune system. In the innate immune system, immune cells go to sites of infection through cytokines. However, in patients with SLE these cytokines send cells to attack healthy tissues without an infection. This causes inflammation to other parts in the body. Hence, I thought that in a person without SLE, infection is necessary for the innate immune system to be stimulated because of lines 5-7 stating precisely that under normal circumstances immune cells are recruited to SITES OF INFECTION. This made me eliminate B because it seemed like an opposite answer.

Please explain to me where I went wrong in comprehending the first paragraph? The explanation says, B is correct because the innate system is stimulated in patients with SLE, even though an infection with a pathogen is not present. But then shouldn't B explicitly state "In patients with SLE, infection is not necessary for the innate immune system to be stimulated". But then again, the passage seems to say that the innate immune cells are recruited via cytokines TO SITES OF INFECTION (isn't is reasonable for me to infer that the innate immune system is stimulated only when there's an infection present??)

In addition, please explain why 3E is incorrect and 3D is correct. I didn't really understand the workbook explanation as to why E was incorrect, it confused me.

Thank you in advance!
Legalistic

[Adam Tyson]

First things first, Legalistic - do NOT let these science passages bring you down! Don't worry about not having a good understanding of the science, because this is not a test of science any more than it is a test of law, or of humanities, or of economics, etc. Focus your efforts on identifying the underlying structure of the passages, not the details and jargon within them, and on gathering evidence to support your answer choices.

That said, this particular example was really, really hard in my opinion, and the science was a bit mind-boggling. Like you, I struggled a bit with some of these questions. But here's where I see you may have gone wrong:

1. You equated "innate" with "normal," but those are not equivalent terms. When something is innate, it is built-in, or inherent in something. The opposite of innate would be something like "external," rather than "not normal." There can be abnormalities in our innate systems, if they are not functioning correctly. All the evidence you needed for the answer to #2 was in the language you quoted - if the innate immune system of someone with SLE can attack healthy tissues with no infection present, then no infection is required for that to happen. The innate system may be acting abnormally, but it is still the innate system.

Also, while your proposed change to that answer would be a good one, it isn't a necessary one. Here's an analogy: if it's true that sometimes I drink beer and eat pizza, doesn't it have to be true that sometimes I eat pizza? The correct answer doesn't have to be the whole truth, it just has to be the truth. If it's true that in patients with SLE, infection isn't necessary to stimulate the immune system, then it must be true that infection is not always necessary to stimulate that system. There is at least one case where that's true.

For question 3, it's necessary to focus on the question stem. While answer E is a true statement - generally the therapy does fail to provide lasting relief - that's not why the author mentioned that pDCs produce those key cytokines. The author said that in order to tell us why the treatment doesn't work (because the pDCs are not affected by the treatment if you have SLE). That's a subtle distinction in an already very challenging passage.

I think you'll find that if you focus on structure, rather than details, most of the time you will do much better on these passages. Think about the author's general tone, their purpose, and whether they presented any arguments or the views of other parties. That's where most of the correct answers will be found, rather than in the quicksand of dense scientific jargon and ideas.

[sdb606]

I still don't see why E is incorrect for #3. I think both D and E are correct. In my mind, the author connects pDC with cytokines in order to close the link between pDC resistance and glucocorticoid therapy failing. Without Lines 30-32, I would read that glucocorticoid therapy fails because pDCs are resistant to it. But so what? Why does resistance mean therapy fails? The answer is because pDCs produce cytokines which cause SLE so if pDCs are resistant to therapy, they will continue to produce cytokines which will continue to cause SLE. Therefore, the author connects pDCs with cytokines to explain why glucocorticoid therapy fails. So E should be correct as well.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi sdb,

The line of reasoning you offer is fine. But the specific "so what" question you're posing is the immediate reason for the inclusion of lines 30-32, and answer choice D addresses that "so what" most directly. Put differently, lines 30-32 are not answering the direct question of why glucocorticoid therapy fails to provide lasting relief. The direct answer to that question was already provided in lines 25-30. There's a more specific purpose, a more specific question, that lines 30-32 go on to answer. That's the "so what" question you highlight! And answer choice D addresses the direct answer to that specific question by mentioning why (i.e., "so what") pDC resistance is a problem. The challenge here with these specific phrase reference questions is to limit them to their most immediate context and not to paint with too broad a brush. This question intends to build that skill.

I hope this helps!