The medicine usually in common circumstances exacerbate or get the problem even worse, in her, solved instead. And she had benefited from the ointment.

Staved off is out of scope. it is unrelated to the first blank because of means to prevent

Although most preventative medical ointments commonly in use would have (i)____________ an infection, the particular one Helen applied to her sores actually, much to her dismay, (ii)____________ her (iii)____________ .




Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) surrendered to (D)contributed to (G) medicine
(B) exacerbated (E)detracted from (H) salve
(C) staved off (F)disbursed with (I) afflicition

This one is almost certainly a mistake by the Princeton Review.

Preventative medical ointments prevent infections (i.e. stave them off). It wouldn't make sense for them to exacerbate infections.

That is also true.

The Answer is C, D, I. This a Princeton GRE 6 tests Practice Question in Test No. 2-Verbal Section 3 in question No. 4. One can verifiy his answer by downloading the book from a torrent. please leave a Kudos is my answer has helped!!!!

The correct answer for this question is C, D, I. Modifying the answer would be of great help as students are getting confused!!! Here is the official explanation -->
"The clue "Although most medical, preventative ointments commonly in use" tells you that most ointments would
prevent an infection, but the one Helen used did not. Recycle the clue, and put a word that means prevent in the first blank; staved off is the best match. Work with the second and third blanks together. The ointment did not prevent an infection, and the clue "much to her dismay" tells you that something bad happened. The only pair that makes sense together is contributed to and affliction because they tell you that the ointment made her problem worse."

Can you explain the logic behind your choice ??

Exacerbate means - To make matters/things worse
while Stave off means - avert or delay something bad or dangerous

Why would “most” commonly applied ointments make an infection worse? Either a vey poorly written question or incorrect answer key

Posted from my mobile device

The sentence is perfectly fine

Although most preventative medical ointments commonly in use would have

the ointment would exacerbate the sickness and symptoms because you become more resistant to it.

I.E. If you use antibiotics even for a normal cold, then the cold and that specific bacteria or virus will become more resistant to them ann therefore, the sickness is exacerbated

There’s a reason only 12% of people got this correct. The answer key is incorrect.

The phrase is the middle “to her DISMAY” gives away the answer. The ointment obviously made the infection worse (contributed to her affliction)

Posted from my mobile device

Fixed the OAs

Thank you and apologize for the error

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