Outside the Medical Profession, There are Various Efforts to Cut Medicine down to Size GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

Outside the medical profession, there are various efforts to cut medicine down to size: not only widespread malpractice litigation and massive governmental regulation, but also attempts by consumer groups and others to redefine medicine as a trade rather than as a profession, and the physician as merely a technician for hire under contract. Why should physicians (or indeed all sensible people) resist such efforts to give the practice of medicine a new meaning? We can gain some illumination from etymology. “Trade,” from Germanic and AngloSaxon roots meaning “a course or pathway,” has come to mean derivatively a habitual occupation and has been related to certain skills and crafts. On the other hand, while “profession” today also entails a habit of work, the word “profession” itself traces to an act of selfconscious and public—even confessional—speech. “To profess” preserves the meaning of its Latin source, “to declare publicly; to announce, affirm, avow.” 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.

Some believe that learning and knowledge are the diagnostic signs of a profession. For reasons probably linked to the medieval university, the term “profession” has been applied to the so-called learned professions—medicine, law, and theology—the practices of which are founded upon inquiry and knowledge rather than mere “knowhow.” Yet it is not only the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge that makes one a professional. The knowledge involved makes the profession one of the learned variety, but its professional quality is rooted in something else.

Some mistakenly seek to locate that something else in the prestige and honor accorded professionals by society, evidenced in their special titles and the special deference and privileges they receive. But externalities do not constitute medicine a profession. Physicians are not professionals because they are honored; rather, they are honored because of their profession. Their titles and the respect they are shown superficially signify and acknowledge something deeper, that physicians are persons of the professional sort, knowingly and freely devoting themselves to a way of life worthy of such devotion. Just as lawyers devote themselves to rectifying injustices, looking up to what is lawful and right; just as teachers devote themselves to the education of the young, looking up to truth and wisdom; so physicians heal the sick, looking up to health and wholesomeness. 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.

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. A profession engages one’s character and heart, not merely one’s mind and hands.

“Outside the medical profession, there are various efforts to cut medicine down to size.”- is a comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. According to the author, which one of the following is required in order that one be a professional?

(A) significant prestige and a title
(B) “know-how” in a particular field
(C) a long and difficult educational endeavor
(D) a commitment to political justice
(E) a public confession of devotion to a way of life

2. Which one of the following best expresses the main point made by the author in the passage?

(A) Medicine is defined as a profession because of the etymology of the word “profession.”
(B) It is a mistake to pay special honor to the knowledge and skills of physicians.
(C) The work of physicians is under attack only because it is widely misunderstood.
(D) The correct reason that physicians are professionals is that their work involves public commitment to a high good.
(E) Physicians have been encouraged to think of themselves as technicians and need to reorient themselves toward ethical concerns.

3. The question posed by the author in first para (Highlighted) of the passage introduces which one of the following?

(A) the author’s belief that it is futile to resist the trend toward defining the physician’s work as a trade
(B) the author’s dislike of governmental regulation and consumer advocacy
(C) the author’s inquiry into the nature of the practice of medicine
(D) the author’s suggestions for rallying sensible people to a concentrated defense of physicians
(E) the author’s fascination with the origins of words

4. In the passage, the author mentions or suggests all of the following EXCEPT

(A) how society generally treats physicians
(B) that the practice of medicine is analogous to teaching
(C) that being a professional is in part a public act
(D) the specific knowledge on which trades are based
(E) how a livelihood is different from a profession

5. The author’s attitude towards professionals is best described as

(A) eager that the work of one group of professionals, physicians, be viewed from a new perspective
(B) sympathetic toward professionals who have become demoralized by public opinion
(C) surprised that professionals have been balked by governmental regulations and threats of litigation
(D) dismayed that most professionals have come to be considered technicians
(E) certain that professionals confess a commitment to ethical ideals

6. Based on the information in the passage, it can be inferred that which one of the following would most logically begin a paragraph immediately following the passage?

(A) A skilled handicraft is a manual art acquired by habituation that enables tradespeople to tread regularly and reliably along the same path.
(B) Critics might argue that being a doctor, for example, requires no ethical or public act; thus medicine, as such, is morally neutral, does not bind character, and can be used for good or ill.
(C) Sometimes the pursuit of personal health competes with the pursuit of other goods, and it has always been the task of the community to order and define the competing ends.
(D) Not least among the myriad confusions and uncertainties of our time are those attending efforts to discern and articulate the essential characteristics of the medical profession.
(E) When, in contrast, we come to physicians of the whole body, we come tacitly acknowledging the meaning of illness and its potential threat to all that we hold dear.

7. Which one of the following best describes the author’s purpose in lines 14–33 of the passage?

“To profess” ..........medicine a profession.

(A) The author locates the “something else” that truly constitutes a profession.
(B) The author dismisses efforts to redefine the meaning of the term “profession.”
(C) The author considers, and largely criticizes, several definitions of what constitutes a profession.
(D) The author clarifies the meaning of the term “profession” by advocating a return to its linguistic and historical roots.
(E) The author distinguishes trades such as plumbing and auto repair from professions such as medicine, law, and theology.

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