Flashcards: Incorporation of Information

Adapted from Hall, J. N. "Clayhill Parkhill, Anatomist and Surgeon" in Annals of Surgery (May 1902; 35(5): 674-678)

The surgery of America in those days was still in the masterly grasp of those great surgeons who, in the bloodiest war of modern times, had advanced their profession to an enviable position. In practically every city of the land, the leading surgeon was a man who, after Antietam, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor, had amputated, perhaps, scores of limbs in a single day. The young man thirsting for a place in surgery, stood no chance in the race with men whose operative work in a single day had exceeded all that he might hope to do in ten years.

As a result, the surgery of the country in 1885 was in the hands of men already getting past middle age, and not easily adaptable to new things; as fine a class of surgeons, nevertheless, as ever honored the profession of any country.

Meanwhile the times had changed. Under the stimulus of the work of Lister, antiseptic surgery had been born. The older men watched the younger ones as they fearlessly invaded field after field upon which they had never dared to tread, and they hesitated in their work. The knowledge of bacteriology had been their undoing. A few of these men, conspicuously Keen, of Philadelphia, and Conner, of Cincinnati, adapted themselves to the new order of things; the great majority of them were crowded out by the younger men.

And had these excellent men, thus crowded out of their field of activity, done nothing for surgery? Let us look briefly at their work. After one of the great battles, perhaps 100 amputations were performed. Experience had taught them that in the serious wounds of the extremities, without amputation, 75 percent died; with immediate amputation, 75 percent lived. In other words, amputation avoided fifty deaths in each 100 cases, chiefly from septicemia, pyxemia, erysipelas, secondary hemorrhage, and hospital gangrene. But the new surgery made unnecessary most of these amputations, practically annihilated all these causes of death, and yet saved most of the limbs. Competition under these circumstances was out of the question.

The older men then stepped aside so far as operative surgery went; but the magnificent knowledge of non-operative surgery which these men had attained, executive ability of the first order, and the power of handling large bodies of men, left them still invaluable to the profession and the world. As an illustration of this point, note that as the great railroads pushed westward, almost every one had as chief surgeon one of these able men. Mercer of the Union Pacific, Livingston of the Burlington, and Bancroft of the Denver and Rio Grande, may serve as examples. During the transition period of which I speak, although the young men carried on their operative work independently, they continually sought the counsel of these older men in broad surgical questions, in their fractures and dislocations, and in many other non-operative parts of the field of surgery for which an incomparable experience had so magnificently fitted them.

This passage is taken from an article honoring the great surgeon Clayton Parkill. Later in the article, the author writes of Parkhill, "he devised his apparatus for cleft palate, his jury-mast for fractures of the jaw, his apparatus for intestinal anastomosis, his device for supporting the body during operations upon the kidneys, and his invaluable clamp for ununited fractures."

What was the purpose of the author including the given passage prior to discussing Parkhill's work and inventions?

The passage suggests that Parkhill needed to do his work in secret for fear of imposing on the territory of the Civil War surgeons.

The passage suggests that Parkhill's work was more valuable than anything the Civil War surgeons ever did.

The passage suggests that Parkhill's work was not appreciated during his lifetime and only became valuable after his passing.

The passage suggests Parkhill's work and inventions came at a time when younger surgeons were able to develop greater and more precise surgeries than their predecessors.

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For many students, the MCAT, or Medical College Admissions Test, represents the most challenging part of the medical school application process. If you are preparing to take the MCAT after taking time away from undergraduate work, reacquainting yourself with the types of questions asked and complexity of language presented in the Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT can be challenging. As with the Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences sections, continued practice with understanding complex prose passages provides a way to succeed on the Verbal Reasoning section. Whether you need MCAT tutoring in AtlantaMCAT tutoring in Houston, or MCAT tutoring in San Francisco, working one-on-one with an expert may be just the boost your studies need.

The Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT contains 40 passage-based questions that test cognitive thinking, inference, and attention to detail. Given the section length of 60 minutes, each question is allotted roughly one minute and thirty seconds each. In contrast to the Physical and Biological Sciences sections, this section does not test a student’s background knowledge about specific scientific topics. In fact, bringing in outside knowledge often serves as a hindrance to selecting the correct response and is best avoided by using only the information presented in the passage. Varsity Tutors offers resources like free MCAT Verbal Reasoning Practice Tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider an MCAT Verbal Reasoning tutor.

There are four types of question on the test:

1.) Comprehension: These questions require you to identify the main purpose of the passage, understand the evidence used to support a claim, use context clues to determine the meaning of a quote or vocabulary word, and identify assumptions necessary to understand the passage.

2.) Evaluation: Evaluation questions ask you to determine the validity of an argument by an author. The credibility of quotes, progression of conclusions, strength of evidence, and relevance of information may all be evaluated.

3.) Application: These questions go beyond just the passage by asking you to predict results of an unrelated situation based on the information contained in the passage. Alternatively, you could be required to determine what events may have occurred prior to the events of the current passage, in order to make the passage appropriate or valid.

4.) New Information Incorporation: When a question provides additional information not contained in the passage, the question often asks you to weigh the strength of new evidence, determine if the conclusions in the passage may have changed based on the new information, or recognize potential solutions to resolving the differences between claims.

Preparation for the Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT takes continued practice with passages. A variety of skill sets, such as passage mapping to identify the main thesis and purpose of the passage, are helpful in succeeding on the MCAT Verbal Reasoning section; however, these skill sets must be practiced extensively to be of use. Some students have trouble acclimating to the complexity of language used in the passages. If this is the case for you, you should try reading publications designed for college graduate reading levels, which often allow readers to expand their vocabularies and understand complex sentence structure. Also, you can use Varsity Tutors’ free MCAT Verbal Flaschards to determine your strengths and weaknesses regarding MCAT Verbal material. Use them to hone your reading comprehension skills and practice understanding the difficult language and answering the variety of question types that can be featured on the MCAT Verbal Section. Overall, continued exposure to complex language is the best way to prepare for the MCAT Verbal Reasoning section, and Varsity Tutors’ free MCAT resources can help you do just that. In addition to the MCAT Verbal Reasoning flashcards and MCAT Verbal Reasoning tutoring, you may also want to consider using some of our MCAT Verbal Reasoning Diagnostic Tests.

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