Everyone above is giving a wrong explanation. Exacerbate makes no common sense at all for the first blank. I was looking for a word like better. Although other medicines make the pain better , to her dismay the medicine she applied made it worse.

Anyways, I double confirmed the answer from the book and it turns out, I was right. I will copy paste what is written in the book:




4. staved off, contributed to, and affliction

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.

The right word from the answer choices is missing. The right answer is exacerbated. Please fix the problem.

Thank you! updated
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The correct answer is C, D and I.

The correct answer is B,D, I
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Could you please elaborate on why (C) staved off is not the correct answer for the first blank?

Although most ointments would have (staved off or exacerbated ?) the pain
This ointment actually contributes to the pain.

The use of "although" and "actually much to her dismay" indicates that something worse than the first part is mentioned in the second part and therefore something bad is mentioned in the first part. So the first blank has to be a negative which is "exacerbated""
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Although most ointments would have (staved off or exacerbated ?) the pain
This ointment actually contributes to the pain.

The use of "although" and "actually much to her dismay" indicates that something worse than the first part is mentioned in the second part and therefore something bad is mentioned in the first part. So the first blank has to be a negative which is "exacerbated""

I still think it should be staved off in the first blank even after reading the above poster's explanation. Can anyone explain or elaborate further please?

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

Hope this helps

Does it make sense that most preventive medicine ointments would exacerbate an infection? Even if that somehow made sense, it later says that "much to her dismay". To be dismayed means you are distressed by something unexpected. Why would she be distressed by a treatment that cured her condition? Why would she even use something that would exacerbate her condition? Unless I am missing something obvious, I dont see how exacerbate makes sense here.

I feel that the "although" is referring to the second part where it is revealed the medicine actually didn't work.

My analysis is correct.

She put a medication that, even though to other people exacerbate the pain, in her case, had relief.

The problem is that dismay, it should at least surprise in a positive sense.

The question for me is NOT a good question.

If to all the other people a X hurts and instead to me brings rescue, then I would surprise or happy with this NOT dismay

Let me check the question.

regards

Thank you, the above explanations were helpful.

Am i the only one who feels this is poor quality question
for starters AFFLICTION is word for last blank
not AFFLICITION

it is not the top-notch but neither the worst in the GRE galaxy

Hello,

Please correct the answer to this question. Wrong answer has been given and wrong explanation too. I am also adding the link where you can check the answer:
http://schoolbag.info/test/gre/21.html

Let me try to explain, Firstly there is a blatant contrast in the sentence (Although ..... infection). So general assumption is second blank should contain the word that is quite opposite to the first word. This analysis is true.
But here is the catch, Following sentence --> the particular one helen applied to her sores actually, much to her dismay, ..... her ..... .Here she is in dismayed or in shocked that the results are quite opposite to what she is expecting. So if i inserted 'contributed' and 'afflication' in that 2nd and 3rd blanks, it means that helen is suprised that she wasn't expecting the medicine to contribute because she is thinking that there should be a opposite word for the second sentence. Hence first blank should allign with second and third blanks which is Exacerbated.
Hope this is clear

There are some (most I would say) excellent questions in this forum, certainly wouldn't rank this among that list, assuming OA provided is correct.
Basis my analysis, I believe , either:
C - D - I
Although the preventive ointment should have "staved off" the pain, when Helen applied an ointment, much to her dismay (alarm) it actually "contributed" to her "affliction" (pain).
(This one makes more sense)

Or,
B- D -H
Although the preventive ointment would have "exacerbated" the pain (made it worse), when Helen applied an ointment, much to her dismay (alarm) it actually "contributed" to her "salve" (soothing).