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) affliction

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The correct answer is B,D, I
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Srinivasan Vaidyaraman
Sravna
http://www.sravnatestprep.com/best-online-gre-preparation.php

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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""
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Srinivasan Vaidyaraman
Sravna
http://www.sravnatestprep.com/best-online-gre-preparation.php

Standardized Approaches
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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?

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.

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

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.

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