Question

Carefully read the paragraph below:
__, medicine has been operated by trial and error, in other words,___. We know by now that there can be entirely___ connections between symptoms and treatment, and some medications succeed in medical trials for mere random reasons.
From the options below, choose the one that MOST appropriately fills up the blanks.

• A. Formerly, randomly, accidental
• B. Traditionally, analytically, casual
• C. Initially, statistically, unexpected
• D. Periodically, logically, arbitrary
• E. Historically, arbitrarily, fortuitous

Answer 1

Answer: (E)

The provided paragraph consists of three blanks that need to be filled with the most appropriate words from the given options. Let's analyze each blank:

1. The first blank describes how medicine has been approached in the past.
   The best word to fill this blank is "Historically" because it refers to the past practices in medicine, establishing a context of time.
2. The second blank connects with the notion of operating without a specific method or plan.
   The suitable word for this blank is "arbitrarily," as it indicates actions made without any predefined rules, aligning with "trial and error."
3. The third blank suggests the unexpected or unintended nature of connections in symptoms and treatment.
   The appropriate word here is "fortuitous," which means happening by chance, especially in a way that is fortunate or lucky.

Therefore, the complete sentence using the selections that fit contextually is:
"Historically, medicine has been operated by trial and error, in other words, arbitrarily. We know by now that there can be entirely fortuitous connections between symptoms and treatment, and some medications succeed in medical trials for mere random reasons."