rheumatic fever

[philanderer.lover]

Rheumatic fever is the most serious complication of streptococcal infection, but rheumatic fever is not itself an infection. Rheumatic fever occurs only when, in defending against streptococcal infection, the body's immunological system produces antibodies that also attack the cells of the heart and kidneys.

Which of the following, if true, would contribute most to an explanation of why only streptococcal bacteria give rise to rheumatic fever?

A) Only certain strains of streptococcal bacteria are associated with rheumatic fever.
B) The antibodies that the body produces to control a streptococcal infection can attack cells of the mucous membranes
C) Antibiotics have not proved as effective against streptococcal infections as they have against some other bacterial infections.
D) Streptococcal bacteria are the only bacteria that are structurally similar to the cells of the body attacked in the rheumatic fever.
E) Rheumatic fever can be misdiagnosed if it is not preceded by a serious streptococcal infection.

Could not understand the B is wrong

[jitendra.havaldar]

Is the answer D?
The option suggests that the streptococcal bacteria are similar in structure to the body cells. So the antibodies fight the bacteria but also end up fighting with the cells of the heart and kidneys...

What is the OA ?

[Ben Ku]

Please cite the source (author) of this problem. We cannot reply unless a source is cited (and, if no source is cited, we will have to delete the post!). Thanks.

[philanderer.lover]

Source is 1000CR

[RonPurewal]

Rheumatic fever is the most serious complication of streptococcal infection, but rheumatic fever is not itself an infection. Rheumatic fever occurs only when, in defending against streptococcal infection, the body's immunological system produces antibodies that also attack the cells of the heart and kidneys.

Which of the following, if true, would contribute most to an explanation of why only streptococcal bacteria give rise to rheumatic fever?

A) Only certain strains of streptococcal bacteria are associated with rheumatic fever.
B) The antibodies that the body produces to control a streptococcal infection can attack cells of the mucous membranes
C) Antibiotics have not proved as effective against streptococcal infections as they have against some other bacterial infections.
D) Streptococcal bacteria are the only bacteria that are structurally similar to the cells of the body attacked in the rheumatic fever.
E) Rheumatic fever can be misdiagnosed if it is not preceded by a serious streptococcal infection.

Could not understand the B is wrong

well, there are two problems here, either of which could be the bigger problem in your case.

first, it doesn't really seem that you understand the (admittedly difficult, for a non-native speaker) emphasis of the question itself.
note the boldface (my emphasis):
an explanation of why only streptococcal bacteria give rise to rheumatic fever
that word "only", which it appears you've completely ignored in your answer, is actually the single most important word in the question prompt.
i.e., we actually already have an explanation of why streptococcal bacteria DO give rise to rheumatic fever -- that's actually the content of the passage. (in choosing choice (b), it seems that you are trying to pick another positive explanation for this phenomenon.) rather, the question is actually asking why OTHER bacteria DON'T give rise to the same fever.

if you are a non-native speaker of english, you will probably just have to memorize this convention:
if you see a question of the form "why does only X do Y?", the real substance of the question is figuring out why NOBODY/NOTHING ELSE does Y.

given this interpretation, it should become clear that (d) is the intended answer.

note that this question is from a source that has at other times been pinned as dubious in its authenticity, so i'm not even sure how concerned you need to be about this type of question format. i.e., were this an official problem, it's quite possible that gmac would be much more specific in its writing of the question prompt, to level the playing field a bit for non-native speakers.

--

aside from all this, the biggest issue with choice (b) is that it is completely irrelevant to the argument at hand, regardless of the intent of the question prompt.
choice (b) is focused on the mucous membranes, which don't have anything to do with the things mentioned in the passage.