Correct Answer: whether life insurers may see genetic test results
Passage Reference: Parliament’s review of whether life insurers should ever be allowed to see predictive genetic results
Why this is correct: The blogger follows Parliament’s review of whether life insurers should be allowed to see predictive genetic results. Every speaker in the blog post takes a side on that question.
Tips: For a “mainly about” question, ask what every speaker is taking a side on. The first paragraph names the review they are all talking to.
Why the other options are wrong:
- how families can lower the cost of a mortgage: The mortgage only explains why the blogger needs life insurance. The blog post never discusses how to make a mortgage cheaper.
- why heart clinics need more genetic counsellors: Durocher is a genetic counsellor, but nobody argues that heart clinics need more of them.
- whether ancestry kits should be sold in stores: Ancestry kits come up only because Chukwu would keep their results out of insurance files. Nobody discusses where they are sold.
Correct Answer: Barnabas Thorsen
Passage Reference: He says hiding a known risk simply moves its cost onto other policyholders
Why this is correct: Barnabas Thorsen, the actuary, says hiding a known risk moves its cost onto other policyholders, and he will not accept a ban. That is a doubt that a ban is fair to other customers.
Tips: First sort the speakers into those who want a ban and those who do not. Then check whose reason is about what happens to other customers.
Why the other options are wrong:
- Anselma Rivard: Anselma Rivard wants a firm ban. She says a large pool can absorb a few high-risk results, so she does not doubt that a ban is fair.
- Ngozi Chukwu: Ngozi Chukwu suggests a narrow list of gene types, but she never says a ban would be unfair to other customers.
- Fabian Durocher: Fabian Durocher talks about patients paying privately and about consent forms. He says nothing about costs to other customers.
Correct Answer: a clinic survey of patients paying for tests privately
Passage Reference: some of his patients now ask to pay for tests privately so the results never reach their medical chart
Why this is correct: Durocher’s quieter problem is that some of his patients now ask to pay for tests privately to keep results off their chart. A survey showing many patients doing this would support his concern.
Tips: Find the “quieter problem” Durocher describes. The right choice is evidence that this problem is really happening.
Why the other options are wrong:
- an insurer’s figures on premiums rising for everyone: Rising costs for other customers would support Thorsen’s view about policyholders, not Durocher’s concern about hidden results.
- ancestry kit results found in insurance files: Ancestry kit results in insurance files would support Chukwu’s call to keep them out. Durocher’s concern is patients hiding results from their own chart.
- a poll of customers who favour a full ban: Support for a full ban would help Rivard, who wants one. Durocher asks for plain rules, not a ban.
Correct Answer: Parliament would have to look at a longer list again
Passage Reference: Any longer list, she adds, would need a review by outside ethics experts and an expiry date, so that Parliament must look at the rule again.
Why this is correct: Chukwu says any longer list would need an ethics review and an expiry date. The expiry date means Parliament must look at the rule again. So the outcome is that Parliament would have to return to a longer list.
Tips: Chukwu adds a condition about any change to the rule. Read that sentence to the end and match its final part.
Why the other options are wrong:
- insurers would add new gene types without review: Chukwu’s condition is the opposite: any longer list needs a review by outside ethics experts.
- ancestry kit results would be allowed in every file: Chukwu says results from home ancestry kits would stay out of every file.
- the list of gene types would be fixed forever: Chukwu wants an expiry date so the rule is looked at again, so the list would not be fixed forever.
Correct Answer: show why the genetic test has been put off
Passage Reference: I still have not booked it. My partner and I are buying a house, the bank wants life insurance on the mortgage
Why this is correct: Right after saying “I still have not booked it,” the blogger explains that the bank wants life insurance for the new house. A positive result might follow every application. The house shows why the test has waited.
Tips: Ask why the writer brings up the house at this point in the post. Read the sentences just before and after it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- complain that banks charge high mortgage rates: Mortgage rates are never mentioned. The bank only wants life insurance on the mortgage.
- argue that insurers should ignore family history: The writer admits the father’s history is already on every form. But the writer never argues that insurers should ignore it.
- prove that the blogger’s heart is healthy: The writer does not know yet and has only just booked the test to find out.
Correct Answer: a large pool can absorb a few high risks
Passage Reference: In her view, a large pool of customers can absorb a few high-risk results without questioning everyone’s genes.
Why this is correct: In Rivard’s view, a large pool of customers can absorb a few high-risk results without questioning everyone’s genes.
Tips: Go back to Rivard’s lines in the second paragraph and find the words “In her view”. The right choice restates that idea in fewer words.
Why the other options are wrong:
- insurers should price every known gene: Rivard wants a firm ban, so she would not let insurers price genes at all.
- family history should be banned from forms: Family history comes up only when Thorsen says insurers already price it. Rivard does not ask to ban it.
- doctors order too many genetic tests: Rivard worries that patients skip tests their doctors recommend, which is the opposite of too many tests.
Correct Answer: required counselling and a waiting period
Passage Reference: He could live with required counselling and a waiting period before any result is shared, but not with a ban.
Why this is correct: Thorsen, the actuary, says he could live with two things before any result is shared: required counselling and a waiting period. He could not live with a ban.
Tips: The comment calls him “the actuary”, so find his job in the passage. Then look for the words “could live with”.
Why the other options are wrong:
- a full ban on genetic questions: Thorsen says he could live with counselling and a waiting period “but not with a ban”.
- a lower premium for every applicant: Thorsen never offers lower premiums. He argues that hidden risk raises costs for other policyholders.
- a doctor’s note for every applicant: Doctors’ notes are never mentioned. Thorsen accepts counselling and a waiting period.
Correct Answer: gene types doctors use to choose treatment
Passage Reference: She says insurers could ask only about gene types that doctors already use to choose treatment
Why this is correct: Chukwu says insurers could ask only about gene types that doctors already use to choose treatment.
Tips: The comment says “ask only about”, so find the word “only” in Chukwu’s lines. Notice what she keeps out of every file, too.
Why the other options are wrong:
- results from home ancestry kits: Chukwu says results from home ancestry kits would stay out of every file.
- genes linked to heart disease alone: Heart disease is the blogger’s own worry. Chukwu’s list covers gene types used to choose treatment, not one illness.
- any test an applicant has ever taken: Chukwu wants a short list, not every test, and any longer list would need a review.
Correct Answer: plain words on every consent form
Passage Reference: He wants the rules printed in plain words on every consent form, so people know the stakes before they give a sample.
Why this is correct: Durocher wants the rules printed in plain words on every consent form, so people know the stakes before they give a sample.
Tips: Go back to Durocher’s last sentence. He wants people to know the stakes before they give a sample, so think about what they read at that moment.
Why the other options are wrong:
- every insurer’s yearly report: Durocher speaks to patients before a test, not to readers of insurers’ reports.
- a booklet mailed to each home: No mailed booklet is mentioned. The rules would go on the consent form people sign.
- the notes in each patient’s chart: Durocher’s patients want results kept away from their medical chart, so the chart is not where he wants the rules.
Correct Answer: fifty-two
Passage Reference: My father died of a heart problem at fifty-two
Why this is correct: The blog post opens: “My father died of a heart problem at fifty-two.”
Tips: This is a detail question about the opening. Find the first sentence of the post and read the number carefully.
Why the other options are wrong:
- forty-five: The father died at fifty-two, not forty-five.
- sixty-eight: Sixty-eight is much older than the fifty-two the blogger gives.
- seventy-one: The father died at fifty-two, far younger than seventy-one.
