In response to recent natural disasters, urban planning researcher David Chen and his team studied community resilience patterns in affected...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
In response to recent natural disasters, urban planning researcher David Chen and his team studied community resilience patterns in affected neighborhoods. Their findings revealed a concerning trend: while disaster-affected residents received comprehensive support—including temporary housing, meals, and transportation provided by volunteer networks—these communities experienced significant strain. The volunteers and unaffected residents maintained all essential community services while dedicating substantial time to caregiving activities. Surprisingly, Chen's data showed that the health and wellbeing indicators of the volunteer caregivers deteriorated markedly during the recovery period, most likely because the _______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
volunteer caregivers experienced direct exposure to trauma-related stress through their constant interaction with disaster survivors in the temporary housing facilities.
extended recovery timeline exceeded the typical duration that community volunteer networks can sustain intensive support activities without external assistance.
simultaneous responsibility for normal community maintenance and intensive disaster victim support creates overwhelming demands on the volunteer caregiver population.
high level of community engagement maintained by volunteers makes them more susceptible to burnout when disaster response activities require sustained emotional investment.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "In response to recent natural disasters, urban planning researcher David Chen and his team studied community resilience patterns in affected neighborhoods." |
|
| "Their findings revealed a concerning trend: while disaster-affected residents received comprehensive support—including temporary housing, meals, and transportation provided by volunteer networks—these communities experienced significant strain." |
|
| "The volunteers and unaffected residents maintained all essential community services while dedicating substantial time to caregiving activities." |
|
| "Surprisingly, Chen's data showed that the health and wellbeing indicators of the volunteer caregivers deteriorated markedly during the recovery period," |
|
| "most likely because the ______" |
|
Main Point: Chen's research revealed that even when disaster victims receive comprehensive volunteer support, the volunteer caregivers themselves suffer health deterioration during recovery periods.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage gives us a clear setup for the explanation
- We know that volunteers were doing double duty - they "maintained all essential community services while dedicating substantial time to caregiving activities"
- This is the key detail that should drive our answer
- The right answer should explain why this dual responsibility led to health problems
- It should connect the idea that handling both normal community work AND intensive disaster support created too much burden on the volunteers
volunteer caregivers experienced direct exposure to trauma-related stress through their constant interaction with disaster survivors in the temporary housing facilities.
- Focuses on trauma exposure from interacting with disaster survivors
- Passage doesn't mention trauma exposure or psychological effects from victim interaction
- Misses the key detail about volunteers doing double duty
extended recovery timeline exceeded the typical duration that community volunteer networks can sustain intensive support activities without external assistance.
- Suggests the recovery timeline was too long for volunteers to sustain
- Passage provides no information about timeline or duration issues
- Doesn't address the specific dual responsibility mentioned in the passage
simultaneous responsibility for normal community maintenance and intensive disaster victim support creates overwhelming demands on the volunteer caregiver population.
- Directly connects to the key passage detail about volunteers doing two jobs at once
- Explains that simultaneous responsibility for normal community maintenance and intensive disaster victim support creates overwhelming demands
- Perfectly matches our prethinking about the burden of dual duties
high level of community engagement maintained by volunteers makes them more susceptible to burnout when disaster response activities require sustained emotional investment.
- Makes a general claim about high engagement leading to burnout
- Too vague and doesn't capture the specific situation described