The pharmaceutical company's decision to _____ standard drug development protocols resulted in breakthrough treatments reaching patients years ahead o...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The pharmaceutical company's decision to _____ standard drug development protocols resulted in breakthrough treatments reaching patients years ahead of schedule. By streamlining clinical trials and embracing innovative testing methods, the company achieved what traditional approaches had failed to accomplish in decades.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
maintain
document
bypass
review
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The pharmaceutical company's decision to" |
|
| [MISSING WORD] |
|
| "standard drug development protocols resulted in breakthrough treatments reaching patients years ahead of schedule." |
|
| "By streamlining clinical trials and embracing innovative testing methods, the company achieved what traditional approaches had failed to accomplish in decades." |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: A pharmaceutical company's approach to drug development protocols led to breakthrough treatments reaching patients much faster than traditional methods.
Argument Flow: The passage presents a company's decision regarding standard protocols, shows the remarkable speed improvement that resulted, then explains this success through streamlined and innovative approaches that outperformed decades of traditional methods.
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
- From our analysis, we see that whatever the company did to the standard protocols resulted in dramatically faster results - treatments reached patients "years ahead of schedule."
- The follow-up sentence emphasizes they "streamlined" trials and used "innovative testing methods," achieving what "traditional approaches had failed to accomplish in decades."
- The relationship here is clear: the company did something to standard protocols that allowed them to work much faster than the traditional way.
- Since they got results years ahead of schedule by being innovative rather than traditional, the word must indicate they went around, avoided, or skipped the standard protocols rather than following them normally.
- So the right answer should indicate the company circumvented or avoided following the standard protocols in the usual way.
maintain
- This means to keep or continue doing something the same way
- If they maintained standard protocols, they wouldn't achieve breakthrough speed - they'd get the same slow results as always
- Contradicts the "years ahead of schedule" outcome
document
- This means to record or write down information about something
- Simply documenting protocols wouldn't change how fast treatments reach patients
- Doesn't create the logical connection between the action and the speed improvement
bypass
- This means to go around or avoid following something in the normal way
- Perfectly explains how they got "years ahead of schedule" - they went around the slow standard protocols
- Connects logically with "streamlining" and "innovative methods" that followed
review
- This means to examine or look over something
- Reviewing protocols might be helpful, but it doesn't inherently lead to dramatically faster results
- The passage emphasis is on action that created speed, not analysis