Hey,
I had a doubt in this TC question from the GRE big book:
q. Exposure to sustained noise has been claimed to …… blood pressure regulation in human beings, and, particularly, to increase hypertension, even though some researchers have obtained inconclusive results that …… the relationship
d. Went through Greg’s explanation around this q where we use ‘inconclusive results’ for the math strategy to get a negative word for the second blank. Why can’t we use just the ‘even though’? The second blank doesn’t seem to really change depending on the kind of results, right? The first half (before the ‘even though’) has a negative connotation, meaning when there is a supporting relationship (evidence from ‘has been claimed to’) between ‘sustained noise’ and ‘increase hypertension‘, it’s bad. We know that the second half should be positive due to the ‘even though’. Due to this contrast, the relationship obtained by the researchers should be “not supporting” (as supporting relationship meant negative from the first half) or the second blank should have a negative meaning for the second half to have a positive connotation. So, does it really matter then, if the results were inconclusive or conclusive or if the nature of the results isn’t specified?
Is there anything I’m missing here?
Thanks!