- Manipulating laboratory tissue cultures with hormones is one thing; using hormones to treat human beings, however, is contingent on whether hormones that ------- in the laboratory can affect ------- organisms, and in predictable ways.
I do not think we can use ‘however’ in this case to signify a contrast, but I know that saying manipulating lab tissue is one thing automatically entails that the other thing that follows is different and will be a much more difficult process, but I don’t think that constitutes this sentence as a contrast. Someone please help.
NOTE: I’m not posting the answer choices, I’m just practicing on applying math strategy and coming up w/ my own words for the blank for now.
The first part of the sentence before the semicolon sets up the context and contrast for everything following the semicolon.
The story to me is basically: “You can test out hormones to your hearts desire in the lab, yes, but extrapolating your experiments on humans requires hormones that grow in a lab can affect real-life organisms in predictable ways.”
Those would be my guesses. Is this from the Big Book?
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The way I read this that the first blank is previously referenced using the first clause. I’d put manipulation as my guess in the first blank to keep it consistent with the sentence. For the second blank, I recognize that comparison being made by 1) the use of “one thing” and 2) the however. The only logical thing that could be compared IMO would be tissue cultures and human beings since every other element in the first phrase is already paralled with the second. Therefore, the second blank could literally just be “human beings” as the idea.
In totality, I’d read this as "Manipulating laboratory tissue cultures with hormones is one thing; using hormones to treat human beings, however, is contigent on whether hormones that manipulate in the laboratory can affect human being organisms, and in predictable ways.
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+1
Instead of grow for my first blank, I would use—like @brianhum1994 mentioned—"manipulated or “created in.” A word that suggests that you’re comparing something man-made to something naturally occurring.
Even if you guessed “grow,” i.e., you were thinking in the direction, that would probably be enough to relate it to one of the answer choices.
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Okay I see it now when you put it that way. In this TC then the math strategy is not applicable since you just used whatever was previously referenced in the first phrase? I’m just struggling to determine when I should used math strategy versus something else. Like from how this sentence is structured, I can’t even fully say with confidence if this is a support or a contrasting sentence.
This question was from the Big Book (page 472). In your first response, you said you used the semicolon to divide the first and second part of the sentence to determine it was a contrast, but didn’t the semicolon in the math strategy mean support? Is it because after the semicolon it says “however”?
Yeah. I think that will come with more experience and practice as you go through Big Book and Greg’s videos on TC. The sentence does have a contrast but it’s between the nouns (tissue cultures vs. human beings). So there’s a contrast but it may not be as evident. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the question!
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I think we have to be a little more nuanced with the semicolon. The semicolon does signify a continuation (I would resist using “support” as a way to define semicolons. Colons have more of this function—they often define whatever is before the punctuation—but again approach flexibly) or elaboration of what’s going on in the first part of the sentence. And, you’re right that “however” sets up a bit of a contrast in the elaboration that the author is giving for the first part.
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