Sentence completion

Question

In the design of medical experiments, the need for ------- assignment of treatments to patients must be ------- the difficulty of persuading patients to participate in an experiment in which their treatment is decided by chance.
A. independent.. amended by
B. competent.. emphasized by
C. mechanical.. controlled by
D. swift . .associated with
E. random.. reconciled with

I was unable to get full picture of what the sentence is saying, though I accidentally picked up the right answer by a little trick: “random” goes with “by chance”. But I think I need a good reasoning for it, which may also enable me to solve others next time. So here I am.

Thank you for your time.

Jeff_999 · Accepted Answer

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MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Jeff

We have a 'need' and a 'difficulty'. That suggests a 'versus'. Something that is 'good' from one point of view is 'bad' from another point of view.

Take 'need' and 'difficulty' as the principal ideas in each part of the sentence. Then try out the missing verb, which has to link the two:

A. need amended by difficulty - nonsense
B. need emphasized by difficulty - nonsense
C. need controlled by difficulty - nonsense
D. need associated with difficulty - possible; but isn't a case of 'versus'.
E. need reconciled with difficulty - possible.

Then try out E, and the sense is:

Need: In an experiment, you have to assign treatments to patients at random.

Difficulty: But patients don't want to be treated 'randomly'. So they won't participate.

MrP

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