UKMLA PLAB AMC USMLE Prometric MCQ

Question Number 1161
Question:
A physician is explaining to his student that the process of hearing requires that amplified mechanical energy is transmitted from the middle ear to the cochlea. He claims that the process of amplification is necessary in order to amplify weak vibrations in the air before reaching the inner ear.
Which of the following factors has the greatest amplifying influence on sound?

a) the ratio of the size of the oval window to the size of the eardrum
b) the shape of the middle ear
c) the bone lever system
d) the pressure gradient between middle ear and the nasopharynx
e) the physician is wrong, amplification does not occur within the middle ear