Reading comp PrepTest 102 · Section 1 · Question 5

Passage

Questions 1-7    Most office workers assume that the messages they send to each other via electronic mail are as Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Problem (legal rules governing email privacy of email are unsettled)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Most office workers' view:
      • Emails they send to each other are as private as a phone call or meeting is wrong (first and second sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • While it is illegal for an employer to monitor phone calls (even on a company-owned phone) or meetings, there are no clear rules for email (third sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Privacy of email is a very complicated legal issue (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "assumption is wrong" (second sentence); "no clear rules" (third sentence); "one of the more complicated legal issues" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Debate on email privacy (opinions vary based on circumstances) and government employee example (deleting emails)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • View of many people on email privacy:
      • The degree of privacy should depend on who owns the email system and who is reading the emails (first sentence)
    • Example of opinions on both sides of the email privacy debate: government office
      • Some say government employees should be able to delete emails that are records of government business because paper copies will be kept (second and third sentences)
      • Others say they shouldn't be able to delete emails because paper versions don't preserve address information, and the public should have the right to review all records created by government business (fourth and fifth sentences)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another example of debate on email privacy (automotive employees fired for insulting manager over email)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Example of opinions on both sides of the email privacy debate: two employees of an automotive company fired for insulting manager over email and then filing a grievance when threatened
      • Employees claimed that their privacy had been violated (fourth sentence)
      • The court dismissed their unlawful termination case dismissed because the company owned the computer system and could read anything created on it (second through fifth sentences)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's imperfect solution (no privacy expectation unless employees encrypt, which is inconvenient)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • While some laws prohibit outside interception of email by a third party without a search warrant, these laws don't cover interoffice or inter-company interception of email (first and second sentences)
    • Author's view:
      • In some places, Courts have ruled that interoffice communications are private only if employees have a "reasonable expectation" of privacy when they send the messages, but no computer system has any guarantee of privacy (third and fourth sentences)
      • One solution is to encrypt emails, but this would defeat email's primary advantage over other forms of communication, namely, convenience (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "the fact is no absolute guarantee of privacy exists" (fourth sentence); "The only solution may be" (fifth sentence); "unfortunately" (fifth sentence); "likely to undermine the principal virtue of electronic mail" (fifth sentence

Main Point: Uncertainty surrounds the laws governing email privacy in the workplace, leaving employees with an inconvenient solution.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 4 (P1, S4) - Uncertainty of legal issues surrounding email privacy

P2, S2 - Example of government office

P3, S3 - Example of private company

P4, S4 - No guarantee of privacy in any computer system

P4, S5 - Possible solution and problem with it

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution: This passage is rather hard to classify because it doesn't fit neatly into any of the Meta-Structure categories. However, it seems closest to a Problem/Solution passage* because the author begins by describing the unsettled nature of privacy laws governing email in the workplace. The author then gives some examples to illustrate the debates over email privacy and the court cases that have further clouded the issue before advancing a possible solution to the problem — encryption. The author then partially rejects this solution because it would negate email's main advantage as a means of interoffice communication: convenience.

In a Problem/Solution passage, the main point is generally the solution the author endorses/proffers. If the author does not endorse or proffer a solution, then the author’s opinion on the solutions. In this passage, the author partially rejects the only solution they proffer: encryption, since it would undermine email's principal virtue of convenience. For that reason, we summarized the main point as, "Uncertainty surrounds the laws governing email privacy in the workplace, leaving employees with an inconvenient solution."

*It is possible to classify this passage as a Describing a Debate passage. However, that's not a perfect fit either, since the author only explicitly frames the question of email privacy as a debate in the third paragraph. We could stretch a bit and call this an Innovative Subject passage because the author introduces email as a very new and disruptive force in workplace privacy laws. However, that classification would go against the author's typically laudatory attitude toward their subjects in that passage. Here, the author doesn't admire email as a disruptive and innovative force in the workplace; they view it more as a problem.

Example: The primary minor Meta-Structure in this passage is the example. The author gives two extended examples to illustrate the challenges posed by workplace email privacy debates. These examples are a hypothetical government office and an actual automotive company. Expect one or both to figure into a question or two.

Last Thoughts?

It’s OK if you don’t think this passage is a conventional “Problem/Solution passage. In fact, recognizing that this passage doesn’t fit neatly into that framework will only help us with the questions. We can eliminate any question that suggests the author feels confident in a solution to the legal issues surrounding email privacy in the workplace.

Question prompt

It can be inferred Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Review your notes to recall the author's views about encryption, then find an answer that must be true according to the passage.

Answer Anticipation

This question stem asks us to infer a belief the author would hold about a hypothetical encryption system that would make encryption and decryption very easy. Often, one's views are described at length throughout the passage, so reviewing the passage or anticipating what the correct answer will say is not a wise investment of our limited time. In this case, however, the question stem limits the scope to just the author's opinion on encryption. Therefore, we can use our notes and what we highlighted/underlined to anticipate what the correct answer will likely say.Our note for the third paragraph is, "Author's imperfect solution (no privacy expectation unless employees encrypt, which is inconvenient)." So, we can review the author's attitude toward encryption by checking out that paragraph. Reviewing the author's tone would be even easier if we highlighted tonal phrases like "the only solution may be" and "unfortunately" (P4, S5).In that paragraph, the author says that one solution to the problem of ensuring email privacy is for employees to encrypt their messages to each other (P4, S5). The author then says that this solution would undermine email's principal advantage over other forms of communication: convenience (P4, S5). So, this implies that the author thinks encryption is a long and difficult process and that using it to ensure email privacy might be more trouble than it's worth. In this question stem, however, encryption is made very quick and easy. So, we can infer that the author would think this hypothetical encryption system would do away with the disadvantage of using encryption to ensure email privacy. In fact, it would make encryption a valid way of ensuring employees' emails stay private.Let's look for this idea in the answer choices.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It would be an Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice reflect the author's favorable opinion toward a hypothetical system that would make encryption quick and easy?

    No. The author doesn't express any sympathy with companies attempting to monitor their employees' emails, so the author wouldn't be likely to believe an easy encryption system would be an unreasonable burden on companies trying to keep tabs on their workers.

    Because this answer choice lacks support in the passage, it is not the right one.

  2. B
    It would significantly reduce Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Does this answer choice reflect the author's favorable opinion toward a hypothetical system that would make encryption quick and easy?

    Yes. This answer choice is a good paraphrase of our anticipation. The author says the problem with using encryption to ensure email privacy is that encryption is burdensome (P4, S5). But a system like the one described in the question stem would make encryption easy, so it would become a viable way of ensuring email privacy. This is what the answer choice says. We can justifiably select this one and advance to the following question.

  3. C
    It would create substantial Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice reflect the author's favorable opinion toward a hypothetical system that would make encryption quick and easy?

    No. The author doesn't express any sympathy with companies trying to keep tabs on their employees' emails, so the author is not likely to believe that an easy encryption system would create complications for employers trying to prevent employees from revealing trade secrets.

    This is not the right answer choice because it lacks support in the passage.

  4. D
    It would guarantee only Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice reflect the author's favorable opinion toward a hypothetical system that would make encryption quick and easy?

    No. Nothing in the passage suggests that encryption would guarantee only a minimal level of privacy. Our review of the last paragraph revealed that the author describes encryption as possibly "the only solution" to the issue of email privacy (P4, S5). This means the author thinks encryption would guarantee email privacy, not that it would only achieve a minimum level of privacy.

    And we didn't review anything about the author's opinions on the costs of encryption. The author is concerned primarily with legal issues, not financial ones.

    Because part of this answer choice is contradicted by the passage and the other part lacks support, this is not the right answer choice.

  5. E
    It would require a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice reflect the author's favorable opinion toward a hypothetical system that would make encryption quick and easy?

    No. Nothing in the passage suggests that encryption would require a legal change in the definition of "reasonable expectation of privacy." In fact, the author spends the entire passage pointing out the legal issues raised by workplace email privacy (P1, S4), and then says that encryption is possibly "the only solution" (P4, S5) to ensure privacy. If encryption went against the current law (and required a change in legal definitions in order to be legal), the author would hardly be suggesting it as a solution to the problem.

    Because it is contradicted by the overall tenor of the passage, this is not the right answer choice.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 10%
  2. B Credited 65%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 13%
  5. E 11%

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