Reading comp PrepTest 115 · Section 3 · Question 27

Passage

Questions 24-28        The following passage was written in the mid–1990s.  .        Users of the Internet—the worldwide network of Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Internet users’ view (free access to info) and problem (sharing copyrighted info)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Internet users’ view:
      • See the internet as a way to get free access to information, including copyrighted material (first and second sentences)
    • Examples of copyrighted works that are being transmitted online:
      • Books, photographs, videos and films, and sound recordings (second sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “begun to conflict with reality” (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Problem expanded (Canadian law doesn’t clearly prohibit digitalization of copyrighted media)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Definition of “digitization”: converting media into computer data (first sentence)
    • Examples of unauthorized reproductions that Canadian copyright law prohibits:
      • Photocopies of books or pirated audiotapes (last sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “is not yet clear” (last sentence); “not yet technically a crime” (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Experts’ potential solution (make digitalization illegal), author’s view (this raises questions) and prediction (problem will not be resolved easily)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Experts’ view:
      • Revise copyright law by prohibiting unauthorized digitization (first sentence)
      • It will be difficult to resolve the clash between Internet users and the publishing community since the two groups’ beliefs are in opposition (last sentence)
    • Author’s view:
      • There are several problems with the expert’s solution: Who does it apply to — just people who reproduce the original or people who reproduce copies? Is it even enforceable? What about special cases, like educators? (third through fifth sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the experts:
      • Electronic reproduction rights should be the same as rights to other types of reproductions (first sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “host of questions” (second sentence); “virtually unenforceable” (fourth sentence)

Main Point: Although Canada's copyright laws do not explicitly prohibit the unauthorized transmission of media on the internet, simply expanding existing laws to cover this online transmission may not be as simple as it seems.

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution: The Problem/Solution Meta-Structure best fits the argument made in this passage.* The beginning of the passage introduces a problem created by “digitization” on the internet: users of the internet want to communicate and exchange copyrighted information freely, but this conflicts with copyright laws’ desire to protect original ideas.

Once we have identified the problem that the passage is investigating, determining whether the author presents a solution to that problem is critical to understanding the passage as a whole. Finally, in the third paragraph, the passage introduces a possible solution, attributed to “experts”: perhaps lawmakers should simply extend copyright law to cover digitization?

However, the author isn’t convinced. The last paragraph outlines several of the author’s concerns. Instead of settling on a way to fix the problem introduced in the first paragraph, the passage ends by emphasizing how even experts think it will “be hard to resolve the clash between the Internet community” and “the publishing community” (P3, S6).

In a Problem/Solution passage, the main point is typically a summary of the author’s opinion on the proposed solution(s). Since the author thinks that extended copyright law to cover digitization will be more complicated than the experts may believe, our main point will reflect that opinion. In other words, our main point is “Although Canada's copyright laws do not explicitly prohibit the unauthorized transmission of media on the internet, simply expanding existing laws to cover this online transmission may not be as simple as it seems.”

*We can also think of this passage as a Describing a Debate passage, as much of this passage is presented as a debate between internet users and publishers/copyright holders. If this is the designation you went with, you would probably end up with a very similar main point and set of notes that we came up with. Remember, multiple Meta-Structurescan accurately describe the same passage, so we shouldn’t be too worried about coming up with the one “correct” Meta-Structure. As long as we’re thinking about the passage’s overarching structure, we’re doing our job effectively.

Last Thoughts?

As convenient as it would be for the author to always provide a solution to problems mentioned in the passage, effective test-takers will remember that the author is under no obligation to do so. Making premature assumptions about how the author regards certain solutions can prevent us from understanding the passage. Take, for example, the solution discussed in the third paragraph of this particular passage. What do we actually know about the author’s thoughts?

Only that the author thinks the solution seems incomplete and unenforceable.

The author never says that we should or shouldn’t pursue this solution. So, when answering questions about the author’s opinions (e.g., Major Point questions, Tone questions, some Minor Point questions), we should avoid answer choices that characterize the discussed solution as either “right” or “wrong.” something closer to “complicated” than to “wrong.”

This idea relates back to the passage’s Meta-Structure. While it might be tempting to classify this passage under a Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structure, there are several aspects of the passage that make a Problem/Solution Structure a better choice. The author characterizes the issues with the solution as “questions” — not “drawbacks” or “weaknesses” or anything critical like that. Moreover, the problem (not the conflict between internet users and publishers) is always kept front and center. It is the topic we are first introduced at the beginning and also what the author chooses to reiterate at the end. If we had elected to think about the passage primarily through the lens of “Criticizing a Viewpoint,” we might have missed how emphatically the passage demonstrates that the problem is a sticky one.

Question prompt

The passage supports each Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Remind ourselves of the passage’s main point, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to eliminate the incorrect answer choices.

Answer Anticipation

For these Bizarro Must Be True questions, the correct answer will either present a topic not discussed by the passage or assert a claim contradicted by information in the passage. For the former, we’ll generally use a process of elimination to get rid of each answer that does show up in the passage. For the latter, we’re in luck, as we can find a line citation to prove that the passage contradicts the correct answer. In that case, we can feel a lot more comfortable about picking it, while also likely getting it correct faster. But we won’t know if this is the case for the correct answer until after we analyze it, so we should expect to use a process of elimination.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It is unlikely that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage’s main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yes. The main point is that criminalizing digitalization would be complicated, and this answer choice describes one such complication: detecting every instance of digitalization would be difficult. For this reason, experienced test-takers would eliminate this answer choice without checking the passage.

    If we had to check the passage to confirm that this is incorrect, we could review the third paragraph, which describes the author’s issues with criminalizing digitalization. In that paragraph, the author says that criminalizing digitalization would be “virtually unenforceable” because over 20 million people can participate in this practice (P3, S3). This suggests that many cases of unauthorized digitalization would go undetected. Since (A) is supported, we should eliminate it on this Bizarro Must Be True question.

  2. B
    Criminalizing unauthorized digitalization appears Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage’s main point or reflected in our notes?

    Not quite. For this reason, many test-takers keep (B) in contention.

    However, our work from the second question in this passage can help us eliminate this answer choice. On that question, we saw that publishers are used to treating information as a commodity owned by its creator (P3, S6) and that they want to protect their material from unauthorized and uncompensated distribution on the internet (P1, S3). Because this group holds these two views, we can infer that criminalizing digitalization is consistent with the publishing community’s treatment of information as a commodity owned by its creator. This will allow us to eliminate (B), or at least consider it less appealing than any other answer choices we keep in contention.

    If we had to review the passage to confirm that (B) is supported, we could find this support at the beginning of the third paragraph. There, experts argue that copyright holders (AKA the publishing community) want to criminalize digitalization to “make it clear that copyright holders own electronic reproduction rights just as they own rights to other types of reproduction” (P3, S1). Therefore, (B) is supported and incorrect.

  3. C
    When copyright law is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage’s main point or reflected in our notes?

    Nope. Neither the main point nor our notes specify what will happen when copyright law is revised to cover digitalization. Moreover, this answer choice uses strong, difficult-to-support language (“will include”), which makes this answer choice unlikely to be correct. Therefore, this choice is a strong contender on a Bizarro Must Be True question.

    Whether we select (C) after checking the passage or after eliminating (D) and (E) is a matter of preference — these should take about the same amount of time. But if we checked the passage for references to “making copies from an unauthorized digitalization,” we’d find the author discusses this issue in the third paragraph. The author says it’s unclear if only the initial digitalization would be illegal or if making copies from the initial digitalization would also be illegal (P3, S3). Since this issue isn’t settled, we can’t say that copyright law revisions “will include” a prohibition on making copies from the initial digitalization. Therefore, (C) is unsupported and correct.

  4. D
    The number of instances Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage’s main point or reflected in our notes?

    This claim is supported by our notes. Our note for the first paragraph says that internet users want “free access to info,” which suggests that the demand for digitalization is present. It stands to reason that internet users would digitalize more if digitalization were made even easier. After all, this would only help them get more access to information. For this reason, experienced test-takers would eliminate this answer choice without checking the passage.

  5. E
    Under current law, many Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with the passage’s main point or reflected in our notes?

    This answer choice isn’t explicitly mentioned in the main point or our notes. If you didn’t recall the author’s discussion of academics and copyright law, you may need to review the passage to confirm that (E) is supported.

    We can find the reference to academics in the third paragraph (perhaps by using CTRL/Command + F). The third paragraph says that copyright law allows “generous exemptions” for those engaged in private study or research (P3, S5). This means that researchers engaged in private research can make reproductions of copyrighted works. So we can eliminate (E).

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 10%
  3. C Credited 50%
  4. D 26%
  5. E 9%

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