Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 4 · Question 20

Passage

 The World Wide Web, a network of electronically produced and interconnected (or "linked") sites, called pages, that are accessible via Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Legal Studies

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • New technology leads to debate
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • New tech - Internet, linked sites on computers
    • IP owners - Without stronger copyright laws, the internet will have a lot of infringement
    • Users - Reducing access makes internet less valuable

Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • New question/consideration from new tech; current law
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Central issue - website can link to document on another
    • Traditional IP protection - Owner can sue distributor for unauthorized copies
    • Question - Does linking to a document count as copyright infringement?

Paragraph 3.1 (Lines 28-44)
  • Paragraph note
    • Analogy leads to answer
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Analogy - Like recording an outgoing message on phone/giving out number
    • Author's Answer - No, it doesn't

Paragraph 3.1 (Lines 44-55)
  • Paragraph note
    • "Moreover"; Technique available to protect doc you put online; recommendation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Example - Password (somewhat limit open access, but not as much as copyright law changes)
    • Author - Copyright law shouldn't be changed, as it would hurt the internet

Main Point:
Putting a link to a document on another website shouldn't be considered copyright infringement because the copyright owner, by posting it, still controls it and has made it available for distribution.

Key Lines:
Lines 6-9 - One side of a debate
Lines 9-13 - The other side
Lines 23-27 - The central question is posed
Lines 28-30 - A requirement to answer the question
Line 31- An extended analogy is introduced
Lines 40-44 - The Author's answer
Lines 44-46 - Another consideration/support, and an example
Lines 52-55 - Author's opinion on related subject

Meta-Structure:
Question/Answer - The passage focuses on a question posed in Paragraph 2—does linking to a document constitute copyright infringement? Through the use of an extended analogy between phone messages/numbers and the internet (Lines 31-37), the Author concludes that no, it isn't (Lines 40-44). When a passage has a central Question/Answer structure, the Author's answer to the question is the main point of the passage, as we highlighted in our main point above.

Analogy - The Author uses an extended analogy in Lines 31-37 to relate posting a link to a document on another website to giving out someone's phone number. This is all in service of answering the question that's central to the passage.

Add-On - This passage includes an "Add-On" at the end—everything after the "Moreover" in Line 44. This segment of the passage adds to the Author's argument but it doesn't build from the central evidence, instead going off in a bit of a different direction. It reflects her opinion, but not necessarily her main point.

Last Thoughts:
We split up Paragraph 3 for two reasons. First, there are two distinct ideas in there, with the first highlighting an analogy that answers the Author's question, and the second with some additional points she makes relevant to the issue but not the central question. Second, that second half is introduced with "Moreover" (Line 44), which is an interesting structural word. It serves the same purpose as "Besides," in that it's introducing a side consideration that, while relevant, isn't directly speaking to the main point, or, at most, is support for that main point. So while that section of the passage could be asked about, it doesn't have to be reflected in the main point.

Question prompt

According to the passage, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Review the analogy in the passage to find the "most relevant" element

Answer Anticipation

The whole discussion of the telephone answering machine was used as an analogy for putting a document online. Let's keep that in mind as we dive into the analogy itself, looking for what the Author highlights about the outgoing messages. This all starts in Line 31.
There, we see that placing a document on the web is "comparable to" recording an outgoing message for others to hear, establishing the connection. From there, it talks about providing a phone number, so we can skip that part. Eventually, it circles back to discussing the outgoing messages in Lines 34—37, where it says that "its purpose" is that anyone who calls the number can hear the message.
So the most relevant feature, according to the Author, is that its purpose is to let anyone who calls the number hear it. Let's find an answer stating that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Such messages are carried Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. The Author never highlights this connection between the internet and phone calls, so it's incorrect.
  2. B
    Such messages are not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. There's no discussion of the legal protections afforded to the unauthorized distribution of outgoing messages on phones — they can be accessed by anyone who calls, but it's possible that if you recorded one and then distributed it, you'd be violating copyright law.
  3. C
    Transmission of such messages Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. The speed of transmission of these outgoing messages isn't noted.
  4. D
    People do not usually Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. There's no discussion of whether people care if others record these messages.
  5. E
    Such messages have purposely Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Correct. (Lines 34—37) The Author says that the "purpose" of these messages is to be accessible to "[a]nyone who calls," which is a paraphrase of this answer, making it correct.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 8%
  2. B 24%
  3. C 6%
  4. D 4%
  5. E Credited 58%

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