Reading comp PrepTest 135 · Section 3 · Question 11

Passage

Questions 8-13  .        While recent decades have seen more information  . recorded than any other era, the potential for Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Problem introduced (greater potential for losing material) and examples of durable and unstable materials
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author/archivists:
      • There's now more info recorded than ever, but it's at a greater risk of being lost than older recordings (first through third sentences)
    • Examples of durable recordings, according to the author:
      • Mesopotamian tablets, medieval parchment (still looking fresh), black-and-white photographs (fourth through last sentence)
    • Examples of unstable recordings, according to the author:
      • Acidic paper, color photos, videotapes (fourth through last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "now greater than ever" (first sentence); "great concern" (second sentence); "still look as though they were copied yesterday" (fourth sentence); "already unreadable" (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Possible solution (computer storage) and an issue with that solution (becomes obsolete quickly)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Transferring documents to electronic formats would seem to offer a solution, but technology changes and can make it risky to use these formats (first and second sentences)
      • And yet, archivists are running out of time (last sentence)
    • Examples of unstable computer storage, according to the author:
      • Disks can't be read with new hard/software; digital storage tapes are only good for a decade (third and fourth sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "would seem" (first sentence); "may not now be retrievable" (third sentence); "quickly running out of time" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another issue (the amount of deteriorating material makes choosing valuable documents to store difficult)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • New technologies might allow preservation, but archivists will still have a difficult time sorting the valuable documents worth preserving from the not valuable documents in time to preserve these documents (first, second, and last sentences)
    • Examples of valuable documents that were preserved, according to the author:
      • Homer/Virgil copied and saved due to their popularity (third sentence)
      • Great works, like those of Plato, were almost lost (fourth sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "may soon provide" (first sentence); "will have to be made quickly" (first sentence); "Ideally" (second sentence); "should be informed by an assessment of the value" (third sentence); "great work" (fourth sentence); "Undoubtedly, many important works have no survived" (fifth sentence); "danger" (last sentence); "sheer volume" (last sentence); "make it virtually impossible" (last sentence); "sort the essential from the dispensable" (last sentence)

Main Point: The high volume of information recorded, coupled with the decreased durability of recording materials, has created a problem for long-term storage that needs to be addressed before important documents are lost.

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution: This passage most closely fits the common Problem/Solution Meta-Structure.* The author kicks off the passage by noting a problem — information is at risk of being lost. The author offers a possible solution but then highlights a problem with this solution (speed of obsolescence) before bringing up other aspects of the problem (decisions need to be made fast). So, this passage presents a problem and a solution, even if the problem is big and the solution is imperfect.

In general, the main point of a Problem/Solution passage is the author's preferred solution or their opinion on an offered solution. Here, the only solution is considered insufficient, and the author notes that the clock is ticking as we try to find one that works, so those aspects of the problem should be noted in the main point.

Examples: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is examples. Throughout the passage, the author presents several sets of examples, so it's important to be able to quickly find them. So, it can help if we highlight or underline these examples. In Paragraph 1, the author lists examples of ancient documents that have been preserved and modern ones that are falling apart (P1, S4-S5). In Paragraph 2, the author lists storage technologies that won't solve the storage problem (P2, S3-S4). And in Paragraph 3, works that did and didn't survive over time are noted (P3, S3_S4).

Last Thoughts?

Those lists of examples took up so much space that we should expect there to be a few questions asking about them, so let's be sure to head back to the passage when they come up in the questions!

Question prompt

Which one of the 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

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Review reference to the fact that a wide variety of images and documents can now be stored electronically, consult notes, and choose an answer choice based on your understanding of that reference in the passage's overall argument

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us why the author mentions in the second paragraph that a wide variety of images and documents can now be stored electronically. Unless a detail conflicts with the paragraph's purpose, the author probably mentioned that detail to advance the paragraph's role. So, reviewing the second paragraph's role, which we hopefully wrote down in the notes on our scratch paper, will generally reveal why the author included that detail.Our note for the second paragraph is, "Possible solution (computer storage) and an issue with that solution (becomes obsolete quickly)." So, our note suggests that the author mentions that a wide variety of images and documents can now be stored electronically to show that such computer storage is a "[p]ossible solution" that has some issues. So, let's review the reference in the passage to see if that inference is supported.Looking at the first sentence of the second paragraph, the author brings up that solution — storing the information using computer technology. Later, as we noted when discussing the paragraph as a whole, there's a problem with using this technology, and that's hinted at in the language in these lines — it's not an answer to the problem, but rather it "would seem to offer" an answer to it (P2, S1). This confirms that the inference we made with our notes is accurate. The lines in question bring up a possible solution to the problem around which the passage focuses, but a solution that itself has some problems. Let's find an answer reflecting that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    to provide evidence to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this say that the lines in question bring up a possible solution to the problem around which the passage focuses, but a solution that itself has some problems?

    Nope. The first sentence in the passage contends that there's more info than ever, but the risk of losing it is greater than ever (P1, S1). That computer technology seems to offer a solution, if anything, contradicts the first sentence (without a follow-up statement about the "seem to").

  2. B
    to identify an ostensible Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Does this say that the lines in question bring up a possible solution to the problem around which the passage focuses, but a solution that itself has some problems?

    Yes! The problem raised in the first paragraph is that there's more info than ever, but it's at risk of being lost due to storage that has decreased durability (P1, S1). The opening line of the second paragraph notes an "ostensible" solution to the problem — computer technology. Therefore, we can justifiably select (B) and advance to the following question.

    Still, this can be a tricky answer if you're uncertain of the definition of "ostensible," but it lines up with the "seem to" from the passage. If you run across vocab like this on the test and you can't figure it out based on context, defer on the answer to see if you can eliminate all of the others. And if you come across vocab like this while prepping, look the word up and learn it — the LSAT reuses vocabulary!

  3. C
    to argue a point Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this say that the lines in question bring up a possible solution to the problem around which the passage focuses, but a solution that itself has some problems?

    Nope. In the last sentence of the passage, the author notes a problem — that there's so much information that figuring out what to save before some important documents disintegrate is "virtually impossible." Computer technology offering a way to store that information isn't rejected by this follow-up problem.

  4. D
    to offer an additional Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this say that the lines in question bring up a possible solution to the problem around which the passage focuses, but a solution that itself has some problems?

    Not quite. At the end of the first paragraph the problem highlighted by the author using several examples is the disintegration of certain storage media and the loss of the information they store. The second paragraph opens by discussing a potential solution to this problem, not another example of a storage medium that will disintegrate soon. While the author may go on to discuss the short lifespan of certain computer technologies, the opening line itself presents the solution.

  5. E
    to suggest that the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this say that the lines in question bring up a possible solution to the problem around which the passage focuses, but a solution that itself has some problems?

    Nope. The problem raised in the "last" paragraph (presumably, they mean the previous paragraph and not the final paragraph)is that there's more info than ever, but there's a risk of losing it due to storage that has decreased durability (P1, S1). Even if the first sentence of the second paragraph presents a possible solution to that problem, that doesn't suggest that the problem is being exaggerated. Especially when the author suggests that the solution is imperfect and may not solve the problem!

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 12%
  2. B Credited 72%
  3. C 6%
  4. D 8%
  5. E 1%

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