Reading comp PrepTest 135 · Section 3 · Question 13

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

The passage most strongly 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

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Review the main point, and use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the author’s attitude, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the main point/author’s attitude

Answer Anticipation

This is another question that asks us about the author's view but doesn't provide any insight into the topic of the correct answer or where the supporting information might show up in the passage. This means the correct answer is likely to relate back to the author's main point. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). We can also review any notes about the author's attitude or any text we highlighted because it expresses the author's opinion. After doing that, we can head to the answer choices, tabling those that don't line up with the main point. For those answer choices that conform to the author’s main point, we'll use our notes and the passage to see if they're correct.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Future electronic information storage Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this consistent with the author's main point or attitude, as reflected in our notes?

    Not quite. Although the author is happy to tell us about all the problems with computer storage, they're not quite this pessimistic. Indeed, this answer choice uses bold, SCOTUS-y language that expresses a high degree of certainty ("will not"). Such statements are difficult to support and unlikely to appear in the correct answer to an Author Agree question. Therefore, we can eliminate — or at least table (A) — and check the remaining answer choices.

    If we had to check the passage to determine whether the author would agree with (A), we'd realize that the author probably disagrees with this statement. In the third paragraph, the Author mentions that new technologies may provide the durability archivists need (P3, S1).

  2. B
    As much information should Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this consistent with the author's main point or attitude, as reflected in our notes?

    No. The note for the third paragraph says that archivists will need to "choos[e] valuable documents" to preserve — not preserve as much information as possible. Moreover, this answer choice uses bold, SCOTUS-y language that expresses a high degree of certainty ("no way"). Such statements are difficult to support and unlikely to appear in the correct answer to an Author Agree question. Therefore, we can eliminate — or at least table (B) — and check the remaining answer choices.

    If we had to check the passage to determine whether the author would agree with (B), we wouldn't find any support. The author says that archivists would “[i]deally” archive materials based on an assessment of their value (P3, S2). The author also says that the current danger is that there’s so much material out there that essential works will be lost before they can be assessed as important (P3, S6). There’s no indication that the author recommends archiving as much material as possible!

  3. C
    The general public has Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this consistent with the author's main point or attitude, as reflected in our notes?


    Nope. Neither the main point nor our notes bring up the general public or its perception of electronic media's storage capabilities. Therefore, we can eliminate — or at least table (C) — and check the remaining answer choices.

    Besides, we wouldn't find any support for (C) if we re-read the entire passage. The passage never mentions the general public or the manufacturers of electronic storage systems.

  4. D
    Distinguishing what is dispensable Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this consistent with the author's main point or attitude, as reflected in our notes?

    Not quite. Although the note for the third paragraph says that archivists will need to "choos[e] valuable documents" to preserve, this doesn't mean this choice is only a recent concern for archivists. Therefore, we can eliminate — or at least table (D) — and check the remaining answer choices.

    If we had to check the passage to determine whether the author would agree with (D), we wouldn't find any support. While the author notes that the volume of information being generated today is so high that it’s "virtually impossible" for archivists to sort the essential from the dispensable (P3, S6), there’s no indication that archivists of the past didn’t need to make similar determinations. In fact, the Homer and Virgil examples provided suggest that such decisions were made by ancient archivists — they chose to preserve them based on their "enduring popularity" (P3, S3).

  5. E
    Value judgments made by Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) Is this consistent with the author's main point or attitude, as reflected in our notes?

    Yes! This lines up with the note we made for the last paragraph — that archivists will need to "choos[e] valuable documents" to preserve, or else some "important documents" will be lost. Therefore, it's worth checking the passage to confirm that (E) is supported.

    Reviewing the third paragraph, we'll see that the author believes that archivists make decisions abotu what information they'll preserve as they "sort the essential from the dispensable" (P3, S6). The author says they'll try to assess the value of the material (P3, S2), which involves the archivists making a "value judgment." So, what they choose to preserve will give future generations a glimpse into the present day, which will undoubtedly influence what future generations learn about the present generation, making this is the correct answer.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 10%
  2. B 8%
  3. C 3%
  4. D 26%
  5. E Credited 53%

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Discussion

  • D vs E 1 reply

    Started by jordierose02

  • Answer choice D 1 reply

    Started by shafieiava

  • Why is E correct? 3 replies

    Started by Shiyi-Zhang

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