Logical reasoning PrepTest 135 · Section 4 · Question 15

Question prompt

Copyright was originally the 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.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Strengthen Questions

Stimulus Summary

Copyright’s sole purpose was to encourage ideas to circulate through giving authors a chance to make money. But copyright sometimes exceeds this purpose since __________.

Answer Anticipation

This Argument Completion question presents a premise with a conclusion, and it asks us to support that conclusion with another premise (“since sometimes” in the stimulus; “most strongly supported if” in the question stem). In that way, it’s similar to a Strengthen question - we’re looking for an answer that supports the conclusion.
Here, the conclusion is that copyright sometimes exceeds its purpose. To support that, we’d need an example or situation where copyright is applied in a situation that goes beyond the original purpose, set out in the stimulus: promoting the circulation of ideas by giving the creators of those ideas a chance to make some money. So we should head into the answer choices looking for one that points to copyright doing something other than what is set out in the stimulus as its purpose.

Answer choices

  1. A
    publication of copyrighted works Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    It is one way to circulate ideas, though, and just because there are others doesn’t mean that this one method (copyrights) are going beyond their purpose. In fact, it doesn’t speak to their purpose at all.
  2. B
    authors are willing to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    While this answer might call into question the need for copyright, it doesn’t suggest that sometimes copyright goes beyond its purpose. It could still encourage the circulation of ideas even if it’s not necessary to entice everyone to create copyrighted materials with financial rewards.
  3. C
    authors are unable to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The stimulus doesn’t establish publishers as a necessary part of the process, so this answer choice is out of scope.
  4. D
    there is no practical Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    If anything, this answer suggests that copyright might not even reach its original purpose, let alone go beyond it.
  5. E
    copyrights hold for many Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    The original purpose of copyright was to encourage people to circulate their ideas by letting them make money off of them. If the person is dead, they can’t be encouraged to circulate their ideas - they can’t be encouraged to do anything. If the copyright holds after death, then it’s going beyond its initial purpose of encouraging the author of the copyrighted material to circulate it, so this answer is correct.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 14%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 3%
  5. E Credited 74%

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