PrepTest 103, Section 1, Question 11
Five thousand of the 50,000 books published in(48 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(10 more words not shown)
- ANone of the(12 more words not shown)
- BNone of the(14 more words not shown)
- CNone of the(18 more words not shown)
- DSome of the(23 more words not shown)
- ESome of the(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Novels aren't the only books you can turn into movies.
Only 5,000 of the 50,000 books published that year were novels. The rest might include cookbooks, biographies, or other kinds of books. We are told that 25 of the next year's 100 films were based on those novels. That accounts for one-quarter of the films.
But the conclusion switches from novels to books. What if another film was based on a biography published in 1991? Then 26 of the 100 films would be based on books from that year, even though exactly 25 were based on its novels.
The question asks for a statement that would make the conclusion follow. We need to close off that extra route from books to films. My prediction is that none of the films were based on other kinds of books.
What we’re looking for
With that gap closed, the count of films based on the relevant novels would also settle the count based on the relevant books.
Working the answers
- A
Who wrote a screenplay doesn't tell us whether it was based on a book. A professional novelist could write a completely original screenplay, and someone who has never written a novel could adapt a biography. This doesn't limit the number of films based on non-novel books.
- BCorrect
This rules out films based on any books other than novels. We already know that exactly 25 films were based on the novels published in country Z in 1991. If no films were based on other kinds of books, there cannot be additional films based on that year's non-novel books. So no more than 25 of the 100 films were based on books from that year.
B is stronger than the minimum restriction we would need, because it excludes non-novel books from other years too. That's fine: the question asks for something sufficient to establish the conclusion, and B does the job.
- C
This goes in the other direction and uses the wrong years: books published in 1992 based on films from 1991. Our conclusion concerns films released in 1992 based on books from 1991. C doesn't restrict the adaptations we're counting.
- D
Some films being remakes doesn't establish that the other films weren't based on non-novel books. We could have 25 adaptations of the relevant novels, one adaptation of a relevant biography, and several remakes. The conclusion would still fail.
- E
The target is the films released in 1992. Knowing that some 1991 films adapted 1991 novels does not tell us whether additional 1992 films adapted other kinds of 1991 books. It leaves the gap exactly where it was.
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