PrepTest 112, Section 1, Question 24
Columnist: George Orwell's book 1984 has exercised much(40 more words not shown)
The answer to which one(12 more words not shown)
- AHow many books(5 more words not shown)
- BHow many people(6 more words not shown)
- CHow many people(4 more words not shown)
- DHow many books(8 more words not shown)
- EHow many of(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Second place could still mean almost nobody picked it.
Imagine the thousand survey responses break down this way: 900 people choose the Bible, two choose 1984, and the remaining 98 each choose a different book. 1984 finishes second, yet only two people selected it. That is very different from a result in which several hundred selected it.
The opening sentence is the claim the columnist wants the survey to support: 1984 has had much influence on a great number of the newspaper's readers. I might initially read that as background, but the ranking is being offered as evidence for it. Once we see that connection, the missing information becomes clear. A place in the ranking doesn't tell us how many people chose the book.
What we’re looking for
We're asked which question would help evaluate the argument. I'd ask for that number. A large number of selections would support the columnist's reading of the survey more than a second-place finish earned with just two votes.
Working the answers
- A
A book can strongly influence someone who has read one book or someone who has read hundreds. The total books read might tell us something about each reader's experience, but it doesn't reveal how many readers named 1984. That is the unresolved jump from ranking to a great number of people.
- BCorrect
This gets the information indirectly. We know there were 1,000 respondents and each named one book. Subtract the number who chose something else from 1,000, and we have the number who chose 1984.
If 998 chose other books, only two chose 1984. If 600 chose other books, 400 chose it. Both results could leave it in second place, but they give very different support to the claim about a great number of readers. B therefore lets us test the inference that the ranking alone leaves uncertain.
- C
Total newspaper readership doesn't tell us how those thousand respondents divided their choices. Whatever the paper's circulation, 1984 could have received two selections or hundreds. We need the missing count within the survey before treating second place as evidence of widespread influence.
- D
The claim concerns 1984, not Orwell's popularity across all his books. Knowing how many of his other titles were selected doesn't tell us how many people selected this one. A vote for Animal Farm isn't a vote for 1984.
- E
Reading a book firsthand isn't the only way its ideas or story can influence someone. A person could encounter them through discussion or an adaptation. Think of someone moved by a story through its film version without having read the novel.
So a respondent who hasn't read the chosen book needn't be lying about its influence. E also doesn't provide the number selecting 1984. B addresses the argument's central numerical gap much more directly.
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