PrepTest 124, Section 4, Question 18
The passages discuss relationships between business interests and(483 more words not shown)
Passage A(230 more words not shown)
Passage B(251 more words not shown)
It can be inferred from(19 more words not shown)
- Athe enormous increase(10 more words not shown)
- Bthe desire of(8 more words not shown)
- Cthe striving of(10 more words not shown)
- Dmoral reservations about(7 more words not shown)
- Ea drastic reduction(6 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Why restrict access? Our starting prediction is money. A describes businesses keeping useful knowledge from competitors. B describes companies charging others to use discoveries or keeping them for themselves. Both connect restricted access with commercial interests.
Working the answers
- A
Neither writer attributes restricted access to the sheer amount of knowledge being produced. More knowledge and a financial reason to control knowledge are different explanations.
- B
Credit for a discovery is recognition. Our evidence concerns commercial control and returns on investment, not researchers wanting their names attached to an achievement.
- CCorrect
Gaining an advantage over competitors fits the profit concern we predicted. A explicitly describes hiding knowledge useful to competitors. B describes a company seeking a return by charging for access or reserving a discovery for exclusive use. Controlling access can keep rivals from using the same knowledge freely.
- D
B mentions moral uncertainty over what should be patented. Neither writer says access is being restricted because people fear the social consequences of the research itself.
- E
B mentions government support as part of the earlier public-good argument. Neither account says that funding has drastically fallen, much less that such a fall caused the restrictions.
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