PrepTest 126, Section 3, Question 12
The total number of book titles published annually(48 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ATelevision has, over(16 more words not shown)
- BThe introduction of(9 more words not shown)
- CBook publishers in(17 more words not shown)
- DThe availability of(22 more words not shown)
- EThe introduction of(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Slower growth is still growth.
Suppose annual book sales went from three million copies to four million, then to four and a half million. The increase got smaller—from one million to half a million—but sales didn't fall. They reached a new high. That's what we need to keep straight when the passage says the rate of increase slowed.
There are other distinctions to preserve too. More titles being published doesn't by itself tell us how much people are reading. Library circulation concerns borrowing, which is different from buying. And all these developments occurring after television arrived doesn't establish that television caused them. Perhaps publishing became easier or the population grew; those are other possibilities, not facts supplied here.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what the information supports. We know that television has been available while the annual number of published titles grew and sales of new titles increased. Let's hold onto that observation without turning it into a story about why people bought or read more.
Working the answers
- A
“Per capita” means per person. Total sales could rise while reading per person rose, fell, or stayed the same; we don't know the population change or how much of each purchased book people read. A also assigns television responsibility for a decline. Neither the decline in reading per person nor that causal explanation is established.
- B
The recent library trend doesn't show what introducing television usually does. Television was already available well before the recent flat or declining circulation. We also have information about North America, not a set of introductions around the world establishing the usual result. B goes beyond both the timing and the scope of our facts.
- C
We know total sales increased, but copies per title depends on how sales grew relative to the number of titles. If titles increased faster than total copies, the average could fall; if copies increased faster, it could rise. The passage doesn't give the comparison needed to decide. Slower growth in total sales doesn't itself establish fewer copies per title.
- DCorrect
The availability of television hasn't always been accompanied by declining publication or sales: the passage describes increases in both. That supports the limited conclusion that television's availability doesn't invariably produce those declines. We don't need to show that television has no effect on books, or that it helps them.
- E
This turns “increased after television became available” into “increased because of television.” The passage doesn't establish that cause. Easier publishing or a larger population could be part of a different explanation. D stays with the observed growth despite television's availability; E claims television produced the growth.
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