PrepTest 132, Section 4, Question 23
Film preservation requires transferring old movies from their(45 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ANo new technology(14 more words not shown)
- BTransferring films from(12 more words not shown)
- CNot many films(12 more words not shown)
- DSome films from(12 more words not shown)
- EThe least popular(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if we save the earliest films first?
Not being able to save every deteriorating nitrate film doesn't automatically mean we lose movies from the earliest years of Hollywood. Imagine we can save half of the endangered collection, and the earliest films make up only a small part of it. We could prioritize all of those and lose later films instead.
What we’re looking for
That's the gap I'd initially focus on: the argument doesn't tell us how the earliest films fit within the number we can save. But we're looking for a necessary assumption, so the answer only has to identify something the argument needs. It doesn't have to solve every problem or guarantee that early films will be lost.
Working the answers
- A
“Ever” is much too broad. A better transfer method might be invented long after these films have disintegrated. That wouldn't save them now or undermine the argument's conclusion. The author doesn't need to rule out technological advances for all future time.
- B
The argument doesn't need to rank preservation methods by cost. If nitrate-to-acetate transfer were the least expensive way to preserve the films, it could still be too expensive and time-consuming to save every threatened film. B could therefore be false without removing the practical problem the author relies on.
- C
Many early films could already have been transferred while some remained at risk. Suppose 900 of 1,000 were safely copied. There would still be 100 that might be lost. The conclusion says some won't be preserved, not that most are currently unpreserved. It doesn't require C's “not many.”
- DCorrect
This identifies an even more basic requirement than the one I first noticed: some early films must still exist only on their original material.
Suppose none did. Every early movie would already have a copy on another medium, such as acetate. The original nitrate might disintegrate, but that wouldn't mean the movie itself was lost. So the argument needs at least some early films whose survival still depends on saving the original material. D doesn't prove that those films will be lost, but without it the argument's explanation for losing them falls apart.
- E
We don't need to know which films are most likely to be lost. Popularity could affect preservation priorities, or it might not. Either way, the author could conclude that some early films won't survive without assuming that the least popular ones face the greatest risk.
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