PrepTest 133, Section 2, Question 19
Style manual: Archaic spellings and styles of punctuation(80 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(6 more words not shown)
- AIf an editor(28 more words not shown)
- BAn editor may(16 more words not shown)
- CAn editor should(21 more words not shown)
- DAn editor may(18 more words not shown)
- EIf an editor(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
An old-fashioned spelling and a typo aren't necessarily the same problem.
The manual gives different instructions for different cases. Infrequent old spellings or punctuation that don't interfere with understanding should be preserved. If those old features occur frequently, the editor may modernize them, with an explanatory note. When similar changes affect more than one quotation, a general statement in the preface can serve that purpose instead.
Then comes a separate allowance: obvious typos in quotations from modern works can be corrected without explanation. Fixing a mistake in a modern quotation isn't the same as updating an author's older style.
What we’re looking for
For the inference question, keep the conditions attached to each instruction. In particular, permission to modernize isn't a command to modernize. And knowing one situation in which we must preserve the original doesn't tell us what we must do in every other situation. Let's see which answer actually fits a rule we've been given.
Working the answers
- A
What kind of spelling correction is this? It could be an obvious typo in a quotation from a modern work. The last sentence allows that correction without explanation, even if the word occurs only once. A doesn't tell us enough to place the correction in a category that requires a note.
- B
An archaic spelling in a modern work isn't necessarily an obvious typo. An author might deliberately use an old-fashioned form. The no-explanation allowance concerns obvious typographical errors; we can't apply it to every archaic spelling just because it appears in a modern work.
- C
Interference with comprehension means the first preservation rule's conditions aren't met. It doesn't create a new rule requiring modernization. The passage says when an editor may modernize, while C says the editor should. We aren't given that instruction merely because the old spelling makes reading harder.
- DCorrect
Frequent archaic punctuation in an older quotation falls within the permission to modernize. That is already enough under the second rule; adding that it interferes with comprehension doesn't take the permission away. D says 'may,' so it preserves the distinction between being allowed to make a change and being required to make it. The manual's explanation requirement still applies.
- E
The preface option is linked to similar modernizing having been done in more than one quotation. Several old-fashioned instances appearing in the source is different from the editor actually changing more than one quotation. E gives us only one modernized instance and then prescribes a preface explanation. That doesn't follow from the rule.
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