PrepTest 135, Section 3, Question 12
While recent decades have seen more information recorded(452 more words not shown)
The passage provides the most(9 more words not shown)
- AInformation stored electronically(13 more words not shown)
- BMuch of the(16 more words not shown)
- CThe high cost(19 more words not shown)
- DMedia used recently(18 more words not shown)
- EThe percentage of(16 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The durability comparisons give us a firm starting point. Black-and-white photographs can last centuries; videotapes last about twenty years; recent digital storage tape is considered safe for only ten. The newer method doesn't automatically last longer.
What we’re looking for
An inference can follow from those comparisons without repeating a sentence word for word. But it must stay within the kind of problem discussed: deterioration and loss of access. A new concern about security, price or what archivists did with particular records needs its own evidence.
Working the answers
- A
The words “more vulnerable” sound relevant, but finish the thought: vulnerable to unauthorized use or theft. That's a different risk from deteriorating or becoming unreadable. The opening words fit the topic; the rest changes the issue. We have no electronic-versus-paper security comparison.
- B
We don't know whether those optical-disk records were later transferred to digital tape. Saying they may now be unretrievable identifies a risk, not the steps archivists actually took to move them.
- C
Cost is not given as a barrier. Obsolete equipment and limited durability are discussed, but neither establishes that high prices prevent archivists from transferring records.
- DCorrect
Digital tape's ten-year safe period is shorter than the stated lives of videotapes and black-and-white photographs. Those examples support the cautious claim that recent electronic media may be less durable than older conventional media. We don't need to prove that every older method outlasts every newer one.
- E
The growing amount of stored information doesn't tell us what percentage is considered essential. That percentage could rise, fall or remain unchanged. Difficulty sorting a larger collection establishes none of those trends.
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