PrepTest 140, Section 4, Question 11

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A
  Correct

  A's accessible explanation and excited currency-trading exclamation fit a magazine article for general readers. It explains why the discovery matters rather than assuming technical economic knowledge. B's distinctions among prizes, property acquired through effort, barter, and taxable sales fit a law journal article. It expressly sets out what the article will argue from income tax law and policy.

• B

  This reverses the better fit. A doesn't read like technical analysis for economists; it explains the basic connection between virtual and real currency. B's sustained legal distinctions are more specialized than A's general introduction.

• C

  A reports on games, but its subject matter doesn't make it a science-fiction story. It describes an economist's discovery rather than narrating fictional events. B also analyzes tax law, not a technical economic model.

• D

  A does not analyze legal rules, so a law journal is a poor fit. B discusses policy, but nothing identifies it as a speech to lawmakers; it explicitly calls itself an article. We shouldn't invent a speaking occasion.

• E

  A contains no address to a legislative audience. B is an argument about the tax treatment of virtual activity, not a science-fiction novel. Virtual subject matter does not turn nonfiction analysis into fiction.