PrepTest 148, Section 3, Question 24
Library preservationist: Due to the continual physical deterioration(67 more words not shown)
If all of the library(20 more words not shown)
- ASome of the(11 more words not shown)
- BAll of the(20 more words not shown)
- CAll of the(16 more words not shown)
- DThe medieval manuscripts(11 more words not shown)
- ENone of the(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Which manuscripts can get through all these requirements?
Most of the culturally significant ones will be restored. Restoration requires safety, and it also requires frequent use by researchers. Connecting those statements, most of the culturally significant manuscripts must be frequently consulted: the ones being restored have to meet that requirement. We also know some manuscripts with questionable authenticity are among those selected. Questionable authenticity just means we aren't sure the manuscript is genuine; it doesn't mean we know it is fake.
What we’re looking for
That's how I'd approach this must-be-true question. Follow the manuscripts we know will be restored into the conditions every restored manuscript must meet. There are several possible connections, so let's see which one an answer actually makes.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Some manuscripts with questionable authenticity will be restored, and every manuscript being restored must be frequently consulted. Those particular manuscripts therefore have questionable authenticity and frequent researcher use. We're connecting two statements through the same selected manuscripts. We don't need every questionable manuscript to be restored or every culturally significant manuscript to have doubtful authenticity.
- B
We're restoring most culturally significant manuscripts, and those selected must be safe to restore. That doesn't tell us that every culturally significant manuscript is safe. A culturally important manuscript could be too fragile to restore and belong to the minority left out. The original allows that possibility even though it doesn't require any such exception to exist.
- C
Safety alone doesn't establish frequent use. Both are requirements for restoration, but one requirement needn't guarantee the other. A manuscript could be safe to restore while rarely being consulted, in which case it wouldn't be restored. C incorrectly connects two features just because selected manuscripts must have both.
- D
We're told deterioration motivates the project. We aren't given a ranking of which manuscripts deteriorate most quickly or which are consulted most often. Frequent use is a condition for selection, not evidence that the most frequently consulted manuscripts are also the most susceptible to deterioration.
- E
A rarely consulted manuscript won't be restored, but it could still have widely acknowledged cultural significance. The library is restoring most of the culturally significant manuscripts, not necessarily all of them. A rarely consulted one could fall outside the selected majority. 'Most' doesn't require exceptions, but it permits them, so we can't conclude that no rarely consulted manuscript is culturally significant.
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