PrepTest 158, Section 2, Question 13
The widespread use of encryption software, which makes(68 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- AIn the future,(14 more words not shown)
- BThe widespread use(15 more words not shown)
- CHistorians will probably(17 more words not shown)
- DIn the future,(18 more words not shown)
- EPublic figures' private(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Passwords are going to end biographies? At first, that sounds like a big leap. How could locking some documents stop people from writing about a person's life?
The explanation makes the concern more plausible. Private letters and diaries later become major sources for biographers. If those records become encrypted files, a historian may have the files but still be unable to read them without the passwords. The author isn't just worried about losing a few miscellaneous documents; the claim concerns the most revealing source material.
That gives the prediction more force than it seemed to have initially. I still have questions, though. What if people keep physical records too? What if the encryption can eventually be broken? The argument hasn't established that every useful route to the information will disappear.
What we’re looking for
We're asked for the main conclusion, so we don't need to settle those objections. What is all this discussion of sources and passwords meant to establish? Widespread encryption will virtually end the writing of biographical history. That's the first sentence, and the rest explains why the author believes it.
Working the answers
- A
Future storage as encrypted text is part of the explanation. The author uses that prediction to argue that historians will lose access to important material and that biographical writing will nearly disappear. A gives one step without the final claim about biographies.
- BCorrect
A significant decline or cessation of biographical writing captures the prediction that it will come “virtually to an end.” The cause the author identifies is widespread encryption. B combines the cause with the ultimate result the argument is trying to establish.
- C
This is the access problem that leads to the main conclusion. Why would biographies decline? Because historians probably couldn't read much of the private material they depend on. C gives that supporting step, but the author goes further and predicts what the lost access will do to biographical writing.
- D
Needing passwords explains how encryption could keep historians from reading the material. But the main point isn't merely that passwords control access. It's that the resulting loss of access will nearly end the writing of biographies. D stops before that final consequence.
- E
The value of private correspondence and diaries explains why losing them would matter. If they weren't important sources, password protection would pose less of a threat to biographical history. That makes E supporting material, not the conclusion about what encryption will cause.
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