I had a hard time choosing A here and went with C instead, my process of thinking is below for anyone who was in a similar spot.

It's not that I thought C was a perfect answer, but I didn't love A. I didn't like how A said that archivists would have to become "dependent" on computer technology... when I read that, I thought it meant something like "archivists have no choice but to start using tech for everything they do" I was like... huh?? Isn't this just about the certain set of deteriorating media, not about the entire profession??? I thought A was suggesting that everything from paper copies to physical jars to disc drives would have to be stored digitally, which seemed unsupported.

But actually, that's not what "depend" means. In this case, "depend" refers to the fact archivists have a tonnnn of content that is currently only stored on random digital media, and they simply have to engage with that digital media in order to engage with the content. For example, archivists may only have copies of certain important government documents on disc drives. In that case, in order for archivists to do their job, they NEED to engage with disc drives. The only way to do this is to use computer technology to store information. Why??? Because the alternative is much more time consuming. The entire second paragraph is about how archivists have alllllll of these digital files that are about to deteriorate. There are no non-digital ways out of this that don't take massive amounts of time (printing hard copies, etc.). So the author provides support for A by making it very clear that archivists are running out of time to handle deteriorating digital content, which can only be preserved in enough time by relying on alternative sources of digital storage (aka, becoming dependent on computer technology to store information). A is simply saying "archivists are gonna need to get real familiar with some computer tech to store some content." It's not saying "to store ALL content." Just to store the deteriorating content that we talking about in this passage.

C is not great because the author does not use the word "media" in this passage to refer only to digital stuff - "media" here just means any content worth preserving. We know this because in the first passage, the author mentions "the durability of recording media has decreased..." and, as an example, refers to books printed on acidic paper and black and white photographs to describe "recording media."

Super tricky question, I learn different things from it each time I come back to it.

When I read this stimulus, I identified the general flaw as "drawing a conclusion based on an irrelevant example." We know the dad likes turnips, not potatoes. But then we conclude something about people who like potatoes.

likes turnips AND /likes potatoes

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not true (like potatoes -> like turnips)

like potatoes AND /like turnips

When I read A and B, both seemed to generally make that same error. A tells us about a non-paperback book, and then concludes something about paperbacks. B tells us about a non-novel, but then concludes something about novels.

(A)

/Paperback AND Expensive

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not true (paperback <-s-> expensive)

paperback -> /expensive

(B)

<75 pages AND /novel

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not true (novel -> <75 pages)

novel AND /<75 pages

Mapping it out helped me realize why A is wrong. While A does have the same general flaw (using an irrelevant example to conclude something), the conclusion of A is a new conditional. By saying that "it's not true that some paperbacks are expensive," A is essentially concluding that all paperbacks are inexpensive. If you are a paperback, there is no way that you are expensive. That's a new conditional. On the other hand, B also has the same general flaw, but it's conclusion is very different. B says it's not the case that all novels have more than 75 pages, which just means that there are some novels out there with less than 75 pages. That sounds exactly like the stimulus' conclusion, which is that there are some potato lovers out there who don't like turnips.