PrepTest 124 - Section 4 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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The passages discuss relationships between business interests and university research.

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Problem · Trend of treating university research findings as commodities

Threatens the tradition and role of research as a public good.

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Details of problem · Universities are suited to experimentation, but businesses are not

Introduction of market values into universities threatens the universities' traditional role.

Additional details of problem · Businesses can hide their own research

For example, growth of industrial biotechnology has led to less sharing of research in the field.

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Traditional perspective · Scientific research was a public good

Since most benefits of research came from government support of universities, no individual had the right to restrict access to those benefits.

New perspective · Research is becoming market commodity subject to claims of intellectual property

Example: biotechnology industry uses research to make profits off of products. They can claim that the underlying scientific knowledge is their intellectual property.

Passage Style

19.

Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ █████████

Many scientific researchers ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████████████ █████████

Passage A doesn’t suggest that researchers from universities have transitioned to work in the biotech industry. Although the author notes that there has been a growth of industrial biotechnology, we don’t know that this growth involves former university researchers joining the industry. (Passage B also doesn’t support (A).)

Private biotechnology companies ████ █████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████████████

Passage A doesn’t provide evidence of any invalid patenting. (Passage B also doesn’t provide evidence of invalid patenting by biotech companies. The author brings up the blurry distinction between a discovery and an invention, but it doesn’t identify or claim that biotech has invalidly patented anything.)

Because of the ██████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████████

Passage A doesn’t discuss the distinction between discoveries and inventions.

12%

In the past, ██████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████████

Supported by Passage A and Passage B.

76%

Government-funded research in ████████████ ███ █████████████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ █████████

Not supported by Passage A, because when research was considered a public good, the research wasn’t motivated by profit. (Not supported by Passage B, either, because it suggests government-funded research has been motivated by goals different from private industry.)

PrepTest 124 - Section 4 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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