PT135.S3.P2.Q12 > Analytics

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While recent decades have seen more information recorded than any other era, the potential for losing this information is now greater than ever. ████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████ ███ █████████ ██████████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███

Problem · Potential for losing recorded information is higher than ever

This is a concern for archivists, whose job is to preserve vital records forever.

Examples · Books printed on acidic paper, color photographs, videotapes

These items don't last for long, unlike some documents that were made hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Apparent solution · Computer technology

Allows archivists to save stuff electronically.

Why solution won't work · New generation of technology replaces the previous one quickly

Tech for reading CDs might not be available in the near future. Digital storage tapes might deteriorate.

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Another aspect of problem · Running out of time

(This looks like a transition. The author will explain what he means in the next paragraph.)

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Elaborate on this aspect · Archivists don't have enough time to decide what to save

Even if we could store things on computer technology for a very long time, we still have to decide what stuff to transfer onto that technology. But there's too many records in the world to identify everything that's essential to save. So some things that are essential will likely still be lost.

Passage Style

Problem-analysis

Single position

12.

The passage provides the most ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████

Question Type

Implied

We can’t predict this one. We’ll need to use POE on the answer choices, keeping in mind the author’s main point: the increasing volume of information being stored and the decreasing durability of modern storage media are making it more and more difficult for archivists to carry out their charge.

Information stored electronically ██ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██ ██████

Unsupported comparison. The author never discusses the risk of theft for any kind of storage.

Much of the ███████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████

Anti-supported. The author never suggests that this information was ever transferred, and in fact, she points out that the data transferred to these disks might no longer be retrievable because optical disks, specifically, are obsolete. This suggests that the information on optical disks hasn’t been transferred elsewhere.

The high cost ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████████ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ █████

Unsupported. The author never discusses the cost of any kind of storage.

Media used recently ██ █████ ███████████ ██████████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████████ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████████

Strongly supported comparison. The author says that photos and videos last between 20 years up to hundreds of years, whereas recent generations of digital storage tape only last 10 years.

71%

The percentage of ███████████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██████████

Unsupported. The author doesn’t give any take on how much essential information there used to be, or how much there is now. She just says that the total amount of information out there has increased over time, and that this makes it harder to sort the essential from the dispensable. She’s silent on how much of that information is actually essential.

21%

PrepTest 135 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 12

Difficulty

Analysis

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Question history

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