Information Archival

Answer choices

1. A

   Contradicted9% picked this

   Future electronic information storage systems will not provide archivists with capabilities any more viable in the long term

   The first sentence of the last paragraph says that "new computer technologies are emerging that may soon provide archivists with the information storage durability they require".

   9%
2. B

   Too Strong: no way to predict8% picked this

   As much information should be stored by archivists as possible, as there is no way to predict which piece of information will

   The author never says anything as hopeless as "there is zero way to predict which pieces of info will someday be considered a great work". In fact, given that she's saying "Ideally, these decisions [on what information to archive] should be informed by an assessment of the value of each document" implies that she does think there would be a way to try to predict which stuff is most worth saving.

   8%
3. C

   Too Strong: misled2% picked this

   The general public has been misled by manufacturers as to the long-term storage capabilities of

   There's no accusation being made by the author that the manufactures of storage systems have actively misled consumers.

   2%
4. D

   Too Strong: only recently28% picked this

   Distinguishing what is dispensable from what is essential has only recently become a

   Because of the strong emphasis of "only recently", we would need to find a line reference to feel good about picking this answer. The first sentence of the passage is only saying that the potential for losing information is "now greater than ever". We'd be able to say that distinguishing dispensable from essential is more of a concern now than ever, but we can't say it was not a concern before. The last paragraph offers some examples of archivists having been concerned with saving the works of Homer, Virgil, and others, so there's even counterevidence towards the idea that archivists have never been concerned with distinguishing dispensable from essential until now.

   28%
5. E

   Correct53% picked this

   Value judgments made by today's archivists will influence how future generations view and

   Why this is right

   There is very weak support for this, so this is just winning compared to the other answers. In the last paragraph, the author is talking about archivists deciding what to keep and what to discard, ideally by making assessments of the the value of each document. She is underscoring the need for this by citing examples in archivists from the past saved works by Homer and Virgil and Plato. Had it not been for those archivists, the implication goes, we wouldn't know anything about Homer or Virgil or Plato (some of us like me still don't know anything about Virgil. Who's Virgil?) So there's no individual line to point to that supports this answer choice; it's more just from the internal logic of the conversation. Since archivists try to assess (make value judgments) about what should be saved and what shouldn't, and since future generations will view and understand the past based on what information from this era gets saved, the value judgments being made by today's archivists will have some effect on how future generations understand our times.

   Skill tested: Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   53%