LR Question 10 from Prep Test 38.... Forum

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zyxwvut7

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LR Question 10 from Prep Test 38....

Post by zyxwvut7 » Sat May 09, 2009 2:47 pm

Hey guys, below is the question. I got the rest of the section right, but I can't figure out why answer B does not work or why A is a better answer than B. A is the correct answer. Let me know if you have any insight, thanks.

Bernard: For which language, and thus which frequency distribution of letters and letter sequences, was the standard typewriter keyboard designed?
Cora: To ask this question, you must be making a mistaken assumption: that typing speed was to be maximized. The real danger with early typewriters was that operators would hit successive keys too quickly, thereby crashing typebars into each other, bending connecting wires, and so on. So the idea was to slow the operator down by asking the most common letter sequences awkward to type.
Bernard: This is surely not right! These technological limitations have long since vanished, yet the keyboard is still as it was then.

Which one of the following, if true, could be used by Cora to counter Bernard's rejection of her explanation?
A) Typewriters and word-processing equipment are typically sold to people who have learned to use the standard keyboard and who, therefore, demand it in equipment they buy.
B) Typewriters have been superseded in most offices by word-processing equipment, which has inherited the standard keyboard from typewriters.

zyxwvut7

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Re: LR Question 10 from Prep Test 38....

Post by zyxwvut7 » Sat May 09, 2009 3:16 pm

?

fs34

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Re: LR Question 10 from Prep Test 38....

Post by fs34 » Sat May 09, 2009 3:57 pm

Kaplan's Explanation:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(A) Weaken

As you get towards the middle of the LR section,
be careful of tempting distracters like (B).

Even before you got to the answer choices, you
might have spotted the flaw in Bernard’s statement.
Many people are accustomed to existing typewriter
keyboards, and have no interest in learning a new
keyboard layout, even if it might eventually be more
efficient.

(B) points out that word processors inherited their
keyboards from typewriters, but doesn’t explain
why, and so doesn’t counter Bernard’s argument.

(C) only points out that it’s possible to become
skilled at the standard keyboard, but doesn’t
address the fact that people might be even more
efficient with an improved keyboard.

(D) and (E) are both 180s. If people could easily
learn a new keyboard arrangement, or if keyboards
can accommodate different arrangements, this
would substantiate rather than counter Bernard’s
objection.
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