Q12

[heather]

I keep thinking it's E but its actually D???? Help!!

[giladedelman]

Thanks for posting!

(D) is correct because we're told that "recent generations of digital storage tape are considered safe from deterioration for only ten years," compared to 20 years for video tapes, 40 for color photos and centuries for black and white.

(E) is wrong, on the other hand, because although we know the overall amount of information out there is greater now than in the past, nowhere does the passage comment on what proportion of that information is considered essential by archivists.

As for the others:

(A) is no good because unauthorized use and theft are never even alluded to.

(B) is totally unsupported. We have no idea if this transfer took place.

(C) is out because cost is never addressed.

Cool?

[Gerald]

Here's my explanation based on the posted passage discussion.

12. D
Question Type: Infererence (16-18, 31-33)

This question asks us to infer from the passage, and we will look to two different places for our inference. (D) says that recent media used to store information electronically may prove less durable than older, conventional media. Lines 16-18 mention that black and white photos can last centuries, color photos tap out at 40 years, and videotapes last about 20 years. Meanwhile, lines 31-33 reveal that recent generations of digital storage tape will deteriorate after 10 years. 10 is less than 20, 40, and 200. Therefore, (D) is inferable.

(A) Theft? Out of scope.

(B) Optical disks are mentioned, but whether their data was transferred to storage tape is not. Out of scope.

(C) High costs? Never mentioned. Out of scope.

(E) Percentage of information considered essential? Never mentioned. Out of scope.

[andrewgong01]

Here's a part of the passage I am not understanding. From this answer choice it is saying that electronic storage may be less durable than conventional storage such as photographs and videotapes.

However, if this is the case, why does the author at the same time , especially at the end of P2 +P3 suggest we should still store things digitally/electronically if conventional could offer an even longer life span? For example Q10 confirms this point that the author also thinks archivists should store it on the computer; yet conventional media according to this answer choice and parts of the passage claim conventional storage is actually more durable

[ohthatpatrick]

There are competing interests here.

Computer tape doesn't last as long as tablets, photos, video tapes, but (as common sense probably tells you), we can fit WAY more data onto a computer then we could with an equal volume of tablets, photos, video tapes, etc.

The 10,000 pictures and videos of my two daughters that are currently stored on a hard drive the size of a pack of cigarettes would certainly take up more more space if I were to print them all out as photographs and fill up large plastic video tapes with all those videos.

With computers, we "solve" the problem of how to store such an immense amount of information ... but we encounter a problem of how to deal with its fleeting durability.

The gains of information storage capacity far outweigh the concern of continually transferring that digital storage onto modern mediums.