Q5

[ivanau12]

Can someone confirm my discussion of the following question?

I was torn between A and C on this question, originally chose A, and erased it for C (not the first time this has happened...).

A) is correct because according to the first two paragraphs, books will no longer be stored in warehouse but rather be printed on the spot. We can thereby infer that we'll probably need the warehouse for all the paper and binding material that will be needed to print the books. One may find a possible counterargument in line 18 where it says that cost of warehousing will be eliminated - but that refers to physical inventory of books, and not necessarily paper.

(C) is incorrect because we don't know whether publishers will or will not use distributors or retailers. Just because they no longer have to ship books to retail stores doesn't mean they won't use retailers - maybe they use the retailers online.

I got tripped up by this question because in Paragraph 3 it says that the publisher's cost of distributing physical book is irrelevant to digital publication, but then again the question says "first two paragraphs".

As for (B), (D), and (E), we have no information on used books, book designers or book-grade paper. They are all irrelevant.

Thanks in advanced!!

[bbirdwell]

Tough question!

I think your explanation sounds about right. It is important to limit your search to the first two paragraphs if a question asks specifically a about that part of the passage.

You are right that (A) is supported by the text, because the author says that books are NOT going to become digital -- they're simply going to get printed on demand. Therefore, we would expect roughly the same number of books to be made, just made at regional sites rather than made at once and then distributed.

You are right that line 18 sounds kind of counter when it says that warehousing costs will be eliminated, but as you pointed out, the author here is discussing physical copies of the books.

[asafezrati]

Should we limit ourselves to only the first two paragraphs?
The scenario described in the first two has some ramifications which are described in the 3rd paragraph.

Also - this answer choice seems to weaken the author's argument. It doesn't contradict eliminating the warehousing costs for books, but it does weaken the author's premise about the diminished related costs. Any thoughts about this one?

Thanks.

[maryadkins]

Should we limit ourselves to only the first two paragraphs?
The scenario described in the first two has some ramifications which are described in the 3rd paragraph.

Yes, as Brian said, first 2 only.

Also - this answer choice seems to weaken the author's argument. It doesn't contradict eliminating the warehousing costs for books, but it does weaken the author's premise about the diminished related costs. Any thoughts about this one?

Not sure how it would do that—there are many costs listed in lines 17-20. That there would still need to be a warehouse to store book binding material is only one aspect, and it also makes sense that it would take up less space than actual whole books.

[aryehkln94]

I still don't get how A is correct!? Line 17 says that "no physical inventory". Paper is physica!

[tommywallach]

Sounds like you missed how the plan works. The books will not be stored on site, they will be PRINTED on demand. They will still be physical, and printed onto paper, but the book will actually be MANUFACTURED on site at the store. So paper and binding material will still need to be warehoused locally.

-t

[callmejinny]

Hi!
Can someone help me with why (C) would be a worse choice than (A)?

Thank you in advance!

[maryadkins]

The discussion above is about this issue. If you're still unclear after reading through the discussion, let us know more specifically what remains attractive about (C) over (A) and we'll try to address that!

[851869412]

I can not see why (C) is not correct.

In line 18, it is said that costs of shipping books to wholesalers and to retail stores will also be eliminated. However, publishers will exist because they are going to do the digital publication. So the publishers are no longer shipping books to retailers. Instead, they will sell their own books individually. That is exactly what (C) says.

Does anyone can help me find what 's wrong with this?

[luke111234]

I agree with the above post. How is it ok to assume that we will now have to warehouse book materials after eliminating the need to warehouse books, but it is not ok to assume that publishers will no longer use distributors or retailers after the need to ship and display books in retail stores (lines 18-20) is eliminated? Either option seems to require a similar level of assumption.

[albertwkjoo]

I think (C) can be ruled out because of the group of people it is referring to. The first two paragraphs only talk about the implementation and advantages of digital printing. It says it could rival or supplant traditional publishing, but we don't know how many publishers are actually going to adopt it. When (C) says "Most publishers", I feel like it's talking about both traditional publishers AND digital publishers--we have no way of knowing that "most" publishers in general will move to the digital world. It could very well be the case that there is only one digital publisher, while all the other traditional publishers decide to stay put and keep using retailers and distributors.

If you need more evidence, the last sentence in paragraph 2 provides an obstacle to digital publishing's implementation ("...it will be some time before a catalog of printable..."). So we know that not everyone is going to become a digital publisher right away.

Let me know if that makes sense--I am in the process of reviewing/working it out as well, so any feedback is welcome!

[851869412]

Yeah, I agree the word "most" is a little bit suspicious in (C). We need to think twice before we choose an AC which includes a "most". Also, in line 25, the author says there is a possibility that digital publishing is just "rival" the traditional one.

Also, I found the author says digital publishing will eliminate this and that, because digital publish involve no physical inventory (in line 17). Probably everything that is eliminated has to be related to physical inventory. That is why (A) is better than (C).

[ganbayou]

Why is E wrong?
If digital becomes main stream, wouldn't book grade paper decrease?
What is book grade paper by the way...

[MichaelC134]

I eliminated (e) because of the word "significantly".

You could stretch and make an argument that book-grade paper will decrease marginally given that there will no longer be returned books i.e. before the plan, demand for book-grade paper consists of all the books bought by consumers and those books returned (line 20). After the plan, there is still a need for all the books bought by consumers but presumably there is no longer the returned book issue explicitly mentioned by the author so there is less overall demand for "book-grade" paper. But we have no idea, what percentage of returned books constitutes of the overall books from publishers. There also might be other books requiring "book-grade paper" that would not be digitized as well further reducing book-grade paper no longer used in the physical inventory circulating around.

So, I think a case could be made for "marginally", but "significantly" seems like a stretch.

I chose (A) by POE and because I thought it was a similar stretch as made in PrepTest 68 Q9 that I had gotten wrong in the previous PrepTest I did. The way that question is asked presumes "most ethnographic literature" even though the passage did not establish this. So, much like a specific rule-based question in a Logical Game, you have to assume this to be true and then (D) works. In this question, the answer choice (A) is presuming the need for warehousing that the passage itself does not establish. If you presume a need, then it is logical there would be a shift "to the paper and binding material to make books" per line 7 "printed and bound" at point-of-sale machines i.e. the only thing remaining to be warehoused.

[TsaiP612]

I just wanted to add some explanations to (C). Hope somebody help me to check, thanks

I thought Answer C is wrong for two reasons.

First, the stimulus wrote that "If the scenario described in the first two paragraphs were to "come true"...", so this question is based on presuming the first two paragraphs were true.

Therefore, if the first two paragraphs were true, publishers wouldn't have real or practical books to sell because lots of books already turned into digital.

In addition, the first two paragraphs only mentioned about eliminating the cost of distributing and retailing, so it is wrong to infer far more than what the first two paragraphs had claimed, that eliminating the cost of distributing and retailing is the same as not using those methods to sell books.

Hope help