June 2007, Passage 3, Question 16
Transcript
Number 16, when a question asks you to define a word or to pick a phrase that's closest to it in meaning, that's a special type of detail question. We could call it a vocabulary in context question. If you're being asked what a word means in context, you need to read a little bit above and a little bit below that word.
So here in the first paragraph, the author defined what the World Wide Web was, said that it raised some issues. And then said that owners of intellectual property claim that unless copyright law is strengthened, intellectual property on the web will not be protected from copyright infringement. Web users, however, claim that if their ability to access information on web pages is reduced.
So that's what they mean by strengthening the copyright laws. If their ability to access information on a webpage is reduced. And you will see this a lot in vocabulary and context questions where the vocabulary they're asking about is literally defined in another sentence, right next to the word that they're asking about. When we hit the answer choices, all we're looking for is something that says right there, reducing people's ability to access information.
So answer choice A, made more restrictive. Well, if it's more restrictive, people's ability to access information would be reduced. This is just another way of phrasing what we're looking for, it is definitely our answer. Always be open to slight rephrasings of your predictions, but that's definitely what we wanted.
So glance at the other answer choices just to see what's wrong with them. Made uniform worldwide. There was no discussion of worldwide laws being brought into line with each other. Answer choice C, made to impose harsher penalties. The harshness of the penalties is not discussed in the passage. Dutifully enforced.
Now this might seem tempting because we do know that the owners of intellectual property want to see these laws enforced. But it's not a case of, take the existing laws and enforce them more. It's here's how we think the laws work and we want to expand them. So it's not about making sure that they're forced more aggressively or enforced more faithfully.
And then E, more fully recognized as legitimate. It is true that the intellectual property owners do want those laws to be recognized as legitimate. But there's nothing in the passage about people saying that the laws aren't legitimate. It's a question of do they apply in this case, should they be expanded, not are they actually legitimate.
So A is our answer.
Read full transcriptSo here in the first paragraph, the author defined what the World Wide Web was, said that it raised some issues. And then said that owners of intellectual property claim that unless copyright law is strengthened, intellectual property on the web will not be protected from copyright infringement. Web users, however, claim that if their ability to access information on web pages is reduced.
So that's what they mean by strengthening the copyright laws. If their ability to access information on a webpage is reduced. And you will see this a lot in vocabulary and context questions where the vocabulary they're asking about is literally defined in another sentence, right next to the word that they're asking about. When we hit the answer choices, all we're looking for is something that says right there, reducing people's ability to access information.
So answer choice A, made more restrictive. Well, if it's more restrictive, people's ability to access information would be reduced. This is just another way of phrasing what we're looking for, it is definitely our answer. Always be open to slight rephrasings of your predictions, but that's definitely what we wanted.
So glance at the other answer choices just to see what's wrong with them. Made uniform worldwide. There was no discussion of worldwide laws being brought into line with each other. Answer choice C, made to impose harsher penalties. The harshness of the penalties is not discussed in the passage. Dutifully enforced.
Now this might seem tempting because we do know that the owners of intellectual property want to see these laws enforced. But it's not a case of, take the existing laws and enforce them more. It's here's how we think the laws work and we want to expand them. So it's not about making sure that they're forced more aggressively or enforced more faithfully.
And then E, more fully recognized as legitimate. It is true that the intellectual property owners do want those laws to be recognized as legitimate. But there's nothing in the passage about people saying that the laws aren't legitimate. It's a question of do they apply in this case, should they be expanded, not are they actually legitimate.
So A is our answer.
