Which assumption underlies the writer's argument?
Cities measure libraries by circulation figures, as though a book's worth were settled the moment it leaves the shelf. But a library is also a room where nobody asks you to buy anything. Teenagers finish homework beside retirees reading newspapers; newcomers practise English at free conversation tables. Remove the room, and the figures may look the same while something harder to count disappears. Councils that cut opening hours to save a little money should consider what they are really trading: not hours, but the last public space where staying costs nothing.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. A public service can have value that usage statistics do not capture
- Step 1: The writer accepts the figures may "look the same" yet insists something is lost. Step 2. That only makes sense if unmeasured effects can still have value. Answer: value beyond what statistics measure. Why not the others: The argument does not rest on dollar figures, losses from reading decline or fees.
Practise more Reading and interpreting texts.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed Alberta Diploma Exams mock tests.
More Reading and interpreting texts questions
- Which phrase best describes the tone of the passage?
- What does the line "Tomorrow, she thought, was a country she had not planned to visit" suggest?
- Why does Marguerite fold her gloves into her coat pocket?
- The image of the lake looking "as though nothing had ever crossed it" most strongly emphasizes
- What does the clerk's polite cough suggest about him?
- In the first stanza, "each stalk a small bow to the wind it knows" is an example of