Given the passage's content and tone, which one of the following statements would most likely be found elsewhere in a...

shafieiava on January 4, 2020

Approach to this question? Extension type?

Can someone please explain how they would approach this question and arrive at the correct answer choice? It seems that correct answer choice is outside of the scope of the passage, as I can't find textual evidence that would indicate that the author is trying to make a prescriptive argument about what companies should do. Any help on how to approach this question and explanation of why A is the correct answer choice would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

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Ravi on January 14, 2020

@shafieiava,

Let's take a look.

The question asks, "Given the passage’s content and tone, which one of
the following statements would most likely be found elsewhere in a
work from which this passage is an excerpt?"

This is a type of inference question, as it's asking us to imagine a
longer version of the passage and then pick the answer that would be
the one most likely to be found in this extended version of the
passage, given its content and tone. The correct answer choice must
relate to the information we know regarding the author's attitude,
primary purpose, and main point of the passage.

For this question, the wrong answer choices are going to be either
misrepresenting the author's attitude or introducing topics that this
passage didn't or wouldn't discuss.

In looking at (A), it states, " Given the law as it stands,
corporations concerned about preserving trade secrets might be best
served by giving their employees strong incentives to stay in their
current jobs."

(A) is supported by the passage's tone and content because it reflects
the overall point of the passage and is also similar to the attitude
the author demonstrates. The passage's main point is that injunctions
probably do not protect a corporation's trade secrets. (A) says that
given the inability to protect trade secrets through inunctions,
corporations that are concerned about preserving their trade secrets
might be better off convincing their employees to stay in their
current jobs. This statement is consistent with the passage's main
point, and it also does a good job in reflecting the author's attitude
from the passage. Because this is an inference question, we're likely
not to find textual support explicitly supporting any of the answer
choices. However, with (A), it does go along with the main point as
well as the author's attitude, so this is why we can infer (A) would
be found elsewhere in a work from which this passage is an excerpt.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!