The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements about regulations ...

Sheikh on July 7, 2020

June 2014 Practice Test, Reading Comprehension #11

Why is C the answer? In the passage it said that if the regulations are not followed then they are not likely to find the stolen artifact. So how are the regulations not being followed strictly still be beneficial?

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Shunhe on July 7, 2020

Hi @Sheikhd,

Thanks for the question! So the question is asking us for what the passage would agree with about regulations governing the trade in cultural antiquities in countries like Mali. And to find this answer, we should direct our attention to the last paragraph, where the author sets out a bunch of hypotheticals about the UNESCO helping Mali. The author then concludes that the excavations might not have been as well conducted, and “some people would still have avoided the rules” (lines 54-55), but, in the end, asks a rhetorical question, “would this not have been better than what actually happened?” for the very last sentence of the passage. Which implies that the author thinks that yes, even though some people would still have avoided the rules, this would still have been better than what happened. And this is what (C) says, that even if not everyone strictly complied, the rules still would’ve been beneficial. The author’s basically saying “it’s better than nothing,” and that’s what (C) is saying as well.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.