The total number of book titles published annually in North America has approximately quadrupled since television fir...

Naz on August 13, 2013

Here we have an inference question. So our correct answer must be true.

(A) is incorrect because we do not know anything about how many people are reading. We know about the total number of books, sales of new titles and library circulation, but nothing about reading in general.

(B) is incorrect because we know that library circulation has been flat or declining in "recent years." We do not know what library circulation was like right after the introduction of the television or even between the introduction of television and now.

(C) is incorrect because the passage tells us that "the rate of increase" of the book titles, as measured in copies, has slowed in recent years, not that the sale of the book titles has slowed. Therefore, it is not necessarily true that book publishers in North America now sell fewer copies per title than they sold in the early days of television. Also all we know if about new titles, as opposed to all titles.

(D) is CORRECT because as the passage says, since the availability of the television, book titles have quadrupled, and retail sales of new titles increased rapidly in the early days of television. Therefore, the availability of television does not always cause a decline in the annual number of book titles published or in the number of books sold, as demonstrated by the example in the stimulus.

(E) is incorrect because we do not know anything about the market for books from the passage.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.