A writer is drafting an essay about the preservation of early sound recordings.
[1] In the late nineteenth century, early audio recordings were captured on fragile wax cylinders and shellac discs. [2] Over time, these materials degrade, making playback with a physical stylus risky or impossible because the needle can further damage the grooves. [3] To solve this, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed a system called IRENE, which uses high-resolution digital imaging to create a 3D model of the grooves. [4] This optical scanning method allows computers to digitally reconstruct and play back the audio without ever touching the fragile medium. [5] Thomas Edison, who patented the phonograph in 1878, initially conceived of the device as a tool for recording office dictation rather than music. [6] As a result, historically significant recordings, such as the voices of nineteenth-century poets and early folk songs, are now being preserved for future generations.
The writer is considering deleting Sentence 5 from the paragraph. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?
- AKept, because it provides a necessary transition between the description of the IRENE system and the mention of historical recordings in Sentence 6.
- BKept, because it explains the original purpose of the recording media described in the paragraph.
- Deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on modern digital scanning preservation with an irrelevant historical detail about Edison's initial plans for the phonograph.Answer
- DDeleted, because it contradicts the paragraph's assertion that early audio recordings are fragile and difficult to play back.