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Difficulty: MediumEvaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

In 1948, graduate student Bernard Silver overheard a supermarket executive asking a dean to develop a system to automatically capture product information at checkout. Silver mentioned this to his classmate Norman Joseph Woodland, who became obsessed with the problem. Woodland's first idea was to use patterns of ink that would glow under ultraviolet light, but the ink faded too quickly. Seeking a better solution, Woodland retreated to his grandfather’s apartment in Miami Beach, which was a popular tourist destination at the time. One day, while sitting on the sand, he let his fingers trail through it, leaving four parallel lines. By extending Morse code dots and dashes vertically, he realized he could create thick and thin lines that a scanner could read.

The writer is considering deleting the underlined portion from the preceding sentence. Should the writer make this deletion?

  1. A
    kept, because it adds descriptive detail about Miami Beach, which is the setting of Woodland's discovery.
  2. B
    kept, because it explains the specific reasons why Woodland chose to retreat to his grandfather's apartment.
  3. C
    deleted, because it repeats information about Miami Beach that was established earlier in the paragraph.
  4. deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on the development of the barcode with irrelevant descriptive detail.Answer

Answer

deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on the development of the barcode with irrelevant descriptive detail.
The correct option is to delete the portion because the paragraph focuses on the step-by-step process of how Woodland and Silver developed the barcode, specifically how Woodland's environment and observations led to his breakthrough. Describing Miami Beach's popularity as a tourist destination does not contribute to this explanation, so it should be deleted because it interrupts the narrative flow with irrelevant descriptive detail.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the main focus of the paragraph.
The paragraph describes how Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver began working on a system to capture product information, and details the specific steps that led to Woodland's invention of the barcode design at Miami Beach.
Understanding the paragraph's theme is necessary to evaluate the relevance of the underlined portion.
2
Evaluate the relevance of the underlined portion.
The phrase describes Miami Beach as a popular tourist destination. While Woodland is at Miami Beach, the tourist status of the location has no bearing on how he invented the barcode.
This determines whether the detail is relevant or a distraction to the narrative.
3
Determine whether to keep or delete the portion and choose the option with the correct rationale.
The portion should be deleted because it is irrelevant. The option stating that it interrupts the paragraph's focus with irrelevant descriptive detail provides the correct decision and logical justification.
This matches the correct action with its appropriate rhetorical reason.

Key Concept

Evaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content
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Topics

Evaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

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