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Difficulty: MediumResolving Paradoxes and Discrepancies

In 2024, a municipal public library system introduced a free mobile application allowing residents to instantly stream and borrow digital audiobooks. Over the subsequent two years, digital audiobook checkouts increased by 300 percent across the city. Paradoxically, during the same period, total annual physical book checkouts at local branch libraries also increased significantly, despite no changes in branch opening hours, physical collection size, or library marketing budgets. Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?

  1. To activate an account on the new mobile application, residents were required to visit a local library branch in person, exposing many new users to the physical collection for the first time.Answer
  2. B
    Audiobook publishing companies experienced a dramatic drop in direct-to-consumer digital sales nationwide following the release of free library streaming apps.
  3. C
    Survey data indicated that residents who regularly borrow audiobooks tend to spend more overall hours per week consuming media than non-borrowers do.
  4. D
    Most digital audiobook users complete listened titles in less than half the time it takes an average reader to finish a physical hardcopy book.
  5. E
    A nationwide study showed that commercial sales of printed physical books in private retail stores declined slightly over the same two-year period.

Answer

The option stating that residents were required to visit a local library branch in person to activate their app account.
The correct answer reconciles both facts by introducing a crucial operational detail: registering for the digital app required a physical visit to a library branch. This in-person activation requirement drove an influx of community members into physical branches, leading many of them to browse and borrow physical books alongside their new digital audiobooks.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the two contradictory premises presented in the passage.
Premise 1: Digital audiobook checkouts surged by 300% after launching the new app. Premise 2: Physical book checkouts at local branches also rose significantly during the exact same timeframe.
Resolving a paradox requires finding a piece of information that allows both premises to be simultaneously true.
2
Evaluate the choices for an operational mechanism or side effect that connects the app launch to physical borrowing.
The requirement for in-person account activation at a physical branch created a mandatory physical visit for app adopters, introducing new visitors to physical books and increasing physical checkouts.
This explains why the increase in digital app usage directly triggered an increase in physical branch checkouts.

Key Concept

Resolving Paradoxes and Discrepancies
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Topics

Resolving Paradoxes and Discrepancies

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