AP English Language · Claims and evidence

The writer wants to add a sentence after Sentence 2 that best develops the paragraph's claim without merely repeating the examples that…

Draft: preserving ordinary records

1Local archives naturally collect documents connected to major institutions and public events. [Sentence 1] City council minutes, election records, and photographs of landmark buildings can tell future researchers a great deal about a community.

2[Sentence 2] Yet a town's daily life also leaves behind evidence that rarely looks important at the moment it is created. Restaurant menus record prices and changing tastes. Bus schedules show which neighborhoods were connected and how often. Flyers reveal which concerts, meetings, language classes, and services residents could actually find. Even a handwritten notice taped to a shop window can preserve information that no formal report contains.

3[Sentence 3] Because such materials are temporary, archives should establish simple procedures for collecting a small, representative sample of them. The collection does not need every receipt or every flyer. Selection is part of archival work. A rotating set of neighborhood businesses, transit routes, community organizations, and public notices could provide a record broad enough to be useful without overwhelming storage systems.

4[Sentence 4] Future historians will still need official records, but those records become more informative when they can be read beside the traces of ordinary routines.

Original draft written for this examination.
The writer wants to add a sentence after Sentence 2 that best develops the paragraph's claim without merely repeating the examples that follow. Which sentence best accomplishes this purpose?

Answer and explanation

Answer: D: These short-lived records can reveal patterns of movement, cost, language, and association that formal documents often record only indirectly.

The paragraph claims that everyday records reveal what formal documents miss. The best added sentence gives an analytical reason for that value, saying these short-lived records show patterns of movement, cost, language, and association that formal documents record only indirectly. That is choice D. Choice A is tempting because it mentions archives, but building age says nothing about temporary records. Choice B introduces discarded paper, a tangent about digital communication. Choice C opens a debate about which documents deserve attention, which advances nothing in the paragraph's line of reasoning and distracts from the examples that follow.

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