SAT Reading & Writing · Command of Evidence (textual)
A popular claim holds that the QWERTY keyboard layout was deliberately designed to slow typists down, preventing the metal typebars on…
A popular claim holds that the QWERTY keyboard layout was deliberately designed to slow typists down, preventing the metal typebars on early mechanical typewriters from jamming. A historian argues that this explanation, while widely repeated, does not account for why QWERTY survived long after typebars disappeared. Which finding would most directly support the historian's argument?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D: Electronic keyboards with no moving typebars at all have continued to use the QWERTY layout for over a century after typebars became obsolete.
The historian's point is that "prevents jamming" cannot be the whole story, since the layout persisted in devices that never had a jamming problem to begin with. D is the only choice that isolates exactly that period, after the original mechanical constraint disappeared, and shows QWERTY still dominating. A restates the original mechanical-constraint theory instead of challenging it. C is true but irrelevant to why the layout persisted specifically. B shows alternatives existed but says nothing about why QWERTY won out anyway.
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