Read the following statement carefully and identify the conclusion that follows. Statement: Attendance in public libraries has increased in recent years. Conclusions: I. People are regaining interest in reading. II. Digital platforms have become less popular.

Correct — A.
Rule: accept the reasonable inference, reject a claim about something the statement never mentions.

More people going to public libraries, places built around reading, points to renewed interest in reading. The key accepts I.
II is about digital platforms, which the statement does not mention. Library visits can rise while digital use rises too.

Only Conclusion I follows → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Only Conclusion II follows — Digital platforms never appear in the statement. A rise in library attendance says nothing about digital use, which could be growing at the same time.
• (c)
  Both I and II follow — Both needs II, and II claims a fall in the popularity of digital platforms that the statement gives no evidence for.
• (d)
  Neither I nor II follows — Neither rejects I, but rising attendance at libraries is the natural sign of more interest in reading, the inference the key accepts.

Statement-and-conclusion items separate a reasonable inference from a leap. A conclusion about the statement's own subject, drawn in the obvious direction, can follow. A conclusion about something the statement never names cannot.

Here I stays with libraries and reading. II brings in a rival, digital platforms, and assumes it lost what libraries gained, which the statement does not say.

Key facts

• A conclusion that brings in a subject the statement never mentions does not follow.
• A rise in one thing does not imply a fall in its rival: both can grow at once.

Common traps

• Accepting II because libraries and screens feel like opposites
• Rejecting I because the statement does not state people's motive

No directly related past PYQ was found.