Single correct option
Read the passage with a sentence removed, marked [BLANK].
"Double-entry bookkeeping, formalised in the fifteenth century, requires every transaction to be recorded twice: once as a debit in one account and once as a credit in another, so that the two sides of the ledger always balance. [BLANK] A merchant could no longer quietly inflate profits in one column without the discrepancy showing up as an imbalance elsewhere, making the ledger itself a kind of internal check independent of the merchant's honesty."
Which of the following sentences most logically fills the [BLANK]?
"Double-entry bookkeeping, formalised in the fifteenth century, requires every transaction to be recorded twice: once as a debit in one account and once as a credit in another, so that the two sides of the ledger always balance. [BLANK] A merchant could no longer quietly inflate profits in one column without the discrepancy showing up as an imbalance elsewhere, making the ledger itself a kind of internal check independent of the merchant's honesty."
Which of the following sentences most logically fills the [BLANK]?
- A. This apparently technical convention had a significant practical consequence: errors and manipulation became far harder to conceal.
- B. Bookkeeping had existed in some form since ancient Mesopotamia.
- C. Modern accounting software has automated most of this process.
- D. Many merchants found the new method too complicated to adopt quickly.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (A) This apparently technical convention had a significant practical consequence: errors and manipulation became far harder to conceal.
The sentence after the blank explains a specific consequence ('a merchant could no longer quietly inflate profits... without the discrepancy showing up') — this needs a preceding sentence that introduces the idea of a practical consequence involving concealment/errors, which option A supplies directly. B, C and D are true-sounding but unrelated to the specific point the following sentence develops.
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