The accumulation of scientific knowledge regarding the environmental impact of oil well drilling in North America has tended to lag behind the actual drilling of oil wells. ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ███
Problem ·Knowledge of environmental impact lags behind oil drilling
Regulation is retrospective (occurs only after something bad has happened), as opposed to prospective.
Initial Solution ·Seal off groundwater with protective barrier
I'm imagining something like a huge straw that can suck the oil up past the groundwater layer without the oil leaking through the sides of the straw and hence no contamination.
Example of Problem ·Existing regulations cannot accomodate unknown risks
A recent major disaster revealed poor understanding of west coast geology that resulted in widespread contamination. Passage fits Problem Analysis but also fits Critique. Author critiques the current solution as inadequate.
The author provides an example of what she means right after the line that mentions the “hazards of insufficient knowledge.” We don’t know about the “long-term stability” of protecting groundwater using metal casings. We also don’t know the effects of groundwater bacteria, traffic vibrations, and changing groundwater chemistry. We also are at risk of harm from a poor understanding of subsurface geology. So the author is referring to risks resulting from poor understanding of various aspects of groundwater and geology.
a
a lack of █████████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ██ ███████████ █████████████
This doesn’t fit, because the examples in the last paragraph relate to potential problems with our methods of avoiding groundwater contamination. Our lack of knowledge might lead to groundwater contamination. But the examples don’t involve how contamination might affect human health.
b
a failure to ██████████ ███ ████████ ████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████
This is the best answer. “Consequences of drilling in complex geologic systems” is a more general way to describe potential effects of groundwater bacteria, traffic vibrations, changing groundwater chemistry, and the subsurface geology.
The examples in the last paragraph don’t involve methods for verifying the safety of technologies. They involve risks from poor understanding of various aspects of groundwater and geology. Although the author would agree that we can’t be sure our protective technologies are safe, this doesn’t imply that we have poor methods for testing safety. The problem isn’t with our testing methods, it’s with our lack of understanding.
This doesn’t fit, because the potential issues with metal pipe casings is just one example of a hazard of insufficient knowledge. In addition, the “materials used in manufacturing metal pipe casings” is too narrow. The author does indicate that there might be risk from corrosion and dissolution of cement, but these risks don’t stem from lack of knowledge of what is used to make metal pipe casings.
Difficulty
45% of people who answer get this correct
This is a very difficult question.
It is significantly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%145
168
75%180
Analysis
Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
Problem-analysis
Science
Single position
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
5%
157
b
45%
165
c
22%
162
d
2%
159
e
27%
162
Question history
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