PrepTest 125 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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Passage A.

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Facts about drilling muds · Function

Lubricate parts of oil well drills, clean drill parts, give info about what's happening during drilling.

Facts about drilling muds · What's in them

Barite is the largest ingredient in drilling muds.

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Facts about drilling muds · "Recipes"

Different companies have their own drilling mud "recipes." This makes it difficult to study environmental effects of drilling muds.

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Facts about drilling muds · Released during drilling phase, highly regulated and controlled

One kind of drilling mud · Water-based mud (WBM)

Used for shallow wells. Not very toxic. Dumped directly overboard.

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Another kind of drilling mud · Oil-based mud (OBM)

Used for deeper wells. More mineral oil and more barite than WBM. More environmentally damaging than WBM. Only residue of OBM can be dumped overboard.

Passage Style

Which one of the following ██ █ ██████████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████████

Question Type

Stated

This Stated question asks for a characteristic of barite that is mentioned in both passages. Remember that the characteristics of barite are mentioned in P2 of passage A. In passage B, the characteristics of barite are mentioned in P6.

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate any answer choices that are not a characteristic of barite that the passage mentioned. Then, after reading passage B, eliminate any remaining answer choices that are not a characteristic of barite that passage B mentioned.

Sequential Approach: We’re looking for a characteristic of barite that’s mentioned in both passages. Eliminate any answer choice that isn’t explicitly mentioned by both passages.

It does not ████████ ███████ ██ █████████

This is not a characteristic of barite mentioned in passage A, so we can eliminate this answer choice. Also, passage B does say that OBMs do not disperse as readily, but passage B does not say that barite specifically doesn’t disperse readily in seawater.

It is not █████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██████████

Anti-supported. Passage A tells us that drilling muds are made of bentonite (and other clays) and that the largest ingredient of drilling muds by weight is barite, so (B) contradicts the information in passage A. Also, passage B says that bentonite is found in WBMs, and that OBMs contain a greater concentration of barite than WBMs. This indicates that both bentonite and barite may be found in some drilling muds.

Its use in ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████

Passage A doesn’t mention regulation, so we can eliminate (C).

It is the ████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████

Passage A tells us that barite is the largest ingredient of drilling mud by weight; it doesn’t say that barite is the most commonly used ingredient, so we can eliminate (D). Also, Passage B does not say that barite is the most commonly used ingredient in drilling muds.

It is a █████ ████████

This is stated in Passage A in P2.

This is stated in Passage B in P6.

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PrepTest 125 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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