PrepTest 125 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 8

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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

Each of the following is █████████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████

Question Type

Implied

This Inference EXCEPT question asks for the answer that is NOT supported by either passage.

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate each answer choice that is supported by passage A. Then, after passage B, eliminate any remaining answer choices that are supported by passage B.

Sequential Approach: We will approach this question using the process of elimination, eliminating each answer choice that is supported by one (or both) of the passages.

Clay is an █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ █████

This is supported by passage A, so we can eliminate (A). Passage B also says that WBMs are made of a mixture that includes clay.

11%

At least one ████ ██ ████████ ███ ██ ███ █████████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████

This statement is not supported by passage A. However, this is supported by passage B, which says that WBMs are not particularly toxic to marine organisms, so we can eliminate (B).

There has been ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███████████

This statement has some support from passage A, which says that there is a problem in studying the effects of drilling waste discharges. The acknowledgement that there are problems in studying the effects, combined with the fact that passage A references some things that are known about the effects of drilling-mud discharges (like that the ingredients may be toxic) indicates that there has been at least some study of the environmental effects of drilling-mud discharges. After reading passage A, we can tentatively eliminate (C).

This is clearly supported by passage B, which says that the drilling-mud discharges are the main environmental concern in offshore oil production, and that these discharges are closely monitored. This allows us to infer that there has been at least some study of the effects of the discharges, so we can confidently eliminate (C).

Government regulations allow ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████

This statement is not supported by passage A. However, this is supported by passage B. P6 says that the typical mineral oil content of OBMs is 30%. P4 says that this is a tightly regulated industry, so we can infer that the typical concentration of OBMs is permitted by the government. Because passage B supports this claim, we can eliminate (D).

26%

During the drilling ██ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████

(E) is not supported by passage A or passage B. Passage A does not mention the discharge of drilling mud into the sea.

In passage B, we see WBMs are recycled until they are no longer usable, then they are discharged into the sea over a period of hours. This shows that there is a set period of time during which the drilling muds are discharged (in other words, that drilling isn’t continuous). Also, for OBMs, we see that only the residues that remain after the cuttings are sieved from the drilling fluids are discharged. From the discussion of WBMs and OBMs, we can not infer that the drilling muds are continuously discharged into the sea.

51%

PrepTest 125 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 8

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