Self-study
P1
Organic chemist Larry Koskan's inspiration arrived in the mid-1980s, when he read a report by marine biologists describing how oyster shells grow. ██ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ █ ███████ █████████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████
Intro Topic ·
Discovery about oysters
Koskan inspired by oyster’s production of chemical.
P2
██ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ██████████████ █████ █████ ███████ █████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████████████ ██████████ ███
Background ·
Acrylate
Acrylates used to clean industrial equipment.
Discovery ·
Aspartate
Aspartate produced by oysters achieves similar function.
Benefit ·
Biodegradable
P3
██████████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████ █████ █████ █████████████ ████ █████████████ ████ ████████ ██████████████ ████ █ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████████████ ███
Benefit and functions ·
Acrylate cheap, versatile, detergent, disposable products
Acrylate benefits include being cheap and versatile. Uses include detergent and disposable products.
Problem ·
Acrylate last forever, too much
Acrylate lasts forever and there’s too much in landfills.
P4
████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████ ███ ███████████████ ████████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ █████████████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████████ ███
Attempted solution ·
Aspartate replacement for acrylate
Koskan and others tried to commercialize aspartate.
Failure ·
Too expensive
It was too expensive to produce at scale, so others stopped.
Successful solution ·
Aspartate successful in niche applications
Koskan successfully used aspartate in niche applications.
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
22.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Polyaspartate was once ███████ ██ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ███ █████████ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ████████
Not supported, which means it can’t be the main point. The author never suggests that polyaspartate was thought to be the “inevitable successor to polyacrylates.” We know that industries explore polyaspartate as an alternative, but that doesn’t mean it was once thought to be a guaranteed successor.
b
The success of ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████████ █████████
(B) sounds similar to the very last sentence in the passage. But this is too narrow to capture the main point of the passage. This answer is focused on how Koskan’s company may affect the reputation of the environmental chemical industry. But the passage is more focused on Koskan’s own efforts – why Koskan developed uses for polyaspartate and the successes he experienced in commercializing polyaspartate.
c
Polyaspartate, which Koskan ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ███████████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ ███ ████ █████ █████████
C) captures the main point of the passage better than the other answers, and it doesn’t say anything unsupported. (C) covers Koskan’s research and development of applications for polyaspartate, and his successful applications.
d
Koskan's work with █████████████ ███ █████ ████ ███████████████ ████████ ████████████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████
The author’s main point does not relate to potential alternatives to “many industrial chemicals.” The passage focused only on polyaspartate as an alternative to polyacrylate, and Koskan’s efforts to commercialize polyaspartate. Implications for other chemicals and alternatives to those chemicals are not part of the passage.
e
Although polyaspartate is ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████ ████████████ ████████████
The author never suggests that polyaspartate will likely fail in the marketplace. The author acknowledges that it hasn’t yet been widely adopted by other chemical companies, but that doesn’t imply the author believes polyaspartate will likely fail.