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
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Background ·
Acrylate
Acrylates used to clean industrial equipment.
Discovery ·
Aspartate
Aspartate produced by oysters achieves similar function.
Benefit ·
Biodegradable
P3
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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
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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
26.
The primary purpose of the ███████ ██ ██
a
describe and analyze ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ █ ████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████
(A) captures the primary purpose most accurately compared to the other answers. The author wants to describe and analyze Koskan’s attempt to develop and market polyaspartate. It wasn’t successful as a substitute for polyacrylate, but Koskan has found some success in niche applications.
b
demonstrate the mistakes ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ █ ████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████
The passage never discusss any “mistakes” made by Koskan. Although polyaspartate is not yet widely used by the environmental chemical industry, that doesn’t mean Koskan made any mistakes in how he chose to pursue commercialization of polyaspartate.
c
illustrate the kinds ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ █ ████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████
We, as readers, can choose to generalize from Koskan’s experience to other attempts to market new products. But the author does not write the passage in order for us to make that generalization. The author never tries to draw any lessons from Koskan’s experience or to apply anything from his experience to other attempts to market new products.
d
comment on the █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███████
The author focuses on Koskan’s efforts to commercialize polyaspartate. Although the author does comment on the environmental chemical industry’s decision to not widely use polyaspartate, that’s simply a minor point providing context to Koskan’s continued efforts to market polyaspartate.
e
explain the chemical █████████ ████ ████ █ ██████████ ███ ███████ █ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████
The author does discuss certain chemical details related to polyaspartate. But the purpose of the passage is not to explain those details. It’s to tell us about Koskan’s efforts to commercialize polyaspartate. The chemical details about polyaspartate only serve to provide context for Koskan’s efforts to market polyaspartate.