Self-study
In Western economies, more energy is used to operate buildings than to operate transportation. ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████████ █████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████
Summary
50 to 100 years from now, technology will save more than $200 billion per year, because it currently saves several billion per year.
Notable Assumptions
The author establishes a current savings, and then concludes that there will be more savings in the future. She is assuming that the savings rate will increase over the next 50 to 100 years. There are many ways that this assumption could take form, but generally, we need to know that there won’t be anything preventing that increase from happening.
7.
On which one of the █████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████
a
Technology used to ████ █████████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ████████
This is necessary for the savings rate to increase. If (A) is negated, then the savings rate may not even stay the same, let alone increase.
b
Another oil crisis ████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██████
We do not need an oil crisis. Whether one happens or not, we could have the concluded increase in savings.
c
Buildings will gradually ██████ █ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████████████
Irrelevant. The author is not comparing buildings to transportation in her conclusion, she is making a statement about current savings from buildings versus future savings from buildings.
d
Energy bills in ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██████
Irrelevant. The amount spent on bills could be anything and it could still be possible that we save over $200 billion.
e
Energy-efficient technologies based ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██████
We cannot assume that just because we have new technologies, that they will contribute to savings. And, even if they do, that isn’t necessary for the savings to happen.