PT115.S1.P1.Q2 > Analytics

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By the year 2030, the Earth's population is expected to increase to 10 billion; ideally, all would enjoy standards of living equivalent to those of present-day industrial democracies. ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ██████████████ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████ █ ██████ ██ █████ ███

Problem · Resource depletion

Expand problem · Waste production

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Solution · Industrial ecosystem

Explain solution · Optimized consumption, minimized waste, recycled materials

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Analogy · Industrial ecosystem similar to biological ecosystem

In biological ecosystems, resources cycle through plants, herbivores, carnivores, and back to plants. In ideal industrial ecosystems, the same material serves different functions over time.

Example · of existing industrial ecosystem process

"Designed offal" is waste that is designed to be reused

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Concession · "Designed offal" example still consumes energy, creates pollution

But improvement over status quo

Another concession · Proposed solution (ideal industrial ecosystem) not yet possible

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Revised solution · Make incremental changes, prioritize technologies that are more ecologically sound

Passage Style

Problem-analysis

Single position

The author of the passage █████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████

Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

The author mentions “standards of living” in P1: “By the year 2030, the Earth's population is expected to increase to 10 billion; ideally, all would enjoy standards of living equivalent to those of present-day industrial democracies. However, if 10 billion people consume critical natural resources such as copper, nickel, and petroleum at the current per capita rates of industrialized countries, and if new resources are not discovered or substitutes developed, such an ideal would last a decade or less.”

An increase in ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████████ ██████████

The author never suggests that if standards of living increase in developing countries, standards of living will decrease in industrialized countries.

It is likely ████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████ █████

The author never suggests that a decrease is likely by year 2030. Although the author does indicate that a decrease will occur if we continue to consume critical natural resources at the same rate and if we don’t discover new resources or substitutes, the author never suggests that it’s likely these conditions will occur.

The current standard ██ ██████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████

Not supported, because the author tells us that the current standard can’t be sustained if we don’t change how we consume natural resources and don’t find new resources or substitutes. But if we can do these things, then the current standard of living won’t necessarily be impossible to sustain.

30%

All countries could █████ █ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██████████

This is the best supported answer. The author presents the ideal industrial ecosystem as a potential solution to the problem of our natural resource consumption. In an ideal industrial ecosystem, materials wouldn’t be depleted any more than are materials in a biological ecosystem, which suggest that there would be very minimal levels of depletion.

59%

Supplies of critical ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████████

The author doesn’t suggest that we need to reduce our standard of living in order to maintain supplies of natural resources. Rather, if we can implement an ideal industrial ecosystem, then we don’t need to reduce standard of living to maintain those resources.

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PrepTest 115 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 2

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PrepTest 115 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 2

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