The accumulation of scientific knowledge regarding the environmental impact of oil well drilling in North America has tended to lag behind the actual drilling of oil wells. ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ███
Problem ·Knowledge of environmental impact lags behind oil drilling
Regulation is retrospective (occurs only after something bad has happened), as opposed to prospective.
Initial Solution ·Seal off groundwater with protective barrier
I'm imagining something like a huge straw that can suck the oil up past the groundwater layer without the oil leaking through the sides of the straw and hence no contamination.
Example of Problem ·Existing regulations cannot accomodate unknown risks
A recent major disaster revealed poor understanding of west coast geology that resulted in widespread contamination. Passage fits Problem Analysis but also fits Critique. Author critiques the current solution as inadequate.
The author’s attitude is one of concern. The author states that these regulations usually rely on hindsight and do not eliminate the risk of environmental harm.
a
cynical that future ██████████ ██████ ████ █████ ███████ █████████████ ███████
“International concern over oil exploration” is mentioned at the end in connection with a specific oil well in North America. This isn’t evidence that the author believes future regulatory reform is likely to require international concern. There’s no hint of a belief that future regulatory reform won’t happen without international concern.
The author isn’t satisfied with the existing regulations. A central point is that we’re still left at risk of environmental harm. The author doesn’t suggest that the level of risk is an appropriate tradeoff in exchange for collecting oil.
Supported. The author calls the hindsight based regulation a “problem.”
d
optimistic that current ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████
There’s no suggestion the author believes scientific research will spur regulatory reform. The only mention of research is part of the point that compliance with regulations doesn’t guarantee that we won’t need to do more research about risks of oil well drilling.
There’s no suggestion in the passage that the author believes regulations will eventually be based on accurate understandings. In fact, the author asserts that there’s “no guarantee” that we don’t need to do further research.
Difficulty
96% of people who answer get this correct
This is a low-difficulty question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%120
120
75%130
Analysis
Author’s attitude
Implied
Problem-analysis
Science
Single position
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
2%
158
b
0%
155
c
96%
163
d
1%
159
e
0%
154
Question history
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