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
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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
████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████ ███ ███████████████ ████████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ █████████████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████████ ███
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
27.
The passage most strongly suggests ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████████████ ███ ██████████████
a
They perform identically ██████ ███ ██████████ ████████████
We know they perform similarly within some industrial applications (reducing scale). But there’s no support that they perform similarly within any industrial application. In order to pick this answer, we’d have to have support from the passage for the claim that in all industrial applications – every single one – polyaspartate and polyacrylate perform similarly. We don’t have any support for this, because we don’t know about every industrial application.
b
They were both ██████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████████
The author never discusses how polyacrylates were discovered.
c
The chemical industry ███ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████
The author never discusses anything that reveals how long the chemical industry was aware of the existence of polyaspartate or polyacrylates before industrial applications were developed.
d
They both have ████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████
e
At the time ████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████████ █████ █████ ██████████ ████████
The author doesn’t discuss how leading chemical companies felt about polyacrylates when they were first brought to market. The passage also doesn’t discuss how leading chemical companies felt about polyaspartate when it first came to market. We know the chemical industry eventually stopped using polyaspartate, but that doesn’t tell us whether the industry was skeptical of polyaspartate at the beginning.