LR Drill Set 3, Question 12
Mercury contamination of lakes and oceans is responsible(55 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- AIndustrial production of(17 more words not shown)
- BThe average amount(19 more words not shown)
- CThe mercury in(21 more words not shown)
- DSome fish that(19 more words not shown)
- EPressure by environmentalists(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Stopping new dumping doesn't remove mercury that is already on its way to the water.
The passage says almost all the mercury comes from industrial waste. Then it tells us the amount in lakes and oceans would keep increasing even if all dumping stopped today. Those claims can fit together if the waste takes time to reach its final destination.
Maybe mercury was dumped somewhere upstream and hasn't reached the lake yet. Or perhaps old waste keeps leaking from another location. Those are possible routes, not facts supplied so far. The common idea is a delay: ending the new input doesn't immediately end the arrival of old contamination.
What we’re looking for
That's my prediction for resolving the puzzle. Find an intermediate place that holds previously dumped mercury and keeps releasing it into lakes and oceans. We can preserve industrial waste as the original source while explaining why the water continues to receive mercury after dumping ends.
Working the answers
- A
A decline in industrial production over the last decade doesn't explain why contamination would continue increasing after dumping stops entirely. We need to know how mercury still reaches the lakes and oceans under that condition. A supplies an earlier trend without giving the missing route.
- B
A steady volcanic release into the upper atmosphere doesn't explain the main industrial-waste pattern. We are told the mercury in these waters comes almost entirely from industrial waste, and B doesn't even tell us how its airborne mercury reaches the water. The existence of another source is not enough to resolve why the stated source's contamination keeps arriving.
- CCorrect
The mercury was deposited in soil, and that contaminated soil gradually erodes. Ending dumping today doesn't clean mercury out of soil already polluted yesterday. As the soil continues eroding, it can keep delivering that old industrial contamination to lakes and oceans.
This is the delayed-arrival explanation we wanted, with soil instead of the possible river route. Industrial waste remains the ultimate source, even though fresh dumping isn't required for fresh mercury to enter the water.
- D
Whether a particular fish becomes ill doesn't explain the changing amount of mercury in the water. A fish could remain healthy yet be dangerous for people to eat, and we would still need to understand why the lake or ocean keeps accumulating mercury. D changes the subject from the contamination's continued arrival to its effects.
- E
This might explain why unsafe disposal continues today. But the puzzle asks what happens even if all dumping is eliminated. Saying pressure hasn't yet changed industry behavior doesn't explain continued accumulation once we accept that hypothetical stopping point. C does, by locating contamination that already exists.
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