PrepTest 114, Section 4, Question 9
Consumers are deeply concerned about the quantity of(37 more words not shown)
Each of the following, if(12 more words not shown)
- AMany factories are(23 more words not shown)
- BMany plastic products(15 more words not shown)
- CThe manufacture of(14 more words not shown)
- DUnlike glass, which(24 more words not shown)
- EPlastic polymers tend(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Has the effort made no difference, or is 6.5 percent an improvement?
My first reaction is to question the comparison over time. Perhaps plastic recycling used to be close to zero. If so, the current percentage could reflect considerable progress despite still looking small. Or perhaps manufacturers responded to consumers by switching some packaging to glass or cardboard, leaving less plastic to deal with. Those are possibilities to investigate, not facts the passage supplies.
What we’re looking for
The question asks which choice does not help explain the relatively low rate of plastic recycling. Four answers should help. We need to check our initial ideas against that exact task and the comparison in the passage, rather than assume that any fact about responding to consumer pressure will do.
Working the answers
- A
This makes me sharpen the question I was asking. The passage compares plastic with glass, not just current recycling with past recycling. A gives a reason for that difference: many factories can use recycled glass economically, while relatively few make things from recycled plastic.
Concern about waste doesn't create a ready use for the recycled material. The difference in factories helps explain why glass is recycled at a higher rate. My initial guesses about improvement over time or less plastic packaging don't, by themselves, explain that rate comparison. A does, so it isn't the exception.
- B
If different plastics cannot be recycled together, they have to be kept apart or otherwise handled differently. Most glass containers don't present that same incompatibility. That makes plastic recycling more difficult in a way that can help explain its lower rate, even when consumers want more of it.
- CCorrect
This compares the resources used to make new materials. It doesn't identify a difficulty in recycling plastic that would explain why plastic is recycled less than glass.
If anything, concern about using up oil could give people another reason to want plastic recycled. That wouldn't tell us why they have achieved a lower recycling rate. C may matter in deciding how valuable recycling would be, but it doesn't supply the practical difference the other choices describe.
- D
Glass can be heated enough to remove contaminants, while plastic cannot be heated enough to sterilize it. That creates a barrier to reusing plastic that isn't present in the same way for glass. We don't have to assume every piece of recycled plastic is dangerous to see how this limitation could restrict recycling.
- E
Plastic weakens as its polymers break down during recycling, while glass avoids that problem. A less useful resulting product gives manufacturers less reason or opportunity to use the recycled plastic. That difference helps explain the lower rate.
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