PrepTest 128, Section 2, Question 12
Shaw: Regulatory limits on pollution emissions from power(59 more words not shown)
Based on the analogy in(18 more words not shown)
- Aoperates without any(5 more words not shown)
- Boperates at peak(1 more words not shown)
- Cemits pollutants at(4 more words not shown)
- Demits no pollutants(2 more words not shown)
- Eemits pollutants at(3 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Looking at average emissions sounds reasonable if we want an overall picture of a plant's pollution. But what if the plant releases a huge amount all at once? Imagine a burst at 6 a.m. so concentrated that it kills birds nearby. Long periods of low emissions afterward wouldn't undo that damage, even if they made the average look acceptable.
That is Levin's objection: short periods of high emissions can themselves be dangerous. The driving comparison makes the problem easier to see. A driver could race along at 120 miles per hour, then spend enough time stopped to bring the overall average down to 35. The low average wouldn't remove the danger of the 120-mile-per-hour stretch.
What we’re looking for
We need to match one specific part of that comparison: time spent at a stoplight. At the light, the vehicle is stopped. Its speed is zero. Since speed corresponds to the plant's emissions level, the matching period is one with zero emissions. Keep zero distinct from merely low.
Working the answers
- A
Lack of monitoring would match failing to measure the vehicle's speed. But the stoplight is about what the speed actually is, not whether someone measures it. A plant could be unmonitored while emitting either a great deal or nothing.
- B
Efficiency isn't the quantity being compared. Levin connects vehicle speed with pollution emissions. Operating efficiently doesn't necessarily mean emitting nothing, so it doesn't match the stopped vehicle's zero speed.
- C
A very low emissions level would match a car moving very slowly—perhaps at five miles per hour. That's closer to crawling in traffic than standing still at a stoplight. This is tempting because both low and zero values reduce an average, but D gives the exact match for the particular period the question names.
- DCorrect
A stopped car has zero speed, corresponding to a plant producing no pollutants. Time spent at zero can reduce the long-term average in each case while leaving the danger of the earlier peak untouched.
- E
Peak emissions correspond to the vehicle's highest speed, such as the dangerous highway stretch. The stoplight represents the opposite part of the comparison: a period that pulls the average down because the measured activity has stopped.
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