PrepTest 153, Section 1, Question 14
A recent worldwide decline of ocean fishery stocks(470 more words not shown)
The author of the passage(19 more words not shown)
- ASuch pollution is(18 more words not shown)
- BSuch pollution contributes(10 more words not shown)
- CSuch pollution is(14 more words not shown)
- DSuch pollution cannot(12 more words not shown)
- ESuch pollution is,(16 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The pollution discussion singles out intensive, high-volume farming. Many fish are crowded together, producing large amounts of waste and increasing the potential for pathogens to spread. That supplies a reason to connect the pollution risk with the production method: the concentration of fish helps create the problem.
What we’re looking for
We can make a qualified prediction that avoiding intensive methods would reduce this risk. That is different from promising that any nonintensive farm will be completely pollution-free.
Working the answers
- A
Genetic mutations are never identified as the main danger. The stated problems involve waste, escaped nonnative species, and pathogens damaging habitats and wild stocks.
- B
Coastal damage is mentioned, but the comparison with every other kind of pollution isn't. The writer doesn't say fish-farm pollution causes more coastal degradation than any other source. The familiar opening doesn't support that added ranking.
- CCorrect
The second paragraph ties the problem to high density and high-volume production. Avoiding those intensive methods removes or reduces the conditions the writer identifies as generating large amounts of waste and increasing disease risk. “Less likely” fits that reasoning without claiming the risk disappears.
- D
No government role is discussed. The account of how pollution develops doesn't establish that farmers cannot prevent it without agencies getting involved.
- E
This assures us that pollution probably won't stop farming from eventually relieving pressure on wild stocks. The writer gives no such assurance. Pollution is one of the reasons to doubt that the hoped-for benefit will occur.
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