PrepTest 156, Section 3, Question 27
Organic chemist Larry Koskan's inspiration arrived in the(447 more words not shown)
The passage most strongly suggests(13 more words not shown)
- AThey perform identically(4 more words not shown)
- BThey were both(10 more words not shown)
- CThe chemical industry(14 more words not shown)
- DThey both have(6 more words not shown)
- EAt the time(15 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Both materials can control scale, so that shared function is a reasonable starting prediction. But the question is open: any supported feature shared by both will do. We need separate evidence for each material before accepting an answer about both.
What we’re looking for
Keep their environmental effects distinct. A material can reduce one kind of pollution and still create another environmental problem. Polyacrylates' persistence in landfills doesn't rule out a benefit from replacing something else.
Working the answers
- A
Similar scale-controlling activity doesn't establish identical performance in every industrial application. The passage describes a shared useful function, not complete interchangeability across all uses.
- B
The marine-biologist report inspired Koskan's work on polyaspartate. We aren't told how polyacrylates were discovered, so we cannot give both the same origin story.
- C
No timeline establishes that the chemical industry knew about both materials long before finding industrial applications. The account of Koskan's discovery doesn't supply that claim for either material, much less both.
- DCorrect
There are two different routes to reduced water pollution. Polyacrylates replace phosphates in detergent; the phosphates would otherwise pollute surface waters through wastewater. Polyaspartate keeps fertilizer in the soil longer, reducing fertilizer pollution of groundwater. We have support for each half of the shared claim, even though the applications and pollutants differ.
- E
Companies hesitated about polyaspartate because of its cost. Nothing tells us how leading companies reacted when polyacrylates first reached the market. One material's commercial history cannot establish the same history for both.
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