Reading Comprehension

PT125 · S1 · P2 · Q12 Drilling Muds

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Passage A Drilling fluids, including the various mixtures known as drilling muds, play essential roles in oil-well drilling.

Central Topic / Purpose

Drilling muds / to describe something and highlight a problem associated with it

Main Point

Drilling muds are carefully calibrated liquids important in oil-well drilling, but their complexity and the opacity of their recipes make it hard to study their environmental impact.

Central Topic / Purpose

Environmental impact of drilling muds / to describe the different environmental impacts of different drilling muds

Main Point

Water-based mud isn't very harmful and can be tossed overboard, while oil-based muds are potentially harmful and their disposal is much more tightly regulated.

Relationship

Both passages shared similar topics (drilling mud / environmental impact). Passage A felt a little more like it was trying to highlight a potential problem, while Passage B is written more in the style of neutrally describing the potential harm of OBM's. Overall, they seem pretty complementary and overlapping.

12.

According to passage B, one reason OBMs are potentially more environmentally damaging than WBMs is that OBMs

  1. Correct

    are slower to disperse

    Why this is right

    In the middle of B's last paragraph, it says "greater potential for negative environmental impact, partly because they do not disperse as readily".

    Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    92% picked this

  2. contain greater concentrations of bentonite

    Opposite

    They have greater concentrations of barite, not bentonite.

    3% picked this

  3. contain a greater number of

    Unsupported

    Additives are mentioned for WBMs and for OBMs, but there's no comparison suggesting one has more or less, nor is there any language portraying these additives as an environmental threat.

    4% picked this

  4. are used for drilling deeper

    Unsupported

    While OBMs are used for deeper wells, the fact that they're used in a deeper well is never identified as a reason why they could be more environmentally harmful.

    0% picked this

  5. cannot be recycled

    Too Strong: cannot be recycled

    We know that WBMs get recycled a few times, but we have no idea whether OBMs can / can't be recycled, and there's definitely no language that allows us to connect the inability to recycle to environmental damage.

    1% picked this

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