Reading Comprehension

PT125 · S1 · P2 · Q9 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.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the two passages taken together, but not from either one individually?

Barite is the largest ingredient
Too Strong: most damaging
We do know from Passage A that barite is the largest ingredient by weight. We do not know from Passage B that barite is the most damaging. We know that barite may damage scallops, but we also know that the mineral oil in drilling muds may have toxic effects. We can't conclusively say that barite is the most damaging.
19% picked this
Correct
Although barite can be harmful
Why this is right
Passage B tells us that barite may impact some organisms, particularly scallops. Passage A tells us that barite appears as an inert filler in foods and in a medical treatment for X-raying the digestive tract. Do we know that consuming these things is "safe" for humans? No, not quite. But this is still our best available answer. If we use a little common sense and dial down the cynicism, then something used as a filler in food or as a pre-game drink for a medical diagnostic, then it should be something safe.
Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
61% picked this
Offshore drilling is more damaging
Unsupported Comparison
Neither passage compares offshore to land-based drilling.
5% picked this
The use of drilling muds
Out of Scope: needs to be
Neither passage expresses an opinion about what should be done. Passage A seems to find the complex, opaque recipes of drilling mud to be a problem when it comes to assessing environmental impact, but we can't find anything that sounds like a plea for more govt control. Passage B seems to just describe existing regulations in a way that connotes a general comfort level with the ways things are.
10% picked this
If offshore drilling did not
Unsupported Causal Relationship
Passage A never mentions cuttings or specific harm to the environment, so we would never be pulling something from passage A to support this. Moreover, Passage B has not identified cuttings as inherently harmful, so drilling that did NOT generate cuttings wouldn't be LESS harmful. It's the OBMs that are still stuck on the cuttings, after the cuttings have been sieved, that are potentially causing harm.
5% picked this

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