PT158 S1 P1 Q3 ExplanationDeep Well Injection

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   Weakens12% picked this

   Few of the rock formations that industries consider suitable for deep-well injection of hazardous wastes are adjacent to or connected

   This makes drilling sound safer, since if the suitable injection sites are far from being connected to sources of drinkable groundwater, then there's less chance that doing a deep well injection will taint any drinking water.

   12%
2. B

   No Impact7% picked this

   Few of the toxic substances that are commonly disposed of through deep-well injection have been thoroughly tested for

   The fact that they haven't been tested on nonhuman organisms doesn't tell us anything: - have they been tested on humans? - would the tests come back showing these substances are bad or benign?

   7%
3. C

   Weak Impact2% picked this

   Many of the sites at which hazardous-waste-injection wells are drilled are many miles from the industrial facilities that

   This seems to only present a possible concern about whether the toxic waste would spill out of the transportation device, as it leaves the industrial facilities en route to the deep well injection site. But we have no reason to think the toxic waste trucks that are moving it from the factory to the injection site are known to spill this waste en route.

   2%
4. D

   Correct77% picked this

   The movement of underground water is even more rapid and less predictable than

   Why this is right

   The 3rd problem the author brought up related to the unpredictable movement of the toxic waste once it's underground. The author compared this to the unpredictable movement of water underground. So if the movement is even more fast and random than most geologists believe, then it's likely that toxic waste is also going to move more quickly and randomly than most geologists think, which heightens the danger of the 3rd problem. It's weird to me that this correct answer tries to play off "the experts being wrong". We don't know how fast or unpredictable geologists think that underground water moves, but if most of them believe it moves at speed X, that would apparently be the conventional wisdom of the experts. And if the danger of random underground movement of water / toxic wastes is actually scarier than the experts give it credit for being, then that makes it sound like injecting toxic waste is riskier than most experts think.

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

   77%
5. E

   Weakens1% picked this

   Methods of predicting and monitoring the movement of underground water have significantly improved in the time since

   This has the opposite effect of (D). Instead of saying, "The experts just don't know. The author is right to be scared. It's way worse than the experts think", this is saying "The author just doesn't know. It's not as scary as she thinks. We've gotten a lot better at predicting underground movement."

   1%