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- Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:27 pm
#100742
Complete Question Explanation
Resolve the Paradox. The correct answer choice is (B).
This stimulus presents a paradox: two facts that seem odd together, that even seem to contradict each other at face value. The first fact is that "shortly after a heavy rainfall, pollution levels in Crystal Bay reach their highest levels." The second fact is that "rainwater is almost totally pure and one would therefore expect that it would dilute the polluted seawater."
The first step in solving a Resolve the Paradox question is identifying the exact paradox and understanding why it appears to be a paradox. Here, the paradox is that, since rainwater is almost totally pure and would presumably dilute (and therefore lower) the pollution levels in the Bay, it is very odd that the pollution levels are actually higher after the heavy rainfall. At face value, this doesn't seem to make any sense.
The second step is to prephrase an additional piece of information that could explain what is happening while still allowing both facts in the stimulus to be true. In other words, we don't want to contradict the information in the stimulus, we want to add new info that sheds light on the issue.
Here, a broad prephrase might be that somehow the rainfall indirectly pollutes the Bay, meaning that the problem isn't the rainfall itself (which we know is basically pure). Somehow, the rainfall triggers some other event or cause, which in turn increases the pollution.
Answer choice (A): This answer states that the amount of rainfall is negligible compared to the total amount of polluted seawater. This answer might be tempting if the facts in the stimulus had said that the amount of pollution remains virtually unchanged after a heavy rainfall, but this doesn't explain why the level of pollution increases after a heavy rainfall. Adding even a negligible amount of basically pure rainwater shouldn't increase the pollution, it should have virtually no effect at all.
Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. This answer provides a specific example of our prephrase. If the rainfall "falls on pesticide-treated fields before being carried into the bay," this explains how the rainfall indirectly causes the pollution levels in the bay to increase because the rainfall is now carrying pesticides (i.e. pollution) into the bay. So it's not the rainwater itself that's the problem, but the pesticides that are coming along with the rainwater.
Answer choice (C): This answer states that most rainwater "consists of water that has evaporated from oceans around the world." This answer doesn't address our fundamental problem that we are trying to resolve, namely, why the rainwater (which we know is almost entirely pure) is cause the pollution in the Bay's seawater to increase. We don't know anything about the levels of pollution of other oceans, and even if we assumed that those oceans were polluted, that doesn't matter here since we know that this rainwater is basically pure, as this is a fact given in the stimulus. Again, we don't want to dispute the facts in the stimulus, just explain them.
Answer choice (D): This answer states that the leading cause of the Bay's pollution comes from trash left by beachgoers. If this answer had said that the rainwater washes the trash into the Bay from the beach, this would be a good answer (and would be very similar to Answer B, in that the rainwater is carrying pollution into the Bay). The problem with this answer, however, is that it explicitly states that the trash "blows" into the Bay, which is a separate phenomenon from the rainfall.
Answer choice (E): This answer just states that other nearby ocean areas experience similar patterns of pollution, but no explanation is given for why this pattern is happening.
Resolve the Paradox. The correct answer choice is (B).
This stimulus presents a paradox: two facts that seem odd together, that even seem to contradict each other at face value. The first fact is that "shortly after a heavy rainfall, pollution levels in Crystal Bay reach their highest levels." The second fact is that "rainwater is almost totally pure and one would therefore expect that it would dilute the polluted seawater."
The first step in solving a Resolve the Paradox question is identifying the exact paradox and understanding why it appears to be a paradox. Here, the paradox is that, since rainwater is almost totally pure and would presumably dilute (and therefore lower) the pollution levels in the Bay, it is very odd that the pollution levels are actually higher after the heavy rainfall. At face value, this doesn't seem to make any sense.
The second step is to prephrase an additional piece of information that could explain what is happening while still allowing both facts in the stimulus to be true. In other words, we don't want to contradict the information in the stimulus, we want to add new info that sheds light on the issue.
Here, a broad prephrase might be that somehow the rainfall indirectly pollutes the Bay, meaning that the problem isn't the rainfall itself (which we know is basically pure). Somehow, the rainfall triggers some other event or cause, which in turn increases the pollution.
Answer choice (A): This answer states that the amount of rainfall is negligible compared to the total amount of polluted seawater. This answer might be tempting if the facts in the stimulus had said that the amount of pollution remains virtually unchanged after a heavy rainfall, but this doesn't explain why the level of pollution increases after a heavy rainfall. Adding even a negligible amount of basically pure rainwater shouldn't increase the pollution, it should have virtually no effect at all.
Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. This answer provides a specific example of our prephrase. If the rainfall "falls on pesticide-treated fields before being carried into the bay," this explains how the rainfall indirectly causes the pollution levels in the bay to increase because the rainfall is now carrying pesticides (i.e. pollution) into the bay. So it's not the rainwater itself that's the problem, but the pesticides that are coming along with the rainwater.
Answer choice (C): This answer states that most rainwater "consists of water that has evaporated from oceans around the world." This answer doesn't address our fundamental problem that we are trying to resolve, namely, why the rainwater (which we know is almost entirely pure) is cause the pollution in the Bay's seawater to increase. We don't know anything about the levels of pollution of other oceans, and even if we assumed that those oceans were polluted, that doesn't matter here since we know that this rainwater is basically pure, as this is a fact given in the stimulus. Again, we don't want to dispute the facts in the stimulus, just explain them.
Answer choice (D): This answer states that the leading cause of the Bay's pollution comes from trash left by beachgoers. If this answer had said that the rainwater washes the trash into the Bay from the beach, this would be a good answer (and would be very similar to Answer B, in that the rainwater is carrying pollution into the Bay). The problem with this answer, however, is that it explicitly states that the trash "blows" into the Bay, which is a separate phenomenon from the rainfall.
Answer choice (E): This answer just states that other nearby ocean areas experience similar patterns of pollution, but no explanation is given for why this pattern is happening.
