Environmental advocate: Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both

Question

Environmental advocate: Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both effective at keeping a person warm. The production of both wool fibers and synthetic fibers results in by-products-animal waste and industrial waste, respectively-that cause significant environmental harm if improperly handled. It is true that synthetic sweaters tend to cost significantly less than wool sweaters do, but they are considerably less durable. Thus one wool sweater will last as long as several synthetic ones and, even assuming the same energy consumption to manufacture wool and synthetic sweaters, over one's lifetime purchasing wool sweaters constitutes a significant energy savings as compared to purchasing synthetic sweaters.

Based on the information provided, select for Advantage the option that the environmental advocate most clearly identifies as an advantage of purchasing wool sweaters as compared to synthetic ones, and select for Disadvantage the option that the environmental advocate most clearly identifies as a disadvantage of purchasing wool sweaters as compared to synthetic ones. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Based on the information provided, select for  Advantage  the option that the environmental advocate most clearly identifies as an advantage of purchasing wool sweaters as compared to synthetic ones, and select for  Disadvantage  the option that the environmental advocate most clearly identifies as a disadvantage of purchasing wool sweaters as compared to synthetic ones. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Ami0Trafalgar · Answer

The Energy consumption from manufacturing isn't the advantage, It's the durability due to which the overall expenditure on energy spent to manufacture is less. It's an indirect relation which the author is "assuming" as mentioned in the last sentence, not a fact but an assumption. However with elimination nothing else fits the advantage so we have to mark D but not a convinving option choice.

TargetMBA007 · Answer

Advtange: Energy consumption from manufacturing - This is the best option, because the environmental advocate states two factors:
1. Woollen sweaters last significantly longer than synthetic
2. Both woollen and synthetic sweaters take the same amount of "energy" in the manufacturing phase

So say a single woollen sweater lasted 20 years and a synthetic one 5 years on average, the energy consumption for manufacturing synthetic would be 4x higher.

Ayushi0002 · Answer

In this why can't we say that overall total waste production is less so that is an advantage for the wool sweater industry ?

Bismuth83 · Answer

1. The problem asks to find which options are an    advantage ,  disadvantage , or  neither  for wool sweaters  . To answer this, we have to search in the text.

2.   Warmth  : "w ool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both effective at keeping a person warm". This means it's    neither   .

3.     Cost per unit  : "synthetic sweaters tend to cost significantly less than wool sweaters do". This means it's a    disadvantage   .

4.     Environmental effects of fiber production    : "the production of both wool fibers and synthetic fibers results in by-products-animal waste and industrial waste". This means it's    neither   .

5.     Energy consumption from manufacturing    : "one wool sweater will last as long as several synthetic ones and, even assuming the same energy consumption to manufacture wool and synthetic sweaters, over one's lifetime purchasing wool sweaters constitutes a significant energy savings as compared to purchasing synthetic sweaters". Since the option does not include per unit, we can assume that it's relating to the overall energy consumption. This means it's an    advantage   .

6.     Total environmental effects of waste products    . Similar to (3.), it also states that both cause equivalent environmental effects: "respectively-that cause significant environmental harm if improperly handled". This means it's    neither   .

iantGMAT · Answer

Why can't I infer that the advantage is "Total environmental effects of waste products" as fewer wool products would be purchased over ones lifetime?

It was the "total" that threw me off. If the answer had included " Total  energy consumption from manufacturing", that would have been the obvious answer.

DmitryFarber · Answer

The author doesn't mention the relative effects of waste. We don't know that just because we need fewer wool sweaters, the overall waste products are less impactful. That may be true, but it's not indicated. Meanwhile, it's true that "energy consumption" doesn't say "total," but it doesn't say "per unit," either. That vagueness allows us to go either way. Does the author cite energy savings as an advantage? Absolutely! That's all we need.

Environmental advocate: Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both

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Advantage	Disadvantage
		Warmth
		Cost per unit
		Environmental effects of fiber production
		Energy consumption from manufacturing
		Total environmental effects of waste products

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­Environmental advocate: Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both

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Environmental advocate: Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both