broall wrote:
All people residing in the country of Gradara approve of legislation requiring that certain hazardous waste be disposed of by being burned in modern high-temperature incinerators. However, waste disposal companies planning to build such incinerators encounter fierce resistance to their applications for building permits from the residents of every Gradaran community that those companies propose as an incinerator site.
Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the residents' simultaneously holding both of the positions ascribe them?
(A) High-temperature incineration minimizes the overall risk to the human population of the country from the wastes being disposed of, but it concentrates the remaining risk in a small number of incineration sites.
(B) High-temperature incineration is more expensive than any of the available alternatives would be and the higher costs would be recovered through higher product prices.
(C) High-temperature incineration will be carried out by private companies rather than by a government agency so that the government will not be required to police itself.
(D) The toxin fumes generated within a high-temperature incinerator can be further treated so that all toxic residues from a properly operating incinerator are solids.
(E) The substantial cost of high-temperature incineration can be partially offset by revenue from sales of electric energy generated as a by-product of incineration.
Official Explanation
(A) Yes. Incineration may pose the least amount of risk for the greatest number of people, yet concentrate the risk for a few people—those living nearby.
(B) No. This would make the general population less likely to approve of incinerators and does not explain why people object when an incinerator is built nearby.
(C) No. This does not explain why the general population approves of incinerators and the people living near incinerators oppose them.
(D) No. This should help allay the fears of nearby residents, assuming that the solids are potentially less harmful. Hence, it would make them less likely to object to the incinerators.
(E) No. This does not explain why the general population approves of incinerators, and the people living near incinerators oppose them. Evidently, the people living near the incinerators worry that they will be exposed to greater amounts of toxins than people further away.
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