Passage 48
(The following is based on material written in 1996.)
The Montreal Protocol¹ on Substances that Deplete² the Ozone³ Layer, signed in 1987 by more than
150 nations, has attained⁴ its short-term goals: it has decreased the rate of increase in amounts of
most ozone-depleting chemicals reaching the atmosphere and has even reduced the atmospheric
levels of some of them. The projection⁵ that the ozone layer will substantially recover from ozone
depletion by 2050 is based on the assumption that the protocol’s regulations will be strictly
followed. Yet there is considerable evidence of violations⁶, particularly in the form of the release of
ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), which are commonly used in the refrigeration,
heating, and air conditioning industries. These violation⁷ reflect industry attitudes; for example, in
the United States, 48 percents of respondents in a recent survey of subscribers to Air Conditioning,
Heating, and Refrigeration News, and industry trade journal, said that they did not believe that
CFC’s damage the ozone layer. Moreover, some in the industry apparently⁸ do not want to pay for
CFC substitutes, which can run five times the cost of CFC’s. Consequently, a black market in
imported illicit⁹ CFC’s has grown. Estimates of the contraband¹⁰ CFC trade range from 10,000 to
22,000 tons a year, with most of the CFC’s originating in India and China, whose agreements
under the Protocol still allow them to produce CFC’s. In fact, the United States Customs Service
reports that CFC-12 is a contraband problem second only to illicit drugs.
 
283. According to the passage, which of the following best describes most ozone-depleting
chemicals in 1996 as compared to those in 1987?
(A)   The levels of such chemcials in the atmosphere had decreased.
(B)    The number of such chemcials that reached the atmosphere had declined.
(C)    The amounts of such chemcials released had increased but the amounts that reached the atmosphere had decreased.
(D)    The rate of increase in amounts of such chemicals reaching the atmosphere had decreased. (D)
(E)     The rate at which such chemicals were being reduced in the atmoshphere had slowed.
 
284. The author of the passage compares the smuggling¹¹ of CFC’s to the illicit drug trade most
likely for which of the following reasons?
(A)   To qualify a previous claim
(B)    To emphasize the extent of a problem
(C)    To provide an explanation for an earlier assertion
(D)    To suggest that the illicit CFC trade, likely the illicit drug trade, will continue to increase (B)
(E)     To suggest that the consequences of a relatively¹² little-knows problem are as serious as those of a well-known one
 
285. The passage suggests which of the following about the illicit trade in CFC’s?
(A)   It would cease if manufacturers in India and China stopped producing CFC’s.
(B)    Most people who participate in such trade do not believe that CFC’s deplete the ozone layer.
(C)    It will probably surpass illicit drugs as the largest contraband problem faced by the United States Custom Services.
(D)    It is fostered by people who do not want to pay the price of CFC substitutes. (D)
(E)     It has grown primarily because of the expansion of the refrigenration, heating, and air-conditioning industries in foreign countries.

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