Reading Passage Question
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, signed in 1987 by more than 150 nations, has attained 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 projection 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 violations, particularly in the form of the release of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are commonly used in the refrigeration, heating, and air-conditioning industries. These violations reflect industry attitudes; for example, in the United States, 48% of respondents in a recent survey of subscribers to Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration News, an industry trade journal, said that they did not believe that CFCs damage the ozone layer. Moreover, some in the industry apparently do not want to pay for CFC substitutes, which can run five times the cost of CFCs. Consequently, a black market in imported illicit CFCs has grown. Estimates of the contraband CFC trade range from 10,000 to 22,000 tons a year, with most of the CFCs originating in India and China, whose agreements under the Protocol still allow them to produce CFCs. In fact, the United States Customs Service reports that CFC-12 is a contraband problem second only to illicit drugs.

Solution and Explanation

1. The passage suggests which of the following about the illicit trade in CFCs?

(A) It would cease if manufacturers in India and China stopped producing CFCs.
(B) Most people who participate in such trade do not believe that CFCs deplete the ozone layer.
(C) It will probably surpass illicit drugs as the largest contraband problem faced by the United States Customs Service.
(D) It is fostered by people who do not want to pay the price of CFC substitutes.
(E) It has grown primarily because of the expansion of the refrigeration, heating, and air-conditioning industries in foreign countries.

2. 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 chemicals in the atmosphere had decreased.
(B) The number of such chemicals that reached the atmosphere had declined.
(C) The amounts of such chemicals 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 has decreased.
(E) The rate at which such chemicals were being reduced in the atmosphere had slowed.

3. The author of the passage compares the smuggling 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, like the illicit drug trade, will continue to increase
(E) To suggest that the consequences of a relatively little-known problem are as serious as those of a well-known one

“The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

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