Paragraph : At an enormous research cost, a leading chemical company has…
2025
Paragraph : At an enormous research cost, a leading chemical company has developed a manufacturing process for converting wood fibers into a plastic. According to the company, this new plastic can be used for, among other things, the hulls of small sailboats. But what does the company think sailboat hulls used to be made of? Surely the mania for high technology can scarcely go further than this.
The author’s opinion of the manufacturing process described in the passage is based primarily on the fact that
- A.
The research costs of developing the process outweigh any savings possible from the use of the plastic
- B.
A small sailboat is not normally regarded as a high-tech product
- C.
Hulls for small sailboats can be made from wood without converting it into plastic
- D.
Many other spheres of human activity are in far greater need of technological research
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a Reading-Comprehension "basis of the author's opinion" question, the author's view is expressed through tone (often irony or a rhetorical question) rather than a direct statement, so the question is really asking you to name the unstated fact that the rhetorical remark leans on.
Application: Here the author calls the new wood-to-plastic hull process an example of "mania for high technology" and asks, pointedly, what the company thinks sailboat hulls used to be made of. That rhetorical question only lands as a criticism if the obvious answer is "wood" -- i.e., boat hulls can already be built directly from wood, with no conversion into plastic required. Because that simpler, already-available option exists, the author sees the elaborate new conversion process as unnecessary, and that is the fact his sarcastic opinion rests on.
Cross-check (why the other readings don't fit):
A cost-versus-savings comparison is never made in the passage -- the "enormous research cost" is mentioned only in passing, not weighed against any figure for savings.
Whether a sailboat counts as a "high-tech product" is not the point of the rhetorical question at all; the jab is about the raw material, not the boat's category.
No comparison to other fields of human activity needing research appears anywhere in the passage.
Result: The author's critical opinion is grounded in the fact that wood already does the job a hull needs, without any conversion process -- exactly what the rhetorical question about hulls' prior material is driving at.