Direction:- Each passage below is accompanied by a number of questions. For some questions, you will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas. For other questions, you will consider how the passage might be edited to correct errors in sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. A passage or a question may be accompanied by one or more graphics (such as a table or graph) that you will consider as you make revising and editing decisions.
Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of a passage. Other questions will direct you to a location in a passage or ask you to think about the passage as a whole.
After reading each passage, choose the answer to each question that most effectively improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a “NO CHANGE” option. Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the passage as it is.
Compost: Don’t Waste This Waste
Over the past generation, people in many parts of the United States have become accustomed to dividing their household waste products into different categories for recycling.
Q1 Regardless, paper may go in one container, glass and aluminum in another, regular garbage in a third. Recently, some US cities have added a new category: compost, organic matter such as food scraps and yard debris. Like paper or glass recycling, composting demands a certain amount of effort from the public in order to be successful. But the inconveniences of composting are far outweighed by its benefits.
Most people think of banana peels, eggshells, and dead leaves as “waste,” but compost is actually a valuable resource with multiple practical uses. When utilized as a garden fertilizer, compost provides nutrients to soil and improves plant growth while deterring or killing pests and preventing some plant diseases. It also enhances soil texture, encouraging healthy roots and minimizing or Q2 annihilating the need for chemical fertilizers. Better than soil at holding moisture, compost minimizes water waste and storm runoff, Q3 it increases savings on watering costs, and helps reduce erosion on embankments near bodies of water. In large Q4 quantities, which one would expect to see when it is collected for an entire municipality), compost can be converted into a natural gas that can be used as fuel for transportation or heating and cooling systems.
In spite of all compost’s potential uses, however, most of this so-called waste is wasted. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over Q5 13 million tons of metal ended up in US landfills in 2009, along with over 13 million tons of yard debris. Remarkably, Q6 less glass was discarded in landfills in that year than any other substance, including plastics or paper. Even Q7 worse, then the squandering of this useful resource is the fact that compost in landfills cannot break down due to the lack of necessary air and moisture.
As a result, organic material that is sent to landfills Q8 contribute to the release of methane, a very Q9 potent greenhouse gas.
Q10 While composting can sometimes lead to accidental pollution through the release of methane gas, cities such as San Francisco and Seattle have instituted mandatory composting laws requiring individuals and businesses to use separate bins for compostable waste. This strict approach may not work everywhere. However, given the clear benefits of composting and the environmental costs of not composting, all municipalities should encourage their residents either to create their own compost piles for use in backyard gardens Q11 or to dispose of compostable materials in bins for collection.