Bio-fuels, Blended With Ordinary Fuel, Are Beginning To Bring These Green Alternatives GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

Bio-fuels, blended with ordinary fuel, are beginning to bring these green alternatives from obscurity. Brazil has, for many years, produced ethanol from sugar and used the high-octane alcohol as a substitute for gasoline. Vegetable oil derived from soya beans and rapeseed (called canola in the Americas) has been used to run tractors in many parts of the world. But these environmental alternatives to crude oil have until recently not been taken very seriously by the big consumer nations and their petro-corporations. But new laws requiring gasoline to contain 10 percent ethanol, and diesel to contain 6 percent vegetable oil by volume are changing all that. At the levels imposed, no new infrastructure is required in order to accommodate these changes as they can be dispensed at existing fuel stations and used to run existing cars, trucks and tractors. To go further, however, and, for example, run all cars exclusively on ethanol would require a new generation of engine and perhaps, more significantly, the scaling up of production of ethanol by a fantastic margin. A whole-scale switch to bio-diesel seems to carry fewer challenges. Its production is far less capital-intensive in the start-up phase. Most existing engines can burn the fuel or would be relatively easy to convert and farmers are very receptive to the idea of a new market (and better prices) for a product they already grow.

“Bio-fuels, blended with ordinary fuel, are beginning to bring these green alternatives”- 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.

Solution and Explanation

Question 1
Which of the following sentences best expresses the key point made in the passage?

1. As oil prices rise, policy-makers are turning to alternatives.
2. New laws are beginning to lift bio-fuels from obscurity.
3. Blending bio-fuels with traditional oil products is bringing them into prominence.
4. Bio-fuels are about to take off.
5. At the level imposed, no new infrastructure is required to accommodate the emergence of bio-fuels.

Question 2
Which of the following sentences would best conclude the passage?

1. Perhaps the greatest appeal of both bio-diesel and ethanol is the promise, for any country with the space to grow bio-fuel-producing crops, is independence from imported fuels and increased agricultural revenue.
2. Fear of global warming is partly driving this search for off-the-wall alternatives.
3. Skeptics argue that growing crops to produce ethanol will consume more gasoline than it will produce.
4. If bio-fuels do take off, environmentalists will raise as many concerns as they do currently.
5. Perhaps the greatest appeal of bio-fuels is the opportunity they represent for venture capitalists to break into the highly profitable but previously closed oil markets.

Question 3
It can be inferred from the passage that:

1. Most cars could run on a fuel blend made of up to 85 percent ethanol.
2. Government policy is lifting bio-fuels from obscurity.
3. Demand for bio-fuels will soon outstrip supply.
4. Cars can handle a 10 percent ethanol blend.
5. Bio-fuels are not the only alternative to the current dependence on imported crude products.

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