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Which of the Following Issues Might be a Case for the ATSDR? 202 Views
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Description:
ACT Reading 2.10 Natural Science Passage. Based on information found in the passage, which of the following issues might be a case for the ATSDR?
Transcript
- 00:04
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by science and technology. But you probably
- 00:07
knew that since... you're watching it on a computer, via the internet.
- 00:38
Based on information found in the passage, which of the following issues might be a case
- 00:42
for the ATSDR?
- 00:48
In the very first paragraph, we're told that ATSDR stands for the Agency for Toxic
Full Transcript
- 00:54
Substances and Disease Registry.
- 00:56
We're glad this is clarified because, based on the information about the ATSDR in the
- 01:00
rest of the passage, we might think it stood for the Alarmingly Terrible Society of Death
- 01:05
and Recrimination.
- 01:06
Anyway, knowing what the ATSDR is supposed to be doing is the key to narrowing down these choices.
- 01:12
We can nix (D) without too much thought.
- 01:14
From the very beginning of the passage, it's glaringly obvious that Congress is the one
- 01:18
investigating the ATSDR, not the other way around.
- 01:21
Although we're sure that, if the ATSDR did want to investigate Congress, they'd find
- 01:25
all sorts of...um...interesting information.
- 01:27
Answer (C) isn't tough to eliminate either.
- 01:30
As we learned in an earlier question, the CDC and the ATSDR are sister agencies.
- 01:34
Since they're equals in a way, it wouldn't necessarily make sense for one to crack down on the other.
- 01:39
Although, as sister agencies, it would make sense for them to fight over their parent's love.
- 01:43
Choice (B) is a certainly a temptation.
- 01:46
All the bad stuff that the passage describes does happen in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
- 01:50
However, from the report we can infer that the ATSDR is responsible for investigating
- 01:55
environmental threats like contaminated drinking water or soil, not natural disasters.
- 02:00
Sure, Katrina did do a lot of contaminating, but this answer is too generally focused on
- 02:04
the storm and not the specific aftereffects that the ATSDR is supposed to deal with.
- 02:09
This leaves us with choice (A), the correct answer.
- 02:11
...since one of the agency's main focuses is figuring out what's going on when a single
- 02:16
community reports lots of cases of a disease.
- 02:19
Although, if this report is in any way accurate, the ATSDR took kind of a hands off approach
- 02:23
when it came to the refugees in post-Katrina New Orleans.
- 02:27
Make that a total hands-off approach...
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