Question Details

Comprehension:


The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage,choose the best answer for each question.


The history of any major technological or industrial advance is inevitably shadowed by a less predictable history of unintended consequences and secondary effects — what economists sometimes call “externalities.” Sometimes those consequences are innocuous ones, or even beneficial. Gutenberg invents the printing press, and literacy rates rise, which causes a significant part of the reading public to require spectacles for the first time, which creates a surge of investment in lens-making across Europe, which leads to the in vention of the telescope and the microscope. Oftentimes the secondary effects seem to belong to an entirely different sphere of society. When Willis Carrier hit upon the idea of
air-conditioning, the technology was primarily intended for industrial use: ensuring cool, dry air for factories that required low-humidity environments. But...it touched off one of the largest migrations in the history of the United States, enabling the rise of metropolitan
areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas that barely existed when Carrier first started tinkering with the idea in the early 1900s. Sometimes the unintended consequence comes about when consumers use an invention in a surprising way. Edison famously thought his phono graph, which he sometimes called “the talking machine,” would primarily be used to take dictation....But then later innovators... discovered a much larger audience willing to pay for musical recordings made on descendants of Edison’s original invention. In other cases, the original innovation comes into the world disguised as a plaything...the way the animatronic dolls of the mid-1700s inspired Jacquard to invent the first “programmable” loom and Charles Babbage to invent the first machine that fit the modern definition of a computer, setting the stage for the revolution in programmable technology that would transform the 21st century in countless ways. We live under the gathering storm of modern history’s most momentous unintended consequence....carbon-based climate change. Imagine the vast sweep of inventors whose ideas started the Industrial Revolution, all the entrepreneurs and scientists and hobbyists who had a hand in bringing it about. Line up a thousand of them and ask them all what they had been hoping to do with their work. Not one would say that their intent had been to deposit enough carbon in the atmosphere to create a greenhouse effect that trapped heat at the surface of the planet. And yet here we are. Ethyl (leaded fuel) and Freon belonged to the same general class of secondary effect: innovations whose unintended consequences stem from some kind of waste by-product that they emit. But the potential health threats of Ethyl (unleaded fuel) were visible in the 1920s, unlike, say, the long-term effects of atmospheric carbon
build up in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.... Indeed, it is reasonable to see CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) as a forerunner of the kind of threat we will most likely face in the coming decades, as it becomes increasingly possible for individuals or small groups to create new scientific advances — through chemistry or biotechnology or materials science — setting off unintended consequences that reverberate on a global state.


The author lists all of the following examples as ”externalities” of major technical advances EXCEPT:

Options

A

extension of the phonograph to large-scale recording of music

B

application of the Jacquard loom to modern IT programming

C

build-up of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere

D

cooling and de-humidifying of factories through air-conditioning

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option D

cooling and de-humidifying of factories through air-conditioning

Solution :

The correct option is: cooling and de-humidifying of factories through air-conditioning


Step-by-step Explanation:


1. Understand the concept of "externalities" (unintended consequences):
The passage defines "externalities" or unintended consequences as the "less predictable history of unintended consequences and secondary effects" that shadow major technological advances. These are side effects, secondary uses, or unplanned outcomes that the original inventors did not primarily intend or expect.


2. Analyze the examples provided in the passage:

  • Extension of the phonograph to large-scale recording of music: The passage states that Edison originally thought his phonograph "would primarily be used to take dictation," but consumers used it in a surprising way, leading to a much larger audience paying for "musical recordings." This is a clear unintended consequence (externality).
  • Application of the Jacquard loom to modern IT programming: The passage explains that mid-1700s animatronic dolls inspired Jacquard to invent the first programmable loom, which in turn inspired Babbage's computer, "setting the stage for the revolution in programmable technology." This chain of events represents a secondary, unintended consequence of the original playthings.
  • Build-up of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere: The passage discusses CFCs (Freon) as an innovation "whose unintended consequences stem from some kind of waste by-product that they emit." This is explicitly framed as an unintended secondary threat (externality).
  • Cooling and de-humidifying of factories through air-conditioning: According to the passage, when Willis Carrier designed air-conditioning, "the technology was primarily intended for industrial use: ensuring cool, dry air for factories that required low-humidity environments." Because this was the primary, intended purpose of the invention, it is NOT an unintended consequence or "externality." (The externality of air-conditioning was instead the large migration to cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas).


Conclusion:
Since cooling and de-humidifying factories was the primary, intended application of Carrier's air-conditioning technology, it does not represent an externality. Thus, it is the correct answer to the "EXCEPT" question.

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