SAT Reading & Writing · Inferences
The addition of encouraging messages for low-usage households most strongly suggests that ______
Home energy reports that compare a household's electricity use to that of similar neighboring households have been found to reduce electricity consumption by a few percent on average, with utility companies sometimes adding encouraging messages for already low-usage households to prevent them from increasing their usage after seeing they were already doing well. Which choice most logically completes the text?
The addition of encouraging messages for low-usage households most strongly suggests that ______
The addition of encouraging messages for low-usage households most strongly suggests that ______
Answer and explanation
Answer: B: simply learning that one is already using less energy than a comparison group could unintentionally cause some households to increase their usage without an additional message.
The detail that does the most work in the passage is that utilities specifically add a message to prevent already-low-usage households from increasing consumption, which only makes sense if learning about one's low relative usage could otherwise nudge some households toward using more, not less. That's B. A contradicts the passage's report of an overall reduction in electricity use. C is undercut by the very need for a special message for one subgroup. D reverses the logic, since the passage's detail specifically concerns already low-usage households.
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