Question

adapted from The Fight for Conservation

by Gifford Pinchot

We, the American people, have been blessed with nearly four million square miles of the richest portion of the earth. It is ours to use and conserve for ourselves and our descendants, or to destroy.
Our coal supplies are so far from being inexhaustible that if the increasing rate of consumption continues to prevail, our supplies of anthracite coal will last only fifty years and of bituminous coal less than two hundred years. This means that one of the most important factors in our civilization will get exhausted within the immediate future. Several coal fields have already been exhausted, as in portions of Iowa and Missouri. Yet, we continue to treat our coal as though there could never be an end of it. The established coal-mining practice at present does not take out more than one-half the coal, leaving the less easily mined or lower grade material to be made permanently inaccessible.The loss to the Nation from this form of waste is inexcusable.
The waste in use is also disappointing. Only five per cent, of the potential power residing in the coal actually mined is saved and used. For example, only about five percent of the power of the one hundred and fifty million tons annually burned on the railways of the United States is actually used in traction; ninety-five percent is used unproductively or is lost.

3
Which pieces of evidence support the idea that coal is underutilized?
A.
Americans are richly blessed with natural resources and coal, an important factor in human civilization, will run out soon.
B.
only five percent of the power is used in traction on railway lines and the fact that ninety-five percent of it is lost
C.
the present coal-mining practice does not extract more than half of the available coal and the fact that it leaves some parts of coal out of reach
D.
we treat coal as though it will never run out and the fact that some coal fields in Iowa are already exhausted

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

B. only five percent of the power is used in traction on railway lines and the fact that ninety-five percent of it is lost

C. the present coal-mining practice does not extract more than half of the available coal and the fact that it leaves some parts of coal out of reach