The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
The Second Hand September campaign, led by Oxfam . . . seeks to encourage shopping at local organisations and charities as alternatives to fast fashion brands such as Primark and Boohoo in the name of saving our planet. As innocent as mindless scrolling through online shops may seem, such consumers are unintentionally—or perhaps even knowingly—contributing to an industry that uses more energy than aviation. . . .
Brits buy more garments than any other country in Europe, so it comes as no shock that many of those clothes end up in UK landfills each year: 300,000 tonnes of them, to be exact. This waste of clothing is destructive to our planet, releasing greenhouse gasses as clothes are burnt as well as bleeding toxins and dyes into the surrounding soil and water. As ecologist Chelsea Rochman bluntly put it, “The mismanagement of our waste has even come back to haunt us on our dinner plate.”
It’s not surprising, then, that people are scrambling for a solution, the most common of which is second-hand shopping. Retailers selling consigned clothing are currently expanding at a rapid rate . . . If everyone bought just one used item in a year, it would save 449 million lbs of waste, equivalent to the weight of 1 million Polar bears. “Thrifting” has increasingly become a trendy practice. London is home to many second-hand, or more commonly coined ‘vintage’, shops across the city from Bayswater to Brixton.
So you’re cool and you care about the planet; you’ve killed two birds with one stone. But do people simply purchase a second-hand item, flash it on Instagram with #vintage and call it a day without considering whether what they are doing is actually effective?
According to a study commissioned by Patagonia, for instance, older clothes shed more microfibres. These can end up in our rivers and seas after just one wash due to the worn material, thus contributing to microfibre pollution. To break it down, the amount of microfibres released by laundering 100,000 fleece jackets is equivalent to as many as 11,900 plastic grocery bags, and up to 40 per cent of that ends up in our oceans. . . . So where does this leave second-hand consumers? [They would be well advised to buy] high-quality items that shed less and last longer [as this] combats both microfibre pollution and excess garments ending up in landfills. . . .
Luxury brands would rather not circulate their latest season stock around the globe to be sold at a cheaper price, which is why companies like ThredUP, a US fashion resale marketplace, have not yet caught on in the UK. There will always be a market for consignment but there is also a whole generation of people who have been taught that only buying new products is the norm; second-hand luxury goods are not in their psyche. Ben Whitaker, director at Liquidation Firm B-Stock, told Prospect that unless recycling becomes cost-effective and filters into mass production, with the right technology to partner it, “high-end retailers would rather put brand before sustainability.”
the British don’t buy second-hand clothing.
The reasons given for companies like ThredUP not catching on are in the last paragraph.
Luxury brands “would rather not circulate their latest season stock around the globe to be sold at a cheaper price” (they do not want their product devalued), “high-end retailers would rather put brand before sustainability” (brand image), and recycling is not yet “cost-effective” (financially unattractive).
The passage says the British do buy second-hand clothes: second-hand shopping is “the most common” solution and London has many vintage shops. So this is not a reason.
Hence, the British don’t buy second-hand clothing.
has created environmental problems.
Thrifting is meant to help the planet by reusing clothes.
Yet “older clothes shed more microfibres”, which reach rivers and seas “after just one wash”, contributing to microfibre pollution. An act meant to protect the environment can itself harm it.
That is the irony: thrifting has created environmental problems. Cheap luxury clothing, anti-consumerism and cost for retailers are not described as ironic.
Hence, has created environmental problems.
are of high quality and long lasting.
“Fast fashion” in the passage means cheap clothes bought often and thrown away, filling landfills and shedding microfibres.
The passage advises consumers to buy “high-quality items that shed less and last longer [as this] combats both microfibre pollution and excess garments ending up in landfills”. The opposite of fast fashion, slow fashion, would therefore mean high-quality, long-lasting clothes.
No clothing sheds no microfibres at all, the passage questions vintage shopping rather than praising it, and the bleeding of toxins concerns waste in landfills, not a feature of clothes.
Hence, are of high quality and long lasting.
second-hand stores sold only high-quality clothes.
The central idea is that second-hand shopping, though popular as a green choice, may not be effective because older clothes shed more microfibres; buyers should choose high-quality items that shed less and last longer.
If second-hand stores sold only high-quality clothes, the problem the passage warns about would largely disappear, and its central concern would be undermined.
Buying clothes online, fast fashion brands recycling into vintage stores, or clothes not being burnt in landfills would not affect the argument about worn second-hand clothing shedding microfibres.
Hence, second-hand stores sold only high-quality clothes.
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Study the following sets of concepts and identify the set that is conceptually closest to the concerns and arguments of the passage.
According to the passage, who or what was an “alienist”?
“Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed.” Which one of the following best describes the use of the word “confession” in this sentence?
According to the incentive or moral hazard argument, which one of the designs below is most consistent with the claim that some inequality can raise growth?
Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
The primary function of the three-part case for a positive income inequality–economic growth link in the first half of the passage is to show that:
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Important Questions from Non Grammar
- In formulating Principle VI (a), the ILC clarified the term "waging of a war of aggression" because:
- The author attributes the growing public frustration with the UN primarily to which pair of continuous failures?
- A primary point of divergence between the US Conservative position and the Secretary-General's Conservative position on security matters, according to the summary is:
- According to the critique's conclusion, the immediate, insurmountable barrier preventing the implementation of any reform, major or minor, is:
- The Secretary-General's 'Agenda for Peace' proposed a specific military capability intended to address the gap between traditional peace-keeping and full military action. This proposed unit was explicitly characterized by the summary as being:
