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Environmental advocate: Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both effective at keeping a person warm. The production of both wool fibers and synthetic fibers results in by-products-animal waste and industrial waste, respectively-that cause significant environmental harm if improperly handled. It is true that synthetic sweaters tend to cost significantly less than wool sweaters do, but they are considerably less durable. Thus one wool sweater will last as long as several synthetic ones and, even assuming the same energy consumption to manufacture wool and synthetic sweaters, over one's lifetime purchasing wool sweaters constitutes a significant energy savings as compared to purchasing synthetic sweaters.
Based on the information provided, select for Advantage the option that the environmental advocate most clearly identifies as an advantage of purchasing wool sweaters as compared to synthetic ones, and select for Disadvantage the option that the environmental advocate most clearly identifies as a disadvantage of purchasing wool sweaters as compared to synthetic ones. Make only two selections, one in each column.
Advantage
Disadvantage
Warmth
Cost per unit
Environmental effects of fiber production
Energy consumption from manufacturing
Total environmental effects of waste products
| Passage Statement | Analysis & Implications |
| "Wool sweaters and synthetic sweaters are both effective at keeping a person warm" |
|
| "The production of both... results in by-products... that cause significant environmental harm if improperly handled" |
|
| "Synthetic sweaters tend to cost significantly less than wool sweaters do" |
|
| "They [synthetic] are considerably less durable" |
|
| "Over one's lifetime purchasing wool sweaters constitutes a significant energy savings" |
|
Warmth
Cost per unit
Environmental effects of fiber production
Energy consumption from manufacturing
Total environmental effects of waste products
Advantage: Energy consumption from manufacturing
Disadvantage: Cost per unit
Both answers are directly supported by explicit statements in the passage without requiring additional inference or speculation. The advocate builds an argument that despite wool's higher cost (disadvantage), its durability leads to energy savings (advantage).