Reading Comprehension

Technology

Medium

The end of the age of the internal combustion engine is in sight. There are small signs everywhere: the shift to hybrid vehicles is already under way among manufacturers. Volvo has announced it will make no purely petrol-engined cars after 2019 and Tesla has just started selling its first electric car aimed squarely at the middle classes: the Tesla $3$ sells for $35,000 in the US, and 400,000 people have put down a small, refundable deposit towards one. Several thousand have already taken delivery, and the company hopes to sell half a million more next year. This is a remarkable figure for a machine with a fairly short range and a very limited number of specialised charging stations.

Some of it reflects the remarkable abilities of Elon Musk, the company's founder, as a salesman, engineer, and a man able to get the most out his factory workers and the governments he deals with Mr. Musk is selling a dream that the world wants to believe in.

This last may be the most important factor in the story. The private car is...a device of immense practical help and economic significance, but at the same time a theatre for myths of unattainable self-fulfilment. The one thing you will never see in a car advertisement is traffic, even though that is the element in which drivers spend their lives. Every single driver in a traffic jam is trying to escape from it, yet it is the inevitable consequence of mass car ownership.

The sleek and swift electric car is at one level merely the most contemporary fantasy of autonomy and power. But it might also disrupt our exterior landscapes nearly as much as the fossil fuel-engined car did in the last century. Electrical cars would of course pollute far less than fossil fuel-driven ones; instead of oil reserves, the rarest materials for batteries would make undeserving despots and their dynasties fantastically rich. Petrol stations would disappear. The air in cities would once more be breathable and their streets as quiet as those of Venice. This isn't an unmixed good. Cars that were as silent as bicycles would still be as dangerous as they are now to anyone they hit without audible warning.

The dream goes further than that. The electric cars of the future will be so thoroughly equipped with sensors and reaction mechanisms that they will never hit anyone. Just as brakes don't let you skid today, the steering wheel of tomorrow will swerve you away from danger before you have even noticed it.

This is where the fantasy of autonomy comes full circle. The logical outcome of cars which need no driver is that they will become cars which need no owner either. Instead, they will work as taxis do, summoned at will but only for the journeys we actually need. This the future towards which Uber...is working. The ultimate development of the private car will be to reinvent public transport. Traffic jams will be abolished only when the private car becomes a public utility. What then will happen to our fantasies of independence? We'll all have to take to electrically powered bicycles.

The author points out all of the following about electric cars EXCEPT

Their reliance on rare materials for batteries will support despotic rule.

They will reduce air and noise pollution.

They will not decrease the number of traffic jams.

They will ultimately undermine rather than further driver autonomy.

✅ Correct Option: 4

We need to find what the author does NOT say about electric cars. Let us trace through the passage to see what's actually mentioned.

From passage: "instead of oil reserves, the rarest materials for batteries would make undeserving despots and their dynasties fantastically rich"

From passage: "The air in cities would once more be breathable and their streets as quiet as those of Venice"

From passage: "Traffic jams will be abolished only when the private car becomes a public utility"

The author talks about electric cars evolving into something bigger -> autonomous shared vehicles -> but he doesn't directly say that electric cars themselves will undermine driver autonomy.

Let's check each option against what the author actually says:

🟢 Option 1 -> mentioned -> author clearly states rare battery materials will enrich new despots

🟢 Option 2 -> mentioned -> author says air will be "breathable" and streets "quiet as Venice"

🟢 Option 3 -> mentioned -> author says traffic jams will only be abolished when cars become public utilities, meaning electric cars alone won't eliminate jams

🔴 Option 4 -> not mentioned -> author talks about autonomy being undermined by future autonomous cars, not specifically by electric cars themselves

The key confusion here is between electric cars vs autonomous cars. The author describes a progression: electric cars -> sensor-equipped cars -> fully autonomous shared vehicles.

When discussing undermined autonomy, the author is talking about the final stage (autonomous shared cars), not electric cars specifically. He presents electric cars as just the first step in this evolution.

🟠 Option 1 -> clearly stated -> despots will get rich from battery materials

🟠 Option 2 -> clearly stated -> cleaner air and quieter streets

🟠 Option 3 -> clearly stated -> traffic jams won't be solved by electric cars alone

🟢 Option 4 is correct -> the author doesn't say electric cars themselves will undermine autonomy - he saves that point for discussing fully autonomous vehicles

Question 13

Which of the following statements best reflects the author's argument?

Question 15

According to the author, the main reason for Tesla's remarkable sales is that

Question 16

The author comes to the conclusion that

Question 17

In paragraphs 5 and 6, the author provides the example of Uber to argue that

Question 18

In paragraph 6, the author mentions electrically powered bicycles to argue that

The author points out all of the following about electric cars EXCEPT

Solution

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