How do u approach such daunting ones
The word that best completes the sentence should indicate that as the most productive oil reservoirs dry up, drilling in more marginal locations will become more acceptable.
The phrase “high costs and potential risks” suggests that drilling in marginal locations may be challenging and burdensome. Therefore, we are looking for a word that means “burdensome” or “difficult to bear.”
Option (b) “onerous” fits this context perfectly, as it means burdensome, difficult to bear, or involving heavy obligations or responsibilities.
Therefore, the correct answer is (b) onerous.
Better to highlight your approach and reasoning first
why not redundant?
I am not able to reason myself through onerous…drilling can be challenging but again challenging is not a synonym for burdensome…and just because it has risks does it mean that is difficult to carry out
I seriously think redundant and paltry work as well…
The context of the sentence is that as oil reservoirs begin to dry up, drilling in more marginal locations will become more acceptable despite its high costs and potential risks. So we’re looking for a word that describes something negative (high costs and potential risks) becoming less negative
“Redundant” means repetitive or unnecessary. If we substitute “redundant” into the blank, the sentence would read: “The geologist suggested that as the most productive oil reservoirs begin to dry up, the high costs and potential risks of drilling in more marginal locations will come to seem less repetitive/unnecessary and more acceptable.”
This doesn’t make sense in context because it implies that the high costs and potential risks were previously considered repetitive or unnecessary. However, there’s no indication in the sentence that this was the case. Instead, we’re looking for a word that describes something negative (high costs and potential risks) becoming less negative.
So while “redundant” might fit grammatically in the blank, it doesn’t make sense in context. That’s why “onerous” is a better choice than “redundant.”
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thx this makes complete sense…I think we can eliminate paltry on similar grounds as well
I stopped reading as soon as you wrote “I think”
because what it really means that you’ll be not providing me with a reasonable explanation on why you end up choosing a certain answer choice given the context / clue given in the text rather what it says is "I relied on my ear and choose the answer " - ETS peeps loves people who relies on their ear!
Always justify your reasoning. For eg if you select option A then provide context from within the text that provides justification for your answer choice