I have no idea how to solve this question. Most of it went over my head and I couldn’t assign any meaning to ‘environmental performance’ and ‘environmental management system’. What do they mean in general?
Blank 1 and 2 support each other:
-
Case 1: Managers who think strong environmental performance is beneficial for company’s finances would consider systems designed to help them manage environmental concerns as valuable tools. In this case, blank 1 and 2 have positive meanings.
-
Case 2: On the other hand, managers who think strong environmental performance is not beneficial for company’s finances would not consider systems designed to help them manage environmental concerns as valuable tools.
The second sentence, “By contrast…” directly shows a contrast to the first sentence. Here is another hint: at the end of the second sentence, the word extraneous is mentioned. Extraneous means “irrelevant”. So this indicates that the sentence 2 will have a meaning similar to extraneous.
Only peripheral has a similar meaning to extraneous. Having sorted blank 3, we can now move on to blank 1 and 2. We already know that second sentence is contradicting the first, so in the first sentence, managers do not think environmental performance is not extraneous to financial performance. Only bolster has a supporting implication for blank 1.
Blank 2 is tricky, even I fell into the trap of appropriately acknowledge at first, but since the second sentence is a strong contrast to the first, like polar opposites, so the word in blank 2 should also be the polar opposite of extraneous. Thus, blank 2 should have a stronger implication than just “appropriately acknowledge”, so uncritically accept is the suitable choice for blank 2.
Let me know if any further questions. Cheers!
1 Like
I don’t understand why blank 2 must be filled with a word similar to extraneous. A manager who cares only about the performance would think environmental concerns are extraneous right?
Thank you for the explanation but I still don’t understand why environmental performance and environmental management are referring to the same idea. Aren’t those terms opposite in meaning?
I never said blank 2 will have same meaning as extraneous. I was talking about second sentence: “By contrast, managers who perceive environmental performance…”
I still don’t understand why environmental performance and environmental management are referring to the same idea. Aren’t those terms opposite in meaning?
As illustrated by last line, those two terms are different factors/approaches because of the use of term “rather than”. Rather than does not necessarily imply opposites, it denotes an alternate choice in this context.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVXEn2BeGvQ&list=PLFzybs-0YWa0gwwtVlcm661yEvl5PuOev&index=102 start at 6:23
2 Likes
I watched this video but I’m still having a hard time understanding what environmental performance means.
Sorry, I meant blank 3
I’m still having a hard time understanding what environmental performance means.
You don’t really need to understand the word environmental performance, it does not really matter. You need to look at the problem more objectively rather than looking subjectively and read the passage again and you will get the answer. Evaluate the passage objectively like I have in my detailed response, you will get it for sure.