Question

Use the passage to answer the question.

One year, in an effort to get the community more interested in conserving resources to help the planet, the city council started a new recycling rewards program. Each citizen would compete against the others for points to be earned by recycling paper, plastic, and metal items. To motivate these recycling efforts, the city would hold monthly meetings to acknowledge those citizens who had turned in a certain volume of materials. . . .
Six months into the program, as Benjamin sat, waiting for the ceremony to begin, he began chatting with the man seated to his right. It was the man’s first time to be invited, and he was ecstatic at having been recognized finally as a good recycler.
“We had to subscribe to three extra newspapers to do it,” he confided to Benjamin. “We just weren’t generating enough paper products to get on the score board!”
“What a great idea!” exclaimed the woman sitting to Benjamin’s left. “I started buying boxes of soda cans for my husband. He used to drink soda in those big 2-liter bottles, but the cans fill up the recycling bin so much better!”
What is the author satirizing in this passage?

(1 point)
Responses

people not realizing the consequences of their actions
people not realizing the consequences of their actions

the man’s excitement about being in the recycling program
the man’s excitement about being in the recycling program

Benjamin’s interest in helping the environment
Benjamin’s interest in helping the environment

the pointlessness of trying to combat climate change

Answer 1

people not realizing the consequences of their actions

They’re satirized for gaming the reward system (subscribing to papers, buying cans) without understanding that their actions may be counterproductive to the environment.