Question

Paper or Plastic? Neither!
The deceptively simple question at the grocery check stand is “Paper or plastic?” However, the story is much more complicated. When plastic bags were introduced, consumers liked the lightweight convenience. The fact that no trees were cut down in the production of plastic bags was another advantage. The real truth is that both plastic and paper bags burn far too much energy and are destructive to the environment.

Almost 1 million plastic bags are used every minute. That is over 100 billion bags a year in the United States alone, with 500 billion bags used yearly around the world. Not only are plastic bags energy wasters, but also they are harmful to the environment. These so-called “disposable” bags will outlive all of us for generations and generations, remaining on the land for about 1,000 years.

Compared to plastic bags, paper bags seem a vast improvement. However, that is a misconception. Producing a paper bag consumes approximately three times the amount of energy that it takes to produce a plastic bag. In addition, paper bags require logging at monstrous rates. In 1999, 14 million trees were sacrificed in order to manufacture 10 billion paper bags. Those statistics are just for the United States; imagine what the global totals are.

Even though this news is bleak, there is hope for change. In 2002, Ireland imposed a tax on plastic bags. This measure reduced plastic bag usage by 90%. Consumers turned to reusable cloth shopping bags. In contrast to paper and plastic bags, reusable cloth bags have no real disadvantages. Each reusable bag you use could mean that 1,000 fewer plastic bags are used. Reusable bags can also save consumers money. Many stores offer a discount of $.05 to $.10 for each reusable bag.

Read this sentence from paragraph 3.

In addition, paper bags require logging at monstrous rates.
Which word best describes the connotation of monstrous in this sentence?

A.
ridiculous

B.
enormous

C.
vicious

D.
hideous

Answer 1

B. enormous

"Monstrous" here conveys extremely large or excessive rates (enormous), not ridiculous, vicious, or hideous.