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Craft and StructureMediumContrasting which costs each text counts

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 Northgate Grocers replaced 60 diesel delivery vans with electric models in 2020. The electricity for a day's route costs about a third of the diesel it displaced, and the vans, which have no oil to change and far fewer moving parts, spend less time in the shop. Fleet manager Rosa Delgado calculates that the higher purchase price of the electric vans was fully recovered in fuel and maintenance savings within four years. Text 2 The sticker price is the easy part of fleet electrification. Sixty vans returning to a single depot each evening need chargers, and often a new transformer, a service upgrade from the utility, and trenching across the yard — expenses that land on the depot's books rather than the vehicles'. Where a utility bills commercial customers for peak demand, an evening charging surge adds a further monthly fee. Payback figures that count only fuel and maintenance are incomplete.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the two texts discuss the costs of switching to electric vans?

  1. A. Text 1 accounts for costs attached to the vehicles themselves, whereas Text 2 stresses costs arising at the depot and from the utility.Correct
  2. B. Text 1 treats the purchase price as the only cost worth considering, whereas Text 2 also takes fuel into account.
  3. C. Text 1 analyzes costs that accumulate over several years, whereas Text 2 analyzes costs incurred only at the moment of purchase.
  4. D. Text 1 concludes that the switch proved too expensive, whereas Text 2 concludes that it proved economical.

Answer: A. Text 1 accounts for costs attached to the vehicles themselves, whereas Text 2 stresses costs arising at the depot and from the utility.

Delgado's figure covers purchase price, fuel, and maintenance — all vehicle-side items — while Text 2 adds chargers, transformers, trenching, and demand fees, which it explicitly assigns to "the depot's books." B misreads Text 1, which counts fuel and maintenance savings, and misassigns fuel to Text 2. C reverses the texts: Text 2 names an ongoing monthly fee, so its costs are not confined to purchase. D inverts both authors' conclusions.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. Text 1 treats the purchase price as the only cost worth considering, whereas Text 2 also takes fuel into account.
Text 1 does count fuel and maintenance — Delgado's four-year payback is built on exactly those savings. So purchase price isn't its only cost, and fuel isn't what Text 2 adds.
C. Text 1 analyzes costs that accumulate over several years, whereas Text 2 analyzes costs incurred only at the moment of purchase.
This reverses the texts. Text 2 names a recurring monthly peak-demand fee alongside one-time trenching and transformer work, so its costs aren't confined to the moment of purchase.
D. Text 1 concludes that the switch proved too expensive, whereas Text 2 concludes that it proved economical.
Both conclusions are flipped: Text 1 reports that the higher purchase price was fully recovered within four years, while Text 2 argues that payback figures are incomplete.

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