rather less usefully

[Melody Z]

Hi teachers,

Thanks for your attention. This is a question from a passage and I don't understand it. Kindly taking you minutes to see it and I need your help : )
The answer is B and I don't know why. Could you help me to understand it? And what's the meaning of "rather less usefully"in here?

Thanks again and wish you have a nice day.

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum.

We can see that there is a watermark on the screenshot so the content is clearly copyrighted. Before we continue, you must provide the source and author of the text.

 

[Melody Z]

Welcome to the forum.

We can see that there is a watermark on the screenshot so the content is clearly copyrighted. Before we continue, you must provide the source and author of the text.

thanks for your reminder.
This information is a quote from 杰哥托福阅读
link: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/444040678

 

[probus]

Thank you for the source material, Melody Z. "Rather less usefully" is the sort of tiny ironic joke occasionally found in scholarly papers. If the hypothetical organisms deep underground happen to degrade pollutants, that might be somewhat beneficial to us and to other life forms. But if they instead or in addition degrade the containers of buried nuclear waste, that would be an environmental catastrophe.

I hope that explains why they give b as the correct answer, although it's not clear to me why the first effect is considered negative.

 

[SoothingDave]

The correct answer is D. The organisms might help purify groundwater (benefit). Or they could dissolve containers full of radioactive waste (danger).

 

[jutfrank]

Purifying groundwater is useful. Dissolving the team's containers is less useful. In fact, it isn't useful at all!

 

[Tdol]

The writers seem to be suggesting that solving nuclear waster problems isn't that important. Many might disagree.

 

[jutfrank]

The writers seem to be suggesting that solving nuclear waster problems isn't that important. Many might disagree.

Where do you get that idea?

 

[Tarheel]

@Melody Z Try:

This is a question about a passage I don't understand.

And:
.
Would you help me understand it? What is the meaning of "rather less usefully" here?

(The text is not mobile-friendly.)

 

[Melody Z]

The correct answer is D. The organisms might help purify groundwater (benefit). Or they could dissolve containers full of radioactive waste (danger).

Thanks for your kind reply, Dave.
Actually D is the answer I chose before, but the correct answer is B. I really feel strange of that.

 

[Melody Z]

Thank you for the source material, Melody Z. "Rather less usefully" is the sort of tiny ironic joke occasionally found in scholarly papers. If the hypothetical organisms deep underground happen to degrade pollutants, that might be somewhat beneficial to us and to other life forms. But if they instead or in addition degrade the containers of buried nuclear waste, that would be an environmental catastrophe.

I hope that explains why they give b as the correct answer, although it's not clear to me why the first effect is considered negative.

Happy to have your reply, probus. Your kind explanation make sense to me. And I would like to understand further of the use of "Rather less usefully". Could you mind make an example of this phrase?
Thanks in advance for your kind help: )

 

[probus]

It isn't an idiom. Each of the three words has its usual meaning, so all you need is a dictionary and you'll have a full understanding. Try onelook.com.

 

[Tarheel]

Thanks for your kind reply, Dave.
Actually D is the answer I chose before, but the correct answer is B. I really feel strange of that.

I don't know what you are referring to by using those letters. However, try:

My answer was D, however the answer key says the correct answer is B.

 

[Melody Z]

I don't know what you are referring to by using those letters. However, try:

My answer was D, however the answer key says the correct answer is B.

Thanks, Tarheel. It's very kind of you to correct my mistakes.

 

[Tarheel]

It's hard for me to read that stuff. However, I'm 90% sure I agree with what the others have said. (They gave good explanations.)

 

[SoothingDave]

Thanks for your kind reply, Dave.
Actually D is the answer I chose before, but the correct answer is B. I really feel strange of that.

I am telling you that the answer key is wrong.

 

[Glizdka]

It's difficult to analyze humor.

We take usefully because the organisms usefully degrade organic polutants and maintain the purity of groundwaters.

We contrast it by using less because we're about to use a counterargument. These organisms are less usefully degrading the containers in which we were proposing to store nuclear waste.

Then we can add a hint of sour sweetness by adding a moderately strong, not-so-ordinary modifier like rather. It's meant to be funny.

I believe there's a solution the honorable gentlemen aren't seeing. We could always eradicate these microorganisms by dumping even more nuclear waste underground.

 

[jutfrank]

As probus said in post #4, there's an ironic understatement there. The idea of saying that leaking radioactive material into the ocean is 'less useful' than degrading organic pollutants is meant to be ironic.