Read the Passage below and answer the question.
The sun is the most abundant source of energy in the solar system. Every day, 173,000 terawatts1 of energy-100,000 times more energy than humans use-strike the earth in the form of sunlight. Sunlight consists of visible light; ultra violet light, which is responsible for the production of Vitamin D in our skin; and infrared radiation, which heats the air, water, and ground, and constitutes nearly 50 percent of the total solar radiation reaching the earth. Without the sun, life on Earth would not exist. One would think that all that free, available energy would have been harnessed long ago, but only in recent decades have people taken a serious interest in the sun as a source of alternative renewable energy.
So far, the world has relied on wood, oil, coal, and natural gas to produce energy for heating, lighting, transportation, and manufacturing. Since the 1950 s, the world consumption has been increasing relentlessly. In the year 2000,80 percent of commercial energy was generated from the combustion of fossil fuels, and every day, 50 million barrels of oil are refined and converted to gasoline and other fuels. In addition to the rapid depletion of fossil fuels, the consequences of high consumption rates are pollution and global warming.
Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have been causing global temperatures to rise, with the greatest increase occurring in the last decade. In the 1990s, global CO2 emissions rose by 1.3 percent per year. Between 2000 and 2006, annual CO2 emissions increased to 3.3 percent, and since then they have been accelerating. To meet the 50-60 percent increase in energy demand by 2030, as predicted by the International Energy Agency, and to prevent the disastrous effects of global warming, people have been looking to the sun.
The most practical form of solar energy is passive solar energy, which occurs when natural light floods in through windows or is absorbed by stone or concrete walls. In 1956, the world's first commercial solar building was constructed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by engineers Frank Bridgers and Don Paxton. Considered ahead of its time, architect Francis Stanley's design provided for large sloping south-facing windows to capture infrared radiation, following the same principles used by the ancient Romans to heat their bathhouses. Passive solar energy is now being incorporated into environmentally friendly building designs, which include double- or triple-glazed windows and insulated walls and ceilings to trap heat, Trombe walls painted black to maximize the absorption of infrared radiation, and mirrors or fiber optics to enhance natural lighting.
Find out the word from the passage which is an antonym of 'decreasing'.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → accelerating
- Decreasing means becoming smaller in size, amount or speed. The question asks for a word in the passage with the opposite sense.
Example: The number of sparrows in our cities is decreasing. - Accelerating means increasing in speed or rate. The passage uses it of CO2 emissions, which "have been accelerating". Growth is the opposite of decrease, so accelerating is the antonym of decreasing.
Example: The car kept accelerating down the empty highway.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: relied — Incorrect. To rely on is to depend on something ("the world has relied on wood, oil, coal"). It says nothing about growing or shrinking.
Example: The farmers relied on the monsoon for water.
Option 2: absorbed — Incorrect. Absorbed means taken in or soaked up (light "absorbed by stone or concrete walls"). It is not about increase.
Example: The dry soil absorbed the rain at once.
Option 4: diminishing — Incorrect. Diminishing means becoming less. It has the same meaning as decreasing, so it is a synonym, not an antonym. (It is also not a word used in the passage.)
Example: His interest in the game was slowly diminishing.
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