Question

a source of freshwater
water needs. but by 2025, 14 percent of us will lack freshwater. we
will have to make more freshwater. so, desalination has a strong
future.
2 desalination removes salt from water to make freshwater.
people learned how to do this long ago. aristotle wrote about it in
320 bce. sailors turned salt water into drinking water in the 1770s.
then methods got better during world war ii. soldiers in the
desert needed water. in the 1950s, people found new ways to filter
seawater. by the 1990s, many cities were making freshwater from
the sea.
3 in the last 10 years, the use of desalination has grown. the
largest projects are in saudi arabia, australia, algeria, and israel.
in california, a new plant will soon serve the people of san diego.
it will make 56 million gallons of freshwater each day!
4 as it is used more, desalination becomes more inexpensive. as
its costs go down, desalination offers relief that can quench the
needs of those in areas hit by drought. desalination is a solution
for the future.
in paragraph 4, what does inexpensive mean?
○ high quality
○ low quality
○ high in cost
○ low in cost

Explanation:

To determine the meaning of "inexpensive", we analyze the context of paragraph 4. The sentence "As its costs go down, desalination offers relief..." shows that "inexpensive" relates to cost. The prefix "in - " in "inexpensive" means "not", and "expensive" means "high in cost", so "inexpensive" means "low in cost". The other options (high quality, low quality, high in cost) do not match the cost - related context.

Answer:

D. low in cost (assuming the options are labeled A to D with D being "low in cost")