SAT OwlBefore the invention of mechanical refrigeration, people in cold climates often cut blocks of ice from frozen lakes in winter and stored them in icehouses packed with sawdust. The sawdust slowed the flow of heat into the ice. In some icehouses, ice cut in January lasted until the following September. This suggests that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
well-insulated icehouses could preserve ice through most of the warm months of the year.
sawdust was more expensive than ice in the years before refrigeration.
lakes in cold climates froze only during the month of January.
mechanical refrigeration was invented mainly to replace sawdust.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Ice cut in January that lasted until September survived spring and summer. Because the text credits the sawdust with slowing heat flow, the logical conclusion is that insulated icehouses could keep ice through most of the warm season, as choice A states.
Choice C misreads the January detail, which tells us when the ice was cut, not that lakes froze only in that month.
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