请教OG15 第13篇，54题

Among the myths taken as fact by the environmental managersof most corporations is the belief that environmental regulations affect all competitors in agiven industry uniformly.In reality, regulatorycosts—and therefore compliance—fall unevenly,economically disadvantaging some companies and benefiting others. Forexample, a plant situated near a number of larger noncompliant competitors isless likely to attract the attention of local regulators than is an isolatedplant, and less attention means lower costs. Additionally, largeplants can spread compliance costssuch as waste treatment across a larger revenuebase; on the other hand,some smaller plants maynot even be subject to certain provisions such as permit or reporting requirementsby virtue of their size. Finally,older production technologies often continueto generate toxic wastes that were not regulated when the technology was firstadopted. New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companiesstill using older industrial coal-fired burners that generate high sulfurdioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs, for example, whereas new facilitiesgenerally avoid processes that would create such waste products. By realizing that they havediscretion and that not all industries are affected equally by environmentalregulation, environmental managers can help their companies to achieve acompetitive edge by anticipating regulatory pressure and exploring allpossibilities for addressing how changing regulations will affect theircompanies specifically.

54. Which of the following best describesthe relationship of the statement about large plants (lines 12-17) to thepassage as a whole?

A. It presents a hypothesis that isdisproved later in the passage

B. It highlights an opposition between twoideas mentioned in the passage.

C. It provides examples to support a claimmade earlier in the passage.

D. It exemplifies a misconception mentionedearlier in the passage.

E. It draws an analogy between twosituations described in the passage.