Soru

Passage A

My childhood summers were defined by the canopy of stars that stretched over my grandmother's porch in rural Vermont. Far from the neon hum of cities, the night sky was not just dark, but a deep, velvet canvas dusted with diamond powder. I remember lying on a wool blanket on the creaking wooden boards, staring up at the Milky Way, feeling both incredibly small and immensely connected to the universe. To me, the stars were quiet companions, whispering ancient stories as they flickered in the cool night breeze.

This personal connection to the cosmos shaped my worldview. In those quiet hours, the constellations were not just distant balls of burning gas; they were characters in a celestial play. Orion stood guard over the eastern horizon, while the Big Dipper offered a familiar ladle to scoop up my imagination. The experience was deeply sensory—the damp grass beneath me, the symphony of crickets, and the cool air that smelled of pine. This nocturnal ritual taught me to appreciate stillness. It was a stylistic contrast to the hectic pace of my school days, offering a space where time seemed to slow down.

As I grew older, I realized that these starry nights were becoming increasingly rare. The steady crawl of suburban development brought streetlights and illuminated billboards, slowly washing out the stars. Today, when I return to Vermont, the sky is still dark, but the brilliant canopy of my youth has faded slightly at the edges. This loss is not merely environmental; it is a loss of wonder, a quiet erosion of the human capacity to sit beneath the infinite and dream. It reminds us that our search for progress often dims the very natural wonders that inspire our most profound reflections.

Passage B

Light pollution is a rapidly growing global environmental issue defined as the inappropriate or excessive use of artificial light. This phenomenon affects not only astronomical observation but also ecological systems and human health. In urban areas, skyglow—the brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas—is primarily caused by poorly designed outdoor lighting. This includes unshielded streetlights, commercial signage, and floodlights that scatter light upward into the atmosphere, reflecting off water droplets and dust particles.

From a scientific perspective, the loss of dark skies is measurable. Astronomers use the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale to quantify the observational quality of a night sky. The scale ranges from Class 1, representing an excellent dark-sky site where the Milky Way is highly detailed, to Class 9, indicating an inner-city sky where only a few stars are visible. Research indicates that more than eighty percent of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies, preventing them from experiencing a natural night.

Beyond the loss of stellar visibility, artificial light at night disrupts the circadian rhythms of nocturnal wildlife. Many bird species migrate using stars for navigation; artificial lights draw them off course, leading to fatal collisions with buildings. Similarly, baby sea turtles, which hatch on beaches and navigate toward the ocean by orienting toward the brightest horizon, are often lured inland by coastal streetlights, where they perish. Solutions to light pollution are relatively simple and cost-effective. They include installing shielded fixtures that direct light downward, using motion sensors to reduce unnecessary illumination, and utilizing warm-wavelength LEDs that produce less scatter. These measures demonstrate that society can maintain safety and visibility while successfully preserving the integrity of the natural night environment.

Which of the following best describes the difference in the rhetorical approaches used by the authors of the two passages?