Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 1...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 16 to 23.

        In 2019, the United States registered roughly 320,000 new electric-vehicle sales, ranking behind China and Europe in overall scale. Battery-electric vehicles dominated the mix at about 73%, while plug-in hybrids made up the remaining 27%. Despite this volume, the national electric share of new-vehicle sales hovered near 2%, revealing a still-nascent transition. The figures indicate an uneven diffusion: impressive absolute numbers coexist with a modest market fraction, suggesting that consumer confidence, model choice, and policy scaffolding must interact before EVs become truly commonplace.

        Regional patterns were striking. West-coast uptake averaged about 7% – three-and-a-half times the national norm – with California alone accounting for nearly half of new EV sales. San Jose led with roughly 20%, and other California areas, alongside Seattle and Portland, ranged from 4.5% to 12%. Major metros such as Austin, Boston, Denver, Hartford, New York, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. exceeded the national average as well. In sheer additions to the fleet, Los Angeles topped the list, followed by San Francisco, San Jose, and New York, underscoring concentrated growth corridors.

        Model choice proved pivotal. Twenty-nine electric models surpassed 1,000 U.S. sales in 2019, up from 27 a year earlier; the top five markets each offered at least 25 models, while half the population could access fewer than 12. Greater availability of models is pivotal, and state-level zero-emission mandates are the most direct lever to overcome scarcity. The geographic heterogeneity of offerings compounds adoption gaps: where showrooms present a broad catalogue, consumers respond; where options are thin, curiosity rarely converts to purchase.

        Charging deployment kept pace: across 50 metropolitan areas, compounded annual growth around 30% positioned networks to narrow the expected gap through 2025. Areas with the highest EV shares generally maintained at least 450 public chargers per million residents; San Jose operated at roughly three times that benchmark, yet half of Americans lived where access was less than half the same yardstick. These activities – regulations, consumer incentives, infrastructure build-out, and awareness programs – attenuate uptake barriers. With upfront cost still salient, typical state incentives of $2,000–$5,000 helped bridge the purchase-price delta as batteries kept getting cheaper.

(Adapted from International Council on Clean Transportation, “Update on electric-vehicle adoption across U.S. cities,” 2019)

Question 16. The word heterogeneity in paragraph 3 is OPPOSITE in meaning to ______.

A. diversity                B. disparity                        C. uniformity                        D. variety