The social scientists, especially the economists, are moving deeply into ecology and the environment these days, with disquieting results. It goes somehow against the grain to learn that cost-benefit analyses can be done neatly on lakes, meadows, nesting gannets, and even whole oceans. It is hard enough to confront the environmental options ahead, and the hard choices, but even harder when the price tags are so visible. Even the new jargon is disturbing: it hurts the spirit, somehow, to read the word “environments,” when the plural means that there are so many alternatives there to be sorted through, as in a market, and voted on. Economists need cool heads and cold hearts for this sort of work, and they must write in icy, often skiddy, prose.

–“Natural Man,”
Lewis Thomas

In the first sentence of the first paragraph, the writer uses the word "disquieting” to express disapproval of

the dominant influence of consumerism in society.
citizens’ failure to adopt sustainable economic practices.
methods and perspectives adopted by social scientists.
the environmental impact of certain businesses and industries.
office environments in which economists and other social scientists work.

A context clue refers to the hints in a literary work, which provides a reader the meaning of an unfamiliar word, phrase or sentence, that is literally hidden in plain sight by an author (writer).

Based on the excerpt from the literary work above, we can infer and logically deduce that the writer used the word "disquieting” to express disapproval of the environmental impact of certain businesses and industries.

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