LR Drill Set 13, Question 9
Dead, rotting logs on the forest floor provide(72 more words not shown)
The information above provides the(9 more words not shown)
- AThe presence of(15 more words not shown)
- BThe red-backed vole(14 more words not shown)
- CYoung, growing trees(13 more words not shown)
- DThe spores of(17 more words not shown)
- EDead and decaying(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A dead tree can help a living tree. Follow the little animal between them.
The rotting log provides a home for a red-backed vole. The vole eats certain fungi and spreads their spores across the forest floor. Some of the resulting fungi grow around living tree roots, where they help supply nutrients and protect the trees against disease.
What we’re looking for
That is an indirect connection, but a useful one: logs support voles, voles spread fungi, and some fungi help trees. We don't need to jump from 'helps' to 'the trees would all die without it.' The question asks what the information supports, so a modest conclusion about beneficial effects can capture the relationship without claiming every link is indispensable.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Rotting logs can benefit nearby trees through this chain. They provide habitat for the voles that spread fungal spores, and some fungi developing from those spores aid growing trees. The answer says 'can have beneficial effects,' which is just the right level of claim. It doesn't require a log to feed a tree directly or to guarantee the tree's survival.
- B
The voles eat the aboveground portion of the fungi. The passage doesn't identify the spores in particular as a source from which the voles usually obtain nutrients. Distributing spores and obtaining nutrients from them are different roles. We shouldn't substitute a claim about the spores for the broader description of the voles' food.
- C
Assistance isn't the same as necessity. Trees might receive the nutrients or disease protection they need in other ways, or some could survive without this particular assistance. The passage doesn't say that removing the voles makes survival impossible. C turns a helpful relationship into an absolute requirement.
- D
Some fungi form sheaths underground, but that doesn't establish that their spores cannot remain viable aboveground. In fact, the passage describes spores being deposited on the forest floor without specifying such a survival limit. The location of one stage of growth doesn't supply the rule D claims about spores.
- E
The logs are described as habitat for voles, not as the ideal place for fungi to grow. Even if fungi can grow on decaying wood, 'ideal' would require a comparison with other environments that we aren't given. The supported chain runs through the vole's habitat and spore distribution, not a ranking of fungal growing conditions.
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