LR Drill Set 3, Question 10
Mahogany seedlings can establish themselves only immediately after(59 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ANatural disturbances, such(14 more words not shown)
- BMahogany seedlings generally(10 more words not shown)
- CWhen mahogany loggers(23 more words not shown)
- DIf a natural(34 more words not shown)
- EOnce mahogany seedlings(29 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
These trees start together because they need a cleared space to get started.
The passage says mahogany seedlings establish themselves only immediately after a natural disturbance removes competing vegetation. That helps explain why trees in one area are roughly the same age and size. They aren't steadily adding young trees beneath the older ones; they get established together after the clearing.
That also explains the loggers' behavior. An older stand contains trees that are all marketable, so loggers generally cut the whole stand rather than selecting a few mature trees among many younger ones.
What we’re looking for
For a supported inference, we should stay with those growth conditions. I don't have a specific prediction beyond the connection we've just followed. We can test each choice against the conditions and the same-age pattern we were actually given.
Working the answers
- A
We aren't told what natural disturbances typically do to entire mature stands. We know what must have been cleared for seedlings to establish themselves. A disturbance that leaves competing trees standing might simply fail to allow new seedlings. So the passage doesn't establish the general claim that old stands usually survive such events.
- BCorrect
Seedlings generally cannot establish themselves amid large, mature mahogany trees. The passage requires competing vegetation to be cleared and explains that trees in one area are roughly the same age and size. Regular establishment of little seedlings among mature trees would produce the mixed ages and sizes that this account rules out.
- C
Cutting the mahogany trees doesn't tell us what the loggers do with every other kind of vegetation. They might remove competing bushes too, or they might leave them. The passage doesn't describe that part of their work, so we can't conclude that competing vegetation generally remains.
- D
Clearing away competitors is required for new seedlings; it isn't stated to guarantee them. Perhaps no suitable seeds reach a cleared area, for example. We can accept every growth condition in the passage without assuming that seedlings necessarily establish themselves whenever those conditions are met.
- E
Why couldn't another disturbance happen soon after the first? Imagine a flood clears an area, seedlings begin growing, and another flood affects that area the next year. Nothing in the passage gives the seedlings a protected interval until maturity. E adds a claim about the timing of future disturbances.
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