PrepTest 147, Section 3, Question 5
In the last half-century, firefighters in North America(454 more words not shown)
The passage provides the most(15 more words not shown)
- APonderosas that thrived(14 more words not shown)
- BThe population density(16 more words not shown)
- CWeather patterns in(12 more words not shown)
- DThe diversity of(14 more words not shown)
- EIn addition to(15 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Ancient ponderosa forests had periodic fires that cleared brush and young trees while leaving mature trees alive. Many modern ponderosa forests have gone fifty years or longer without those fires. Put those facts together: ancient forests should generally have had fewer trees crowded into the same area.
What we’re looking for
Keep the inference tied to what gets removed. Fewer individual plants is different from fewer kinds of plants, and neither tells us that the trees had different genes.
Working the answers
- A
No genetic comparison is made. Different conditions and fire patterns do not establish genetic differences between ancient and modern ponderosas.
- BCorrect
Low-intensity fires kept ancient forests open by removing young trees. Suppression lets fuel, including that younger growth, accumulate. This supports lower tree density in the ancient forests compared with many modern ones.
- C
The contrast concerns fire suppression, not a stated change in weather patterns. We cannot supply that change ourselves.
- D
Tree density is not species diversity. A forest could contain more individual plants without containing more species, so the discussion does not support this comparison of diversity.
- E
The wildlife deaths are associated with large, destructive fires. The text specifically contrasts those with low-intensity fires that wildlife might escape. It does not establish that the smaller ancient fires served to control wildlife populations.
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