Q16

[ericha3535]

What's wrong with A and C?

[ohthatpatrick]

It's pretty tough on this question to say why the others are wrong. The first thing I would do, after reading the question stem, is figure out where in the passage the species-energy hypothesis is defined.

Lines 17-22 describe the hypothesis.

Basically, we want an answer that shows a correlation between
solar energy :: growth and reproduction :: biomass :: # of species

The more solar energy, the more growth, the more biomass, the more species diversity.

The less solar energy, the less growth, the less biomass, the less species diversity.

So (E) does a good job illustrating this correlation. The arctic tundra has less solar energy, and so it has slower growth and reproduction.

(A) and (C) don't reinforce this correlation.

(A) is basically showing a large amount of biomass with few species. That reinforces line 23-24 (this line isn't the species-energy hypothesis, but the author's objection to the hypothesis).

(C) is showing a small amount of biomass with a high diversity of species. This is similar to (A) in that it points to a mismatch between biomass and species diversity.

The species-energy hypothesis thinks that biomass and diversity go hand in hand. The more biomass, the more diversity. The less biomass, the less diversity.

Hope this helps.

[squinn621]

I wanted to pick E but where in the passage does it say that solar energy is less in the Arctic?