#18 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[andriana.caban]

Hi!

Can someone please explain why (E) is correct?

The author says crops that, when crops are rotated, pathogens cannot find a suitable host for a period of time. I chose (A) because I was completely stumped on this one, and assumed the following. I thought that the plants were more resistant to disease. I can see now that, instead of being resistant, crop movement makes the phytopathogens can't latch onto one singular host and be parasitic?

Can some please help explain this one (IN SUPER SIMPLE TERMS!)

[Adam Tyson]

You've found the key language, andriana - it's about pathogens being unable to find a suitable host for a while. Let's look at it in a slightly larger context, but still completely focused on the first paragraph since that is the only place crop rotation is mentioned. There, the author says that cultivating a single crop can be a problem because pathogens build up in the soil. Then we are told that crop rotation (switching out one crop for another, like planting beans where you used to plant corn) can solve the problem by denying the pathogens in the soil a suitable host for a while. That should allow us to infer that the pathogens in the soil that attacked one crop won't be able to do much damage to the next crop, and there we have our answer! It's not about the pathogens that latch onto particular plants, but about the pathogens that have built up in the surrounding soil and their ability to latch onto new plants.

If you like, and because it's so much fun for me, here's an analogy!

Young adults who drop out of college tend to live in their parents' basements for years and years, draining the parents' resources and patience. One way to solve this problem is to sell the house and move, denying the slacker bums a home base.

What can we infer? That the new owners won't let the kid stay in the basement!