#2 - Being near woodlands, the natural habitat of bees

[blaisebayno]

HI there,

I am deeply confused by this question. I have no idea why A is correct despite reading all of the forum explanations. I do not see what frequency of pollination is at all linked to the argument. By my understanding, the argument contends with the health of crops, which, I may have falsely assumed were far away from the woodlands. Otherwise, why would the fact that the bees often go far from the woodlands to pollinate be relevant information? Please help. I chose C.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Blaise,

Is it possible you have the stimulus flipped around? The stimulus says that the bees DON'T often go far from the woodlands.

Our stimulus gives us a causal relationship:

Close to woodlands CAUSES good health in plants that need pollination.

The stimulus then explains, saying that bees are frequent pollinators, and they usually visit flowers close to their woodland home more than those far away.

But why does the number of visits matter? Could that be related to pollination? We can't assume that it is, so that might be what you are overlooking here.

If anything answer choice (C) would be closest to weakening the causal relationship by suggesting that pollination can happen away from the woodlands. We want to show that pollination, plant health, and visits by pollinators are all connected.

Answer choice (A) makes the link we need. These plants depend on pollination. Being close to the woodlands makes pollination more likely by increasing the visits of the most common pollinator, bees.

Hope that helps!