Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.

the author is a forester in western germany.

from the hidden life of trees

1
years ago, i stumbled across a patch of strange - looking mossy stones in one of the preserves of old beech trees that grows in the forest i manage. casting my mind back, i realized i had passed by them many times before without paying them any heed. but that day, i stopped and bent down to take a good look. the stones were an unusual shape: they were gently curved with hollowed - out areas. carefully, i lifted the moss on one of the stones. what i found underneath was tree bark. so, these were not stones, after all, but old wood. i was surprised at how hard the \stone\ was, because it usually takes only a few years for beechwood lying on damp ground to decompose. but what surprised me most was that i couldnt lift the wood. it was obviously attached to the ground in some way.

2
i took out my pocketknife and carefully scraped away some of the bark until i got down to a greenish layer. green? this color is found only in chlorophyll, which makes new leaves green; reserves of chlorophyll are also stored in the trunks of living trees. that could mean only one thing: this piece of wood was still alive! i suddenly noticed that the remaining \stones\ formed a distinct pattern: they were arranged in a circle with a diameter of about 5 feet. what i had stumbled upon were the gnarled remains of an enormous ancient tree stump. all that was left were vestiges of the outermost edge. the interior had completely rotted into humus long ago—a clear indication that the tree must have been felled at least four or five hundred years earlier. but how could the remains have clung onto life for so long?

3
living cells must have food in the form of sugar, they must breathe, and they must grow, at least a little. but without leaves—and therefore without photosynthesis—thats impossible. no being on our planet can maintain a centuries - long fast, not even the remains of a tree, and certainly not a stump that has had to survive on its own. it was clear that something else was happening with this stump. it must be getting assistance from neighboring

this question has two parts. answer part a, and then answer part b.

part a
this sentence is from the passage.
\but how could the remains have clung onto life for so long?\ (paragraph 2)

how does this question contribute to the development of ideas in the passage?

1. it begins a discussion of an opposing viewpoint.
2. it introduces an explanation of an important idea.
3. it indicates that there will be an unsolvable mystery.
4. it transitions to an example that supports an earlier claim.

part b
select two excerpts from paragraph 3 that best support the correct answer from part a.

1.
o being on our planet can maintain a centuries - long fast\

1. \it was clear that something else was\

reset norelle b: alexander, id#*****72 growth: reading 6+ nc 2017 1.1 question # 17

Explanation:

Part A

To solve this, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The question is not about an opposing viewpoint. It's about the tree remains' survival, so this is incorrect.
• Option 2: The question "But how could the remains have clung onto life for so long?" leads the author to explain the important idea of how the tree stump survived (by getting assistance from neighbors, etc.). So this option fits as it introduces the explanation of the important idea of the stump's survival mechanism.
• Option 3: The passage later explains the mystery, so it's not unsolvable. Thus, this is incorrect.
• Option 4: The question is not a transition to an example supporting an earlier claim. The earlier claim was about the stump being alive, and this question is about how it stayed alive, leading to a new explanation, not supporting an earlier claim.

We need to find excerpts from paragraph 3 that support the idea from Part A (the question introduces an explanation of how the tree remains stayed alive).

• Excerpt 1: "No being on our planet can maintain a centuries - long fast" shows that the stump can't survive on its own, implying it needs assistance, which is part of the explanation of how it stayed alive.
• Excerpt 2: "It was clear that something else was happening with this stump. It must be getting assistance from neighboring..." directly explains that the stump gets help from neighbors, which is the explanation introduced by the question in Part A. (Note: Assuming the second excerpt is something like "It was clear that something else was happening with this stump. It must be getting assistance from neighboring..." as per the context of the passage about the tree stump's survival.)

Answer:

1. It introduces an explanation of an important idea.

Part B