Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.
from settled in the wild
1
it is a rainy morning, the first week of may, good weather to plant nasturtiums. i sit on the porch steps with rubber boots on, a baseball cap, and a slicker, holding the packages of seeds i bought at the feed store in town yesterday. the rain is steady and cold, the light is steel gray, and the yard is patchy and wet. but the pictures on the packages vibrate with color. nothing looks as good as these nasturtium flowers right now: deep red, eye - jolting orange, electric yellow.
2
absentmindedly, i begin to recite william wordsworth’s “i wandered lonely as a cloud” to myself. i have known the poem by heart ever since my father taught it to me when i was a child:
for oft, when on my couch i lie
in vacant or in pensive mood,
they flash upon the inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude;
and then my heart with pleasure fills,
and dances with the daffodils.
3
wordsworth’s inner eye saw daffodils. i say the poem and see hummingbirds. the nasturtiums are for them, and planting the flowers is my gesture of faith that they will come back to my yard once more. as i rip open the packages and push the seeds into the dirt, i know that these tiny bright - colored nectar - drinking birds, each of whom weighs only a few grams—about the weight of four or five of these seeds—have already whirred in erratic flocks across five hundred miles of open water, running the gulf of mexico in a twenty - six - hour heat.
4
hummers do exactly what physiologists once insisted they could not do. a bird that weighs so little, they argued, cannot go from the yucatan to the
this question has two parts. answer part a, and then answer part b.
part a
which statement best expresses the author’s point of view about the hummingbirds’ migration?

1. the migration is a surprisingly reliable sign of spring.
2. the migration is a remarkably challenging journey.
3. the migration provides an example of the wisdom of nature.
4. the migration provides strong evidence that scientists can be wrong.

part b
select two excerpts that best show the author advancing the correct point of view from part a.

1. “hummers do exactly what physiologists once insisted they could not do.” (paragraph 4)
2. “the only species of hummingbird that” (cut off)

reset

Explanation:

Part A

To solve this, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The passage doesn't focus on migration as a spring sign.
• Option 2: While migration is challenging, the author's main point about hummingbird migration relates to nature's wisdom (planting seeds in faith they'll return, and their ability to do what was thought impossible, showing nature's inherent wisdom).
• Option 3: The author plants nasturtiums in faith the hummingbirds will return, and notes they do what scientists thought impossible, illustrating nature's wisdom.
• Option 4: The passage isn't about proving scientists wrong, but about the hummingbirds' migration as part of nature's wisdom.

So the best statement is option 3.

We need to find excerpts that support the view from Part A (migration shows nature's wisdom).

• Excerpt 1: "Hummers do exactly what physiologists once insisted they could not do." This shows hummingbirds' migration defies scientific expectations, illustrating nature's wisdom (they have an inherent ability scientists misunderstood).
• We assume the second relevant excerpt (from the visible part, though the second option is cut, but from the first part, excerpt 1 and likely another about their journey/ability) – but from the given, excerpt 1 is valid, and we'll assume the other relevant one (but based on the first visible, excerpt 1 and let's check the first option. Also, the part about their journey: "these tiny bright - colored nectar - drinking birds... have already whirred in erratic flocks across five hundred miles... in a twenty - six - hour heat" (from paragraph 3) would also support, but from the given options, option 1 is one, and we need to pick two. But from the provided options, the first option ("Hummers do exactly what physiologists once insisted they could not do. (Paragraph 4)") is correct, and likely another about their migration journey showing their natural ability (nature's wisdom). But based on the given, we'll select the first option and assume the other (but since the second option is cut, we'll go with the first and the one about their journey, but from the visible, the first option is correct.

Answer:

1. The migration provides an example of the wisdom of nature.

Part B