Question

read the passage: there are several questions about this passage. the author is a biologist and college professor. he is considered one of the worlds experts on snakes. from tracks and shadows 1 rainforests are dimly lit and exceptionally diverse—claustrophobically dark and fecund—so no wonder tropical biologists end up puzzling over existential questions. at la selva biological station in costa rica, giant trees with buttressed trunks tower overhead, obscuring the sky, and every glimpse holds the vibrant greens and somber browns of plants and their decaying remnants. after a torrential shower the air reverberates with the buzzes, whines, and clicks of insects. mantled howler monkeys sound off in the distance. all around us leaf litter reeks from the chemical adventures of microbes, and over the course of hours my puny primate nose wrinkles toward some collared peccaries, then heaps of rotting fruit and a pile of cat droppings. rounding a trail curve im baffled by a shimmering lavender stripe, dozens of yards long and a half - inch tall; then i drop to my knees and contemplate thousands of leaf - cutter ants, each carrying a single delicate flower petal. and from time to time, slogging along the muddy paths, i imagine being overgrown by mosses and fungi, or devoured by spike - headed katydids the size of small mice. 2 setting aside matters of life and death for the moment, what do ecologists mean by \exceptionally diverse,\ and why might anyone care? a comparison among some familiar places illustrates how numbers of species increase toward the equator, culminating in unparalleled tropical richness. california reaches from death valleys floor to mount whitneys summit, spans parched salt flats to drenched redwood groves, and yet across ten degrees of latitude boasts only thirty - five species of snakes. almost twice that number occur in la selvas five square miles, as if a house full of serpents were packed into a thimble. and there are nearly four hundred species of birds, more than half as this question has two parts. answer part a, and then answer part b. part a this sentence is from the passage. \those sun - loving newcomers are eventually replaced by shade - tolerant species, so that natural disturbances further increase diversity by generating patchworks of succession in what at first glance appears to be unbroken forest.\ (paragraph 3) what does the phrase patchworks of succession mean in the sentence? 1. dim parts of the rainforest that are the most dense and least sunny 2. hidden places in the rainforest that are difficult to locate and observe 3. small sections of the rainforest where the largest numbers of species live 4. random areas in the rainforest where changing conditions promote new growth part b which excerpt from paragraph 3 best supports the

Explanation:

In the context of the rain - forest described, natural disturbances cause changes. "Patchworks of succession" refers to areas where changing conditions (due to natural disturbances) lead to new growth. Sun - loving species are replaced by shade - tolerant ones, indicating a process of change and new growth in different areas of the forest.

Answer:

Part A: 4. random areas in the rainforest where changing conditions promote new growth
Part B: "Those sun - loving newcomers are eventually replaced by shade - tolerant species, so that natural disturbances further increase diversity by generating patchworks of succession in what at first glance appears to be unbroken forest."