Question

read the passage. there are several questions about this passage.
7 i have read that rubys survive cool maine nights by falling into torpor, a short hibernation that lowers their body temperatures and slows their metabolisms. rousing at daylight takes time and the warmth of the sun.
8 a reptilian adaptation, torpor prevents the birds from starving to death in the dark. the little motors idle, loop out, and sometimes hang upside down, they cling with their toes locked to thin branches.
9 females brood their newly hatched young in nests smaller than eggcups. i found one once and discovered the two snug nestlings. featherless, rubbery gray, they looked like ticks after a good feed. no hint of the glittering refulgence to come.
10 the iridescent reds and greens of the mature bird are tricks played by the feathers, whose structures fracture the sun’s rays, causing them to scatter. in shadow, the male hummer’s throat is black, but when light is broken against it, the feathers throw back that ruby flash.
11 a few fossilized bones of hummers have been found in their wintering places, just a few. other ancient birds and ferns and shells and insects and flowers and rat - like mammals have pressed their marks into dust and mud in abundance, but the tiny flower pollinators of a million years past have left scant record.
12 europeans, who had never seen the birds until they came to the new world, bestowed upon them dazzling names. there is the amethyst - throated sun angel and the glowing puffleg, the black - hooded sunbeam and the blue - throated star frontlet. in france and england, the rich adorned their capes and hats with hundreds of the jewel - like skins. we do not know how many species were lost before we could name them.
13 in central america they are called chupaflorez flower suckers. a tough - sounding name for a tough and willful bird. a chupaflor will challenge hawks and eagles who fly too close to its nest. it scolds snakes and squirrels. a chupaflor will try to drive bees and butterflies away from the blossoms it guards. a swaggering, irritable little bird. but it dies in fragile ways. chupas have been swallowed by frogs, gnawed to death by praying mantids, stuck in webs and rolled up by garden spiders, snatched out of the air by dragonflies, gulped down by bass, pronged on thistles.
which idea about hummingbirds is least explained in the passage?

1. what the birds do to “survive cool maine nights” (paragraph 7)
2. what creates colors of “iridescent reds and greens” in the mature bird (paragraph 10)
3. why only a “few fossilized bones” of the birds have been found (paragraph 11)
4. why some bird “species were lost” before being named (paragraph 12)

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze each option by checking the relevant paragraphs:

Option 1:

Paragraph 7 states: "rubys survive cool Maine nights by falling into torpor, a short hibernation that lowers their body temperatures and slows their metabolisms. Rousing at daylight takes time and the warmth of the sun." This explains what the birds do to survive cool Maine nights.

Option 2:

Paragraph 10 says: "The iridescent reds and greens of the mature bird are tricks played by the feathers, whose structures fracture the sun’s rays, causing them to scatter." This explains what creates the colors.

Option 3:

Paragraph 11 notes: "A few fossilized bones of hummers have been found in their wintering places... but the tiny flower pollinators of a million years past have left scant record." This explains why only a few fossilized bones are found (their small size/“scant record”).

Option 4:

Paragraph 12 states: "We do not know how many species were lost before we could name them." It only states that we don’t know the number of lost species—it does not explain why some species were lost before being named.

Answer:

1. why some bird "species were lost" before being named (Paragraph 12)