Self-study
Unlike other primroses, self-pollinating primroses do not need to rely on insects for pollination. ██ ████ █████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ █████ █████ █ ███████ ████████████████████ ████████ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████████████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ██████ █████ ████████████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ███████████ █████ ████ ████ ███████████ █████ ████████████████ █████████ ███ █████████████████ ████ ████████████████████ ██████████ █████████████ ████████████████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why are self-pollinating primroses much less common than non-self-pollinating primroses, even though self-pollinating primroses have higher average seed production?
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key difference between self-pollinating-primroses and non-self-pollinating primroses that results in the former being more rare than the latter.
13.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Insects that collect ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████████████████ █████████ ███ ████████████████████ ██████████
This offers a similarity between both kinds of primroses. The correct answer choice will offer a difference that explains the apparent discrepancy.
b
When insect pollinators ███ ███████ ████████████████████ █████████ ███████ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████████████████ ██████████
This helps resolve the apparent discrepancy: while self-pollinating primroses may produce more seeds when insect pollinators are scarce, non-self-pollinating primrose seeds are more likely to germinate. This explains why self-pollinating primroses are relatively rare.
c
Self-pollinating primroses that ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ████████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████████
(C) does not provide insight into a difference between the kinds of primroses, and therefore does not help to resolve the apparent discrepancy.
d
Many primroses are ███████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████████
(D) does not provide insight into a difference between the kinds of primroses, and therefore does not help to resolve the apparent discrepancy.
e
Self-pollinating primroses can ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ███████████
(E) says it is possible (but not necessary) for self-pollinating primroses to be assisted by insects. It does not provide insight into why self-pollinating primroses, though they produce more seeds on average, are more rare than non-self-pollinating primroses.