Self-study
The only effective check on grass and brush fires is rain. ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████ █████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why do grass/brush fires cause less financial damage overall during long periods of lack of rain than during periods of normal rainfall, even though there are a lot more fires when rainfall is below average for long periods?
Objective
The correct answer should differentiate periods of no rain from periods of average rain in a way that could lead to less overall financial damage from grass/brush fires during periods of no rain.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ █████████ ██████
a
Fire departments tend ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████
This deepens the discrepancy. If fire departments get less money during severe droughts, we would expect even more fires or even more intense fires during droughts, which should lead to more financial damage.
b
Areas subject to █████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ █████████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ██████
This compares areas subject to fires to areas with few such fires. But we’re not trying to explain a discrepancy between areas. Even in areas where there are typically few fires, we’d still expect more financial damage from fires during droughts.
c
Unusually large, hard-to-control █████ ███ █████ █████ █████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ████████
It’s reasonable to think there’s less vegetation during droughts. So, (C) suggests there would be fewer large, hard-to-control grass fires during a drought than during average rainfall. This could be why there’s less financial damage from grass fires during long droughts.
d
Grass and brush █████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████
We already know that there are more grass/brush fires during periods of long drought than during periods of average rainfall. The cause of these fires, whether human negligence or lightning, doesn’t suggest we’d see less financial damage from fires during a drought.
e
When vegetation is █████████ ██ █ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████
This fact would apply equally to both the long drought period and the average rainfall period. So we’d still expect fires during the long drought periods to cause more damage overall, since there are more fires during these periods.