Self-study
There are many agricultural regions in North America where the growing season is long enough to allow pumpkin production well into autumn with no risk of frost. ████████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why do we grow most North American pumpkins in regions with long, cold winters when there are many North American regions with longer growing seasons where pumpkins wouldn’t be exposed to early autumn frosts?
Objective
The right answer will describe some benefit of growing pumpkins in regions with long, cold winters, or else some drawback to growing pumpkins in the North American regions where there’s no risk of frost well into autumn.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Pumpkins are usually █████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███████
This is the opposite of what we need. If pumpkins reach maturity in autumn, we would presumably want a longer autumn in order to allow more pumpkins to reach maturity during the season.
b
Pumpkins depend on ████ ███ ████████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████████
This is the opposite of what we need. If pumpkins depend on bees and warm weather for pollination, we would expect that it makes more sense to grow them in regions without long, cold winters.
c
More pumpkins are ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████
This is the opposite of what we need. If there were greater demand for pumpkins in regions with long growing seasons, that might be another reason why it would make sense to grow pumpkins there, rather than having to ship them from regions with shorter growing seasons.
d
Prolonged cold temperatures ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ██████ █████████
This is a benefit of growing pumpkins in regions with long, cold winters: during the winter, soil-borne fungus and other disease sources are killed off, leaving the soil safer for pumpkins during growing seasons. It makes more sense, then, that we grow pumpkins in these regions!
e
Most of the ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████
This is the opposite of what we need. If pumpkin seeds were produced in regions with long growing seasons, that might be another reason why it would make sense to grow pumpkins there, rather than having to ship the seeds to other regions.