@zbonnich145 Thank you so much for your detailed response. i actually drafted some ask emails last weekend, and I couldn’t get myself to send it because I thought they might have been too long and not personalized enough… I will try to work on them more this weekend with your advice! Especially with not including the assignments and mentioning that I can send them if necessary.

Also, for my supervisor for my leadership job at UW - I had a lot of public speaking opportunities with that job so she could speak on that - but she moved to another state so she no longer has the same email, but she has an instagram that I kept in contact with her with. For that message, I made it shorter, but its still pretty long for an instagram message. I also decided to delay my application to fall 2024 because I didn't want to cram my studying (might get a lower score) or rush to finish my essays especially with working full-time and trying to have good mental health.

OMG, I chose D. So to recap why C is correct and NOT d.

Poems need to be art and exploit some of the musical characteristics of language such as meter, rhythm, euphony, and rhyme. As gathered from the first sentence.

Given that the last sentence states that Limericks are not art (limericks are not strictly speaking art)

D is definitely incorrect

C is the only one that is correct because:

1) A novel can be a work of art - this satisfies the condition in sentence 1 that says, Poems need to be art.

2) Another definition of a poem (in the first sentence) says that art or poems need to exploit some of the musical characteristics of language such as meter, rhythm, euphony, and rhyme. The second sentence describing novels states that, "novels does not usually exploit musical characteristics of language"

The keyword is does not usually - this means that novels can be both art and exploit musical characteristics of language. For example, I do not usually wear pink - it implies that I do not wear pink often - I wear pink rarely

Given that novels can be art and novels can exploit musical characteristics of language (although not usually). Novels can be poems since by definition in the first sentence, "poems are any work of art that exploit some of the musical characteristics of language such as meter, rhythm, euphony, and rhyme."

I initially did not choose C given I thought it was an answer that involved assumption. But, after watching the explanation and reading people's explanation - I realized that the passage explicitly states the answer. I know now that by making the passage into simple sentences and words I can understand the trick passage better.

The passage, in short, says: Dark then sun > Stimulation of receptors > Germination (> means leads to)

A- If seeds are plowed at night, the seeds will not be exposed to the sun as it is still dark (so the first part of A is true), if the seeds are plowed during the day they are exposed to the sun, it makes sense that fewer seeds will germinate if they are plowed only at night vs during the day.

B- The passage says nothing about what happens if the seeds are not plowed at all

C- Sun is rising - Sunrise (not at max sun i.e., day) the sun is decreasing or in between night and day (not the most amount of sun either) however the passage says nothing directly about sunrise and sunset affecting germination.

D- Does not particularly say much about the seeds needing to be redeposited. Just states that if the seeds were to germinate, the seeds need a prolonged period in the dark, and then a short period exposed to the sun. The fact that previously it stated that in the first sentence, the seeds are plowed, exposed, and then redeposited into the surface does not mean that the redepositing is required for germination.

E- If the seeds were on the surface before the seeds were plowed, then the seeds may not germinate. Given that the author is saying the seeds need darkness followed by the sun. These seeds that are on the surface, have been exposed to the sun first and then a short period in the darkness when the seeds are plowed.

Another way D is wrong besides "only" is because the passage says, the bacteria will die if "directly exposed" to oxygen. This implies that if the bacteria are exposed but not directly exposed to oxygen, they will not die. Which hence means that not all oxygen needs to be eliminated for the bacteria to survive indefinitely. My initial answer was A, but I overthought it thinking it was too easy of an answer, and chose D for the blind.