PT138.S1.P2.Q10 > Analytics

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The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. ███████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███

Intro topic · Two kinds of chemicals in plants: primary and secondary

Chemicals determine smell and taste of plants to insects and humans.

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Primary substances · Stuff required for growth and functioning; found in all plants

Secondary substances · No known role in growth/functioning; give plants distinctive tastes and smells

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Origin of secondary substances · Insects played major role

Causal mechanism 1 · Insects like some scents over others

Secondary substances result from mutations. Insects prefer some scents over others, which means the substances that produce those preferred scents are more likely to be passed on to future generations.

Causal mechanism 2 · Some substances produce stuff that helps defend against insects

Causal mechanism 3 · Some substances produce stuff that warns insects not to eat the plant

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Competition between insects and plants · Insects evolve to respond to plants' defenses

Might evolve way to detoxify plant's poison or store the poison in an unharmful way, for example. Might evolve way to identify poisonous plants.

Passage Style

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

Single position

10.

In the passage, the author █████████ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██

Question Type

Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

The author mentions primary substances in P1 part of explaining what secondary substances are. The author contrasts primary substances with secondary substances to help us understand what they don’t do.

provide information about ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████████

This isn’t the purpose, because (A) ignores the context. The rest of the passage is about secondary substances and the development of secondary substances. So in describing primary substances and how they’re different from secondary substances, the author’s purpose relates to secondary substances. The author isn’t merely trying to teach us how plants grow and absorb nutrients. That purpose wouldn’t have any connection to the rest of the passage and its focus on secondary substances.

help explain what █████████ ██████████ ███

This best captures the purpose. The author tells us what primary substances do in order to help us understand what secondary substances don’t do. This is part of an explanation of secondary substances.

88%

help distinguish between ███ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ █████████

The ways that insects have affected plant evolution aren’t brought up in P1 and don’t relate to the description of primary substances. So (C) can’t be the purpose of mentioning primary substances.

indicate the great █████████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████

Although the author mentions several different primary substances, the author never characterizes these as showing a great diversity. Note that the author does say that secondary substances are a “diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals,” but she doesn’t say this with respect to primary substances. So (D) isn’t the purpose of the discussion of primary substances.

provide evidence of ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████

Nothing in P1 provides evidence of plants’ adaptation to insects. The evidence comes in P2.

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