Self-study
Cool weather typically weakens muscle power in cold-blooded creatures. ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ █ ████████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why is the chameleon’s tongue extension speed largely unaffected by temperature drops while the weakened muscle power resulting from such drops dramatically slows the chameleon’s tongue retraction speed?
Objective
The right answer will describe a key difference between chameleon tongue retraction and chameleon tongue extension. That difference must explain why tongue retraction speeds decrease dramatically in lower temperatures while tongue extension speeds remain largely unchanged. The answer will likely explain why tongue extension is less impacted than retraction by the muscle weakening chameleons experience in lower temperatures.
1.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Most cold-blooded animals ███ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████
This doesn’t help us. We need information about a difference between chameleon tongue extension and chameleon tongue retraction. It doesn’t matter how active most cold-blooded animals are in different weather.
b
Many cold-blooded animals, █████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █ █████████
This doesn’t help us. We need information about a difference between chameleon tongue extension and chameleon tongue retraction. The distance the tongues extend doesn’t matter.
c
Veiled chameleons are █████ ██ █ ████ █████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ █████████
This doesn’t help us. It doesn’t matter which climates chameleons live in; we only care about a difference that emerges in low temperatures, whether or not chameleons are often found in various habitats.
d
In the veiled ██████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ █████████ ███████
This explains why chameleon tongue extension is considerably less impacted than tongue retraction by temperature drops. The muscle weakening chameleons experience in cold temperatures affects tongue retraction but not extension, because extension is not powered by muscles.
e
Compared with the ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████████ █████████
This doesn’t help us. We need information about a difference between chameleon tongue extension and chameleon tongue retraction, not a difference between the chameleon’s tongue muscles and other cold-blooded animals’ tongue muscles.