Even more than mountainside slides of mud or snow, naturally occurring

I am having a hard time understanding/agreeing with most people's explanation about question #2. A "disturbance" according to the passage is a good thing, isn't it? "An aspen grove needs to experience fir or some other disturbance..."It's a good thing and aspens need it! Then why is A correct? How could "hormonal imbalance" be a good thing? "hormonal imbalance triggers a huge increase in new, rapidly growing shoots that can outnumber the ones destroyed..." Again, aspen needs disturbance (such as fire), disturbance is a good thing. So disturbance cannot possibly be leading to hormonal imbalance, hormonal imbalance is bad. Can someone please help before I drive myself crazy?

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the resulting hormonal imbalance triggers a huge increase in new, rapidly growing shoots that can outnumber the ones destroyed.
hormone imbalance is good thing that can remove old , junk stuff with new, fresh stuff.

How this hormonal imbalance can happen?
by some kind of disturbance such as forest fire etc.

If this doesn't happen, entire clone is affected.

You can imagine it with a scenario: When electric shock is given to a person , it can stimulate the brain to boost memory ability ( new shoots) and this treatment ( hormonal imbalance) is given to mental patients or who have lost memory ( dying roots).

Hope it is clear.

Q) The primary purpose of the passage is to explain the

A. qualities that make a particular organism unique

B. evolutionary change undergone by a particular organism

C. reasons that a phenomenon benefits a particular organism

D. way in which two particular organisms compete for a resource

E. means by which a particular organism has been able to survive in a barren region


Doubt : I was confused between A & C. The reason why I eliminated C is because it spoke of Reasons (plural) while I thought the passage gave only 1 reason ie, survival. Can someone help me understand how are there multiple reasons in this passage?

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to explain the

I rejected A over C because of 3 reasons:

(A) qualities that make a particular organism unique
(C) reasons that a phenomenon benefits a particular organism

Qualities vs reasons
Qualities refer to what
reasons refer to how

Meaning wise : if something is odd, I am more interested to know how is it odd rather than just ending my thought at that it is odd
1st para highlights this unique feature/quality
But 2nd para explains how is it different and what does it do to survive

Reason2:

(A) qualities that make a particular organism unique
(C) reasons that a phenomenon benefits a particular organism

on reading the passage, I found that passage focus is more on a phenomena ( how aspen trees survive) rather than the organism ( aspen trees are x, aspen trees do Y, they are z)

ABove 2 reasons were enough for me to reject A
Reason3:
Explanation is one but reasons are mentioned for this explanation


The explanation is that each aspen, while appearing to exist separately as a single tree, is in fact only the stem or shoot of a far larger organism.
A group of thousands of aspens can actually constitute a single organism, called a clone, that shares an interconnected root system and a unique set of genes.
Thus, when one aspen―a single stem―dies, the entire clone is affected.
X happens:
they seem like separate trees but interconnected with each other
so what?

While alive, a stem sends hormones into the root system to suppress formation of further stems.
But when the stem dies, its hormone signal also ceases.
If a clone loses many stems simultaneously, the resulting hormonal imbalance triggers a huge increase in new, rapidly growing shoots that can outnumber the ones destroyed.
Y happens:
When alive then suppression happens but when dies then triggers imbalance .
Ok and then what happens?

An aspen grove needs to experience fire or some other disturbance regularly, or it will fail to regenerate and spread.
So this tree need to experience fire or other disturbance .
Z happens
Instead, coniferous trees will invade the aspen grove's borders and increasingly block out sunlight needed by the aspens.
//What would happen if this disturbance doesn't happen?
Otherwise

Explanation is:
X happens then Y happens and hence Z happens. If No Z then can't survive.

Similar example:
Accident happens because light was dim. Light was dim because it was raining heavily . It was raining because it was monsoon and was expected.
If someone asks why the accident happens?
What would you say?
Due to monsoon, raining heavily leads to low light and hence it happened.
Can you say that accident happens only because of one factor /reason here? it happened due to series of reason.

Another example:
He hits XYZ because he was hungry.
Why does he hit?
Only 1 reason given: because he was hungry

I hope it clears your doubt.

3rd point I explained to satisfy your quest. Actually for RCs/CRs , you should not reject options based on these tiny issues. Look for something bigger and convincing. ( 1st 2 points were enough big )

Anyways, I hope it helps.

I would be so appreciative if an expert can explain the explanations for this passage. I also have specific questions below.

1. For "The primary purpose of the passage is to explain the" question:
Why exactly is Choice A (qualities that make a particular organism unique) incorrect? Choice A and C seem very similar.

2. For the "It can be inferred from the passage that when aspen groves experience a ???disturbance??? (see highlighted text), such a disturbance" question:
I see why A is the best choice because the other answers are not mentioned in the passage. However, if fire causes the disturbance, why is "fire or some other disturbance" listed as two separate things?

Thank you in advance!

Question 1

When answering a primary purpose question, ask yourself why the author is writing the passage. What is he/she trying to accomplish?

In the first paragraph the author tells us that aspens need fire, and that this is strange because they are vulnerable to fires. In the second paragraph, the author explains why aspens actually need fires.

So, why did the author write this passage?

The author isn't trying to argue that the aspen is "unique." There could be other organisms that function in similar ways.

(A) is out.


(C) is better all around. First, what the author really cares about is why aspens (the "particular organism") need fire (the "phenomenon").

(C) is the correct answer choice to question 1.

Regarding your second question: a fire is a type of disturbance. The author mentions other examples of disturbances in the first sentence ("mountainside slides of mud or snow"). Aspens benefits more from fires, but also could benefits from these different types of disturbance. That's why the author says that aspen trees need "fire or some other disturbance."

I hope that helps!

Thank you very much, GMATNinja !

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