Insectivorous plants, which unlike other plants have the ability to

I have doubt between b and e and I marked b my concern here with b not being an answer is that "para is stating insectivorous plants thrive in those soil where minerals are in poor quality to support non insect plants or to Just provide them minerals" and option B is stating the same thing and in some way it is also strengthening the given passage so why answer is not B maybe I am concluding wrong but would love to be corrected thanks.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Vishalpandey
Welcome to gmatclub. Happy to help on your query.
First check the premise of the argument


Now Lets check B

See how the tone of the premise and the statement in B differs by the word 'only'. The tone of premise provided the information as an advantage of insectivorous plant over noninsectivorous plants. Where as B makes the soil condition a necessary condition for survival of insectivorous plant.
For this reason B is wrong.

Hope this helps.

Anyone would explain why D can't be the ans?

Posted from my mobile device

Hi ,
D confuses soil type with environment.original argument does not mention anything regarding environment.
Hence it provides info which is not in scope of the argument.
So D can't be a hypothesis.

I am confused between A and E , can anyone explain the difference?
Chose A

Hi PallabiKundu Happy to help.

Lets demystify the argument and establish our goal
Argument says 1)Insectivorous can even grow in soil where Non I- can not grow.
2)the mineral requirements of insectivorous plants are not noticeably different
Naturally the question arises- so how are the Insectivorous are getting their minerals? This is our goal. to find a reason which can be a hypothesis to the theory established in argument by author.

A- says about the number of insects available to plant. We are not sure about that from the data we have.Let's assume there is abundance of insects in the soil.But how can this answer our question in the goal?This cannot be our hypothesis as this information does not make clear how the plants are getting their minerals.

E- however, makes clear that Insectivorous are getting their minerals from insect inside the soil.Thus, it provides clear answer to the goal question.

Hope this helps.

Request a more detailed distinction between A and E please

Hello, questionsvani. How about we look at the two answer choices side by side, along with the passage for reference?


Answer choice (A) focuses on the number of insects that are present in areas with mineral-poor soil, but we have no reason to believe or hypothesize that such insects must necessarily be abundant, let alone especially abundant. They could be present in sufficient numbers to allow the insectivorous plants to thrive, nothing more. Perhaps a single insect provides the mineral requirements for an insectivorous plant for a long time, so it might not be necessary for the plant to have access to many of these or other insects. The language of the answer choice is overreaching. Even are is problematic, since it projects a must-be-true condition onto the statement: language such as could be, may, or might is more cautious and therefore less debatable.

On this point, notice that answer choice (E) adopts such language in both can and some. It is not saying that insectivorous plants do get all of their mineral requirements from insects, just that it seems reasonable to posit that, since they consume insects and can thrive in soils that are too poor in minerals to support noninsectivorous plants, the insects provide some form of nutrition. If one answer choice is overreaching and speculative, while the other is cautious in its phrasing and fits the given information, then you want to get behind the safer bet.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

The passage states that insectivorous plants can thrive in poor mineral soils despite having mineral requirements similar to noninsectivorous plants. The hypothesis most strongly supported by this information is:

(E) Insectivorous plants can get some of the minerals they require from the insects they trap and digest.

This hypothesis is supported by the fact that despite being in poor mineral soils, insectivorous plants can obtain some of the necessary minerals from the insects they consume. This allows them to thrive in conditions where noninsectivorous plants might struggle due to mineral deficiencies.