SAT Cross-Text Connections Question
Text 1 In separate studies, Guihua Wang and colleagues and Xinhua He and colleagues examined whether plants transfer nutrients to one another using a common mycorrhizal network(CMN)—a lattice of fungal strands in the soil. Wang and colleagues excluded all pathways other than the CMN by using barriers to keep the plants'root systems separate while allowing mycorrhizal strands through — an essential step He and colleagues'study did not take. Text 2 Wang and colleagues took the necessary precaution of separating the plants'root systems (thereby excluding root-to-root transmission). However, any barrier used must allow the thread-like hyphae of a CMN to pass through, and this permeability would also allow liquids through. Thus, the researchers' experimental design cannot ensure that any nutrient transfer observed can be attributed to a CMN and not to some other pathway. Based on the texts, the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement?
Wrong answers are logged automatically — sign in after three questions to keep your mistake log and get memory-curve retests.