Single correct option
The passage below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures its essence.
The common assumption that forests are simply collections of individual trees competing for sunlight has been undermined by decades of research into underground fungal networks, sometimes called the "wood wide web," through which trees appear to share nutrients, water and even chemical warning signals with their neighbours, including neighbours of different species. This does not mean forests are harmonious utopias devoid of competition; trees still compete fiercely for light and can also use these same networks to draw resources away from weaker neighbours. The picture that emerges is neither pure cooperation nor pure competition, but an intricate mixture of both, mediated by an underground infrastructure that older models of forest ecology largely ignored.
The common assumption that forests are simply collections of individual trees competing for sunlight has been undermined by decades of research into underground fungal networks, sometimes called the "wood wide web," through which trees appear to share nutrients, water and even chemical warning signals with their neighbours, including neighbours of different species. This does not mean forests are harmonious utopias devoid of competition; trees still compete fiercely for light and can also use these same networks to draw resources away from weaker neighbours. The picture that emerges is neither pure cooperation nor pure competition, but an intricate mixture of both, mediated by an underground infrastructure that older models of forest ecology largely ignored.
- A. Fungal networks have been definitively proven to make forests entirely cooperative ecosystems
- B. Trees compete only for sunlight, and underground fungal networks play no meaningful ecological role
- C. Underground fungal networks reveal that forests operate through a complex mix of cooperation and competition among trees, overturning simpler older models
- D. The wood wide web is a recently discredited theory with no supporting scientific evidence
Show answer and solution
Answer: (C) Underground fungal networks reveal that forests operate through a complex mix of cooperation and competition among trees, overturning simpler older models
The passage explicitly states the emerging picture is "neither pure cooperation nor pure competition, but an intricate mixture of both," mediated by fungal networks that older ecological models ignored. Option C captures exactly this. A and B are one-sided distortions, and D falsely claims the theory is discredited, contradicting the passage's supportive tone.
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