Question
For my 11th birthday, I received a perfect, weird, road-trip amusement: a book filled with pictures and descriptions to help kids decode the splatters of insects that smacked into the front of a moving vehicle. Whether that sounds like macabre fun or makes you grumble about keeping the windshield clean, a steep decline in reported bug splatters in recent years should actually make us worried, entomologists and ecologists say. In a new study published Tuesday in PLOS ONE, a group of researchers analyzed one of the rare data sets that tracks butterfly abundance, taken from 21 years of volunteer surveys in Ohio. They found an average population decline of 2 percent per year, which means that over the course of the study, Ohio lost more than a third of its butterfly population. Some species of butterflies showed no change in abundance, however, and a few others actually became more common. 1 of 2 Question Use the excerpt from “Butterflies are disappearing in Ohio. Here’s what that means for insects everywhere” to answer the question. Why does the author talk about windshields in the last paragraph? Select the two correct answers.(1 point) Responses to argue that there is too little known about insect populations to argue that there is too little known about insect populations to dispute a claim from paragraph 2 to dispute a claim from paragraph 2 to offer evidence that insect populations have declined to offer evidence that insect populations have declined to suggest that people cannot trust news sources to suggest that people cannot trust news sources to refer to an idea from paragraph 1
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The two correct answers for why the author talks about windshields in the last paragraph are:
1. **to offer evidence that insect populations have declined** - The mention of the decline in bug splatters on windshields serves as an anecdotal reference that supports the overall argument about declining insect populations.
2. **to refer to an idea from paragraph 1** - The discussion about the book related to bug splatters connects back to the initial anecdote in paragraph 1, linking the fun experience of tracking bug splatters to the more serious issue of insect population decline.
These responses highlight the significant points made in the excerpt regarding insect populations and connect the narrative thread throughout the text.
1. **to offer evidence that insect populations have declined** - The mention of the decline in bug splatters on windshields serves as an anecdotal reference that supports the overall argument about declining insect populations.
2. **to refer to an idea from paragraph 1** - The discussion about the book related to bug splatters connects back to the initial anecdote in paragraph 1, linking the fun experience of tracking bug splatters to the more serious issue of insect population decline.
These responses highlight the significant points made in the excerpt regarding insect populations and connect the narrative thread throughout the text.