Question

A gardener grows two species of flowers, lavender and moss roses, in her greenhouse. A greenhouse is a glass building that helps to maintain a warm temperature inside even when it is cold outside. The gardener grows her plants from clippings. Growing plants from clippings involves removing small sections of a parent plant, allowing the cuttings to grow roots in water and then moving the little plants into pots with soil. Each year, the gardener chooses one lavender plant and one moss rose plant for the clippings. She uses the same pots and soil for all of the plants and gives them the same amount of water each day.



Over the last few years, she has noticed that the plants have started to look different. The plants grown on the right side of the greenhouse are smaller and less full than the plants grown on the left side. The picture shows her greenhouse and the flowers that she grew this year.

Which argument is supported by the passage?


Traits are only influenced by genes.


Traits can be influenced by the environment.


Members of the same species have identical traits.


Offspring of a parent plant always have identical traits.

Answer 1

Traits can be influenced by the environment.

The plants grown on the right side are smaller and less full than those on the left even though the gardener used the same parent plants, pots, soil, and water—so the differing location (an environmental factor) is affecting their traits. The other choices (only genes, identical traits within a species, or identical offspring) are contradicted by this observation.