"Useless Creatures"

Question

by Richard Conniff

Finally, there is the unavoidable problem that most wildlife species — honey badgers, blobfish, blue-footed, red-tailed hawks, monarch butterflies — are always going to be “useless,” or occasionally annoying, from a human perspective. And even when they do turn out, by some quirk, to be useful, that’s typically incidental to what makes them interesting. Cuttlefish do not fascinate because their skin may suggest new forms of military camouflage, but because of the fantastic light shows that sometimes play across their flanks. Spider web silk doesn’t intrigue because somebody can turn it into bandages, but because of the astonishing things spiders can do with it — stringing a line across a stream and running trotlines down the surface to catch water striders, for instance, or (in the case of the species named mastophora dizzydeani) flinging a ball of silk on a thread like a spitball to snag moths out of the air.

Reprinted by permission of author Richard Conniff

Question
Use the passage to answer the question.

For each piece of evidence, select “Yes” or “No” to indicate whether it would be relevant to the claim in the passage.

(2 points)
Yes No
a description of a multicolored feather on a peacock

a description of a cozy sweater made from sheep wool

a description of a gleaming pearl inside an oyster shell

a description of a feeder being visited by a hummingbird

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Answer 1

To evaluate the relevance of each piece of evidence to the claim in the passage—which emphasizes the idea that wildlife species can be seen as "useless" or interesting from a human perspective, and that their value often lies in their intrinsic qualities rather than their utility—we can analyze each option as follows:

1. a description of a multicolored feather on a peacock
   Yes - This supports the idea that wildlife can be interesting and beautiful regardless of usefulness.

2. a description of a cozy sweater made from sheep wool
   No - This pertains to utility (the sweater's usefulness) rather than the intrinsic interest of the animal producing the wool.

3. a description of a gleaming pearl inside an oyster shell
   No - Similar to the sweater, this emphasizes product utility (the pearl) rather than the inherent qualities of the oyster.

4. a description of a feeder being visited by a hummingbird
   Yes - This example illustrates the interesting behavior of a wildlife species (the hummingbird), aligning with the passage's theme about the fascination of animals beyond their usefulness.

Based on this analysis, the responses would be:

• a description of a multicolored feather on a peacock: Yes
• a description of a cozy sweater made from sheep wool: No
• a description of a gleaming pearl inside an oyster shell: No
• a description of a feeder being visited by a hummingbird: Yes