Passage (Charles Darwin, *On the Origin of Species*, 1859, Ch. III): "I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny. Two canine animals in a time of dearth, may be truly said to struggle with each other which shall get food and live. But a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture. A plant which annually produces a thousand seeds, of which on an average only one comes to maturity, may be more truly said to struggle with the plants of the same and other kinds which already clothe the ground. The missletoe is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, for if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it will languish and die. But several seedling missletoes, growing close together on the same branch, may more truly be said to struggle with each other." The example of "two canine animals in a time of dearth" serves primarily to:
Aillustrate the most far-fetched application of the term Struggle for Existence.
Bintroduce the role of climate in driving extinction.
Canchor the term Struggle for Existence in its most literal and uncontroversial case.
Dargue that competition is rare in nature outside of times of food scarcity.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. anchor the term Struggle for Existence in its most literal and uncontroversial case.
The canines example is Darwin's *starting point*: two animals competing directly for food during scarcity is unambiguously a *struggle* in the everyday sense — he marks it with "may be **truly** said to struggle." The rest of the paragraph then moves outward to less literal applications (a plant against drought, a plant against other plants, mistletoe in its host tree). Establishing the literal case first lets him show how the metaphorical extensions stretch from there.
- **A** is the *opposite* — the canines case is the *most* literal, not the most far-fetched.
- **B** introduces a theme (climate) the passage does not address.
- **D** generalises from the single example to a claim Darwin does not make.
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