Passage (Charles Darwin, *On the Origin of Species*, 1859, Ch. III, continued): "In a state of nature almost every plant produces seed, and amongst animals there are very few which do not annually pair. Hence we may confidently assert, that all plants and animals are tending to increase at a geometrical ratio, that all would most rapidly stock every station in which they could any how exist, and that the geometrical tendency to increase must be checked by destruction at some period of life. Our familiarity with the larger domestic animals tends, I think, to mislead us: we see no great destruction falling on them, and we forget that thousands are annually slaughtered for food, and that in a state of nature an equal number would have somehow to be disposed of. The only difference between organisms which annually produce eggs or seeds by the thousand, and those which produce extremely few, is, that the slow-breeders would require a few more years to people, under favourable conditions, a whole district, let it be ever so large. The condor lays a couple of eggs and the ostrich a score, and yet in the same country the condor may be the more numerous of the two: the Fulmar petrel lays but one egg, yet it is believed to be the most numerous bird in the world." Which of the following best states Darwin's main claim in this passage?
AAnimals which lay many eggs are always more numerous than those which lay few.
BAll living things tend to increase at a geometrical ratio, but their numbers are kept in check by destruction, which is easy to overlook in domesticated animals.
CDomestic animals are essentially unaffected by death, unlike wild animals.
DSlow-breeding species cannot establish themselves in large districts.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. All living things tend to increase at a geometrical ratio, but their numbers are kept in check by destruction, which is easy to overlook in domesticated animals.
Darwin's two-part claim: (1) the natural tendency is geometric increase; (2) destruction at some life-stage checks it. The domestic-animals digression illustrates how easy it is to forget the destruction-check because in farms the slaughter is hidden in the food system.
- **A** is the **opposite** of the condor/ostrich example.
- **C** misreads the domestic-animal example.
- **D** is contradicted by the second paragraph.
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