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." What can be inferred about Darwin's view of the population of domestic animals (cows, horses, sheep)?
AThey are not subject to destruction.
BThey reproduce slower than wild animals.
CThey are exempt from the geometric tendency to increase.
DThey are subject to massive annual destruction (slaughter for food) that we tend to forget; nature similarly imposes destruction we usually overlook.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. They are subject to massive annual destruction (slaughter for food) that we tend to forget; nature similarly imposes destruction we usually overlook.
Darwin says we see *no great destruction* falling on domestic animals — and *forget* the *thousands annually slaughtered for food*. He extends the point: *in a state of nature an equal number would have somehow to be disposed of*.
The purpose: warn the reader that the apparent stability of domestic populations is misleading. **B** restates Darwin's claim.
- **A** is contradicted by *thousands... slaughtered*.
- **C** is unsupported.
- **D** contradicts the first paragraph's universal claim about *all plants and animals*.
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