In grasslands near the Namib Desert there are "fairy circles"—large, circular patches that are entirely devoid of veg...

SamA on September 26, 2019

Hello @tori06koto,

We aren't given much information from the passage about sand termites, other than the fact that they burrow. The scientists hypothesize that the burrowing activity is the specific cause of fairy circles.

This implies that the scientists believe the damage to vegetation came from underground. This would affect only the roots of the grass, which is why A is correct.

Remember that we must accept the "if true" in the question stem. We didn't know from the passage how these circles form. Maybe the vegetation is destroyed, or maybe it never grows at all. Answer choice A mentions dying grass, which suggests the former. When the stem says "if true," we need to incorporate information from the answer choices as well information from the passage.