It can be inferred from the passage that if the disease organisms mentioned in lines 46-47 were eliminated in a plot ...

Irina on November 12, 2019

@Meredith,

The passage tells us that seeds sown on the enriched plots - enriched with beneficial microorganisms - fared better than seeds sown on the unenriched plots, but still not as well as those growing naturally on the nearby land due to the farmed fields being overrun with aggressive disease organisms. This fact suggests that native plants fare better in soil that has beneficial but not aggressive microorganisms, thus we can conclude that if the disease organisms were eliminated from a plot of land that had been in constant agricultural use, the native plants would have a higher chance of survival as (C) suggests.

The rest of the answer choices are unsupported by the information in the passage. Nothing suggests that beneficial mycorrhiza would decline (A) in the absence of disease organisms or unwanted plant species would be unable to survive (B). (D) is a tempting answer choice, but we cannot make such a broad inference - the number of ALL types of beneficial microorganisms would increase - it could be true, but not a must be true, perhaps only some types of beneficial microorganisms would increase. (E) is likewise unsupported by the passage, we have no information about other types of disease organisms and how eliminating aggressive organisms would impact them.

Let me know if this makes sense and if you have any other questions.