Plant saplings in greenhouses usually take 40 days to grow into plants that can produce flowers. However, when the greenhouse is smeared with oil, the saplings grow into flower-bearing plants within 30 days even though the intensity of light entering the greenhouse is reduced by 30%.

Which of the following hypotheses best explains the contrast described above?

Answer Choices

Correct answer marked below

While visible light enables essential processes required for nutrient absorption, ultra violet light hinders some essential growth processes in plants.

Reducing the intensity of light entering the greenhouse by only 15% results in saplings to grow into flower-bearing plants within 45 days.

Oil smeared on the green houses has a high chance of seeping inside the greenhouse through the soil.

The green wavelength in visible light – the spectrum of light known to reduce the rate of nutrient absorption among numerous plant species – has a hard time passing through an oiled transparent barrier.

Correct

Greenhouses that aren’t smeared with oil allow light to pass through them with little loss in intensity.

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What this question tests

What it tests

Whether you can explain an apparent contradiction in a way that makes both facts true.

Common trap

Picking an option that explains one side of the paradox while making the other side false.