Paraphrazing:
Definition and its speciality: Dendrochronology
Pattern of layer formation:
• In temperate and subpolar climates: the new cells that develop are smaller and thick-walled
• In wet years rings are broad;
• In drought years they are narrow
• Ring patterns of dead trees of different can be correlated to provide an extended index of past climate conditions.
Comparison:
- Trees that grew in areas with a steady supply of groundwater
- Trees in extremely dry regions
- Certain Tree species sometimes
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1. In the highlighted text, "uncertainties" refers to
(A) dendrochronologists' failure to consider the prevalence of erratic weather patterns
(B) inconsistencies introduced because of changes in methodology
(C) some tree species' tendency to deviate from the norm
(D) the lack of detectable variation in trees with complacent rings
(E) the lack of perfect correlation between the number of a tree's rings and its age
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2. The passage suggests which of the following about
the ring patterns of two trees
that grew in the same area and that were of different, but overlapping, ages?
(A) The rings corresponding to the overlapping years would often exhibit similar patterns.
(B) The rings corresponding to the years in which only
one of the trees was alive would not reliably indicate the climate conditions of those years.
(C) The rings corresponding to the overlapping years would exhibit
similar patterns only if the trees were of the same species.
(D) The rings corresponding to the overlapping years could not be complacent rings.
(E) The rings corresponding to the overlapping years
would provide a more reliable index of dry climate conditions than of wet conditions.
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3. The passage is primarily concerned with
(A) evaluating the effect of climate on the growth of trees of different species
(B) questioning the validity of a method used to study tree-ring records
(C) explaining how climatic conditions can be deduced from tree-ring patterns
(D) outlining the relation between tree size and cell structure within the tree
(E) tracing the development of a scientific method of analyzing tree-ring patterns
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