Lin-Tai Ho and colleagues counted fish in a tide pool in Taiwan at several times during the year and found that some species had a significantly higher maximum population count than others. For example, the highest count for the combtooth blenny was 62 individuals in January of 2001, whereas the highest count for the three-lined rainbowfish was ______
Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the example?
Explanation
Context: A line graph tracks counts of three fish species in a Taiwanese tide pool in January, April, July, and October of 2001. The example contrasts the combtooth blenny's peak of 62 with the highest count for the three-lined rainbowfish.
Answer: B) 3 individuals in October of 2001.
Why? The rainbowfish sits at 0 in January, April, and July and rises to 3 in October, so 3 in October is its maximum. Placed beside the blenny's 62, it shows the wide gap in peak counts the text describes.
Traps:
- A) The October value of 16 belongs to the barred flagtail, the third series on the graph, not to the rainbowfish.
- C) No series reaches 72; the January high is the blenny's 62, which the sentence has already cited.
- D) 13 appears nowhere on the graph; the flagtail is at 16 in October and 14 in January, and the rainbowfish never exceeds 3.