|Question 12Verbal

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Past research suggests that pollination by honeybees is responsible for up to 10 percent of total Chinese cabbage crop production. Now researchers are trying to determine how dependent cucumber crop production is on honeybees. The first phase of their study involved shielding some cucumber plants to prevent insects from pollinating them, resulting in those plants having 40 to 90 percent lower crop production than plants that were pollinated normally. However, the researchers claim that the first-phase experiment alone didn't tell them how much of that difference in crop production is due specifically to excluding honeybees.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' claim?
The shielding used in the first phase of the study did not affect the amount of sunlight the cucumber plants received.
A
Other insects like solitary bees also pollinate Chinese cabbage plants, and some studies have allowed them to pollinate normally while excluding honeybees.
B
Other insects like squash bees also pollinate cucumber plants, and the shielding in the first phase of the study blocked them as well.
C
Honeybees are more commonly used to pollinate cucumber plants than Chinese cabbage plants.
D