Question

There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: Yet each day the flock produced eggs with calcareous shells though they apparently had not ingested any calcium from land which was entirely lacking in limestone.
Paragraph: Early in this century a young Breton schoolboy who preparing himself for a scientific career began to notice a strange fact about hens in his father's poultry yard. ___(1) ___. As they scratched the soil they constantly seemed to be pecking at specks of mica, a siliceous material dotting the ground. ___(2)___. No one could explain to Louis Kervran why the chickens selected the mica, or why each time a bird was killed for the family cooking pot no trace of the mica could be found in its gizzard. ___(3) ___. It took Kervran many years to establish that the chickens were transmuting one element into another. ___(4)___.

• A. Option 3
• B. Option 2
• C. Option 4
• D. Option 1

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Analyzing the Paragraph:

Option 1: This places Kervran's initial observation about hens first. However, it discusses eggs and their shells before mentioning the hens' behavior (pecking mica), which disrupts the logical flow.

Option 2: This option focuses on hens pecking mica and its disappearance from their gizzards. Introducing the sentence here would shift focus to eggs prematurely, before their relevance is established.

Option 3: This placement follows the discussion of the unsolved mystery of mica and hen behavior. It introduces the mystery of eggs with calcareous shells, linking it to previous observations while maintaining suspense. This builds a logical bridge to Kervran's future research.

Option 4: After presenting unexplained observations about hens and their behavior, this is the most fitting place to introduce the specific observation about eggs with calcareous shells. It naturally leads into Kervran's conclusion about element transmutation in the subsequent sentence.

Therefore, the correct option is (C): Option 4.