Final answer:
The correct answer to the analogy 'Botanist: plant:: geologist: ____' is 'A. rock,' as geologists specialize in the study of rocks, analogous to how botanists study plants.
Step-by-step explanation:
The analogy presented in the question is comparing the relationship between a botanist and plants to the relationship between a geologist and another aspect of the natural world. A botanist studies plants, so you have to find what a geologist studies for a parallel comparison. The correct answer to complete the analogy Botanist: plant:: geologist: rock is A. rock. This is because geologists specialize in the study of rocks, the solid mineral material forming part of the surface of the earth and other similar planets, exposed on the surface or underlying the soil or oceans. Just as botanists study plants to understand their structure, growth, and relationship to the environment, geologists study rocks to understand the Earth's structure, history, and the processes that have shaped it over time.