Question

Read this excerpt from "the city without us" by alan weisman: as pavement separates, weeds like mustard, shamrock, and goosegrass blow in from central park and work their way down the new cracks, which widen further. in the current world, before they get too far, city maintenance usually shows up, kills the weeds, and fills the fissures. but in the post-people world, there's no one left to continually patch new york. which sentence best states the main idea of this section of the chapter?

a. invasive weeds are kept at bay by city crews who are paid to uproot them.
b. three main types of weeds are known to grow in new york's central park.
c. tax dollars will not always be available for maintenance crews to kill weeds.

Answer 1

The excerpt from "the city without us" suggests that without human intervention, weeds would spread unchecked through city infrastructures. This illustrates the importance of weed control efforts, such as those carried out by maintenance crews in New York City. Option A is the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

The main idea in the excerpt from “the city without us” by Alan Weisman is that in a post-human world, with no maintenance crews to manage vegetation, plants, particularly weeds, would begin to spread uncontrolled through the infrastructure of cities such as New York. It highlights how such weeds, left unchecked, can cause cracks in pavement to widen as they grow through them. This scenario presents a hypothetical situation where weed control is absent, illustrating the continuous struggle between human maintenance efforts and the resilient nature of weeds.

Weeds are described as being problematic in the context of human desires, be it in agriculture or urban settings. The excerpt mentions mustard, shamrock, and goosegrass, weeds which can spread rapidly in the absence of human intervention. Factors that contribute to weed invasiveness include the absence of natural predators and the adaptations of weeds to thrive in disturbed habitats, such as urban environments where typical cultural control practices are no longer in place. With no one to repair the cracks or apply herbicides, the weeds would flourish, further damaging the city infrastructure.

Control of weeds often involves a combination of chemical, biological, and cultural methods. However, in the imagined world without humans, these methods of weed control would not be applied, allowing the weeds to become dominant components of the ecosystem. Therefore, within the context of the chapter, the paragraph illustrates the role of human activity in keeping invasive plants at bay in urban environments.

In conclusion, the sentence that best states the main idea of this section of the chapter is: a. Invasive weeds are kept at bay by city crews who are paid to uproot them.