Question 86·Medium·Inferences
In her 2019 lecture “Keeping Time with Bees,” ecologist Lila Verma described discovering a trunk of weathered notebooks kept by a rural beekeeper from the 1940s to the 1970s. The beekeeper, who had no formal scientific training, recorded first blooms, hive weights, and early flight dates—“mostly,” Verma said, “to satisfy his curiosity and steady his nerves before a cold snap.” Verma’s team later digitized the notebooks and used the entries to chart decades-long shifts in local flowering times; city planners consulted the findings when revising guidelines for street-tree plantings. In the lecture, the anecdote about the beekeeper serves primarily to ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
For questions asking what an anecdote, example, or detail "serves primarily" to do, first summarize in your own words what happens in that mini-story, then ask: what broader point is the author showing with this? Next, eliminate any answer choice that introduces new topics (like money, causes of failure, or strong claims such as "replace") that are not clearly supported. Finally, pick the choice that matches both the specific details and the overall message without exaggerating or adding extra claims.
Hints
Focus on why the story is told, not just what happens
Reread the sentences about the beekeeper and ask yourself: what larger point is Verma making by including this example in her lecture?
Notice the before-and-after contrast
Pay attention to the beekeeper’s original reasons for keeping the notebooks and then what Verma’s team and the city planners later did with them. How does that change in use suggest the anecdote’s purpose?
Watch for ideas that never appear in the passage
Scan the answer choices for topics like money, replacing traditional research methods, or program failures. Do any of those ideas actually appear or are they being added in?
Connect the anecdote to the broader context of a scientific lecture
Think about what a scientist might want to highlight in a talk about bees and timing: how might the beekeeper’s long-term notes be useful beyond his own curiosity?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what the question is asking
The question asks what the anecdote about the beekeeper "serves primarily" to do in Verma’s lecture. This is a purpose/function question: you must identify the main point or lesson the story is used to illustrate, not just restate details.
Summarize the key details of the anecdote
Pull out the important parts of the story:
- A rural beekeeper with no formal scientific training kept weathered notebooks from the 1940s–1970s.
- He recorded first blooms, hive weights, and early flight dates, mostly “to satisfy his curiosity and steady his nerves.” These are personal, informal reasons.
- Years later, Verma’s team digitized the notebooks.
- They used the entries “to chart decades-long shifts in local flowering times.” That is scientific analysis.
- City planners then consulted the findings when revising street-tree planting guidelines, which is a policy decision.
Notice the contrast: what began as private, informal note-taking later became important for research and city planning.
Infer the main point of including this story
Ask: Why would Verma tell this story in a lecture?
- The beekeeper is not a professional scientist, but his long-term notes are extremely useful to scientists.
- His records, kept for personal reasons, end up informing both ecological research and government planning.
So the anecdote is there to show the unexpected value and serious uses that can come from simple, everyday record-keeping once it is organized and analyzed. Keep that idea in mind when you compare the answer choices.
Evaluate the answer choices against the passage
Now test each choice against the idea you identified and the actual text:
- Choice B talks about financial pressures and institutional support—there is no mention of money or funding in the passage, so this cannot be the main purpose.
- Choice C says the lecture argues digitization can replace fieldwork. The passage only says the digitized notebooks were used; it never claims fieldwork is unnecessary or replaced.
- Choice D claims it explains why tree-planting programs fail without beekeeper involvement. The passage says planners consulted the findings, not that programs fail without beekeepers.
- Choice A matches the story: a beekeeper’s casual observations (his personal notes) are later turned into robust evidence used by scientists and city planners making policy decisions.
Therefore, the best answer is A) emphasize how casual observations can become robust evidence for scientific and policy decisions.