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Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to Tanaka's contention in Text 1?

Text 1

Proponents of daylighting—uncovering subterranean waterways buried in culverts during past urban expansion—maintain that these initiatives inherently revitalize damaged riparian ecosystems. Urban planner Hiroshi Tanaka contends that reopening piped waterways invariably re-establishes viable ecological corridors, emphasizing that daylighted channels across Europe and North America have provided new habitats for native fish and migratory bird populations previously excluded from metropolitan centers.

Text 2

Although daylighting projects often produce successful civic amenities and public greenways, their ecological benefits are frequently overstated. Without rehabilitating the broader watershed and mitigating upstream inputs, newly uncovered channels remain susceptible to urban stream syndrome: flash flooding, elevated water temperatures, and severe chemical contamination. Simply exhuming a culvert cannot secure a functional aquatic habitat if the surrounding urban catchment continually degrades water quality.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to Tanaka's contention in Text 1?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. By suggesting that daylighting alone is insufficient to sustain viable habitats without addressing catchment-wide environmental pressures

Correct Answer: Choice B is correct because the author of Text 2 emphasizes that 'simply exhuming a culvert cannot secure a functional aquatic habitat' unless planners also rehabilitate the broader watershed and address issues like chemical runoff and flash flooding from the surrounding urban catchment. This directly qualifies and challenges Tanaka's contention in Text 1 that daylighting 'invariably re-establishes viable ecological corridors.'

Why Distractors Fail:

- Choice A is incorrect because Text 2 acknowledges that daylighted waterways often succeed as civic amenities, but it never claims that projects are only justifiable if designed primarily for that purpose.

- Choice C is incorrect because Text 2 argues that the overall ecological health and functioning of daylighted streams are overstated, not that the specific observations of recolonizing species in Text 1 are fraudulent or unrecorded.

- Choice D is incorrect because Text 2 critiques the assumption that daylighting alone solves ecological problems; it does not advocate keeping subterranean waterways permanently piped or culverted.

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Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to Tanaka's contention in Text 1?

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to Tanaka's contention in Text 1?

Answer & explanation

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