hard · Act reading
"For decades, ecologists treated the forest canopy as a mere roof—a green ceiling sealing off the busy floor below. Recent climbers, harnessed and patient, have reported otherwise. Up there, whole communities of orchids, frogs, and insects complete their life cycles without ever touching soil, in a world governed by its own light, moisture, and chemistry. The old textbooks did not so much err about the canopy as overlook it entirely; their silence was not a wrong answer but a question never asked." The author's use of the phrase "a question never asked" primarily serves to:
- criticize earlier ecologists for deliberately ignoring evidence about canopy life
- characterize the textbooks' omission as a gap in inquiry rather than a factual mistake
- praise recent climbers for the physical courage their canopy research required
- argue that the forest floor has been studied far more thoroughly than it deserves
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