Read this paragraph from The Sixth Extinction (90-1): Whatever the explanation,

Question

Read this paragraph from The Sixth Extinction (90-1): Whatever the explanation, the contrasting fate of the two groups raises a key point. Everything (and everyone) alive today is descended from an organism that somehow survived the impact [of the meteorite that caused the fifth extinction]. But it does not follow from this that they (or we) are any better adapted. In times of extreme stress, the whole concept of fitness, at least in a Darwinian sense, loses its meaning: how could a creature be adapted, either well or ill, for conditions it has never before encountered in its entire evolutionary history? At such moments..."the rules of the survival game" abruptly change. Traits that for many millions of years were advantageous all of a sudden become lethal (though it may be difficult, millions of years after the fact, to identify just what those traits were). And what holds for the ammonites and nautiluses applies equally well to belemnites and squids, plesiosaurs and turtles, dinosaurs and mammals. The reason this book is being written by a hairy biped, rather than a scaly one, has more to do with dinosaurian misfortune than with any particular mammalian virtue. In the box, first state the rhetorical mode of this paragraph; see Writing Analytically (253). Then label and write out the following sentences: Transitional Sentence (Tr) Topic Sentence (T) - hint: it is broken into two sentences Restriction (R) Illustration (I) Explains the illustration - hint: the EXP actually precedes the I So What? (SW)

Explanation / Answer

The paragraph gives an idea about the extinction of species like ammonites, nautiuses, mammals, dinosaurs, pleisaurs, turtles, squids, belemnites known as sixth extinction and its affect on the evolution.

Transitional sentence: Everthing alive that have existed have descended from the organisms that have survived the impact of the meteors which caused the fifth extinction

Restriction: As the level of stress increases, the Darwinian concept of fitness that how a creature whether well or ill could be adapted in the conditions that have never encountered before in the evolutionary history abruptly changes

Topic sentence: Adaption and its affect on the evolution of the organisms

Illustration: This shows the the lethal impact of adaption of organisms on evolution. The traits that were advantageous for millions of years were all of a sudden become lethal.

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