Question:

Passage IV
Insects' lives are very diminutive and they have many enemies, but they must survive long enough to rear and perpetuate their kind. The less insect-like they look, the better their probability of survival. To look "uneatable" by resembling or imitating plants is a deceit widely practised by insects. Mammals hardly ever use this kind of camouflage, but many fish and invertebrates do.

The stick caterpillar is well named. It is hardly discernible from a brown or green twig. This caterpillar is quite familiar and can be found almost anywhere in North America. It is also called "measuring worm" or "inchworm." It walks by arching its body, then stretching out and grasping the branch with its front feet then looping its body again to bring the hind feet forward. When danger threatens, the stick caterpillar stretches its body away from the branch at an angle and remains rigid and still, like a twig, until the danger has passed.

Walking sticks, or stick insects, do not have to assume a rigid, twig-like pose to find protection; they look like inedible twigs in any position. There are many kinds of walking sticks, ranging in size from the few inches of the North American variety to some tropical species that may be over a foot long. When at rest their front legs are stretched out heightening their camouflage. Some of the tropical species are adorned with spines or ridges imitating the thorny bushes or trees in which they live. Leaves also seem to be a favorite object for insects to imitate. Many butterflies can suddenly disappear from view by folding their wings and sitting quietly among the foliage that they resemble.

Q. Which of the following are favorite objects for butterflies to imitate?

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Read the final two lines of the passage, which talk specifically about butterflies and foliage.
Updated On: Jul 20, 2026
  • Twigs
  • Flowers
  • Thorny bushes
  • Grasses
  • Leaves
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The Correct Option is

Solution and Explanation

The last two sentences of the passage are the ones that matter here: "Leaves also seem to be a favorite object for insects to imitate. Many butterflies can suddenly disappear from view by folding their wings and sitting quietly among the foliage that they resemble."

Two things are being said together: first, that leaves are a favourite object of imitation for insects in general, and second, that butterflies specifically disappear by sitting among foliage that they resemble (that is, leaves). So the passage directly links butterflies with leaf imitation.

Twigs are mentioned earlier in the passage, but in connection with the stick caterpillar and walking sticks, not butterflies. Thorny bushes are mentioned in connection with tropical walking sticks having spines or ridges, again not butterflies. Flowers and grasses are not mentioned anywhere in the passage at all.

Therefore, the only object the passage actually connects to butterflies is leaves, making (e) the correct answer.
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