Read the passage and answer the following questions:
Mendel published his work on inheritance of characters in 1865 but for several reasons, it remained unrecognised till 1900. Firstly, communication was not easy (as it is now) in those days and his work could not be widely publicised. Secondly, his concept of genes (or factors, in Mendel's words) as stable and discrete units that controlled the expression of traits and, of the pair of alleles which did not 'blend' with each other, was not accepted by his contemporaries as an explanation for the apparently continuous variation seen in nature. Thirdly, Mendel's approach of using mathematics to explain biological phenomena was totally new and unacceptable to many of the biologists of his time. Finally, though Mendel's work suggested that factors (genes) were discrete units, he could not provide any physical proof for the existence of factors or say what they were made of.
Which of the following was NOT one of the reasons for Mendel's work remaining unrecognised till 1900?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → His experiments had a small sampling size, so the data he collected had little credibility.
The passage states that Mendel’s work “remained unrecognised till 1900” for several reasons and lists them as firstly, secondly, thirdly and finally: poor communication, his discrete factors not being accepted as an explanation for continuous variation, his use of mathematics, and no physical proof of the factors. The odd option is the one that is not in this list.
Option (1) Communication was not easy in those days, and his work could not be widely publicised. — A reason given in the passage. This is the first reason. Communication was not easy in those days, so his work could not be widely publicised.
Option (2) His use of mathematics to explain biological phenomena was new and unacceptable to many biologists of his time. — A reason given in the passage. This is the third reason. Using mathematics to explain biological phenomena was totally new then, and many biologists did not accept it.
Option (3) He could not provide any physical proof for the existence of factors or say what they were made of. — A reason given in the passage. This is the final reason. Mendel said factors were discrete units but could not show what they were made of.
Option (4) His experiments had a small sampling size, so the data he collected had little credibility. — Not a reason given in the passage. Sampling size is not one of the reasons in the passage. In fact NCERT says the opposite in section 4.1: his experiments had a large sampling size, which gave greater credibility to his data.