Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
When a field gives a good crop, the farmer, the rain and the seed usually share the credit. Hardly anyone thinks of the earthworm. It lives out of sight, it is slimy, and most people meet it only on a wet path after a storm. Yet much of the work that keeps soil alive goes on in its dark tunnels.
An earthworm eats its way through the ground, swallowing soil along with bits of dead leaves and roots. What comes out at the other end, called a cast, is richer in plant food than the soil around it. Its burrows matter just as much. They let air reach the roots, and they help rainwater soak in instead of running off the surface.
Charles Darwin watched these animals on and off for about forty years. His last book, published in 1881, was about earthworms. He estimated how fast their casts piled up, and he showed that stones and even old ruins left on the ground slowly sink under it, buried a little at a time by the soil the worms bring up.
Today many gardeners keep worms to turn kitchen waste into vermicompost. On farms, though, the story often runs the other way. Repeated deep ploughing tears up their burrows, and some pesticides kill them or bring their numbers down. The loss does not show at once. It shows later, in soil that packs hard and lets water stand on top after rain.
Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The Unseen Worker in the Soil
The passage is about an animal that does useful work in the soil while hardly anyone notices it.
- The earthworm “lives out of sight”, and “hardly anyone thinks” of it.
- Yet it feeds the soil with its casts and opens it up with its burrows. Even its loss “does not show at once”. The title covers both the work and the fact that it goes unseen.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Darwin’s Last Book — Incorrect. Too narrow: The book is mentioned in one paragraph only. The passage is about the worm, not about Darwin.
Option 2: Life Under the Ground — Incorrect. Too broad: This would cover every animal and plant that lives in the soil. The passage deals only with the earthworm.
Option 3: The Harm Done by Pesticides — Incorrect. Too narrow: Pesticides come up in one line of the last paragraph. Most of the passage is about the good work the worm does.