Question 24.

The passage highlights contrasting reactions to two instances of potential contamination of the lunar environment: China’s germination of a plant seed on the Moon, which elicited little controversy, and Israel’s accidental release of tardigrades aboard the Beresheet probe, which sparked significant backlash within the space community. This contrast underscores differences in how national or regional scientific communities respond to issues of planetary protection. Option C most closely reflects this idea.

The passage does not suggest that contamination from animals is inherently more harmful than from plants, as suggested in Option A. Similarly, Option B inaccurately implies that the passage endorses China’s approach as inherently “reasonable,” which it does not. Option D diverges a bit from the discussion by emphasising global biases against specific countries, but the passage provides no evidence of such biases, focusing instead on scientific reactions.