Natural selection

A process in which organisms with inherited characteristics better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, making those characteristics more common over generations.

Natural selection explains how inherited characteristics suited to particular conditions become more common because their possessors are more likely to survive and reproduce. Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”, which Darwin later adopted. Here, fitness means suitability to an environment, not necessarily physical strength or moral goodness.

The process through which inherited characteristics that aid survival and reproduction can become more common over generations. Wells uses this idea to explain humanity’s resistance to Earth’s bacteria.

Extract-based or discursive question: connect context to the particular argument—for example, natural selection to the bacterial ending—not to a detached background paragraph.

Distinguish Wells from his narrator, biological natural selection from social Darwinism, and historical facts from beliefs held in the 1890s.

Integrate context into an interpretation: explain how natural selection challenges confidence in technological superiority, rather than adding an unrelated paragraph about Darwin.

The process through which inherited characteristics that help organisms survive and reproduce become more common over generations.

The process through which organisms better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on characteristics that can become more common across generations.

The process by which organisms with advantageous inherited characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

The process through which organisms with inherited characteristics suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, making those characteristics more common over generations.

Darwin explained natural selection in On the Origin of Species in 1859. Organisms vary, and those with inherited characteristics suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over generations, those characteristics can become more common.

The process through which inherited characteristics that help organisms survive and reproduce can become more common over generations. In Wells’s explanation of the ending, humanity’s long exposure to disease has developed resistance that the Martians lack.

The process through which inherited characteristics that help organisms survive and reproduce in a particular environment become more common over generations.

The process through which organisms with inherited characteristics better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, making those characteristics more common over generations.

The process in which organisms with inherited characteristics better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.

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OCR GCSE English Literature · J352

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Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720