Conceptual Checkpoint 21.22 Draw a mechanism of the following process. That is, draw a mechanism showing conversion of the conjugated, cyclic enone into the acyclic dione: For the mechanism, draw the curved arrows as needed. Include lone pairs and charges in your answer. Do not draw out any hydrogen explicitly in your products. Do not use abbreviations such as Me or Ph.

Provided in the explanation segment

Explanation:

In this question, due to the complexity in actually drawing this manually. i have attached an image that shows how this reaction occurs.

The mechanism as can be seen in the question involves an attack  of  the hydroxide ion which results in the formation of the enolate ion.

From protonation which follows deprotonation, we can see that the molecules give an acyclic di-ketone which is the desrired product.

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the answer is b because, investigating whether another species of moth also drinks tears might be interesting, but it would not directly explain why this species of moth does.

to explain why this species of moth drinks tears, the scientist could ask: "what nutrients that moths need are in elephant tears? "

the scientist could experiment with moth repellent or oter ways to keep the moths away, but that would not answer his original question.