What are the stages of the water cycle?

• A. Condensation, precipitation, evaporation, collection.
• B. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection (and sometimes transpiration by plants).
• C. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection.
• D. Evaporation, condensation, weather, collection.

Answer: (B)

Water moves through different forms and places in a loop: evaporation turns liquid water into vapor, condensation makes that vapor into clouds, precipitation brings water back down as rain or snow, and collection gathers it in oceans, lakes, and rivers to start again. Plants can also contribute water vapor through a process called transpiration, which is often included with evaporation.

This makes the best answer because it covers the full path: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection, and it explicitly notes that transpiration by plants can be part of the evaporation stage. The other options either put the steps in a less correct order, omit transpiration, or include something like weather that isn’t a stage of the cycle.