How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will be support for disagreeing that there’s a “problem”.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

It seems surprising that zebras would survive with such vivid markings.

[BACKGROUND]. Yet, [SUPPORT]. [CONCLUSION].

Prompts that ask you to “resolve” or “explain” almost always come with a passage that makes a comparison. This passage tells us about a downside to stripes, but never mentions if there are any benefits. That upside to having stripes is what the right answer will talk about.

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) …true camouflage coloring for a prey species would have to change according to the seasons.

That’s super interesting and all, but that’s just another downside to having stripes, which don’t “change according to the seasons”. That doesn’t explain why it’s not surprising that zebras survive.

(B) Zebras are able to judge…

This doesn’t mention or reference “stripes” in any way, but every statement in the passage does. That should be a clear sign this answer is changing the subject and isn’t really relevant. There’s nothing in here about why zebras “would survive” or not.

(C) Lions…are themselves colored in a way…

Yah, we all saw The Lion King. This isn’t news to us haha. But it doesn’t have anything to do with why zebras would or wouldn’t survive better because of their coloring.

(D) When lions hunt, the whole pride shares…

Like (B), this doesn’t mention “stripes” at all. And it’s pretty clearly only about stuff that happens after a zebra has already failed at surviving. So it tells us nothing about whether their survival is “surprising”.

(E) …the stripe markings make it difficult for a predator…

That’s what you were looking for. This is the only answer that came anywhere close to filling in more of the comparison in the passage. This is a benefit to having stripes, and that makes it less “surprising that zebras would survive with such vivid markings.”

(E) is the correct answer.