<p>The ongoing loss today that draws most public attentionis the loss of biodiversity; that is, the loss of variety in nature.In that loss, nature is viewed as the victim, humans as the villains. But there is also a parallel loss in which humans are both victims and unwitting villains. Not only are species (50) going extinct, but so is much of our information about those species that survive. In the future, no children will grow up in the forest, where they could receive or redis-cover that knowledge. Certainly, professional biologists dont have the necessary timeI count myself lucky if I (55) can spend one month every year or two in New Guinea. Itis as if we are burning most of our books, while the lan-guages of those books that remain become as lost to us asthe texts written 3,000 years ago in ancient Crete in whatis the still-undecipherable ancient Greek script.</p>
<p>The unwitting villains (line 53) will eventuallycause the
(A) neglect of plant and animal life
(B) restriction of free speech in certain societies
(C) shift from intuition to hard science
(D) eradication of crucial oral traditions
(E) destruction of texts produced by indigenous cultures</p>
<p>What’s the answer and explanation?</p>
<p>Is it A)? “No more children will live in forests.”, “Professional biologists don’t have the necessary time.” I can’t find proof for other choices; it seems like other choices are messing with the analogy in the last sentence. I’m not sure about that. :P</p>
<p>Well thank you…at least I’m not alone in choosing that answer. I chose A and I felt sure of that answer. I looked at the answer sheet, and it’s D. :S
In my attempt to prove their answer right, I found this: “no children will grow up in the forest, where they could receive or redis-cover that knowledge.” If the children were to “discover” that knowledge, it would be by examining life in the forest. But if the children were to “receive” it, it would probably be through “oral traditions”. In another part of the passage, they’ve called it “unrecorded knowledge”.
And choice A is wrong I think because in the passage it says right after “unwitting villains”: “Not only are species (50) going extinct, but so is much of our information about those species that survive.” So, if the passage states that we’re “unwilling villains” because we’re causing the extinction of important “information about those species”, then it would be wrong to call that “neglect”. It’s more of an eradication than neglect.
But oh my god! This is just way too hard; I’d never get this right in the real thing.</p>