Directions: Fill in each numbered blank in the following passage with
ONE suitable word to complete the passage. Put your answers in the ANSWER SHEET.
It is a dream world, where chemists can turn a sow’s ear into
a silk purse, where bioengineers can put a little bit of a sheep into a wolf, or
vice versa, and where the life-styles of the rich are beamed by satellite
(36) every upwardly mobile village on the planet. Thanks to
science and technology, more people are consuming a more amazing array of
worldly goods than at any time in history. But beneath the
surface all is not well. Like Oscar Wilde’s fictional creation Dorian Gray, who
stayed forever (37) while a portrait of him in the attic aged
horribly. The modern economy masks a disfigured planet. The engine of
consumption has scarred the land and stained the sea, (38)
away at the foundations of nature and threatening to destroy
humanity’s only means of survival. Today’s elderly, born at the beginning of
last century, started life in a world (39) about 50% of its
ancient forests still standing. Though far from pristine, it was a world of
oceans and land masses teeming with all kinds of life. But those who will be
born after the turn of the millennium will (40) of age to
find that previous generations have squandered and defiled their inheritance,
foreclosing some options even as new ones were created. Our grandchildren may
have (41) to conveniences that further reduce the drudgery of
everyday life, but they will also inherit a planet with less than 20 % of its
original forests (42) , with most of the readily available
freshwater already spoken for and much of the arable (43)
under plough. They will inherit a stressed atmosphere and an unwanted
legacy of toxic waste in the soil and water. Missing from the estate will be
countless species, most (44) out before even (45)
catalogued by scientist.