ACCORDING TO THE PASSAGE, WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ABOUT G...
27.
According to the passage, which of the following statements about green buildings is TRUE?
A.
They have only been built in technologically developed countries.
B. They are gaining in popularity in different parts of the world.
C.
They are environmentally responsible constructions with gardens.
D.
They are more economical and produce no pollution.
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to
each of the questions.
Biological diversity has become widely recognized as a critical conservation issue only
in the past two decades. The rapid destruction of the tropical rain forests, which are the
ecosystems with the highes species diversity on Earth, has awakened people to the importance
and fragility of biological diversity. The high rate of species extinctions in these environments
is
jolting, but it is important to recognize the significance of biological diversity in all
ecosystems. As the human population continues to expand, it will negatively affect Earth's
ecosystems. In terrestrial ecosystems and in fringe marine ecosystems (such as wetlands), the
most common problem is habitat destruction. In most situations, the result is irreversible. Now
humans are beginning to destroy marine ecosystems through other types of activities, such as
disposal and runoff of poisonous waste; in less than two centuries, by significantly reducing the
variety of species on Earth, they have irrevocably redirected the course of evolution.
Certainly, there have been periods in Earth's history when mass extinctions have
occurred. The extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by some physical events, either climatic or
cosmic. There have also been less dramatic extinctions, as when natural competition between
species reached an extreme conclusion. Only 0.01 percent of the species that have lived on
Earth have survived to the present, and it was largely chance that determined which species
survived and which died out.
However, nothing has ever equaled the
magnitude
and speed with which the human
species is altering the physical and chemical world and demolishing the environment. In fact,
there is wide agreement that it is the rate of change humans are inflicting, even more than the
changes themselves, that will lead to biological devastation. Life on Earth has continually been
in flux as slow physical and chemical changes have occurred on Earth, but life needs time for
the proliferation of new genetic material and new species that may be able to survive in new
environments.