Read the following excerpt from E. O. Wilson's 'The Environmental Ethic.' Species are disappearing at an accelerating rate through human action. primarily habitat destruction but also
pollution and the introduction of exotic species into residual natural environments. have said that a fifth or
more of the species of plants and animals could vanish or be doomed to early extinction by the year 2020 unless
better efforts are made to save them.
As the last forests are felled [destroyed] in forest strongholds like the
Philippines and Ecuador, the decline of species will accelerate even more. In the world as a whole, extinction a
rates are already hundreds or thousands of times higher than before the coming of man. They cannot be
balanced by new evolution in any period of time that has meaning for the human race.
Why should we care? What difference does it make if some species are extinguished, if even half of all the
species on earth disappear? Let me count the ways. New sources 01 scientific information will be lost. Vast
potential biological wealth will be destroyed. Still undeveloped medicines, crops, pharmaceuticals, timber, fibers,
pulp, soil-restoring vegetation, petroleum substitutes, and other products and amenities will never come to light.
Based on the excerpt, which statement best summarizes the author's beliefs about the disappearing species?

Read the passage from animal farm. one sunday morning squealer announced that the hens, who had just come in to lay again, must surrender their eggs. napoleon had accepted, through whymper, a contract for four hundred eggs a week. the price of these would pay for enough grain and meal to keep the farm going till summer came on and conditions were easier. when the hens heard this, they raised a terrible outcry. they had been warned earlier that this sacrifice might be necessary, but had not believed that it would really happen. they were just getting their clutches ready for the spring sitting, and they protested that to take the eggs away now was murder. for the first time since the expulsion of jones, there was something resembling a rebellion. led by three young black minorca pullets, the hens made a determined effort to thwart napoleon's wishes. their method was to fly up to the rafters and there lay their eggs, which smashed to pieces on the floor. napoleon acted swiftly and ruthlessly. he ordered the hens' rations to be stopped, and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death. the dogs saw to it that these orders were carried out. for five days the hens held out, then they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes. nine hens had died in the meantime. their bodies were buried in the orchard, and it was given out that they had died of coccidiosis. whymper heard nothing of this affair, and the eggs were duly delivered, a grocer's van driving up to the farm once a week to take them away. which detail from the passage supports the claim that this is an allegory for the great purge? the hens holding out for five days but capitulating the eggs being delivered to the grocer the protesting hens being intentionally starved coccidiosis spreading on the farm

What character asks for god's mercy on the lady at the end of the poem? arthur lancelot the poem's speaker the reaper

Whats the importance of gaining a general understanding of and interpretation of the work of literature. explain what the importance is to me