Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

The golden toad of Costa Rica, whose beauty and rarity
inspired an unusual degree of human interest from a public
generally unconcerned about amphibians, may have been
driven to extinction by human activity nevertheless. In the
United States, a public relations campaign featuring the
toad raised money to purchase and protect the toad’s
habitat in Costa Rica, establishing the Monteverde Cloud
Forest Preserve in 1972. Although this action seemed to
secure the toad’s future, it is now apparent that setting
aside habitat was not enough to save this beautiful
creature. The toad’s demise in the late 1980s was a
harbinger of further species extinction in Costa Rica. Since
that time, another twenty of the fifty species of frogs and
toads known to once inhabit a 30 square kilometer area
near Monteverde have disappeared.
The unexplained, relatively sudden disappearance of
amphibians in Costa Rica is not a unique story. Populations
of frogs, toads, and salamanders have declined or
disappeared the world over. Scientists hypothesize that
the more subtle effects of human activities on the world’s
ecosystems, such as the build-up of pollutants, the
decrease in atmospheric ozone, and changing weather
patterns due to global warming, are beginning to take
their toll. Perhaps amphibians - whose permeable skin
makes them sensitive to environmental changes - are the
“canary in the coal mine,” giving us early notification of
the deterioration of our environment. If amphibians are
the biological harbingers of environmental problems,
humans would be wise to heed their warning.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that

< only thirty species of frogs and toads remain in Costa
Rica
< humans do not have permeable skin
< the build-up of pollutants in the atmosphere causes
a decrease in atmospheric ozone
< humans do not usually take signals of environmental
deterioration seriously
< Costa Rica suffers from more serious environmental
problems than many other countries

2. The passage implies that

< many amphibians are not considered beautiful.
< the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve was not large
enough to protect the golden toad.
< only Costa Rican amphibians living near Monteverde
have disappeared since the 1980s.
< amphibians sometimes live in coal mines.
< no humans yet consider the decline of amphibious
populations an indication of a threat to human
populations.

3. The primary purpose of the passage is to

< discuss the mysterious disappearance of Costa Rica’s
golden toad.
< explain why human activity is undoubtedly to blame
for the global decline of amphibious populations.
< convince humans that they must minimize the global
output of pollutants.
< describe the recent global decline of amphibious
populations and hypothesize about its causes.
< urge humans to pay careful attention to important
environmental changes.