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The golden toad of Costa Rica, whose beauty and rarity

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The golden toad of Costa Rica, whose beauty and rarity [#permalink] New post 08 Oct 2012, 03:17
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 nevertheless have been driven to extinction by human activity. In the United States, a public relations campaign raised money to protect the toad’s habitat in Costa Rica, establishing the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in 1972. However, setting aside habitat was not enough to save the species. 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.
Between one third and one half of the world’s amphibian species—including frogs, toads, and salamanders—have declined or disappeared. Scientists hypothesize that the more subtle effects of human activities on the world's ecosystems, such as the accretion 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 unusually sensitive to environmental changes - are the biological harbingers of the natural world, giving humans early notification of the deterioration, if not destruction, of our ecosystem.


It can be inferred from the discussion of amphibians that
A only thirty species of frogs and toads remain in Costa Rica
B relatively few non-amphibious animals have permeable skin
C most have either already become extinct or are in danger of extinction
D humans do not usually take signals of environmental deterioration seriously
E the extinction of so many amphibian species supports the contention that humans are responsible for the situation

PLs suggest me why is E its clearly mentioned in the passage

Last edited by hamm0 on 08 Oct 2012, 05:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The golden toad of Costa Rica, whose beauty and rarity inspi [#permalink] New post 08 Oct 2012, 05:58
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Archit143 wrote:
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 nevertheless have been driven to extinction by human activity. In the United States, a public relations campaign raised money to protect the toad’s habitat in Costa Rica, establishing the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in 1972. However, setting aside habitat was not enough to save the species. 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.
Between one third and one half of the world’s amphibian species—including frogs, toads, and salamanders—have declined or disappeared. Scientists hypothesize that the more subtle effects of human activities on the world's ecosystems, such as the accretion 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 unusually sensitive to environmental changes - are the biological harbingers of the natural world, giving humans early notification of the deterioration, if not destruction, of our ecosystem.


It can be inferred from the discussion of amphibians that
A only thirty species of frogs and toads remain in Costa Rica
B relatively few non-amphibious animals have permeable skin
C most have either already become extinct or are in danger of extinction
D humans do not usually take signals of environmental deterioration seriously
E the extinction of so many amphibian species supports the contention that humans are responsible for the situation

PLs suggest me why is E its clearly mentioned in the passage


As a rule of thumb, any time the GMAT asks you to infer anything - stick very close to the passage. This is a trick the GMAT likes to play.

B is correct: Amphibians are special because they have permeable skin and thus can serve as harbingers, so most other species must not have permeable skin.
If other species had permeable skin, they could be harbingers also and there would not need to be a special mention of the amphibians as harbingers.

The logic to this is similar to a CR question, and is typical of the tough inference questions for GMAT RC.
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Re: The golden toad of Costa Rica, whose beauty and rarity inspi [#permalink] New post 17 Oct 2012, 03:31
hamm0 wrote:
Archit143 wrote:
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 nevertheless have been driven to extinction by human activity. In the United States, a public relations campaign raised money to protect the toad’s habitat in Costa Rica, establishing the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in 1972. However, setting aside habitat was not enough to save the species. 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.
Between one third and one half of the world’s amphibian species—including frogs, toads, and salamanders—have declined or disappeared. Scientists hypothesize that the more subtle effects of human activities on the world's ecosystems, such as the accretion 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 unusually sensitive to environmental changes - are the biological harbingers of the natural world, giving humans early notification of the deterioration, if not destruction, of our ecosystem.


It can be inferred from the discussion of amphibians that
A only thirty species of frogs and toads remain in Costa Rica
B relatively few non-amphibious animals have permeable skin
C most have either already become extinct or are in danger of extinction
D humans do not usually take signals of environmental deterioration seriously
E the extinction of so many amphibian species supports the contention that humans are responsible for the situation

PLs suggest me why is E its clearly mentioned in the passage


As a rule of thumb, any time the GMAT asks you to infer anything - stick very close to the passage. This is a trick the GMAT likes to play.

B is correct: Amphibians are special because they have permeable skin and thus can serve as harbingers, so most other species must not have permeable skin.
If other species had permeable skin, they could be harbingers also and there would not need to be a special mention of the amphibians as harbingers.

The logic to this is similar to a CR question, and is typical of the tough inference questions for GMAT RC.


as you correctly said, we have to stick close to the para.

I dont think answer should be B, IMO it should be E

As the Author tells us about the effects on amphibians and then switches to describe the effect on Environment by human.
The transition is through : Scientists hypothesize that the more subtle effects of human activities on the world's ecosystems,

Hence we have to infer the link that humans are responsible for the amphibian problem.

Can the author please provide OA
Re: The golden toad of Costa Rica, whose beauty and rarity inspi   [#permalink] 17 Oct 2012, 03:31
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