Perhaps They Are The Human Equivalent Of An Endangered Species GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

Perhaps they are the human equivalent of an endangered species. They certainly are the victims of the same encroachment on their land that causes the extinction of many animal species. The last few communities of nomadic people in Asia, Africa, and South America have no effective means of defending their traditions and livelihood. Loggers are perhaps the cause of greatest conflict. They illegally enter the lands of these nomadic people, destroy their forests and woods, and hunt their animals. Ranchers may follow, to burn great tracts to clear it for their domesticated animals. Once the land is deprived of trees and plants and the seasonal rains begin, the depleted soil is washed down into the rivers and permanent environmental damage can follow. The loggers and ranchers move on further into the virgin habitat, displacing more nomadic people.

These are ancient habitats. They have existed for millions of years. But in less than 50 years they, along with the traditional way of hunting and gathering practiced by the peoples of these lands, have all but been lost. Worldwide, only a few thousand people are estimated to still live a truly nomadic life. Most have been forced to abandon their traditional lifestyle practiced for millennia and have had to settle down in villages to a life of hunting combined with subsistence farming.

“Perhaps they are the human equivalent of an endangered species”- is a reading comprehension passage with answers for the GMAT. Candidates must have a strong understanding of English GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT Reading Comprehension section contains three comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are intended to assess candidates' abilities to comprehend, analyze, and apply information or concepts. GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions can help candidates actively prepare.

Solutions and Explanation

1. Which of the following statements is offered to support the main theme of the passage?

1. Loggers and ranchers are destroying the habitat of the world’s few remaining nomadic people.
2. Worldwide, only a few thousand people remain who lead a nomadic life.
3. They are the victims of the same encroachment on their lands that causes the extinction of many animal species.
4. Nomadic people take on loggers and ranchers to defend their threatened way of life.
5. Perhaps they are the human equivalent of an endangered species.

2. The author does which of the following to make his point?

1. corrects a misconception
2. relies on authority
3. uses an analogy
4. gives examples
5. pulls at our heart strings

3. The tone of the passage is:

1. fatalistic
2. skeptical
3. cynical
4. defeatist
5. buoyant

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• Traditional economic theory and its partisans have long maintained that increasing the minimum wage GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Consider these factors crucial to success in any new business endeavor GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Unmaintained areas of contiguous stands of forest are particularly vulnerable to hard-to-control wildfires GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Because human anatomy does not change, knowledge acquired a century ago is still accurate today GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Many observers believe that middle-class Americans are dogged by debt GMAT Reading Comprehension
• I submit that impact of solid bodies is the most fundamental of all interstellar processes GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A science fiction writer coined the useful term ‘cyberspace’ in 1982 GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped not only human morphology but also human behavior GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Cartilage is a specialized connective tissue whose flexibility and resilience enable it to function as a shock absorber GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In 1901, an assortment of artifacts was recovered from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The intensive work of materials scientists and solid-state physicists has given rise to a class of solids known as amorphous metallic alloys, or glassy metals GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In most earthquakes the Earth’s crust cracks like porcelain. Stress builds up until a fracture forms at a depth of a few kilometers and the crust slips to relieve the stress GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The recent, apparently successful, prediction by mathematical models of an appearance of El Nino GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Over the last 150 years, large stretches of salmon habitat have been eliminated by human activity GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The United States Hospital Industry is an Unusual Market GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Mercury is only present in small amounts in marine ecosystems, yet it still presents a potential danger to fish eaters GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Many United States Companies Believe that the Rising Cost of Employees' Health Care Benefits GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Dendrochronology, The Study of Tree-Ring Records to Glean Information About the Past GMAT Reading Comprehension
• What kinds of property rights apply to Algonquian family hunting territories GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Although the Industrial Union Organizations that Emerged GMAT Reading Comprehension