In the following passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank approximately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.
Around the world, forests are being (191) at a rate of about thirteen million hectares a year and deforestation accounts for an estimated 17%-20% of all global emissions. In addition, forests and other terrestrial carbon sinks play a (192) role in preventing runaway climate change, soaking up a full 2.6 Gt of atmosphere carbon every year. The destruction of forests, therefore, not only emits carbon-----a staggering 1.6 Gt a year, which severely (193) forests’ capacity to absorb emissions from other sources---but also drastically (194) the amount of forested land available to act as a carbon sink in the future.
However, the effects of deforestation extend beyond carbon. Rainforests (195) a wide variety of ecosystems services, from regulating rainfall to purifying groundwater and keeping fertile soil from (196); deforestation in one area can seriously damage food production and (197) to clean water in an entire region. The value of global ecosystem services has been estimated at 33 trillion USD each year (almost half of global GDP), but these services have been taken for granted without a mechanism to make the market reflect their value. Rainforests are also a home and (198) of income for a huge number of people in Africa, Asia and South America. (199) this, economic pressures frequently drive both local communities and national governments in the developing world to (200) these forests in ways that are unsustainable, clear-cutting vast areas for fuel, timber, mining, or agricultural land.
The destruction of forests is a singular phase and should have a singular verb(verb+es form) .Hence, A,B are eliminated. The destruction of forests has a negative impact on the forest's capacity to absorb emissions, but cannot increase their capacity so, C can be eliminated. Between D&E;, impairs fits properly into the sentence as it can be read as ' the destruction of forests severely impairs(weakens) the forest's capacity to absorb carbon links.Hence, E.
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