SBI Junior Associate 2020 · Question 288 of 290

Directions (26-30): In the following passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five options are given. Find out the appropriate word which fits the blank appropriately. Bumblebees, among the most important pollinators, are in (26) ________________. Fuzzy and buzzy, they excel at spreading pollen and fertilizing many types of wild flora, as well as crucial agricultural crops like tomatoes, blueberries, and squash. But their numbers are (27) ________________. New research using a massive dataset found that the insects are far less common than they used to be; in North America, you are nearly 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee in any given area than you were prior to 1974. Moreover, several once-common species have (28) __________________ from many areas they were once found, becoming locally extinct in those places. For example, the rusty patched bumblebee, which used to flourish in Ontario, is no longer found in all of Canada—in the U.S., it’s endangered. In a new paper published this week in the journal Science, researchers used a complex modeling process to (29) ________________ that their (30)___________________ is driven in large part by climate change. Specifically, the scientists found that in areas that have become hotter in the last generation, or have experienced more extreme temperature swings, bumblebees are less abundant. In Europe, they are 17 percent less plentiful than they were in the early 20th century. The scientists examined the abundance of 66 species across the two continents.

cloze-test

1. A(A) declineCorrect
2. B(B) deteriorate
3. C(C) rejection
4. D(D) lessen
5. E(E) reduced