The passage states that in the ninth century, France created the royal office of the Luparii, or wolf-catchers, to handle the wolf problem. However, this office became unnecessary once the last wolf was killed. Therefore, the resurgence of wolves can't be blamed on the office shutting down.
Other options provide clearer explanations:
Option A: The protected status of wolves in Europe, which makes hunting them illegal except for occasional state-sanctioned culls, and efforts by NGOs to track and count them, also contribute to their recovery.
Option B: Rural depopulation is a factor. For example, in Lozère, the population dropped from over 140,000 in the mid-19th century to fewer than 80,000 today as farming and mining declined.
Option D: As humans withdraw, forests are expanding. From 1990 to 2015, France's forest cover increased by 102,000 hectares per year, with nearly one-third of mainland France now covered by woodland.
The correct option is (C): The shutting down of the royal office of the Luparii.
Residents of Lozère, a hilly area in southern France, share common rural complaints. In remote villages like Le Bacon and Le Bacon Vieux, mayors grumble about the lack of local schools, jobs, and phone and internet connections. Farmers are also worried about the return of wolves, which were eradicated from France last century but are now gradually returning to the forests and hills. Francis Palombi, an aspiring parliamentarian, addressed this issue during an election campaign, saying, "The wolf must be taken in hand." While tourists enjoy visiting a wolf park in Lozère, farmers are concerned about their livestock and livelihoods.
Options B, C, and D can be clearly inferred from this paragraph:
The passage also mentions that while many people still hold hunting licenses, few actively hunt. Therefore, Option A, which states there is a decline in the number of hunting licenses, is incorrect.
To weaken the author's claim, we need to identify a statement that challenges the assertions or implications made in the passage. The author discusses the return of wolves to Lozère, noting:
An effective way to undermine these points is by presenting consequences of wolf return that contradict the author's optimistic view, especially regarding tourism.
The statement "Wolf attacks on tourists in Lozère are on the rise" directly challenges the third point. If wolves pose a danger to tourists, this would deter visitors, leading to a negative economic and social impact, thereby weakening the author's positive portrayal of tourism potential.
Conclusion: This statement introduces a serious concern that the author overlooks, making it a strong contender to weaken the overall argument.
"As the lupine population of Europe spreads westwards, with occasional reports of wolves seen closer to urban areas, expect to hear of more clashes between farmers and those who celebrate the predators' return. Farmers' losses are real, but are not the only economic story. Tourist venues, such as parks where wolves are kept and the animals' spread is discussed, also generate income and jobs in rural areas."
The passage mentions that farmers in Lozère are worried about wolves returning and causing livestock losses. Meanwhile, environmentalists see wolves as a sign of broader ecological health. The proposed economic solution involves creating tourist attractions related to wolves, like parks. These attractions help address farmers' economic concerns by generating income and align with environmentalists' interests in the return of wolves. Therefore, Option D accurately reflects the collaboration between farmers and environmentalists in the proposed solution.
Directions: There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (Option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: This philosophical cut at one's core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.
Paragraph:
The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting. When reading philosophy, the values around which one has heretofore organised one's life may come to look provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. __(1)__ When beliefs previously held as truths are rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and ways of living may be required. __(2)__ What's worse, philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes philosophical writing is even strictly critical in that it does not even attempt to provide an alternative after tearing down a cultural or conceptual citadel. __(3)__ The reader of philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of this experience. While reading philosophy can help one clarify one's values, and even make one self-conscious for the first time of the fact that there are good reasons for believing what one believes, it can also generate Un remediated doubt that is difficult to live with.
The given sentence, "This philosophical cut at one's core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.", fits best at Option 2 in the paragraph. Here's the explanation:
The sentence describes the challenging nature of philosophical exploration—a theme that is presented right after discussing the possibility of old beliefs being rendered implausible. Here is how the paragraph is structured with the inserted sentence:
The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting. When reading philosophy, the values around which one has heretofore organised one's life may come to look provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. When beliefs previously held as truths are rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and ways of living may be required. This philosophical cut at one's core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough. What's worse, philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes philosophical writing is even strictly critical in that it does not even attempt to provide an alternative after tearing down a cultural or conceptual citadel. The reader of philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of this experience. While reading philosophy can help one clarify one's values, and even make one self-conscious for the first time of the fact that there are good reasons for believing what one believes, it can also generate unremediated doubt that is difficult to live with.
Thus, the insertion at Option 2 succinctly connects the preceding and following ideas regarding the unsettling impact of philosophical reading.
From a very early age, I knew that when I grew up, I should be a writer. I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their sound. I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer's motives without knowing something of his early development.
His subject-matter will be determined by the age he lives in — at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own — but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job to discipline his temperament, but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They are: (i) Sheer egoism: Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood; (ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm: Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed (iii) Historical impulse: Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity (iv) Political purpose: Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.
[Extracted with edits from George Orwell's "Why I Write"]
Read the sentence and infer the writer's tone: "The politician's speech was filled with lofty promises and little substance, a performance repeated every election season."
When $10^{100}$ is divided by 7, the remainder is ?