Wildlife biologists faced a critical challenge in 1987 when California condor numbers had plummeted to fewer than two dozen birds...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Wildlife biologists faced a critical challenge in 1987 when California condor numbers had plummeted to fewer than two dozen birds in the wild, prompting them to ______ this crisis through an intensive captive breeding program. The initiative involved capturing the remaining wild birds and establishing breeding facilities across multiple locations. Over the following decades, the program's success became evident as the population grew to over 500 birds, many of which have been successfully returned to their natural habitat.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
reverse
document
accelerate
publicize
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Wildlife biologists faced a critical challenge in 1987 when California condor numbers had plummeted to fewer than two dozen birds in the wild, prompting them to" |
|
| [MISSING WORD/PHRASE] |
|
| "this crisis through an intensive captive breeding program." |
|
| "The initiative involved capturing the remaining wild birds and establishing breeding facilities across multiple locations." |
|
| "Over the following decades, the program's success became evident as the population grew to over 500 birds, many of which have been successfully returned to their natural habitat." |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Wildlife biologists successfully saved California condors from near-extinction through a captive breeding program that grew the population from fewer than 24 to over 500 birds.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes a crisis (condor population crashed), describes the intervention method (the missing word + captive breeding), provides implementation details, and demonstrates the successful outcome with specific numbers.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The blank comes right after describing a crisis (condor population plummeted to fewer than 24 birds) and connects to "this crisis through an intensive captive breeding program"
- We need a word that shows what the biologists did about this crisis
- Looking at what happened: the crisis was a declining population, and the result was a growing population (from less than 24 to 500+)
- The program was successful, so the biologists must have done something that countered or fixed or turned around this crisis
- The missing word should indicate that the biologists took effective action that opposed or undid the crisis - something that would logically lead to the population recovery we see in the results
reverse
✓ Correct
- "Reverse" means to turn around or undo something
- Perfect fit: they turned around the declining population crisis
- Matches our prethinking - they took action that countered/fixed the crisis
- Makes logical sense with the results: reversing a declining population crisis leads to population recovery
document
✗ Incorrect
- "Document" means to record or write about something
- Documenting a crisis doesn't solve it - just recording the problem won't make the condor population grow
- Students might think biologists need to study/record before acting, but the passage focuses on taking action, not research
accelerate
✗ Incorrect
- "Accelerate" means to speed up or increase the rate of something
- You wouldn't want to speed up a crisis - that would make the population decline even faster
- Completely contradicts the successful outcome described
publicize
✗ Incorrect
- "Publicize" means to make something widely known or advertise it
- Simply making the crisis public doesn't solve the population problem
- The focus is on taking direct action (breeding program), not on raising awareness