Questions 13-16 are based on the following passage.

    The preservation of animal and plant life, and of the general beauty of Nature, is one of the foremost duties of the men and women of today. It's an imperative duty because it must be performed at once, for otherwise, it will be too late. Every possible means of preservation—sentimental, educational, and legislative—must be employed.

    We no longer destroy great works of art. They are treasured and regarded as priceless; however, we have yet to attain the state of civilization where the destruction of a glorious work of Nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird, is regarded with equal abhorrence. The whole earth is a poorer place to live in when a colony of exquisite egrets or birds of paradise is destroyed in order that the plumes may decorate the hat of some lady of fashion, and ultimately find their way into the rubbish heap.

    Travels through Europe, as well as over a large part of the North American continent, have convinced me that nowhere is Nature being destroyed so rapidly as in the United States. Except within our conservation areas, an earthly paradise is being turned into an earthly Hades and it is not savages or primitive men who are doing this, but men and women who boast of their civilization. Air and water are polluted, rivers and streams serve as sewers and dumping grounds, forests are swept away and fishes are driven from the streams. Many birds are becoming extinct, and certain mammals are on the verge of extermination. Vulgar advertisements hide the landscape and in all that disfigures the wonderful heritage of the beauty of nature today, we Americans are in the lead.

Fortunately, the tide of destruction is ebbing and the tide of conservation is coming in. Americans are practical. Like all other Northern people, they love money and will sacrifice much for it, but they are also full of idealism, as well as of moral and spiritual energy. The influence of the splendid body of Americans and Canadians, who have turned their best forces of mind and language into literature and into political power for the conservation movement, is becoming stronger every day. Yet we are far from the point where the momentum of conservation is strong enough to arrest and roll back the tide of destruction and this is especially true with regard to our fast vanishing animal life.


The author mentions each of the following in the passage, EXCEPT ....