Directions: Carefully read the given passage and answer the question that follow. You are required to select your answer solely based on the contents of the passage and the opinion of the author only.

People by and large are concerned with and pursue self-interest. They are unlikely to be motivated to use renewable resources in a prudent and sustainable fashion. They are unlikely to be motivated under the following conditions: if their resource catchments are vast, so that degradation of any particular portion affects them very little; or if they have open before them possibilities of substitution as any one resource element is depleted; or if their control over the resource base is tenuous, so that others may, at any time, deplete a resource they value, even if they use it in a restrained fashion. Indeed, exhaustive use is highly likely when any one of these three conditions obtains. It is only when people perceive their resource catchments as limited, possibilities of substitution of exhausted resource elements as not readily feasible, and their own control over the resource base as secure, will they be motivated to use the resources in a prudent fashion. People, rooted in a locality, and retaining control over their resource base are most likely to fulfil all three prerequisites for sustainable resource use; and therefore to behave in ways conducive to the conservation of biodiversity within their localities.

Directions: In this section, the following sentence has a blank space and is followed by four words. Select the word you consider most appropriate to fill in the blank space and indicate your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.

The first law of thermodynamics states that whereas energy can be ____________ from one form into another, it cannot be created or destroyed.