Direction (Qs.1 to 5): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. There are some blanks given in the passage based on which some questions are framed, and some words are bold as well to help you answer some of the questions.

But international support for the Amazon has been tepid. This was clear last month in Altamira, northern Brazil, at the aptly named Amazon: Centre of the World gathering. (A) In the days before the meeting, rightwing agitators (1) called for farmers, cattle ranchers (2), police and other “patriots” to mobilise against sovereignty (3) communities, environmentalists and human rights groups taking part, that they claimed were “eco-socialists” working for international interests against Brazil’s traditional (4) and economic development. These messages were enough to spook two foreign organisations – a huge environmental NGO and one of the world’s biggest foundations – who pulled out of the event., rather than risk becoming embroiled in a potentially tense stand-off. Other foreign groups were uncowed. For domestic activists, threats are a fact of life – and they find their own way to deal with them. At the opening session, a group of land grabbers – some wrapped in the Brazilian flag – shoved their way to the front, jostled the speakers and disrupted proceedings. They were pushed back by Kayapo warriors in war paint, while other activists formed a human barrier to enable the speakers to continue. (B) It was symbolic:/ white farmers attempting to take over;/ Amazon dwellers defending their space,/ while prominent international supporters ran scared./

(C) This is a shame on our generation. The Amazon (along with the Congo and Papua New Guinea, the oceans and other capitals of nature) should be as central to _____. Back then, working-class idealists joined public intellectuals in the fight against fascism. George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn, WH Auden, Pablo Neruda, Emma Goldman and Ernest Hemingway were among tens of thousands who risked their lives reporting on the fighting or taking part in it as members of the International Brigade. Some saw it as a civilisation-defining moment. Others described it in apocalyptic terms as “the last great cause”. For Orwell– who was shot in the conflict – it was simply a fight for “common decency”.

Unlike then, the threat to civilisation and decency is not a new ideology, but the accumulated consequences of the old one. Bolsonaro, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other populists may often resemble fascists, but actually they are archcapitalists. Their main appeal to voters comes not from a twisted vision of a future but from a promise to turn back the clock to a more stable age. This is impossible, because manmade climate chaos is increasingly disrupting more lives and economic activity. Until governments deal with that, all other battles will be futile.

That is why defence of the Amazon – and the broader struggle to restore nature - is today’s “last great cause”. Move this issue from the periphery to the centre and everything - global politics, economics and individual thinking – changes. (D) Ecology will be seen (1) as more representation (2) than economy, long-term fertility (3) will come ahead of destructive GDP growth, ecocide will be punishable in criminal courts, future generations and other species will be given democratic fundamental (4), and school curriculums will teach children how to maintain our home, planet Earth.

That may seem a distant prospect. The forces lined up against such a radical but necessary shift in thinking have more political power and force of arms. The same was true in the Spanish civil war. Then, the antifascists lost the war but, as the great historian Eric Hobsbawm noted, they won the battle for ideas. (E) With so many writers, poets and journalists / on their side, the losers got to write the history for a change /- and these shaped the debate for the bigger conflict / that was to come in the second world war.

Similarly, the battle for the Amazon cannot be won on the ground with guns and bombs, but it can be shaped by opinions, money, consumer choices, street protests and international pressure. It is no longer enough for today’s intellectuals, celebrities and other opinion formers to declare support for the rainforest on social networks. More people need to get out from behind their screens, to feel what nature provides and how it is being lost.