📖 Reading Passage (Questions 61–65)

Human activities like pollution, deforestation, and waste disposal are causing environmental problems like acid rain, climate change, and global warming. The environment has living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components. Biotic components include plants, animals, and microorganisms, while abiotic components include things like temperature, light, and soil. In the living environment, there are producers (like plants), consumers (like animals), and decomposers (like bacteria). Producers use sunlight to make energy, forming the base of the food web. Consumers get their energy by eating other organisms, creating a chain of energy transfer. Decomposers break down waste and dead organisms, recycling nutrients in the soil. The non-living environment includes climatic factors such as rain and temperature and edaphic factors such as soil and minerals. Climatic factors affect the water cycle, while edaphic factors provide nutrients and a place for organisms to grow.