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The passage given below has numbered blanks. Choose the word that best fits Blank 1. Over the past decade, the sunflower sea star has gone from a predator of the Pacific Ocean to nearing extinction. The Nature Conservancy estimates that 5.75 billion sunflower sea stars died over three years, a 94% global (1). The cause, scientists say, is largely climate change and warming waters, (2) by sea star wasting disease. Hope is slowly on the horizon. The Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography near San Diego successfully (3) three sunflower sea stars recently, the latest success story in a sprawling collaborative effort. TBA has five sunflower stars, one of the largest populations of sunflower stars in (4) in California. But until recently it did not know their gender. To determine the sex, researchers induced spawning. After further testing, they can determine whether the (5) could survive disease or parasites. Once that's done, the aquarium will be able to begin the fertilization process.