Choose the correct order of sentences to form a meaningful paragraph.

In a sentence-rearrangement (para-jumble) question, the correct sequence is the one where every pronoun ('he', 'it', 'this') and every explicit connector ('as a result', 'therefore') has one, and only one, clear antecedent in the sentence immediately before it. The paragraph must also open on a sentence that names its subject directly, never on a sentence whose opening word is a pronoun with nothing yet to point back to.

Applying this rule to the four given sentences, in order:

1. The sentence about man proceeding toward his goal of conquering nature names the subject, 'man', for the first time, so it is the only sentence that can open the paragraph without leaving 'he' unresolved.

2. The sentence about adding a new chapter to this record of destruction uses 'he' (= man) and 'this record of destruction' (= the destruction just introduced in the opening sentence), so it must come directly after the opening sentence.

3. The sentence about spraying chemical insecticides and pesticides on the land spells out exactly what that 'new chapter' is, so it follows next.

4. The sentence about birds, mammals, fishes and wildlife being killed is explicitly marked as a result ('As a result'), and the only sentence that supplies a cause for it is the pesticide-spraying sentence, so it must come last.

Checking every other possible ordering independently confirms this: each alternative opens with a sentence that begins on the pronoun 'he' — either the pesticide-spraying sentence or the 'new chapter' sentence — before 'man' has been named anywhere, so 'he' has no antecedent at the very start of the paragraph. Only the man/nature sentence can open the paragraph coherently.

• The order that opens with the pesticide-spraying sentence fails because 'he' has no named antecedent yet at that point.

• The order that opens with the 'new chapter' sentence fails for the same reason, and 'this record' has nothing before it to refer to.

• The order that places the 'birds, mammals, fishes' result sentence before the pesticide-spraying sentence breaks the cause-and-effect link that the words 'as a result' require.

So the paragraph reads in this order: the man/nature sentence, then the 'new chapter' sentence, then the pesticide-spraying sentence, then the result sentence.