A. what B. deserve C. turning into D. unlike E. virtually F. endangered G. safe H. decline I. remember J. standards K. combining L. sense M. ideally N. rules O. that Polar bears, rhinoceroses and elephants are all on the immediate critical list. The rhino is doomed due to increasingly cash-rich Asia's belief 1 its horn has some kind of Harry Potter magical power. The beast's 2 is an object lesson in the dangers of giving idiots money. But it is not only our friends in the animal kingdom who are being destroyed by economic forces beyond their control. The world's thinkers are now also a gravely 3 species. And yet, 4 the conceited creatures who share their fate, there is not even the most hasty plan in place to protect them. Once thinkers were everywhere, like butterflies, sparrows and bees, which have also 5 disappeared. No one under 40 can be expected to 6 the prevalent abundance of pure thought that once characterised our culture. It has disappeared gradually, like roadside wildflowers and sticklebacks in streams, as if it never were. Today, all our universities are 7 book-balancing business schools or results-driven scientific research centres, treating students as customers who 8 to see an investment return in the form of increased living 9 and higher salaries in exchange for spending their student loans, and funded by patrons and public bodies wanting to see practical results. Once you joined a university to service the global advancement of ideas. Now you employ it to make you more employable. We are unconvinced as to the actual practical value of rhinos, but we have a 10 that it reflects badly on us if these things are allowed to disappear on our watch. The same is true of thinkers.