Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 34 to 38.

The life span of an elephant that dies from natural causes is about sixty-five years. Of course, an elephant can perish from a number of “unnatural causes”; e.g., it can be killed by hunters, most probably for the valuable ivory in its tusks; it can die from diseases that spread throughout an elephant herd; or it can die from drought or from the lack of food ___(1)___ almost certainly accompanies the inadequate supply of water.
If, ___(2)___, an elephant survives these disasters, it falls grey to old age in its mid-sixties. Around this age, the ___(3)___ of death is attributed to the loss of the final set of molars. When this last set of teeth is gone, the elephant dies from malnutrition because it is unable to obtain adequate ___(4)___. In old age, elephants tend to search out a final home where there is shade for comfort from the sun and soft vegetation for cushioning; the bones of ___(5)___ old elephants have been found in such places.