Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 34.

China - Missing Women

In China the growing difference between the genders is giving signals of alarm to Government authorities. According to the latest census figures, 119 boys are born for every 100 girls. [A■] This striking difference is expected to shoot up by the year 2020 with almost 40 million unsettled bachelors. This distribution of the social ecology would create havoc in the future. The social leaders are trying to pressurize the masses into producing more females. The Government has embarked on policies extending innumerable incentives to the families bearing girls.

Monetary support, free education, guaranteed employment is being gifted to parents who gift the country with a girl child. The Government is trying to persuade people to suppress their personal preferences and regulate their community behavior according to the new blueprint to stimulate the girl ratio. [B■] Sometimes the Government tries to woo them and sometimes it uses stein policies to force them into it

Consequent to the population explosion, the Government introduced, in the 80's, one child policy in China. Any additional pregnancy had to be terminated. This was aimed to put a check on the teeming millions. [C■] The policy had no relation to extermination of girl child in the womb. But the policymakers had no idea about its long term impact. People, with a patriarchic mindset, came up with their preference for a single male child. The idea of a happy family became 'parents with a single male child'.

The Chinese culture has always promoted sons over daughters because the society has been dominated by males. In villages, where hard work is needed to sustain the agriculture, a boy is always preferable due to his superior physical strength compared to that of a girl. [D■] In such circumstances, looking forward to a male baby seems justified. If people have to limit their families, it is obvious they would prefer a boy over a girl child. This problem has been accentuated by the use of ultrasound scanning which helps determine the sex of the fetus. This technology has played a crucial role in creating gender imbalance.

Question 28: The word "havoc" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to?