Question

1. One of the most important problems facing the country today is the rapid increase in population. In the last 25 years the population of the world has doubled. As the developing world has a population growth which is twice that of the developed world, most of the population inccrease has taken place in the poorer countries of the world. The main point to be made here is that more and more people are concentrated in those countries which are least able to provide a living for them. 2. What is responsible for this population rise is not an increase in fertility, but a sharp decline in the death rate in the developing countries. In the absence of birth control, the maximum birth rate is around 4%. For a population to remain static in these circumstances, the death rate would have to be the same. Improving food supplies can reduce the death rate to 3%. Better public health and medical care can cut the death rate by further 2%. The resultant population growth of 3% will double the population every 25 years. 3. The main reason for the reduction in the death rate in the developing world has been improved public health measures. For e.g. in Sri Lanka the death rate was halved over 10 years by spraying the mosquitoes which carry malaria. Why is it so easy to cut the death rate in this way and yet so hard to reduce the birth rate? One answer is that the public health measures can be very cheap. Anti-malaria spraying is inexpensive. But this is not the important point. 4. For birth control programmes to be successful a change in attitude is required whereas death control can be achieved autonomously. In other words, the death rate can be cut without anything else changing. (a) In the last 25 years the world population has : (i) doubled (ii) increased rapidly (iii) grown by 3% (iv) not changed (b) Which of the following is true according to the passage? (i) Poor and rich countries have the same rate of growth (ii) Rich countries have a greater growth than the poor (iii) Rich countries have twice the growth rate as the poor (iv) Poor countries have twice the growth rate as the rich (c) Factor that is most responsible for growth rate is : (i) Increase in fertility rate (ii) Lack of birth control measures (iii) Decrease in death rate (iv) None of the above (d) The best way to arrest population growth is : (i) to create public awareness (ii) to create public health facilities (iii) mot to meddle with the death rate (iv) keep the death rate the same as the birth rate (e) Controlling death rate is easy because : (i) it involves a change in the attitude (ii) it can be done autonomously (iii) everything else changes with it (iv) people like it (f) Improving food supplies and better public health care can cut the death rate by _____ together. (i) 2% (ii) 3% (iii) 4% (iv) 5% (g) Which of the following will be the most appropriate title for the passage? (i) World Population Problems (ii) World Food Problems (iii) World Healthcare Problems (iv) World Fertility Problems (h) Which word in para 2 is similar in meaning to the phrase ‘cut down’? (i) static (ii) reduce (iii) absence (iv) rise​

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) 1

(b) 1

(c) 1

(d) 1

(e) 1

(f) 1

(g) 1