QUESTIONS 26-40
Yon me advised la spend about 25
minuter on Questions 26-40 ivlnch refer to
Rending
Primage 3 below
READING PASSAGE 3
WHY WE CAN
'
T AFFORD TO LET ASIA STARVE
A Among the problems afflicting a
E Such issues, Lampe argues, while seen as
burgeoning world population,
overcrowding,
remote by many countries and international
poverty and environmental degradation are
corporations, will strike at their economic base
combining to put at ris>k the very essence of our
as well Societies that are too poor or driven by
survival — food
internal strife and civil war will be bad for
investment or as markets for goods Pressure
B 'If by the beginning of the next century we
from a rising tide of environmental and
have failed to satisfy the very basic needs of
political refugees may also be felt
the two billion very poor and four billion poor.
life for the rest of us could be extremely risky
F. One significant factor undermining the
and uncomfortable,' predicts Dr Klaus Lampe
agricultural economies of developing countries
of the International Rice Research Institute
has been the farm trade
war between the US
(IRRI) m the Philippines This is a highly
and the EC 'We talk about environmental
threatening, even terrifying prediction for Asia,
degradation and dangerous chemicals, yet
where 70 per cent of the world's poor live but
spend billions of US dollars and ECUs
where reserves of good quality arable land
producing things we don't want which ruin
have practically run out
local production systems and incomes for poor
people,' Lampe says And instead of developed
C Although the world regards Asia as the
countries helping struggling nations to develop
focus of an economic and industrial miracle,
sustainable food production systems their
without adequate supplies of food, Lampe
policies tend to erode and destroy them
says, chaos could easily result in many
countries And the
impact will be felt widely
G When world grain prices are bad farmers in
throughout the region In the 1990s alone, he
Asia s uplands turn from rice to cash crops to
says, the cities of Asia will be swollen by
a
supplement falling incomes, or clea
r
larger
further 500 million people — nearly equal to the
areas of rainforest with catastrophic
population of the United States and European
environmental consequences within just a few
Community combined 'The only growing
years Cleared rainforest soils are highly
population in Asia is that of the poor Prime
erosive, even where they arc not, they rapidly
productive
land is being used for city
become acid and toxic under intense
expansion and building roads, while thousands
cultivation and plants die, forcing the clearing
of hectares are being taken out of production
of ever-larger areas
each year because of salinity or alkalinity '
H Research at the IRRI has indicated that
D From the mid-1960s when the Green
intensive rice production — growing two or
Revolution began, Asian food production
three crops a year on the same land — is
doubled through a combination of high-
showing signs of yield declines as great as 10
yielding crops, expanded farming area and
per cent Evidence for this comes from as far
greater
intensification From now on, growing
afield as India, The Philippines and Indonesia
enough food will depend almost entirely on
At the same time, agricultural research
increasing yield from the same, or smaller, area
worldwide has been contracting as
of land However, a mysterious threat is
governments, non-government bodies and
emerging m the noticeably declining yields of
private donors reduce funding bixause of
rice from areas that have been most intensively
domestic economic pressures Dm means.
farmed Unless scientists can unravel why this
Lampe says, that at risk is the capacity to sol\ e
is so, food output in Asia may actually stagnate
such problems
as rice yield decline and
at a time when population will double
research to breed the new generation of super-
yielelding crops. Yet rice will be needed to feed
more than half the human population — an
estimated 4 5 billion out ot 8 3 billion people by
2030
1 Compared with the building of weapons of
mass destruction or the mounting of space
missions to Mars, Lampe says, the devising of
sustainable farming systems has little political
appeal to most governments 'To them I say I
hope you can sleep well at night '
Questions 26-33
Reading Passage 3 has 9 paragraphs. Choose the most suitable heading for each
paragraph from the list i-xii below. Use each heading ONCE only. Write your
answers in the spaces 26-33 on the answer sheet. The first one is an example.
There are more headings than paragraphs, so you won't use all the headings.
Example. Paragraph A.
Answer: iv
26. Paragraph B
27 Paragraph C
28
Paragraph D
29 Paragraph E
30 Paragraph F
31 Paragraph G
32 Paragraph H
33 Paragraph I
List of Headings
i
Decrease in food yields
ii
Drop in yield affected by reduction in research
iii
Pollution ruining crops
iv
World at risk due to predicted food shortage
V
Lack ot international interest
vi
Bid to retrain Asian farmers
vii Desperate situation for Asia
viii Environmental degradation due
to changed farming methods
ix
Need to increase soil fertility
X
Population explosion compounds Asia's problems
xi
International commerce threatens Asian agriculture
xii Food shortages have wide effects
Questions 34-35
Name TWO reasons for loss of farm land. Use a maximum of TWO words in both
of your answers. Write your answers in spaces 34-35 on the answer sheet.
Questions 36-40
The flow chart below describes some consequences of Asian agriculture. Each step
follows the previous step, forming a chain of consequences. Complete the flow
chart by selecting the appropriate letter from the list of consequences below, to fill
spaces numbered 36-40 on the answer sheet.
Some letters may be used more than once.
Consequences
[
D rainforest cleared
A vegetation destroyed
E
acid soil
B need to supplement income
C poor world grain price