Question 1
ComprehensionJAMB 1999 Passage I: The poor in developing countries
In many places in the world today, the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer, and the programmes of development planning and foreign aid appear to be unable to reverse this trend. Nearly all the developing countries have a modern sector, where the patterns of living and working are similar to those in developed countries. But they also have a non-modern sector, where the patterns of living and working are not only unsatisfactory, but in many cases are even getting worse.
What is the typical condition of the poor in developing countries? Their work opportunities are so limited that they cannot work their way out of their situation. They are underemployed, or totally unemployed; when they do find occasional work, their productivity is extremely low. Some of them have land, but often too little land. Many have no land, and no prospect of ever getting any. There is no hope for them in the rural areas and so, they drift into the big cities. But there is no work for them in the big cities either --- and of course no housing. All the same, they flock into the cities because their chances of finding some work appear to be greater there than in the villages -- where they are nil. Rural unemployment, then, produces mass migration into the cities; rural unemployment becomes urban unemployment.
The problem can be stated quite simply: what can be done to promote economic growth outside the big cities, in the small towns and villages, which still contain 80 to 90% of the total population? The primary need is workplaces, literally millions of workplaces.
[Ray Williams: Panorama]
What is the typical condition of the poor in developing countries? Their work opportunities are so limited that they cannot work their way out of their situation. They are underemployed, or totally unemployed; when they do find occasional work, their productivity is extremely low. Some of them have land, but often too little land. Many have no land, and no prospect of ever getting any. There is no hope for them in the rural areas and so, they drift into the big cities. But there is no work for them in the big cities either --- and of course no housing. All the same, they flock into the cities because their chances of finding some work appear to be greater there than in the villages -- where they are nil. Rural unemployment, then, produces mass migration into the cities; rural unemployment becomes urban unemployment.
The problem can be stated quite simply: what can be done to promote economic growth outside the big cities, in the small towns and villages, which still contain 80 to 90% of the total population? The primary need is workplaces, literally millions of workplaces.
[Ray Williams: Panorama]
The gap between and the poor widens because there
- A.are no jobs in the rural areas
- B.are no employment opportunities in the city
- C.is not work in the village and the city
- D.is low growth rate inproductivity
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: C (is not work in the village and the city)
Explanation
The writer says there is no hope of work in the rural areas and no work in the big cities either, so the poor cannot work their way out of poverty. That is why the gap keeps growing, and why 'the primary need is workplaces'.