Question:
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage.
Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government intervention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind’s agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
Question:
What is the conclusion of the author in the passage about the prospects of agriculture in the world?
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the items that follow the passage. Your answers to these items should be based solely on the passage.
Can agricultural productivity meet human needs in the long run? Since twentieth century advances, given increasing costs, do not seem sustainable, further increases in output will not be achieved easily. Global population growth, while showing signs of slowing down, has pushed farmers and herders into areas unsuited to intensive agriculture, accelerating worldwide ecological disruptions. Reserves of arable land and fresh water have diminished alarmingly. Chemical runoffs have compounded pollution problems. Invasion of natural habitats have hastened species extinction. Desertification has been severe in the last hundred years, especially in North Africa, southern portions of Africa, Australia, northern Mexico, and the American Southwest. Tropical forests have shrunk by one-half since World War II, with agricultural pressures causing three-quarters of that loss. Government intervention has produced its share of catastrophes, ranging from a terrible famine in China between 1958-1961 that may have killed 30 million people and destroyed the Aral Sea. Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind’s agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
Question:
What is the conclusion of the author in the passage about the prospects of agriculture in the world?
Options:
- a) The author is both hopeful and sceptical of the prospects of agriculture
- b) The author is very hopeful of the prospects of agriculture
- c) The author is sceptical of the prospects of agriculture
- d) The author is neither hopeful nor sceptical of the prospects of agriculture
- a) The author is both hopeful and sceptical of the prospects of agriculture
- b) The author is very hopeful of the prospects of agriculture
- c) The author is sceptical of the prospects of agriculture
- d) The author is neither hopeful nor sceptical of the prospects of agriculture
correct answer : a)
Explanation:
The concluding sentence “Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind’s agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century” gives away the tone and approach of the author towards the subject. Here, he wants to remain “hopeful” with the inability to look “optimistically” forward. He seems to be hopeful but cautious of future challenges. Other options are in the extreme, hence negated.
The concluding sentence “Taking everything into consideration, we may remain hopeful about humankind’s agricultural prospects, but we can scarcely look forward optimistically at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century” gives away the tone and approach of the author towards the subject. Here, he wants to remain “hopeful” with the inability to look “optimistically” forward. He seems to be hopeful but cautious of future challenges. Other options are in the extreme, hence negated.