Read the following passage and answer questions 46 to 50: The conceptions and…
2022
Read the following passage and answer questions 46 to 50:
The conceptions and treatment of poverty were quite different before 1940. In colonial times the concern with poverty was conditioned by the belief that even if the natives could be somewhat enlightened by the presence of the coloniser, not much could be done about their poverty. It was because their economic development was pointless. The natives’ capacity for science and technology, the basis for economic progress, was seen as nil. However, within Asian, African and Latin or Native American societies, vernacular societies had developed ways of defining and treating poverty that accommodated visions of community, frugality, and sufficiency. It is true that massive poverty in the modern sense appeared only when the spread of market economy broke down the communities. As a result, it deprived millions of people from access to land, water and other resources. With the consolidation of market economy, systemic issues became inevitable.
It is important to know the break that occurred in the conceptions and management of poverty first with the emergence of capitalism in Europe, and later with the advent of development in the Third world. The first break is described in terms of the advent in the nineteenth century of systems for dealing with the poor, based on assistance provided by impersonal institutions. Philanthropy occupied an important place in this transition. The transformation of the poor into the assisted had a profound consequence. The modernisation of poverty invariably affected vernacular relations.
The focus of the passage is on
Answer: C. The ill-effects of capitalism — ConceptThe main idea is the claim that organizes the whole passage, not a detail that appears only once. To identify it, track the repeated cause-and-effect…
- A.
The merits of market economy
- B.
Philanthropy to reduce poverty
- C.
The ill-effects of capitalism
- D.
The issue of redefining poverty in the Third World
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Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept
The main idea is the claim that organizes the whole passage, not a detail that appears only once.
To identify it, track the repeated cause-and-effect chain and choose the option whose scope covers all major parts of the text.
Application
The passage contrasts vernacular ways of understanding poverty with the changes produced by market expansion and capitalist modernization. It connects those changes with broken community ties, loss of access to resources, modern mass poverty and systemic problems, and the conversion of the poor into recipients of impersonal institutional assistance.
Contrast
The merits of market economy would require a passage organized around advantages of market exchange; this passage develops the social costs associated with its expansion.
Philanthropy to reduce poverty is one detail within the nineteenth-century move toward institutional assistance, not the passage-wide subject.
The issue of redefining poverty in the Third World captures only the later phase; the passage also begins with capitalism in Europe and follows the broader transformation of poverty management.
Result
The passage therefore focuses on the ill-effects of capitalism.