A. Read the text to complete it with the right form of the adjective in brackets: The state of the world - Better and better HUMANS are a gloomy species. Some 71% of Britons think the world is getting ______________ and ______________ (bad); only 5% think it is improving. Asked whether global poverty had fallen by half, doubled or remained the same in the past 20 years, only 5% of Americans answered correctly that it had fallen by half. This is not simple ignorance, observes Johan Norberg, a Swedish economic historian. People are predisposed to think that things are ______________ (bad) than they are, and they overestimate the likelihood of calamity. This is because they rely not on data, but on how easy it is to recall an example. And the ______________ (bad) things are, the ______________ (much) people remember them. The media amplify this distortion. Famines, earthquakes and beheadings all make gripping headlines. Pessimism has political consequences. Voters who think things were better in the past are more likely to demand that governments turn back the clock. A whopping 81% of Donald Trump’s supporters think life has become ______________ and ______________ (bad) in the past 50 years. Among Britons who voted to leave the European Union, 61% believe that most children will be ______________ (bad) off than their parents. Those who voted for Brexit tend to believe the ______________ (soon) they leave the EU, the ______________ (fast) their life will improve. Mr Norberg unleashes a tornado of evidence that life is, in fact, getting ______________ and ______________ (good). Not only are people ______________ and ______________ (prosperous); they also enjoy ______________ (good) health than even rich folk did in the past. This is due partly to medical science which is ______________ and ______________ (advanced). When the swine flu pandemic threatened to become catastrophic in 2009, scientists sequenced the genome of the virus within a day and were producing a vaccine in ______________ (little) than six months. The ______________ (much) basic technology spreads, allowing for clean water and indoor plumbing, the ______________ (good) life’s conditions become. Louis XIV’s palace was the pinnacle of 18th-century grandeur. Nonetheless, without flush toilets, it stank. Now 68% of the world’s population have modern sanitation up from 24% in 1980. People are becoming ______________ and ______________ (smart), too. Americans scored, on average, 100 points on IQ tests just after the second world war. By 2002, using the same test, this had risen to 118, with the ______________ (big) improvements in answers to the ______________ (abstract) problems. The ______________ (likely) reasons are better nutrition and the spread of education. The ______________ (well) brains are fed and the ______________ (stimulated) they are, the ______________ (well) they tend to work. The ______________ (much) people grow adept at abstract thought, the ______________ (easy) they find it to imagine themselves in other people’s shoes. And there is plenty of evidence that society has become ______________ and ______________ (tolerant). As recently as 1964, even the American Civil Liberties Union agreed that homosexuals should be barred from government jobs. In 1987 only 48% of Americans approved of interracial dating; in 2012 that figure was 86% (and 95% of 18- to 29-year-olds). Despite the bloody headlines, the world is far ______________ (safe) than it used to be. The homicide rate is ______________ and ______________ (low). Globally, wars are ______________ and ______________ (frequent). The only type of violence that is ______________ and ______________ (common) is terrorism, and people wildly overestimate how much of it there is. The average European is ten times ______________ (likely) to die by falling down stairs than to be killed by a terrorist. As a matter of fact, evidence that the past was ______________ (brutal) than the present can even gleaned from cultural clues. For example, children’s nursery rhymes are 11 times ______________ (violent) than television programmes aired before 9pm in Britain, one study found. That life is improving for most people does not mean it is improving for everyone. Global warming is still a worry, but Mr Norberg hopes that human ingenuity will tame it. He writes with enthusiasm about all kinds of green innovation. For example, the ______________ (efficient) farming technology becomes, the ______________ (soon) the world will be returned to nature. The main reason why things tend to get better is that knowledge is cumulative and easily shared. As Mr Norberg puts it, “The ______________ (important) resource is the human brain...which is pleasantly reproducible.” https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21706231-human-life-has-improved-many-ways-both-recently-according-swedish-economic (abridged and adapted) B. Transform the sentences without changing their original meaning: 1. People overestimate the likelihood of calamity. This is because they don’t rely on data. If people _____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. People were pessimistic and so they voted to leave the European Union. If people _____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. The worse things are, the more people remember them. If things are bad, _______________________________________________________________________________ 4. The sooner they leave the EU, the faster their life will improve. If they leave ___________________________________________________________________________________ 5. 61% believe that this generation will live worse than their parents. However, Mr Norberg proves that life is getting better. While ________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. People enjoy better health today due to advances in medical science. If medical science hadn’t ________________________________________________________________________ 7. Louis XIV’s palace was the pinnacle of 18th-century grandeur. Nonetheless, without flush toilets, it stank. Even though __________________________________________________________________________________ 8. The more basic technology spreads, the better life’s conditions become. Unless _______________________________________________________________________________________ 9. As countries have modernized, society has grown more tolerant. If countries ___________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Brains tend to work better because they are better fed and more stimulated. If brains weren’t well ___________________________________________________________________________ 11. Despite the bloody headlines, the world is less dangerous than it used to be. Although _____________________________________________________________________________________ 12. That life is improving for most people does not mean it is improving for everyone. Although _____________________________________________________________________________________ 13. Global warming is still a worry, but Mr Norberg hopes that human ingenuity will tame it. If Mr Norberg is right, ___________________________________________________________________________ 14. The more efficient farming technology is, the sooner the world will be returned to nature. If farming technology weren’t ____________________________________________________________________ 15. The main reason why things tend to get better is that knowledge is cumulative and easily shared. If knowledge __________________________________________________________________________________ 16. The human brain, which is pleasantly reproducible, is an important resource. If the human brain weren’t _______________________________________________________________________ C. Answer the questions about the text: 1. Divide the text in two parts. What are the topics in each part? Sum up their main ideas. 2. What’s Mr Norberg’s opinion about the future? What do his last words in the text really mean, in your point of view?
