Part I: Reading Comprehension
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow it.
1.The economic consequences of population growth, specifically, have been a long-lasting
subject matter of debate. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, among the first population pessimists,
claimed that there would be an exhaustion of the world’s resources, and the reason for this
would be the pace of population growth. Therefore, the thinking that food production would
expand more slowly than population growth held sweep well into the 20thcentury.
2.The concept of effective demand is extremely important to understand the link between food
security, population, and development. Even though population optimists did not accept the
automatic link between population growth and economic progress, they somehow were assured
that advantageous policies could help shift increases in population into greater prosperity. The
main factor in the development of population-food security links is the problem of access to
food in terms of purchasing power, market, and regional distribution, and reducing food
insecurity, thus, means eliminating poverty.
3.Food security and nutrition have been important characteristics of the international
development agenda for decades. Nevertheless, over time, development priorities and
challenges fluctuated, and the required investment has not been assisted. A wide consent
emerged that ensures food security and brings an end to famine and undernourishment in all its
forms when there will be prosperous economies, human and world health, and sustainable
development. For economic growth to be successful in reducing poverty, it should be inclusive
and move at a rate that is higher than the population growth rate. The fact that agriculture is the
most important economic sector in most poor countries implies that efforts to fight extreme
poverty should be aimed at increasing agricultural production and productivity.
4.Urbanization is a demographic and economic transition from agriculture to industry,
technology, and services, affecting food security. By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will
live in cities, requiring agriculture to produce 50% more food. Poorer countries, particularly in
Sub-Saharan Africa, will experience high growth rates, while Asia faces decelerating
population growth. Food systems must adapt to climate change and environmental degradation,
while rural poverty is expected to decrease more rapidly than urban poverty.
5.Food insecurity is strongly associated with poverty; around the world, rural poverty continues
to exist more deeply and comprehensively than urban poverty. However, with the rapid
urbanization in low and middle income countries, more and more poverty is located in urban
areas, and this will continue as almost all global population growth over the next two decades is
expected to be in cities and towns in Asia and Africa. Overall, the data indicate a change toward
a higher burden of malnutrition in all its forms in urban compared to rural areas.
6.Food insecurity is linked to low earnings, fluctuating food prices, and high costs of non-food
items like housing, heating, and health, especially in rural areas. Extreme weather events pose a
significant threat to low-income urban dwellers, especially in non-formal settlements. These
areas have lower rates of under nutrition among women and children, but they are characterized
by vulnerabilities, especially for the poorest segments. Urbanization is causing cities to play a
crucial role in the global malnutrition crisis, but addressing the root causes of the problem is
essential. Rural development challenges may prevent the population from migrating to urban
areas.
7.The right-to-food-based approach to food security proposes that human dignity, recognition of
rights, transparency and government responsibility, citizen empowerment, food, and well-being
should be considered in welfare programs. The right-to-food approach requires governments to
adopt specific programs and fulfill exact commitments to fight poverty. According to this
approach, the right to food is not only a means to attain food security and preferably it should
be a wider, more encompassing, and specific goal. The debate about the interrelationship
between food access and poverty reduction interventions during the 1980s meant whether food
security was looked at as an integral part of social security, which was understood as the
reduction of poverty and a deficient standard of living by social means, regardless of whether
these conditions are the results of chronic impoverishment or temporary difficulties. Since the
1990s, the food security literature has highlighted that measurements can vary in their
performance in different population groups and societies and that good practice and policy
instruments are difficult to transfer across different contexts. One of the major issues in food
security interventions is that it is not simple to indicate the target, e.g., households under the
poverty line.
8.According to the paradigm of political economy, food and nutrition are considered purely
composed of nutrients, disregarding the political-economic and socio-cultural circumstances
that determine the economic and cultural value of food production. Within the scope of this
paradigm, the delivery of private sectors and the whole food and nutrition systems as well as
increasing nutrient-consuming efforts was significantly supported by many people. These views
have been criticized for avoiding the complexity of the underlying drivers of nutrition and the
determinants of undernourishment.
9.In contrast to these criticisms, there has been a growing consensus that the apparent causes of
malnutrition are not technical per se, but instead reflect a composite lack of equity and power
relations in food systems, i.e., transformation of food system perspective. According to this
perspective, the demands in the sustainable food system discussion suggest that a fundamental
process of transformation toward healthier, equitable, and socially just ways of environmental
development is needed. In addition, transformation should not only include a technological
change agenda, but more importantly a social and political agenda.
10.The agricultural intensification approach aims to transform the food system, increasing rural
incomes and stimulating development. It involves acquiring more production with fewer means,
often resulting in increased yields per unit of land. The “African Green Revolution” advocates
for intensification as a driver of economic development and sustainable food production in
urban environments.
A. Decide whether the following sentences are true or false based on the information given in
the reading passage and write your answer in the spaces provided.
1. The writer believes that poverty will not be handled unless population growth is
properly managed.
2. Population optimists believe that there is no relationship between population growth
and development.
3. According to the passage, rural poverty is severe than urban poverty.
4. Global malnutrition crisis is a result of urbanization. True
5. Nutrition and food insecurity have been important topics for the international
development agenda for decades.
6. Urbanization is an economic transition from an agriculture-based economy to
industry, technology, and service-based.
B. For each of the questions in this section, choose the best alternative and Circle the letter of
your choice. (0.5 point each)
1. The main factor in the development of population-food security is
A. unstable socio-political issues
C. reduced food security programs
B. problems access to food
D. urban dwellers poor settlement
2. The major issue in food security interventions is
A. the target households under the poverty line are revealed
B. good practice and policy instruments are difficult to transfer
C. its simplicity in indicating the target population
D. it is not simple to indicate the target population
3. The purpose of the right-to-food-based approach is
A. to direct governments to responsibly promote food security
B. sustaining food security by their own initiatives
C. eliminating poverty by their own programs
D. protects the rights of citizens’ access to food security
4. According to the passage, malnutrition is a result of all, except
A. Poor livelihood development of rural areas
B. lack of equity and power relations in food systems
C. migration from rural to urban areas
D. barriers to the economic and cultural value of food production
5. For successful economic development and reducing poverty, the writer suggests that
A. the population growth should be higher and increasing the growth rate of the
economy
B. the population growth should be slower and increasing the growth rate of the
economy
C. enhancing agricultural productivity with the growth rate of the population
D. prosperous economies, human and world health issues should be outsourced
C. What do the following words refer to in the reading passage?
1. … ‘They’ para 2 line 3 refers to:___________________________________________
2. … ‘it’ para 3 line 6 refers to:______________________________________________
3. … ‘this’ para 5 line 3 refers to:____________________________________________
4. …‘these’ para 6 line 4 refers to:___________________________________________
5. …. ‘they’ para 6 line 5 refers to:___________________________________________
6. … ‘it’ para 7 line 6 refers to: _____________________________________________
7. … ‘this’ para 8 line 4 refers to:____________________________________________
8. … ‘these’ para line 6 refers to:____________________________________________
9. … ‘these’ para 9 line 1 refers to:___________________________________________
10. … ‘It’ paragraph 10 line 2 refers to: ________________________________________
A. Match each word under column A with its closet meaning given under column B.
Write the letters of your choices on the spaces provided.
A.
B.
_____1. exhaustion
A. sudden movement
_____2. Sweep
B. extreme poverty/deprivation
_____3. Impoverishment
C. complete depletion of resources
_____4. Paradigm
D. a set of believes or concepts
_____5. Decelerating
E. slow growth
F. stretching into
G. enrichment of resources
Part: II Grammar
Underline on the correct passive form from the alternatives given in brackets to complete the
following passage.
A new sports and athletic center (1)_____________________ (is opened, has been, was
opened, had been opened) in our town last week. The facility (2)____________________ (is
believed, was believed, had been believed, was being believed) to be one of the largest in the
country and experts hope that it (3)________________________ (has been visited, will be
visited, is being visited, was going to be visited) by thousands of amateur and professional
athletes
over
the
course
of
the
next
few
years.
The
canter(4)____________________________(was constructed, will be constructed, is to be
constructed, has been constructed) for over 6 years before it (5)______________________
(was opened, is being opened, was being opened, has been opened) by local authorities last
Monday. However, it (6)___________________________(had not been completely finished,
was not completely finished, is not completely finished, has not been completely finished)
yet. Workers are making the final adjustments this week and say that it (7)
_____________________ (will be completed, is being completed, will be being completed,
has been completed) by the end of the month. The center offers various sports facilities
including two indoor swimming pools, three large gyms and a ball court. They
(8)_____________________ (were booked, can be booked, are booked, were being booked)
online or directly at the administration desk. The equipment (9) ______________________ (is
bought, was bought, will be bought, was being bought) from local companies, which also
provided the training programs. The new center (10) __________(had been financed, is
financed, has been financed, will be financed) by government funds as well as grants that (11)
________________________ (had been given, are given, will be given, were given) to the
region by the European Union. Politicians and famous athletes from all over the country (12)
__________________________ (has been invited, were invited, have been invited, are
being invited) to the official opening ceremony, scheduled for next Tuesday.
B. Use the correct tenses (future tenses) with the verbs in bracket and write your answers on
the blank spaces.
Abebe: Hi Fenet. Can we meet tomorrow in the afternoon to discuss the assignment?
Fenet: I’m sorry, we can’t. I (1) ______________________ ( attend) a meeting that has been
arranged by the manager’s office.
According to the official schedule, the meeting (
2)________________________(begin) at 2:00 P.M. and (3) ___________________(end)around
4:00 P.m. . After the meeting, I’m (4) _____________________ (see)
my friend who is being
hospitalized in Tikur Anbessa Hospital.
Abebe: Oh, you’ve got a busy schedule. Anyway, I (5) __________________ ( call) you
sometime tomorrow. By the way, do you have any information about Kedir?
Fenet: Yes. He (6) __________________ (go) to Semera next week. He is going to take
the afternoon flight which ( 7) ___________________ (depart) from Bole International Airport
at 2:00 P.M. and (8) _____________________ (arrive) at Semera Airport at 3:00 P.M. He(9)
_______________________ (stay) there for a week.
Part III: Vocabulary from the Course Material
Read the following sentences and find words which has synonym meaning with the words
written in bold.
/debilitating / plummeted / offensive / acute /transform /eerily /kinship /toxic
/rampant Refute / inevitable
/dispense/
_____________1.A climber was killed when he fell 300 feet down an icy gully.
_____________2.She asks direct questions without being in any way impolite.
____________3.He’d been elected to the city council two years before, on his second attempt, and
there was uncontrolled talk of a run against the mayor in the next Democratic primary.
____________4.The problem of poverty is particularly severe in rural areas.
____________ 5.As the frogs die off, ponds and swamps are becoming spookily silent.
_____________6.The growth of the textile industry changed the area.
_____________7.He saw me, but there was no affinity between us, and with him, at least, no sympathy of
understanding; for he cowered perceptibly and dragged himself on.
_____________8.Many pesticides are highly poisonous which causes human life to death.
_____________9.Incapacitating students in their learning make them unsuccessful in their results.
_____________10.Sectors such as travel, hospitality, and retail experienced sharp declines in revenue
that were mostly unavoidable.
B. Match the words in column “A” with their meanings in column “B”
Column A
Column B
1. Well-being
A. apprehend one’s own character
2. Self-awareness
B. discouraging
3. Peer-pressure
C. feeling of joy
4. Self-efficacy
D. understanding of one’s own ability
5. Self-esteem
E. inspiration by ones friend
F. understanding of others character
G. Feeling of worrying
H. The quality of being worthy
Part IV: Writing a Paragraph
Choose ONLY one of the following topic sentences and write a paragraph of about 150
words in the space provided below. Marks will be given for organization, content and
language.
1. There are many ways in which everyone can contribute to the development of a country.
2. Learning English is important for Ethiopian students in several ways.
3. First year students need to make some critical analysis when they choose their departments.
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