【易伯华出品】雅思阅读机经真题解析-Wealth in a cold climate

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A

Dr William Masters was reading a book about mosquitoes when inspiration

struck. “There was this anecdote about the great yellow fever epidemic that hit

Philadelphia in 1793,” Masters recalls. “This epidemic decimated the city until

the first frost came.” The inclement weather froze out the insects, allowing

Philadephia to recover.

B

If weather could be the key to a city's fortunes. Masters thought, then why

not to the historical fortunes of nations? And could frost lie at the heart of

one of the most enduring economic mysteries of all - why are almost all the

wealthy, industrialised nations to be found at latitudes above 40 degrees? After

two years of research, he thinks that he has found a piece of the puzzle.

Masters, an agricultural economist from Purdue University in Indiana, and

Margaret McMillan at Tufts University, Boston, show that annual frosts are among

the factors that distinguish rich nations from poor ones. Their study is

published this month in the Journal of Economic Growth. The pair speculates that

cold snaps have two main benefits — they freeze pests that would otherwise

destroy crops, and also freeze organisms, such as mosquitoes, that carry

disease. The result is agricultural abundance and a big workforce.

C

The academics took two sets of information. The first was average income for

countries, the second climate data from the University of East Anglia. They

found a curious tally between the sets. Countries having five or more frosty

days a month are uniformly rich; those with fewer than five are impoverished.

The authors speculate that the five-day figure is important; it could be the

minimum time needed to kill pests in the soil. Masters says: "For example,

Finland is a small country that is growing quickly, but Bolivia is a small

country that isn't growing at all. Perhaps climate has something to do with

that." In fact, limited frosts bring huge benefits to farmers. The chills kill

insects or render them inactive; cold weather slows the break-up of plant and

animal material in the soil, allowing it to become richer; and frosts ensure a

build-up of moisture in the ground for spring, reducing dependence on seasonal

rains. There are exceptions to the "cold equals rich" argument. There are

well-heeled tropical countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore (both

city-states, Masters notes), a result of their superior trading positions.

Likewise, not all European countries are moneyed — in the former communist

colonies, economic potential was crushed by politics.

D

Masters stresses that climate will never be the overriding factor — the

wealth of nations is too complicated to be attributable to just one factor.

Climate, he feels, somehow combines with other factors - such as the presence of

institutions, including governments, and access to trading routes - to determine

whether a country will do well. Traditionally, Masters says, economists thought

that institutions had the biggest effect on the economy, because they brought

order to a country in the form of, for example, laws and property rights. With

order, so the thinking went, came affluence. "But there are some problems that

even countries with institutions have not been able to get around," he says. "My

feeling is that, as countries get richer, they get better institutions. And the

accumulation of wealth and improvement in governing institutions are both helped

by a favourable environment, including climate."

E

This does not mean, he insists, that tropical countries are beyond economic

help and destined to remain penniless. Instead, richer countries should change

the way in which foreign aid is given. Instead of aid being geared towards

improving governance, it should be spent on technology to improve agriculture

and to combat disease. Masters cites one example: "There are regions in India

that have been provided with irrigation - agricultural productivity has gone up

and there has been an improvement in health." Supplying vaccines against

tropical diseases and developing crop varieties that can grow in the tropics

would break the poverty cycle.

F

Other minds have applied themselves to the split between poor and rich

nations, citing anthropological, climatic and zoological reasons for why

temperate nations are the most affluent. In 350BC, Aristotle observed that

"those who live in a cold climate ... are full of spirit". Jared Diamond, from

the University of California at Los Angeles, pointed out in his book Guns, Genus

and Steel that Eurasia is broadly aligned east-west, while Africa and the

Americas are aligned north-south. So, in Europe, crops can spread quickly across

latitudes because climates are similar. One of the first domesticated crops,

einkorn wheat, spread quickly from the Middle East into Europe; it took twice as

long for corn to spread from Mexico to what is now the eastern United States.

This easy movement along similar latitudes in Eurasia would also have meant a

faster dissemination of other technologies such as the wheel and writing,

Diamond speculates. The region also boasted domesticated livestock, which could

provide meat, wool and motive power in the fields. Blessed with such natural

advantages, Eurasia was bound to take off economically.

G

John Gallup and Jeffrey Sachs, two US economists, have also pointed out

striking correlations between the geographical location of countries and their

wealth. They note that tropical countries between 23.45 degrees north and south

of the equator are nearly all poor. In an article for the Harvard International

Review, they concluded that “development surely seems to favour the

temperate-zone economies, especially those in the northern hemisphere, and those

that have managed to avoid both socialism and the ravages of war". But Masters

cautions against geographical determinism, the idea that tropical countries are

beyond hope: "Human health and agriculture can be made better through scientific

and technological research," he says, "so we shouldn't be writing off these

countries. Take Singapore: without air conditioning, it wouldn't be rich."

Questions 14-20

The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list below.

Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. The positive correlation between climate and country

ii. The wealth influenced by other factors besides climate

iii. The inspiration from reading a book

iv. Other researcher results still do not rule out exceptional cases.

v. Eruasia has different attributes with Africa

vi. Low temperature may benefit people and crop

vii. The traditional view reflecting the importance of institution.

viii. The best result to use aid which makes a difference

ix. The spread of crop in European and other courtiers

x. confusions and exceptional cases such as Singapore

14. Paragraph A

15. Paragraph B

16. Paragraph C

17. Paragraph D

18. Paragraph E

19. Paragraph F

20. Paragraph G

Questions 21-26

Summary

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using no

more than two words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers

in boxes 21-26 on your answer sheet.

Dr William Master read a book saying that a (an) 21 which struck an American

city of Philadelphia hundreds years ago, had been terminated by a cold frost.

And academics found that there is a positive contribution of a certain period of

cold days to economic success as in the small country of 22 ;Yet besides

excellent surroundings and climate, one country need to improve both their

economy and 23 to achieve long prosperity.

Thanks to resembling weather condition across latitude, the whole continent

of 24 enjoys faster spread of its uniformity in many economic factors. Also the

crop such as 25 is bound to spread faster than those countries aligned from

South America to the North. William Master finally pointed out though

geographical factors are important but tropical country such as 26 still become

rich due to scientific advancement.

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