Poverty # Listening Section

The given audio is by BBC radio 4.


Listen to the audio given and answer the questions 11 to 17

Questions 11-17
Choose the correct letter A, B or C
11. “all things bright and beautiful” was published in
A. 1848
B. 1948
C. 1847
12. Home fit for heroes was a scheme
A. To improve the conditions of houses
B. To build 500 houses
C. To build 5000 houses
13. People were able to claim payments according to National insurance act for the first time on
A. 15 January 1913
B. 15 January 1930
C. 20 January 1913
14. Under the national insurance act, the sick pay was claimable for
A. 20 weeks
B. 26 weeks
C. 15 weeks
15. The person supporting the idea of reform was
A. Churchill
B. Lloyd
C. Franklin
16. Choose the action taken by Lloyd
A. Increased debt duties
B. Lowered the income tax
C. Took of the tax on higher incomes.
17. The first ever survey done by Round tree on the provincial city was published in
A. 1901
B. 1910
C. 1900
Questions 18-20

Complete the sentences given below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
18. Round tree was part of the family __________.
19. The country visited by Lloyd George was _________.
20. Pensions for age 70 or more were introduced in the year ____.

ANSWER
11. A
12. C
13.A
14. B
15. A
16. A
17. A
18. chocolate makers
19. Germany
20. 1908

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Related To Friends # Speaking Section

Friends, undoubtedly play a very important role in an individuals life. Most of the times, a person is known by the company that he/she keeps. Keeping this in mind, IELTS speaking part I often consists of questions related to friends or friendship. Now, it is very rare that a person has no friends. However, it sometimes so happens that one does not thinks a lot about friendship in question/answer form.

To make you think that way and answer questions properly in IELTS Speaking section, here are some of the questions that can be asked in Part I.

  1. How do you mostly connect with your friends?

Friends surely play a very important role  in my life. Because of the double jobs that I have, I get less time for my friends, however, I make sure that whenever I have time  I do meet them. I usually don’t like connecting on phones or internet, I prefer meeting in personal. So, whenever we have to meet, we usually go out travelling or to our favorite spots. There are few friends who are far away, so we stay connected through digital medium.

2. Are friends as important for you as family?

Friends do play a important role in my life. I,however, don’t compare the two relationships. They are both equally important for me.

3. Do you think friendship changes with time?

I think certain changes do take place in friendships with time, and I think that happens with every relationship. But, in the end it all depends on us. I do have some friends from the time I was a kid and there are some who are no more my friends whom I just met a year ago. So, for me I guess it all depends on the bond we share. Other things can always be taken care of.

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Better Ways To Pay For College # Reading Section

SECTION THREE                                        QUESTIONS 28-40

The reading passage below describes some of the better ways to pay for the college. From the information given, answer the questions 28-40.

[A]HARD as it may be to believe with Donald Trump hogging the headlines, America’s presidential primary campaigns are proposing serious ideas for how to deal with real economic problems. High among them is how to fix the country’s broken system of university finance. Hillary Clinton has come up with intriguing plans, but the ideas of Marco Rubio are the more radical. And radicalism is what the system badly needs.
America is home to the world’s best universities. But taken as a whole, its higher-education system is marred by soaring costs, stratospheric student debt and patchy performance. Tuition fees have doubled in real terms in the past 20 years. Student debt has trebled in the past decade, to $1.2 trillion. A recent study of academic achievement at college found that 45% of America’s students made no discernible academic progress in their first two years. Sorting out this mess demands three things: reforms that bear down on costs, that encourage students to make more informed choices about their future and that match repayments to borrowers’ ability to pay.
[B] Mrs Clinton’s plan meets the third of those aims, and nods at the first. She proposes capping the repayment of college loans at a maximum of 10% of income over 20 years. If a loan is not paid off by then the government will pick up the tab. The estimated bill for her scheme, which would push America further towards a model used in Britain and Australia, comes to $350 billion over ten years. Income-based loan repayments make sense. But if government still picks up the tab for defaults, there is little pressure on colleges to curb costs and students to choose wisely. Mrs Clinton’s answer is to make subsidies to colleges contingent on reducing costs.
[C] Mr Rubio deals with the three reform priorities more comprehensively. He wants to encourage the take-up of online education platforms to curb costs and has good ideas for how to spread information on the earnings associated with particular degrees. But his boldest proposal is to link repayment of university funding to income by using equity financing, an idea floated by Milton Friedman in 1955.

[D]Under Mr Rubio’s plan, private investors would pay for a student’s education in return for a claim on a chunk of his future earnings. Just as dividends accruing to a shareholder depend on a firm’s profits, so a student’s subsequent payments to the investor would rise and fall with his income. Equity financing would lead to more informed choices because investors would be less willing to fund courses and colleges that offer low returns. And it would squeeze costs because unpopular courses would have to trim their spending.
The logic is impeccable. Nonetheless, the idea of equity financing for college is controversial. There are silly criticisms, for instance that any equity contract on human capital is tantamount to indentured servitude. In fact, these contracts would be less constraining than a student loan that imposes fixed payment obligations and cannot be discharged in America’s bankruptcy courts. It is possible—and sensible—to set caps on the period in which income is shared, the percentage of earnings that can be given away and the total amount paid out.
Marco to market
[E]The more substantive problems involve information asymmetries and moral hazard. Prospective students know better than any investor what they plan to do with their lives. A lawyer who financed his study by issuing equity could, on graduating, afford to choose whether to join a well-paying law firm or to become a public defender without having that decision influenced by the need to repay a mound of debt. From society’s point of view, that freedom to choose has benefits: a debt-laden graduate is less likely to take a risk on setting up a new company and more likely to head for Wall Street instead. But from the investor’s perspective, the risk that students might offer low returns would need to be compensated for by other students pursuing more remunerative paths.
[F]People who think they will do well in later life also have an incentive to opt for the certainty of fixed debt repayments rather than face the possibility of handing over big chunks of future income. Again, there are potential solutions: some fintech startups have experimented with models of future income that enable students with better earnings potential to give up a smaller share of income in return for the same amount of funding as those with dimmer prospects.
[G]Resolving these difficulties will take time and ingenuity. And whatever happens, it makes sense to have a combination of debt and equity, and of private and public money, in the mix. That’s why Mrs Clinton’s proposals are a sensible start, but Mr Rubio’s ideas are worth serious debate.

Questions 28-34

Reading passage 5 has seven sections, A-G

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 28-40 on your answer sheet.

28.  Choice must lie with the student

29. solutions to fiscal concerns

30. Higher pays in later years makes the difference

31. Promotion of online education takes place

32. War between Rubio and Clinton ideas.

33. America on the way of Australia

34. Independent lenders pay the loan

Questions 35-40

Do the following statements agree with the information given in reading passage 5?

In boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE             if the statement agrees with the information.

FALSE           if the statement contradicts with the information.

NOT GIVEN  if there is no information on this.

35. The American higher education often involves high student debts.

36. Mr. Rubio’s plans are similar to the ones in Australia and Britain.

37. Online education has come up as a solution to debts.

38. Hilary Clinton suggests individual investors to pay the students loans.

39. Investors if invest, take away the freedom to choose from students.

40. A debate between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton is about to happen.

ANSWERS

28. E

29. A

30. F

31. C

32. G

33. B

34. D

35. True

36. False

37. True

38. False

39. True

40. Not given

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