Reading Comprehension

PT128 · S4 · P1 · Q2 New Zealand's Wool Growers

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The 50 million sheep of New Zealand outnumber its people 13 to 1, the highest such ratio in the world.

Topic

The wool industry in New Zealand

Framework

Problem/Solution

Main Point

Although the wool industry in NZ has been suffering since 1950, based on the rise of synthetic wool, it could improve its productivity by adopting the practices of the country's leading wool growers.

Summary

P1 - Intro / Description of Problem

After telling us about the glory days for NZ wool in the 1950's, we get a Purpose Pivot (but, yet, however, recently). It tells us about a drastic decline in profitability, so it looks like a good Framework could be Problem / Solution. The rest of the paragraph continues to unpack the problem.

P2 - Big Picture Solution

In this paragraph, the author rejects one Solution (raising wool prices) and says instead that we need to improve productivity, and "this goal could readily be achieved if" the NZ wool industry were to adopt the best practices of the leading wool growers.

P3 - Obstacle to Solution

This paragraph essentially continues its contention that better management could do the trick. A tension is introduced between "professional operations" (who are sympathetic to better management practices) and "family farmers" (who care more about lifestyle than maximal efficiency).

P4 - Specific Recommendation (start a genetic research company)

The author isn't talking about gene splicing, but rather just being more Darwinian by finding the superior sheep and keeping them as breeding stock.

2.

Which one of the following is given in the passage as the cause of the decline in the price of clean strong wool?

  1. farmers' switching their land to

    Trap

    1% picked this

  2. Correct

    market competition from synthetic materials

    Why this is right

    Answer B is correct.

    Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    99% picked this

  3. market competition from Australian wool

    Trap

    0% picked this

  4. competition from cotton growers for

    Trap

    0% picked this

  5. the deep division in the

    Trap

    0% picked this

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