BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 455

Table of Contents

BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 455

IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 455 – PASSAGE – 2

IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 455

READING PASSAGE – 2

Age-Quake: Say Hello to Under-population

Welcome to the new world of aging; a world in which liberals used to unending economic growth, and greens focused on zero population growth, will find themselves uncomfortable. Instead of overpopulation it will be under population that will be the world’s biggest problem, first in the West, and then most likely the rest of the world. Only nations with high immigration that can make the switch from a youth economy to an old person’s economy will survive. This will mean among the biggest changes in human history – pensions, growth economies, 9-5 work, male domination – all must end if we are to successfully navigate the agequake ahead.

Writes Paul Wallace, author of Agequake, historically “we have been remarkably young. Our average age has been around 20 or less. But in the current generation’s lifetime, the average age of the world will nearly double from 22 in 1975 to 38 in 2050, according to the UN projections. Under another projection, it could reach over 40 as early as 2040.”

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Not only is the population pyramid about to flip but populations in Europe may plunge on a scale not seen since the Black Death in 1348. But this is not just a Western trend; indeed, because of the speed of the demographic slowdown in the developing world, it means that “they will age much more quickly than the West,” says Wallace. In twenty years’ time, China will be one of the most rapidly aging societies.

The worker-retiree ratio

While many of these changes will be positive – longer life (by mid-century there will be over two million centenarians compared with 150,000 today), healthier lifestyles, less childhood deaths, and falling numbers of young people (which means falling crime rates) – others are not so positive.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Who will pay for the retirement benefits of the elderly? Over the next thirty years the ratio of workers to pensioners in industrialised nations will fall from the current 3 to 1 to 1.5 to 1. How will societies stay rejuvenated with new ideas?

Would we have had a personal computer revolution if youngsters like Steve Jobs were not there to challenge authority and create new products? And what will happen when those purchasing stocks in the 1980’s and 1990’s begin to sell them 20 years later to pay for their retirement? There will be no age-cohort to purchase them as the baby boomers currently have. Will we enter a long-term bear market and thus possibly a long-term economic depression? But what is the cause of the aging of society?

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Two factors. First, we are living longer and second, birth rates are falling. “In the late 1990’s fertility rates were already at or below replacement level – 2.1 children per woman – in 61 countries with almost half the world’s population,” writes Wallace. Even nations like India and Indonesia are likely to fall below this level.

Iceberg ahead

The population pyramid is reversing, especially in rich nations. Populations, like supertankers, take forever to turn around; but when they do the changes are dramatic. Europeans have not noticed the population decline because of immigration, high fertility in the past and declines in mortality, but in reality, birth rates are plunging. Pete Peterson in his book, Grey Dawn, describes global aging as an iceberg. While it is easy to see above the waterline, it is far more difficult to prepare for, “the wrenching costs that promise to bankrupt even the greatest powers making today’s crisis look like child’s play.”

IELTS Academic Reading Test

One solution for the West is immigration. Already California is set to become a majority minority state. The USA will become the second largest Spanish speaking nation in 2020. But there are danger signs as generally older Californians will be Caucasian and rich, while younger one’s will be Hispanic and poorer. The question is not will California secede but which California will secede?

A second solution is increasing productivity, working smarter. While the convergence of computing and telecommunications have not shown immediate gains, it is early days yet.

The problem of fewer young people working will not be a problem since they will be able to produce more wealth.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Projecting the future age structure of a population can be done with a great deal of certainty (barring asteroids, pandemics, etc.). Demographics can also predict changes in behavior since one is more likely to migrate in one’s 20s, more likely to vote conservative in one’s 50s (when one has property to conserve, and when one is concerned more with crime and order and less with freedom and social justice).

To survive the agequake, our basic structures of work, leisure, and family structures will have to change. The old pattern of student, work, retirement, death will have to transform. More flexible patterns will have to be set up to combine work, play, and the rearing of children. In fact, the entire (endless growth) capitalist system must transform; nothing less can adequately resolve the tensions ahead.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Questions 14 – 18

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

14. How will liberals feel in the future?

15. What is one factor associated with a fall in worker to pensioner ratio?

16. Why have Europeans not been aware of a fall in population?

17. What is one way of solving the problem of a reverse population pyramid?

18. What are you likely to do in your 50’s?

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Questions 19 – 23

Do the following statements agree with the claims given in the reading passage? ln boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet, write:

YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

19. Maintaining a youth economy is the only way for old people to survive.

20. For a long time, people only lived until they were 20 years old.

21. The fertility rate in India is expected to fall below 2.1 children per woman.

22. Population levels have not been falling in Europe because of factors like immigration.

23. People will have to study more in the future due to greater competition for the best jobs.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Questions 24 – 27

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.

By 2020, the Hispanic population in California will not be as (24)………….. or (25)………….. as the (26)………….. population, but it will be the second (27)………….. Spanish speaking nation.