Tackling Hunger In Msekeni Reading Answers

Feb 4, 2023

Tackling Hunger In Msekeni Reading Answers contains a write up about the mid day meal scheme.Tackling Hunger In Msekeni Reading Answers contains a total of 7 paragraphs. Related to the paragraphs are 6 questions. Candidates in this IELTS Section will be shown various question types with clear instructions. The paragraphs contain information about the hunger problem of Msekeni. The various schemes and methods adopted to provide food to children and their families have also been mentioned.

Tackling Hunger In Msekeni Reading Answers is an IELTS Reading passage which comprises two types of questions:complete the sentence and Choose the correct option. Candidates are required to read each paragraph attentively and thoroughly. The interpretation of each paragraph is must. An overall theme of the paragraph is required to answer the questions. The important information must be remembered. Each paragraph must be interpreted and understood. To gain proficiency, candidates can practice from IELTS reading practice test.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Tackling Hunger In Msekeni Reading Answers

There are not enough classrooms at the Msekeni primary school, so half the lessons take place in the shade of yellow-blossomed acacia trees. Given this shortage, it might seem odd that one of the school's purpose-built classrooms has been emptied of pupils and turned into a storeroom for sacks of grain. But it makes sense. Food matters more than shelter.
Msekeni is in one of the poorer parts of Malawi, a landlocked southern African country of exceptional beauty and great poverty. No war lays waste Malawi, noris the land unusually crowded or infertile, but Malawians still have trouble finding enough to eat. Half of the children under five are underfed to the point of stunting. Hunger blights most aspects of Malawian life, so the country is as good a place as any to investigate how nutrition affects development, and vice versa.
The headmaster at Msekeni, Bernard Kumanda, has strong views on the subject. He thinks food is a priceless teaching aid. Since 1999, his pupils have received free school lunches. Donors such as the World Food Programme (WFP) provide the food: those sacks of grain (mostly mixed maize and soybean flour, enriched with vitamin A) in that converted classroom. Local volunteers do the cooking— turning the dry ingredients into a bland but nutritious slop, and spooning it out onto plastic plates. The children line up in large crowds, cheerfully singing a song called "We are getting porridge".
When the school's feeding programme was introduced, enrolment at Msekeni doubled. Some of the new pupils had switched from nearby schools that did not give out free porridge, but most were children whose families had previously kept them at home to work. These families were so poor that the long-term benefits of education seemed unattractive when set against the short-term gain of sending children out to gather firewood or help in the fields. One plate of porridge a day completely altered the calculation. A child fed at school will not howl so plaintively for food at home. Girls, who are more likely than boys to be kept out of school, are given extra snacks to take home.
When a school takes in a horde of extra students from the poorest homes, you would expect standards to drop. Anywhere in the world, poor kids tend to perform worse than their better-off classmates. When the influx of new pupils is not accompanied by any increase in the number of teachers, as was the case at Msekeni, you would expect standards to fall even further. But they have not. Pass rates at Msekeni improved dramatically, from 30% to 85%. Although this was an exceptional example, the nationwide results of school feeding programmes were still pretty good. On average, after a Malawian school started handing out free food it attracted 38% more girls and 24% more boys. The pass rate for boys stayed about the same, while for girls it improved by 9.5%.
Better nutrition makes for brighter children. Most immediately, well-fed children find it easier to concentrate. It is hard to focus the mind on long division when your stomach is screaming for food. Mr Kumanda says that it used to be easy to spot the kids who were really undernourished. "They were the ones who stared into space and didn't respond when you asked them questions," he says. More crucially, though, more and better food helps brains grow and develop. Like any other organ in the body, the brain needs nutrition and exercise. But if it is starved of the necessary calories, proteins and micronutrients, it is stunted, perhaps not as severely as a muscle would be, but stunted nonetheless. That is why feeding children at schools works so well. And the fact that the effect of feeding was more pronounced on girls than on boys gives a clue to who eats first in rural Malawian households. It isn't the girls.
On a global scale, the good news is that people are eating better than ever before. Homo sapiens has grown 50% bigger since the industrial revolution. Three centuries ago, chronic malnutrition was more or less universal. Now, it is extremely rare in rich countries. In developing countries, where most people live, plates and rice bowls are also fuller than ever before. The proportion of children under five in the developing world who are malnourished to the point of stunting fell from 39% in 1990 to 30% in 2000, says the World Health Organisation (WHO). In other places, the battle against hunger is steadily being won. Better nutrition is making people cleverer and more energetic, which will help them grow more prosperous. And when they eventually join the ranks of the well-off, they can start fretting about growing too fat.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 21-24

Complete the sentences below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS / OR A NUMBER from the passage.

Write your answers in boxes 21-24 on your answer sheet.

21 In Kumanda's school ____ are given to girls after the end of the school day. 22 Many children from poor families were sent to collect ______ from the field. 23 Thanks to the free food program, _____ of students passed the test. 24 The modern human is ____ bigger than before after the industrial revolution.

Question 21)

Answer: Extra Snacks
Supporting Statement: One plate of porridge a day completely altered the calculation. A child fed at school will not howl so plaintively for food at home. Girls, who are more likely than boys to be kept out of school, are given
extra snacks to take home.
Keywords: porridge, given extra snacks
Keyword Location: Paragraph D
Explanation: As per paragraph D, it has been clearly mentioned that the equation was completely changed by one bowl of porridge every day. A child who is fed at school won't scream as loudly when they are hungry at home. Girls are given extra snacks to take home since they are more likely than males to be held out of school. So, the correct answer is extra snacks as per the explanation provided and the lines of paragraph D.

Question 22)

Answer: Firewood
Supporting Statement: Some of the new pupils had switched from nearby schools that did not give out free porridge, but most were children whose families had previously kept them at home to work. These families were so poor that the long-term benefits of education seemed unattractive when set against the short-term gain of sending children out to gather firewood or help in the fields.
Keywords: Families, children
Keyword Location: Paragraph D
Explanation: As per paragraph D, it has been mentioned that most of the new students were children whose families had traditionally held them at home to work, however some had transferred from adjacent schools that did not provide free porridge. Given the relative short-term gain of sending kids out to gather firewood or assist in the fields, the long-term advantages of schooling for these households did not seem appealing. So, the correct answer is firewood as per the explanation provided.

Question 23)

Answer: 85%
Supporting Statement: When the influx of new pupils is not accompanied by any increase in the number of teachers, as was the case at Msekeni, you would expect standards to fall even further. But they have not. Pass
rates at Msekeni improved dramatically, from 30% to 85%.
Keywords: Influx in pupils, Msekeni
Keyword Location: Paragraph E
Explanation: As per paragraph E, it has been mentioned that standards should decline even further when an influx of additional students is not supported by an increase in the number of educators, as was the situation at Msekeni. However, they haven't. At Msekeni, the pass rate increased considerably, from 30% to 85%. So, the correct answer is 85% as per the explanation provided.

Question 24)

Answer: 50%
Supporting Statement: On a global scale, the good news is that people are eating better than ever before. Homo sapiens has grown 50% bigger since the industrial revolution. Three centuries ago, chronic malnutrition was
more or less universal.
Keywords: Global scale, homo sapiens
Keyword Location: Paragraph G
Explanation: As per paragraph G, it has been mentioned that the excellent thing is that individuals are eating better than ever before on a worldwide basis. Since the industrial revolution, Homo sapiens has increased in size by 50%. Chronic malnutrition was mostly just a global epidemic three centuries ago. So, the correct answer is 50% as per the explanation provided.

Questions 25-26

Choose TWO letters, A-E

Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following statements are true?

Some children are taught in the open air.
Bernard Kumanda became the headmaster in 1991.
No new staff were recruited when attendance rose.
Girls are often treated equally with boys in Malawi.
Scientists have devised ways to detect the most underfed students in school.
WHO is worried about malnutrition among kids in developing countries

Question 25)

Answer: A
Supporting Statement: There are not enough classrooms at the Msekeni primary school, so half the lessons take place in the shade of yellow-blossomed acacia trees. Given this shortage, it might seem odd that one of the
school's purpose-built classrooms has been emptied of pupils and turned into a storeroom for sacks of grain.
Keywords: Not enough classrooms
Keyword Location: Paragraph A
Explanation: As per paragraph A, it has been mentioned that at the Msekeni elementary school, there aren't enough classrooms, therefore half of the lectures are held under yellow-blossomed acacia trees. Given this shortage, it would seem strange that one of the school's intended classrooms has been utilized as a storage area for grain bags after being cleared of its students. So, the correct answer is A, as per the explanation provided.

Question 26)

Answer: C
Supporting Statement: When the influx of new pupils is not accompanied by any increase in the number of teachers, as was the case at Msekeni, you would expect standards to fall even further. But they have not.
Keywords: Influx of new pupils
Keyword Location: Paragraph E
Explanation: As per paragraph E, it has been mentioned that standards should decline further when an influx of additional students is not supported by an increase in the number of teachers, as was the situation at Msekeni. However, they haven't. So, the correct answer is C as per the explanations and the lines mentioned in paragraph E.

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