The World Turned Upside Down Reading Answers

The World Turned Upside Down Reading Answers contains 14 questions and belongs to the assessment system of the IELTS General Reading test. The World Turned Upside Down Reading Answers must be answered within 20 minutes. In this IELTS reading section, question types include: Write the correct number, Do the following statements agree with the information and Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each.

The World Turned Upside Down Reading Answers offers a comprehensive overview of emerging markets that are becoming global hubs of disruptive innovation, offering affordable products, new business models, and inventive solutions that rival and increasingly influence the West. To practice similar reading tests, candidates can refer to the IELTS Reading Practice Test section.

Check: Get 10 Free Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now

Topic:

A.Developing countries, the emerging world, are becoming hotbeds of business innovation. They are coming up with new products and services that are dramatically cheaper than their Western equivalents: $3,000 cars, $300 computers and $30 mobile phones. They are reinventing systems of production and distribution, and they are experimenting with entirely new business models. All the elements of modern business, from supply-chain management to recruitment, are being reinvented in this emerging market. Emerging-market champions have not only proved themselves in their own backyards, they are also going global themselves.

B.Western multinationals now regard these emerging countries as sources of economic growth and high-quality brainpower, both of which they desperately need. Multinationals expect about 70% of the world’s growth over the next few years to come from emerging markets. They have noted that China have been pouring resources into education over the past couple of decades. China produces 75,000 people with higher degrees in engineering or computer science every year. The world’s biggest multinationals are increasingly happy to do their research and development in emerging markets. Companies in the Fortune 500 list have 98 R&D facilities in China and 63 in India. Some have more than one. Knowledge-intensive companies such as IT specialists and consultancies have hugely stepped up the number of people they employ in these countries.

C.Both Western and emerging-country companies have also realised that they need to try harder if they are to prosper in these markets. That means rethinking everything from products to distribution systems. Anil Gupta, of the University of Maryland at College Park, points out that these markets are among the toughest in the world. Distribution systems can be hopeless. Income streams can be unpredictable. Pollution can be lung-searing. Governments sometimes failed to provide basic services. Corporate profit margins. And poverty is ubiquitous. The islands of competence are surrounded by a sea of problems, which have defeated some doughty companies. EBay retreated from China, and Google has recently backed out from the mainland of China and moved to Hong Kong. Black & Decker, America’s biggest tool maker, is almost invisible in India and China, two of the world’s two biggest construction sites.

D.However, the potential market is huge. The populations are already much bigger than in the developed world and growing much faster, and in both China and India hundreds of millions of people will enter the middle class in the coming decades. The economies are set to grow faster too. Labour is relatively cheap and abundant: in China over 5m people graduate every year and in India about 3m, respectively far more than their Western counterparts a few decades ago. No visitor to the emerging world can fail to be struck by its relentless development. Large majorities in China and India still believe that their country’s current economic situation is good and that their children will be better off than they are. This is a region that, to echo Churchill’s line, sees opportunities in every difficulty rather than difficulties in every opportunity.

E.Until now it had been widely assumed that globalisation was devised in the West and imposed on the rest. Bosses in New York, London and Paris would control the process from their glass towers, and Western consumers would reap most of the benefits. This is changing fast. Embracing many of its component parts from the West and does the rest in Brazil. The emerging-market brain now competes head-on with the West. Consumers in developing countries are getting richer faster than consumers in the West.

F.People in the West like to believe that their companies are still the world’s most innovative at home and then export them to the other parts of the world, which makes it easier to accept job losses in manufacturing. But this is proving less true by the day. Western companies are practising “polycentric innovation” as they spread their R&D centres across the world. Western companies are becoming powerhouses of innovation in everything from telecoms to computers.

G.The very nature of innovation has to be rethought. Most people in the West equate it with technological breakthroughs, embodied in revolutionary new products that are taken up by the elites and eventually trickle down to the masses. The emerging developing countries are offering a new kind of breakthrough innovations. For instance, it has already helped to popularise development services (like mobile-phone banking and payments) and online games. Microsoft’s research centre in Beijing has developed clever programs that allow computers to recognize handwriting or turn photographs into cartoons. But the most exciting innovations concern organising processes to get the most from limited resources.

H.In the past, emerging economic giants have tended to wrestle with industrial giants as they tried to consolidate their progress. The United States adopted Henry Ford’s production line in the 1960s. In 1980 the West assumed Japan had replaced the United States as the world’s leading carmaker in the later they began to visit global markets. The visitors discovered that Japan was not awash in industrial policy or state subsidies, as they had expected, but in smart ideas and smart people. The Japanese focus on making cars easier and cheaper to produce gave them a huge advantage.

I.The Japanese had invented a new system of making things called “lean manufacturing”, which almost destroyed the American car and electronics industries. Now the emerging markets are developing their own distinctive management ideas, and Western companies increasingly find themselves learning from them. Those who used to think of the emerging world as a source of cheap labour must now recognise that it can be a source of disruptive innovation as well.

Questions 14-20

Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I.

Choose the correct heading for some of paragraphs from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-x.

LIST OF HEADINGS

i. The opportunities are equally extraordinary.

ii. Clever programs allow computers to recognize handwriting or turn photographs into cartoons.

ili. Old assumptions about innovation in the developed countries are also being challenged.

iv. In some cases the traditional global trend is even being reversed.

v. Japan became the world's leading carmaker for business innovations.

vi. The emerging world is making a growing contribution to innovations.

vii. The emerging world is undergoing changes at home and abroad.

vili. The multinationals neglect the emerging markets.

ix. Western multinationals are investing more R&D in emerging markets.

x. It is really not easy for Westerners to prosper in these booming markets.

14. Paragraph A

Answer: vi. The emerging world is making a growing contribution to innovations.

Supporting statement: “They are reinventing systems of production and distribution… entirely new business models.”

Keywords: new products, new business models, innovation

Keyword Location: Paragraph A

Explanation: The paragraph highlights how emerging economies are becoming centres of innovation in products and systems.

15. Paragraph B

Answer: ix. Western multinationals are investing more R&D in emerging markets.

Supporting statement: “Companies in the Fortune 500 list have 98 R&D facilities in China and 63 in India…”

Keywords: R&D, Western companies, China, India

Keyword Location: Paragraph B

Explanation: The paragraph focuses on the growing research investments by multinationals in emerging countries.

16. Paragraph C

Answer: x. It is really not easy for Westerners to prosper in these booming markets.

Supporting statement: “Distribution systems can be hopeless… Corporate profit margins. And poverty is ubiquitous…”

Keywords: challenges, tough markets, retreat of Western firms

Keyword Location: Paragraph C

Explanation: This paragraph discusses the difficulties Western companies face in emerging markets.

17. Paragraph D

Answer: i. The opportunities are equally extraordinary.

Supporting statement: “The potential market is huge… hundreds of millions of people will enter the middle class…”

Keywords: huge market, growth, opportunity

Keyword Location: Paragraph D

Explanation: This paragraph presents the enormous opportunities in emerging markets despite their challenges.

18. Paragraph E

Answer: iv. In some cases the traditional global trend is even being reversed.

Supporting statement: “This is changing fast… The emerging-market brain now competes head-on with the West.”

Keywords: reversing trend, brainpower, globalisation

Keyword Location: Paragraph E

Explanation: The traditional West-led globalisation model is shifting, with emerging markets taking the lead.

19. Paragraph F

Answer: iii. Old assumptions about innovation in the developed countries are also being challenged.

Supporting statement: “But this is proving less true by the day… polycentric innovation…”

Keywords: changing assumptions, R&D spreading globally

Keyword Location: Paragraph F

Explanation: The paragraph challenges the idea that innovation only happens in the West.

20. Paragraph G

Answer: ii. Clever programs allow computers to recognize handwriting or turn photographs into cartoons.

Supporting statement: “Microsoft’s research centre in Beijing has developed clever programs…”

Keywords: handwriting recognition, cartoons, clever programs

Keyword Location: Paragraph G

Explanation: This paragraph gives specific examples of emerging-market innovations in software and services.

Questions 21-23

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? Write

YES if the statement agrees with 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

21. The emerging markets and their populations are growing much faster.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: “The populations are already much bigger… and growing much faster…”

Keywords: population growth, faster

Keyword Location: Paragraph D

Explanation: Paragraph D clearly confirms this statement.

22. The Western countries are focusing on many breakthrough innovations.

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: “Most people in the West equate [innovation] with technological breakthroughs… The emerging developing countries are offering a new kind…”

Keywords: West, breakthroughs, rethinking innovation

Keyword Location: Paragraph G

Explanation: The statement is contradicted—the emerging world, not the West, is driving new forms of innovation.

23. The emerging world, a source of cheap labour before, now rivals the rich countries for business innovation.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: “Those who used to think of the emerging world as a source of cheap labour must now recognise… disruptive innovation…”

Keywords: source of cheap labour, innovation

Keyword Location: Paragraph I

Explanation: The passage confirms that emerging countries are now innovation leaders.

Questions 24-27

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each.

In the 1960s, the 24………………

Answer: production line

Supporting statement: "The United States adopted Henry Ford’s production line in the 1960s."

Keywords: Henry Ford, production line, 1960s

Keyword Location: Paragraph H, line 1

Explanation: This sentence clearly states the adoption of Henry Ford’s production line by the U.S., marking its significance in manufacturing history during that decade.

invented by Henry Ford became popular in the United States. In the auto industrial history, the US manufacturers were once surpassed by their Japanese counterparts. Later they figured it out and realized that their Japanese rivals applied a novel management approach known as 25…………....

Answer: lean manufacturing

Supporting statement: "The Japanese had invented a new system of making things called 'lean manufacturing'..."

Keywords: Japanese, lean manufacturing, new system

Keyword Location: Paragraph I, line 1

Explanation: The phrase identifies the management approach that gave Japan a competitive edge and later influenced global manufacturing.

It is gradually accepted that the emerging world are the origin of both 26..........

Answer: ideas

Supporting statement: "...must now recognise that it can be a source of disruptive innovation as well."

Keywords: source, disruptive innovation, ideas

Keyword Location: Paragraph I, line 3

Explanation: This points to the emerging world's role not just in labour but also in contributing creative and strategic ideas.

and 27…………………

Answer: innovation

Supporting statement: "...must now recognise that it can be a source of disruptive innovation as well."

Keywords: disruptive innovation, source

Keyword Location: Paragraph I, line 3

Explanation: The phrase confirms that innovation is now emerging from developing economies, not just traditional industrial powers.

Check IELTS reading samples:

• The Hidden Power of Friendship Reading Answers
• The Rise and Fall of Superhero Movies Reading Answers
• Adapting or Fading Penguins Struggling with Climate Change
• History in Various Centuries Reading Answers
• The Mark Twain Narrative Reading Answers
• How Birth Order Affects Your Personality Reading Answers
• The History of Football Reading Answers
• When Tablet Turns Teacher Reading Answers
• Steve Jobs A Brief Life History Reading Answers
• History of Writing Implements Tools for Writing Reading Answers
• Six Classical Dances of India Reading Answers
• Open All Day Reading Answers
• Leadership Reading Answers
• Team Building Approaches Reading Answers
• Road Safety Tips Reading Answers
• Rental Home Advertisements Reading Answers
• Packaging Free Shops may Tackle Plastic but Risk increasing Food Waste Reading Answers
• Caving Reading Answers
• The old but Gold Cinderella Reading Answers
• Sir Alexander Fleming Reading Answers
• Land Line Phone Reading AnswersProducing Sugar Reading Answers
• Producing Sugar Reading Answers
• Birdlike Dinosaurs Reading Answers
• Can People Change Reading Answers
• How to be a Good Teacher Reading Answers
• Probabilistic Earthquake Risk Maps of Tasmania Reading Answers
• Africa Arts and Crafts Reading Answers
• Adelaide Brighton Cement LTD Reading Answers
• Movers and Shakers Reading Answers
• Establishing Your Birthrights Reading Answers
• Marine Mammals Exhibit Their Ingenuity Reading Answers
• Woodgreen Neighborhood Watch Reading Answers
• Making a Loss is the Height of Fashion Reading Answers
• The Ecological Importance of Bees Reading Answers
• The Legacy of Lucy Detailed IELTS Reading Answers
• The Terracotta Army Insights from the IELTS Reading Answers
• Why Do We Need Sleep Reading Answers
• The Role of Exercise in Health Key Insights from Health Promotion Consultant Reading Answers
• A Focal Point of Academic Inquiry Reading Answers
• Viking Ireland Reading Answers
• The Threat to Grizzly Bears of Alberta Reading Answers
• Westley Museum Reading Answers
• Westley University Department of Media Reading Answers
• Drayton University Business Study Center Reading Answers
• Bigger Choices May Lead to Confusion and Depression IELTS Reading Answers
• Lodging Packages and Facilities IELTS Reading Answers
• How Birds Hatch Nest and Look after the Young Reading Answers
• Childrens Literature Reading Answers
• Homestays Feel like Home Reading Answers
• Piano Reading Answers