Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
On a global basis, no statistics are adequate to suggest the magnitude of the revolution in education today. In the United States Information Services libraries in the third world, about thirty million people annually use the facilities provided. The agency distributes eight million books every year. The Soviet Union also distributes over one hundred and fifty million books to developing countries all over the world. But together, these programmes do not come near to meeting the world demand.
Mere facts and figures cannot convey the human passion for learning. In the English-speaking teaching programmes mounted for children in Latin-American countries, children have been known to have sold the shoes off their feet to pay their way to classes. In Africa, a tribal chief was turned away from enrolling in a class because there were no more chairs. The next day, he and a contingent of his fellow chiefs were waiting outside the door, each carrying his own chair.
This revolution is not limited to the developing world. In the United States there are more than fifty million students attending more than 185,000 public and private schools at all levels. There are more students today in the United States than there were city residents only forty years ago. We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury which gives some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex industrialized society. Levels of education which were once regarded with awe have now become Commonplace. And jobs which once could be filled with possession of strength and native intelligence now call for a college degree. We have truly entered the century of the educated man.
It is a mistake, however, to confuse skill with education. A man who has been taught only to hold a job has not been educated; he has only been trained. And the man who has merely been trained is not fully qualified to take his p a free society as a fully participating citizen. An all-round education should equip the learner for any challenges he may encounter.
Education, of course, is not something that is acquired just in college. It is a life-long task and when I think of death, I think of it as the moment when the brain ceases to inquire and expand.
(a) In four sentences, one for each, summarize the instances given by the writer to show that education is spreading at a very rapid rate.
(b) In two sentences, one for each, state the reasons given by the writer to support the view that education is changing fast.
Explanation
(i) over one hundred and fifty eight million books from external agencies are not enough to meet the educational demand in the third world countries.
(ii) Children sold their shoes to get admitted into classes
(iii) An African chief and his chiefs stood outside, with their own chairs because of lack of space.
(iv) There are more students than there were people residing in cities in the United States.
(b)(i) Vocations which used to require strength and intelligence now require academic qualification.
(ii) Educational achievement which was the special right of few is now a general achievement.