Read the following paragraph carefully and answer the following questions.
Winters in the town of Trondheim mean fierce winds and heavy snow. The skies are dark for months. Kari drives to work in the dark at 8 am. She has special tyres for the winter and keeps the headlights of her powerful car switched on. Her office is artificially heated at a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius. The campus of the university she works in is built under a huge glass dome. This dome keeps the snow out in winter and lets in the sunshine in the summer. The temperature is controlled carefully and there is adequate lighting. Even though fresh vegetables and plants don't grow in such harsh weather, Kari keeps an orchid on her desk and enjoys eating tropical fruits like banana and kiwi. These are flown in from warmer areas regularly. With a click of the mouse, Kari can network with colleagues in New Delhi. She frequently takes a morning flight to London and returns in the evening in time to watch her favourite television serial. Though Kari is fifty-eight years old, she is fitter and looks younger than many thirty year-olds in other parts of the world.
Which one of the following is NOT correct about the society in which Kari lives?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Highly deprived society
The passage states: “Winters in the town of Trondheim mean fierce winds and heavy snow. The skies are dark for months.”
Yet Kari’s life is comfortable. Her society uses technology to get over the limits that nature puts on it. Three of the options describe such a society; one does not.
Option (1) Technologically advanced society — Correct about Kari’s society. “She has special tyres for the winter”, “Her office is artificially heated” and “With a click of the mouse, Kari can network with colleagues in New Delhi.” These show advanced technology.
Option (2) High level of living standard — Correct about Kari’s society. “She frequently takes a morning flight to London and returns in the evening”, and her tropical fruits “are flown in from warmer areas regularly.” This is a high standard of living.
Option (3) Culturally advanced society — Correct about Kari’s society. Technology indicates the level of cultural development of a society. A society with such advanced technology is therefore culturally advanced.
Option (4) Highly deprived society — Not correct about Kari’s society. A deprived society lacks basic needs such as food, health, housing and comfort. Kari has all of these: “Though Kari is fifty-eight years old, she is fitter and looks younger than many thirty year-olds in other parts of the world.” Nothing in the passage shows deprivation.
Note: This passage is the box ‘Humanisation of Nature’ in the chapter ‘Human Geography: Nature and Scope’ (Fundamentals of Human Geography), word for word.