Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer should be based solely on the passage.

The process by which countries close their labour-productivity gap with the technology leader is based on convergence theory. The convergence model divides economic eras into three phases : the breakaway, the catch-up, and the fine-tuning phase. It also divides economic entities into two categories : the technology leaders and the technology followers. The process begins with the development of a new technology, such as scavenging three million years ago (MYA), hunting—one MYA, farming—12 thousand years ago, and industrial technology—a little more than 200 years ago. During the breakaway phase, the per capita income of the technology leaders (e.g., Western Europe and North America in the industrial era) rises, but is unchanged for the technology followers. In the catch-up phase, the followers adopt the new technology and close their per capita income gap with the technology leaders. In the fine-tuning phase, where participants try to extract the remaining benefits from an increasingly exhausted technology, leaders and followers have similar per capita incomes.

Which of the following conclusions are correct?
1. In the breakaway phase, economic progress is slow for the technology followers.
2. In the catch-up phase, leaders stagnate and followers, therefore, close the gap between them and the leaders.
3. In the fine-tuning phase, technology is exhausted, as it were, and both leaders and followers attempt to extract leftover benefits, leading to more or less similar per capita income levels.
4. Industrial technology followed scavenging, which preceded hunting, which itself was followed by farming.
Select the answer using the code given below.

Question

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer should be based solely on the passage.

The process by which countries close their labour-productivity gap with the technology leader is based on convergence theory. The convergence model divides economic eras into three phases : the breakaway, the catch-up, and the fine-tuning phase. It also divides economic entities into two categories : the technology leaders and the technology followers. The process begins with the development of a new technology, such as scavenging three million years ago (MYA), hunting—one MYA, farming—12 thousand years ago, and industrial technology—a little more than 200 years ago. During the breakaway phase, the per capita income of the technology leaders (e.g., Western Europe and North America in the industrial era) rises, but is unchanged for the technology followers. In the catch-up phase, the followers adopt the new technology and close their per capita income gap with the technology leaders. In the fine-tuning phase, where participants try to extract the remaining benefits from an increasingly exhausted technology, leaders and followers have similar per capita incomes.

Which of the following conclusions are correct?
1. In the breakaway phase, economic progress is slow for the technology followers.
2. In the catch-up phase, leaders stagnate and followers, therefore, close the gap between them and the leaders.
3. In the fine-tuning phase, technology is exhausted, as it were, and both leaders and followers attempt to extract leftover benefits, leading to more or less similar per capita income levels.
4. Industrial technology followed scavenging, which preceded hunting, which itself was followed by farming.
Select the answer using the code given below.

Accepted Answer

3 and 4 only. Statement 1 says progress is slow for followers in breakaway — the passage says it is 'unchanged', not slow, so this is not strictly correct. Statement 2 says leaders stagnate in the catch-up phase, but the passage only says followers adopt new technology and close the gap; it doesn't say leaders stagnate, so this is incorrect. Statement 3 is directly supported by the passage description of the fine-tuning phase. Statement 4 is correct — chronologically the passage gives scavenging (3 MYA) → hunting (1 MYA) → farming (12,000 years ago) → industrial (200 years ago), and the statement correctly preserves this order. Hence only statements 3 and 4 are correct.

Explanation

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