# The Problem of Scarce Resources: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 4, Test 4, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 4, Test 4, Reading Passage 3. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 28 | iv | Every health system in an economically developed society is faced with the need to decide |
| 29 | i | health-care came to be seen as one of the fundamental social facilities necessary for people to exercise their other rights |
| 30 | iii | this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to ensure that adequate health-care resources are provided out of the public purse. |
| 31 | v | stems from the dramatic rise in health costs in most OECD* countries, accompanied by large-scale demographic and social changes |
| 32 | B | The new consciousness that there were also severe limits to health-care resources was part of this general revelation of the obvious. |
| 33 | B | health costs increased from 3.8% of GDP* in 1960 to 7% of GDP in 1980 |
| 34 | A | in the years immediately after the 1939-45 World War, it was assumed without question that all the basic health needs of any community could be satisfied |
| 35 | B | by the late 1970s it was recognized in most societies that people have a right to health-care |
| 36 | NO | In the same way, basic health-care is a condition of the exercise of autonomy. |
| 37 | YES | at exactly the same time as this new realization of the finite character of health-care resources was sinking in |
| 38 | YES | accompanied by large-scale demographic and social changes |
| 39 | NOT GIVEN | ever-rising health costs were matched against static or declining resources. |
| 40 | NOT GIVEN | elderly people are now major (and relatively very expensive) consumers of health-care resources. |

## Why these answers are right

**28. iv.** Section A says allocating health-care resources is not a new problem and that every health system in an economically developed society must decide how to spend and share them. A difficulty faced by all such societies matches heading iv, a problem shared by every economically developed country.

**29. i.** Section C presents health-care as a basic right, listed alongside education, law and order, and calls it necessary for people to exercise their other rights as autonomous human beings. That link between health-care and other rights fits heading i rather than the state's role, which comes next.

**30. iii.** Section D explains that the right to health-care creates a duty for the state to make sure adequate resources come from the public purse, though not to run the system itself. The focus on what government must guarantee makes heading iii, the role of the state in health-care, the right choice.

The why and the trap for questions 31 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/the-problem-of-scarce-resources/answers).

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