148] READING COMPREHENSION [GCSE PREVIOUS EXAMS-EGYPT 1982]

Better Chances

 

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

Ministry of Education

General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1982

For Science and Arts Candidates

English-Special Course

Time Allowed: 3 Hours

10. Read the following passage (text), and then answer the questions:
A clever person used to mean a person who would exert efforts to achieve a legitimate aim. Hence, a clever pupil is a bright one who makes the best of his educational chances. A clever lawyer is one who handles the law so as to prove that his client is in the right. A clever doctor gives the right diagnosis for his patients' ailments and prescribes the right medicine for them. This is perfectly feasible in a simple society which will allow a good number of people to do their best to succeed in their pursuits or better their life conditions.
But in a society that has grown in complexity so that only the fittest can survive, the term has taken a new meaning. If two persons have one chance, the cleverer of them is the one who can push the other out of the way to secure the chance for himself. Worse still, a clever person might twist wrong to make it look right. A clever lawyer in this sense of the word is he who manages to prove the innocence of a wrong doer. A doctor who entices more patients to go to him and consequently makes more money out of them would be a clever doctor. A company whose products are not much in demand, employs a clever propagandist to increase its sales. There are clever men both in commerce and in offices. Even in government offices there are clever social climbers who get all the gains with the least effort. Yet there are still honest people in society who have a reputation for doing what they are convinced is right.
Questions:
1.   How would a clever man win a competition?
2.   What happens when chances are limited in a society?
3.   Suggest ways in which clever government officials get all the gains with the least effort.
4.   Explain in some detail what is meant by social climbers.