Direction: In this section, you have few short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. First, read a passage and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and opinion of the author only.
If climate change is the key process in the natural world impacting sustainable development, globalisation is the parallel process in the human world, creating both opportunities for, and barriers to, sustainable development.
Globalisation is the ongoing process that is linking people, neighbourhoods, cities, regions, and countries much more closely together than they have ever been before. This has resulted in our lives being intertwined with people in all parts of the world via the food we eat, the clothing we wear, the music we listen to, the information we get and the ideas we hold.
This interconnectedness amongst humans on the planet is sometimes also referred to as the ‘global village’ where the barriers of national and international boundaries become less relevant and the world, figuratively, a smaller place. The process is driven economically by international financial flows and trade, technologically by information technology and mass media entertainment, and very significantly, also by very human means such as cultural exchanges, migration, and international tourism. As one commentator remarked, we now live in a networked world.
While globalisation is not a new process, it has accelerated rapidly since World War II and is having many effects on people, the environment, cultures, national governments, economic development and human well-being in countries around the world.
These issues make the development of an understanding of globalisation, its various integrated forms, its driving forces, and it impacts a vitally important education objective. Such an understanding can provide young people with critical insights into the social, cultural and political impacts of the economic integration and communication technologies – as well as provide them with capacities to assess the costs and benefits in their lives.