Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 2...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 27 to 34.

Two years into the pandemic, vaccine access has refracted pre-existing inequalities. Inter-country gaps remain stark, yet inequities within nations have intensified: school completion among the poorest is reversing; gender disparities are widening amid spikes in gender-based violence; and informal workers absorbed the harshest lockdown losses. Recovery, the text argues, will be paced by the velocity of inoculation: every day, week, and month matters for reaching ambitious coverage targets. If protection is patchy, contagion and volatility travel; unless everyone is safe, no one is.

        By early 2022, low-income countries had received a vanishingly small share of global doses, leaving billions still awaiting a first shot. Coverage in much of Sub-Saharan Africa lagged well below the 70-percent goal, while a handful of states – Cambodia, Viet Nam, Bhutan – surpassed it. Closing the gap requires weekly inoculations in low-income economies to surge manyfold. Yet progress is thwarted by supply bottlenecks and limited absorptive capacity: vaccines must arrive on time, in stable cold chains, and meet the staffing and logistics on the ground.

        Financing remains the rub. Compared with rich economies, poorer countries must raise outsized health outlays relative to expected growth, with vaccine bills straining budgets already tasked with basic services and SDG commitments. Case studies warn of a looming debt spiral as countries shoulder new obligations equal to large shares of poverty-reduction and education needs. For many low-income countries, vaccination costs devour fiscal space that could otherwise fund poverty eradication and schooling. The opportunity cost is concrete: dollars spent on doses cannot simultaneously pay nurses’ salaries or keep students in classrooms.

        Solutions are neither mysterious nor effortless: solidarity, concessional finance, and tailored delivery. Adequate doses are necessary but insufficient; those doses must be converted into vaccinations through micro-planning, last-mile logistics, and trusted national partners such as Gavi. A “hyperlocal” analytics approach can map vulnerability, steer mobile teams, and target neighborhoods where confidence or access is thin. In parallel, an SDG-oriented recovery – governance, social protection, green jobs, digitalization – can help countries exceed pre-pandemic trajectories. Choices made now will determine whether the crisis entrenches divides or closes them.

(Adapted from UNDP – Vaccine Equity, sdgintegration.undp.org/vaccine-equity)

Question 27. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 1 as a consequence of the pandemic?
A. Reversed school completion among the poorest

B. Rising gender disparities accompanied by increased violence

C. Higher vaccine wastage due to poor cold-chain management

D. Earnings losses among informal workers

Question 28. The word bottlenecks in paragraph 2 can be best replaced by ______?

A. snags                B. accelerators                C. gateways                        D. lubricants

Question 29. The word looming in paragraph 3 is OPPOSITE in meaning to ______.

A. imminent                B. diminishing                C. pending                        D. threatening

Question 30. The word those in paragraph 4 refers to ______.

A. adequate vaccine doses                                B. emergency social protection measures

C. SDG-oriented investment packages                D. hyperlocal analytics tools

Question 31. Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

A. Vaccine expenditures consume budgetary resources that could alternatively finance poverty reduction and educational access initiatives.

B. In many low-income nations, immunization costs absorb funds otherwise allocated to social development and primary schooling.

C. Spending on vaccines eats up limited budgets that might have supported anti-poverty programmes and universal education.

D. Vaccination programmes divert scarce fiscal resources from critical investments in poverty alleviation and education systems.

Question 32. Which of the following is TRUE according to paragraph 2?

A. Most African countries surpassed 70 percent coverage before mid-2022 despite constrained supply and staffing shortages.

B. Only 2.8 million people were waiting for first doses, concentrated in upper-middle-income economies worldwide.

C. Absorptive capacity rarely constrained roll-outs; hesitancy among health professionals was the primary barrier mentioned.

D. To meet the 70 percent target, weekly inoculations in low-income countries needed to increase by more than eightfold.

Question 33. Which paragraph mentions that within-country inequalities have grown more severe than between-country gaps?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2                C. Paragraph 3                D. Paragraph 4

Question 34. Which paragraph mentions a hyperlocal analytics tool to guide micro-planning for vaccination?
A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2                C. Paragraph 3                D. Paragraph 4