READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE, THEN CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER

5. 10.

SECTION B: READING

I. Read the following passage, then choose the best answer. (10 marks)

GOAL: ENDING CHILD LABOR

Carefully guiding a needle that's longer than his tiny fingers, a young boy in Pakistan stitches

together the leather pieces of a soccer ball. He sits crouched in the corner of a hot, airless shed for 12

hours. For his long day's work, he will earn 60 cents.

The boy is one of more than 200 million children who work at hard, sometimes dangerous jobs

all over the world. Child labor exists in two-thirds of the world's nations. From Indonesia to

Guatemala, poor children as young as six are sent off to work. Often they are mistreated and punished

for not working hard enough. Children mix the gunpowder for firecrackers in China and knot the

threads for carpets in India, all for pennies a day. Sometimes they are sold as slaves.

In a speech to the Child Labor Coalition when he was U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich

expressed gratitude for the organization's work to end abuse of child labor, "You turned up the heat,

and you got results." He also congratulated Craig Kiel burger, then 13, of Canada, who travelled the

world for a year fighting for kids' rights. Craig believes kids can make a difference. He offers this

advice, "Write letters to companies and government officials. Put pressure on leaders to make

changes and to stop the misuse of children."

One solution to the child-labor problem in poor countries is education. "The future of these

countries," Secretary Reich declared, "depends on a work force that is educated. We are prepared to

help build schools."

Education has helped to make the world a brighter place for one youth, Afghan of India. When

he was nine, Afghan was kidnapped from his home and sold to a carpet maker. Afghan's boss was

very cruel. "I was always crying for my mother," here recalls. Afghan's dream was to learn to write

so that he could send letters to his parents. Fortunately, a group that opposes child labor rescued

Afghan from the factory. He was sent to a shelter in New Delhi where he worked hard to learn to

write.