高考英语《流行话题 语境识词 4500》Unit 62 World Bank 素材Unit 62 World Bank The World Bank is one of the major channels through which development aid is passed from the Industrial West to the poor and developing nations. In the last decade, important changes have taken place in the size of the Bank's operations and in the emphasis of its lending polic ies. Few people would deny that the President of the Bank, Mr. Robert McNamara, has played a vital role in bringing about the changes. What immediately strikes anyone looking at the lending figures over the last ten years is the tremendous expansion of the Bank's loan program. This has increased from $1 billion to nearly $7 billion. The figure includes "hard loans" which are made at current rates of interest, and "soft loans " which are allocated to poor countries at concessionary rates. In deciding the emphasis of its lending policy, the Bank had to take into account the population explosion in poor countries. There is a strong and deeply-rooted tradition among people in these countries to have big families. The large family unit, it is believed, brings greater financial stability. What the Bank disc overed -- this was a revolutionary idea -- was that there was a link between economic and social development, on the one hand, and a reduction in fertility rate, on the other. Thus, by improving basic health services, by introducing better nutrition in a poor country, a lower fertility rate would be achieved. This advance in thinking persuaded the Bank to change its overall lending strategy. Where previously it had concentrated on the big infrastructure project such as dams, roads and bridges, it began to switch to projects which directly i...
