5. Summarizing Complete the gaps with a word from the box to make a summary of the text.

a. action	b. amounts	c. conditions	d. loan
e. microcredit	f. repayments	g. social	h. trust

Mohammed Yunus started the Grameen bank in order to lend poor women in Bangladesh small ⁽¹⁾_____________________ of money. The bank does not take legal ⁽²⁾______________________ if the person has difficulties in repaying and the system is based entirely on ⁽³⁾______________________. It works because those taking the ⁽⁴⁾______________________ know they must return the money if they want to borrow again in future. They must also join together as a group so that they are partly responsible for each others’ ⁽⁵⁾_____________________. Only 1% of borrowers have ever defaulted. The bank’s ⁽⁶⁾______________________ programme encourages borrowers to improve their own and their children’s living ⁽⁷⁾____________________. This ⁽⁸⁾______________________ system has spread to 50% of Bangladeshi villages and many other countries, including those in the so-called ‘developed world’.

5. Grammar and comprehension In each of the questions below there are words in bold. Decide in each case what these words refer to by selecting the correct answer.

1. ‘She couldn’t afford to buy the bamboo canes to make the stools, so she had to borrow the money from the bamboo sellers and then pay them a large part of the profit from each one she sold.’

a) the stools b) the bamboo sellers c) the bamboo canes

2. ‘As Yunus says “I felt ashamed of myself for being part of a society which could not provide even twenty-seven dollars to forty-two hardworking, skilled human beings.”’

a) Yunus b) society c) feeling ashamed

3. ‘The Grameen bank was born, and with it a new approach to lending money – ‘micro-credit’.’

a) the new bank b) microcredit c) a new approach

4. ‘Grameen gives priority to those who have nothing, particularly the poorest women.’

a) people b) women c) loans

5,6. ‘The system encourages the borrowers to do practical things to improve their living conditions, health and level of education. These are known as the ‘Sixteen Decisions’ which include, for example, not continuing the dowry system, growing fresh vegetables, organising clean drinking water and good sanitation, education for children, and being ready to help each other whenever necessary.’

5. What does ‘These’ refer to? a) the borrowers b) living conditions c) practical things

6. What does ‘each other’ refer to? a) the borrowers b) the sixteen decisions c) the children

7. ‘The bank now lends over a billion dollars to more than two million borrowers, 96% of them women, and involving more than half of the villages in Bangladesh.’

a) women b) dollars c) the borrowers

8. ‘Grameen’s success in Bangladesh has also shown that the developing world has lessons to teach richer countries like the USA and Britain. Both countries have begun to encourage microcredit schemes based on the Grameen model, in an attempt to deal with their own levels of poverty.’

a) the developing world b) microcredit schemes c) the USA and Britain