单项选择题

Underdeveloped People The Indians living on the high plains of the Andes Mountains, in South America, have a background rich in history but rich in little else. These seven million people from the great old Indian nations live in a land of few trees, poor soil, cutting winds and biting cold. Their farms do not give enough food to support them. Their children from the age of three or four must work in the fields. The death rate of their babies is among the highest in the world, their standards of education among the lowest. They live at heights of ten or fifteen thousand feet, where even the air lacks the things necessary for life. The needs of these Indians, scattered across three countries — Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia—are great. Their problems are difficult and their diseases are deeply rooted in an old-fashioned way of life. Probably no single program of help can greatly better their condition. Health programs are no good without farm programs, and farm programs fail where there have been no programs of education. Five international organizations have combined efforts to seek the answers to the problems of the unfortunate descendants of the Inca Indians. They are working with the governments of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador on what they call the Andean Mission. Six areas have been formed, one each in Ecuador and Peru, four in Bolivia. Here methods are tested to attack poor education, poor food, poor living conditions and disease all at once. We passed fields of low com and thin wheat. Whole villages were at work planting potatoes. The men formed a line and walked slowly backward, beating the soil with sticks. The women, on hands and knees, followed the men, breaking the hard earth with their hands. Their red and orange skirts flashed brightly in the sun. The scene was beautiful, but the land, seeds and crops were all poor. Upon arriving at a village, we went to visit the school for carpenters. It was in an old building where thirty boys were attending classes. There were two classrooms containing complete sets of tools. I saw more tools there than in any carpenter’’s shop in Latin America. Most of the boys were cutting boards for practice. They worked steadily and didn’’t even look up when we entered. The teacher remarked that the greatest problem at the moment was finding wood, as almost no trees grow on a high plain. Someone remarked that it would not take long for the school to produce too many carpenters in an area without trees, where most of the buildings were of stone or mud. The wood brought from the jungle was too costly for most of the people. The answer was that the original purpose of the school was to train carpenters and mechanics to go to other parts of the country. They would work where the government is developing new villages at the edge of the jungle. Across from the carpentry-room there was a machine for producing electric power. With it the boys would be taught their first lessons in electricity. Other boys studied car repairing. In the yard a group of boys surrounded a large tractor. The teacher was showing them how to operate it. No one was sure how many other tractors there were in the area. Guesses ranged from two to ten. If the school turned out more boys to handle them than the farms could use, the rest, it was hoped, would seek a living in the lower villages where more people lived. The next day, against the cutting winds of the Bolivian mountains, we were going to a village that is the oldest of the four Bolivian projects of the Andean mission. Behind us, across the valley, rain fell from the black clouds beyond the snowy mountain-tops. The wind and rain beat against the car as we traveled across the open fields to come to the yard of an old farm. My trip had been panned at the last minute. Since the village has no telegraph to telephone services, no one was expecting me. All the driver knew was that I was a visiting "doctor" simply because I was wearing a tie. He showed me into a large room of the farmhouse where some twenty men were watching film. It concerned the problems of a man who could neither read nor write. But in the face of difficulties he managed to start an adult education class in his village. He did this so that he could learn to read and win his girl friend’’s respect. From time to time during the film the lights would go on and during these breaks everyone introduced himself. They had been brought together for a three-week course in how to teach, and to add to their own education, which in several cases had not gone beyond the third grade. Though they had not had much training they had the help of great interest and, most important, they knew the native language. When the picture show was over the Bolivian teachers pulled on their wool caps, wrapped their blankets around them, and went off to their beds. Some of the international teachers went with me to the kitchen, where the cook had heated some food. We talked of the troubles and the progress of the school, until the lights were put out several times. This was a warning that the electric power was about to be shut off for the night. During the first two years the village project had a difficult time. The mission had accepted the use of a farm from a large landowner, and the natives believed that the lands would be returned to the owner after ten years. The Mission began at a time when the Bolivian Government was introducing land-improvement laws. Most of the people believed that the officers of the Mission were working for the owner, who was against the dividing up of the land. They had as little to do with the owner as possible. Not until the government took possession of the farm and divided the land did the feeling of the Indians toward the Mission change for the better. The Andean Indians live in the villages all over South America.