Most economists are agreed on a list of reasons for the failure of Africa to generate economic growth. Many African countries are more or less landlocked, which cuts (1)them off from world trade. They have poor and deteriorating roads linking distant cities. They have exploding birth rates. They suffer from epidemic malaria, AIDS and other diseases. Their institutions have never fully recovered from the disruptions caused by the slave trade. They were once colonies, which meant rule by minorities [   X    ] in allowing the development of an entrepreneurial class. (   A    ) Thanks to their imperial colonizers, their Marxist independence leaders and their *monetarist aid donors, most African countries have lost many of their informal social traditions and institutions, so property rights and justice have become arbitrary and insecure. Their most promising industry-agriculture-is usually stifled by price controls and bureaucratic marketing agencies imposed by urban elites, and (2)stymied by trade barriers and subsidies in Europe and America, not to mention devastated by a (3)proliferation of over-grazing goats. Ethnic strife between the biggest tribe, which maintains one-party rule, and its hated rival usually poisons politics. Paradoxically, African countries are often also cursed by sudden *windfalls of rich mineral wealth, such as oiler diamonds, which serve only to corrupt democratic politicians, strengthen the power of dictators, distract entrepreneurs, spoil the terms of trade of exporters and encourage (4)reckless state borrowing.

Take, therefore, one such typical African country. It is landlocked, drought-prone and has a very high population growth rate. Its people belong to eight different tribes speaking different tongues. When freed from colonial rule in 1966 it had eight miles of paved road (for an area the size of Texas), twenty-two black university graduates, and only 100 secondary school graduates. It was later cursed by a huge diamond mine, crippled by AIDS, devastated by cattle disease, and ruled by one party with little effective opposition. Government spending has remained high; so has wealth inequality. (   B    ) Its failure was inevitable and predictable.

But Botswana did not fail. (5)It succeeded not just moderately well, but (6)spectacularly. In the thirty years after independence it grew its *per capita GDP faster on average (nearly 8 percent) than any other country in the entire world － faster than Japan, China, South Korea and America during that period. It multiplied its per capita income thirteen times so that its average citizens are now richer than Thais, Bulgarians or Peruvians. (   C    ) It has had no coups, civil wars or dictators. It has experienced no hyperinflation or debt *default. It did not wipe out its elephants. It is consistently the most successful economy in the world in recent decades.

It is true that Botswana has a small and ethnically somewhat homogeneous population, unlike many other countries. [   Y    ] its biggest advantage is one that the rest of Africa could easily have shared: good institutions. In particular, Botswana turns out to have secure, enforceable property rights that are fairly widely distributed and fairly well respected. (7)When some economists compared property rights with economic growth throughout the world, they found that the first explained an astonishing three quarters of the variation in the second and that Botswana was no outlier: the reason it had flourished was because its people owned property without fear of confiscation by chiefs or thieves to a much greater extent than in the rest of Africa. (    D    ) his is much the same explanation for why England had a good eighteenth century while China did not.

[Adapted from Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist, 2010. ]

<注>
• *monetarist:「通貨主義者（通貨供給量を調整することで経済の安定が図られると考える人）」
• *windfalls:「思いがけない授かりもの」
• *per capita:「一人あたりの」
• *default:「（債務の）不履行」

• 問1. 下線部(1)のthemと(5)のItが示す内容を、それぞれ本文中の英語で答えなさい。
• 問2. 下線部(2), (3), (4), (6)の語の本文中での意味と最も近い意味を表す語を、それぞれ1~4の中から1つずつ選び、番号で答えなさい。
  • (2) stymied
    • 1. facilitated
    • 2. forced
    • 3. helped
    • 4. hindered
  • (3) proliferation
    • 1. domestication
    • 2. multiplication
    • 3. parasitism
    • 4. wildlife
  • (4) reckless
    • 1. defective
    • 2. forcible
    • 3. rash
    • 4. violent
  • (6) spectacularly
    • 1.decorously
    • 2. impressively
    • 3. lucidly
    • 4. satisfactorily
• 問3. 前後関係から考えて、[   X    ]、[   Y    ]に入れるのに最も適切なものを、それぞれ1~4 の中から1つ選び、番号で答えなさい。
  • [X]
    • 1. disinterest
    • 2. disinteresting
    • 3. uninterest
    • 4. uninterested
  • [Y]
    • 1. And
    • 2. Besides
    • 3. But
    • 4. So
• 問4. 次の文を本文中の(   A    )、(   B    )、(   C    )、(   D    )のいずれかに挿入する場合、どこが最も適切な箇所か。1つ選び、記号で答えなさい。
  This country, the fourth poorest in the entire world in 1950, has every one of Africa's curses.
• 問5. 筆者の趣旨と内容が一致する文を下から2つ選び、その番号を小さいほうから順に書きなさい。
  • 1. No negative legacy of the slave trade can be seen in African countries.
  • 2. The informal social traditions and institutions of most African countries were preserved by their imperial colonizers.
  • 3. Mineral wealth serves to strengthen the power of entrepreneurs of African countries.
  • 4. The people of Botswana are made up of eight different tribes but ethnically somewhat homogeneous.
  • 5. The level of education in Botswana was not high in 1966.
  • 6. Botswana's average citizens earn thirteen times as much as Thais, Bulgarians or Peruvians.
  • 7. Botswana has experienced several coups and civil wars.
  • 8. The people of China owned property without fear of confiscation in the 18th century.
• 問6. 下線部(7)を和訳しなさい。