Should farmers be paid to allow walkers access to their land? Step 2

By Rosamund Place | March 16, 2010

Having read the article through once or twice quickly, can you answer these questions?

 

1. [Multiple choice]

At the present time the Republic of Ireland is an ideal place for people interested in walking and hiking.

(Walkers are able to walk on a small percentage of the country. The writer David Herman is campaigning for limited rights and facilities for walkers which are ‘modest’ by international standards.)

Answers for Quiz [1].

  • 1. True
  • 2. False (correct)
  • 3. Doesn’t say

2. [Multiple choice]

The Republic of Ireland is out of step with the rest of Western Europe on the question of allowing walkers to walk on farmland.

(All over Scotland as all over Western Europe people have the freedom to roam. ‘But not in Ireland.’)

Answers for Quiz [2].

  • 1. True (correct)
  • 2. False
  • 3. Doesn’t say

3. [Multiple choice]

Scotland earns only a small income from walking tourism.

(Scotland earns ‘well over four times’ as much as Ireland does from walking tourism. It is described as an asset that farmers can ‘diversify’ their income, and as a ‘win-win situation.’)

Answers for Quiz [3].

  • 1. True
  • 2. False (correct)
  • 3. Doesn’t say

4. [Multiple choice]

Walkers often damage property in various ways, for instance by walking into people’s back gardens.

(The article mentions that farm representatives keep protesting that walkers want the right to walk into people’s back gardens – but that is not what Keep Ireland Open is asking for. There is no mention made of anyone damaging property.)

Answers for Quiz [4].

  • 1. True
  • 2. False
  • 3. Doesn’t say (correct)

5. [Multiple choice]

David Herman says walkers are prepared to pay some money for the right to walk on some of farmers’ private land in Ireland.

(People ‘have no legal right to put a foot on private land’ in Ireland but ‘under no circumstances’ are walkers going to pay for access to that land‘.)

Answers for Quiz [5].

  • 1. True
  • 2. False (correct)
  • 3. Doesn’t say

6. [Multiple choice]

The Irish government must stop asking farmers to offer walkers the opportunity to walk on their land and tell them to do so.

(The article points out that a voluntary approach has produced no results, so now is the time for the government to insist on the public having the right to access land. It asks for a little more stick (force) and less carrot (encouragement).)

Answers for Quiz [6].

  • 1. True (correct)
  • 2. False
  • 3. Doesn’t say
Posted in Reading and Texts