Comprehension
In 1964, the African nation of Zambia and the East Asian country of South Korea were at roughly equivalent levels of development. Indeed, when Zambia achieved its independence in 1964, its prospects appeared far more promising than those of South Korea.
Zambia was rich in copper, and its newly elected president, Kenneth Kaunda, was popular at home and respected abroad for his intelligence and seriousness of purpose. South Korea, in contrast, had no resources to speak of, was ruled by a despised and ridiculed military dictatorship, and depended heavily on American aid, which was being cut back.
More than five decades later, the two countries could not be more different. The economy of Zambia has failed miserably. In the thirty years after Kaunda's election, Zambian income per person fell until, by the mid 1990s, the average Zambian had barely half the income he'd had at independence.
Faced with this development failure, Zambians voted Kaunda out of office amid substantial political unrest and widespread food riots. The government's failures were compounded by the AIDS epidemic that swept Africa in the 1990s. While conditions have improved somewhat since then, Zambia still has one of the lowest standards of living in the world.
Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A): Zambia was a rich and developed nation in 1964.
Reason (R): It had rich copper resources.
In light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
