Perhaps most important, its pen-and-paper methodology does not accurately test the writing skills of a population accustomed to the elasticity of computers.
A population accustomed to living with typhoons had underestimated the strength of Haiyan, causing many people to stay in their homes when the storm made its devastating landfall.
For a population accustomed to the instant availability of family, even though it is a phenomenon of only the last quarter-century, these are complex times.
But that requires a turnabout in spending habits by a population accustomed to saving for contingencies, like education and medical care, rather than spending.
Conspiracy theories circulated amongst the local population are catalysed by a lack of information, combined with pervasive concerns about corruption among a population accustomed to receiving little support from the state.
The government has shut down the internet in English-speaking areas, angering a population accustomed to using social media to communicate, and internet-based cash transfers to send money for business transactions and to relatives.
In exchange for European support, the Greek prime minister, George A. Papandreou, offered a package of painful austerity measures this month for a population accustomed to more than a decade of rising wages.
For a population accustomed to scraping by, Hurricane Sandy has been a boon, conjuring up demolition and construction work that has been mostly absent since the housing market's collapse and providing a spike in remittances to families in Mexico, Central America and South America.
In any case Britain has a large population, accustomed to and skilled in industrial life, who, within the confines of the British Isles, would suffer a sharp drop in standards if they were destined to become the pioneers of a de-industrial revolution.You only have to move about western Europe nowadays to realise how poor and unproud the British have become in relation to their neighbours.
