Passage 1
In 1961, when Gen. Park Chung Hee seized power in a military coup, yearly per capita income hovered at a bare-bones $100. Park committed Korea to exporting its way out of poverty, and his strategy was as simple as it was effective: shower the country’s fledging conglomerates with huge subsidies, government-based loans and official favors and turn them into the world’s suppliers of bargain-basement textiles, footwear and light industrial goods.
The results have been dazzling. For two decades, Korea has sizzled along at an 8 per cent annual growth rate. Exports have surged from $119 million in 1964 to $29 billion last year. Per capita income, now $2,000, could reach $5,000 by the end of the century. Korea boasts a literacy rate of 95 per cent, a standard met by only a few of the most advanced Western nations. The once provincial capital of Seoul teems with energy and sophistication.
38.In what sense is the underlined word “sophistication” used here? What might it refer to specifically and what does it have to do with energy?