RBSE Class 12 English Literature Reading Unseen Passage

Rajasthan Board RBSE Solutions for Class 12 English Literature Reading Unseen Passage Exercise Questions and Answers.

RBSE Class 12 English Literature Reading Unseen Passage

Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow :

Passage-1.

Helen packed a small suitcase, said goodbye to her mother hurried out of the house to catch the bus to the station. There was no one else waiting at the bus stop, so it looked as if a bus had just left. Helen looked at her watch anxiously and it was already two O'clock. Her train left at two-thirty, and since it would take at least twenty minutes to reach the station, she did not have much time to spare, even if a bus came along at once. Just then a taxi came slowly down the road. 

Helen knew that the fare to the station was at least five shillings, which was more than she could afford; but she quickly made up her mind that it would be well worth the extra expense in order to be sure of catching her train; so she stopped the taxi and got in. She told the driver that she had to catch a train which left at half past two. The man nodded and said that he would take a short cut to get her to the station in good time.

All went well until, just as they were coming out of a side street into the main road that led to the station, the taxi ran into a car. There was a loud crash and Helen was thrown forward so violently that she hit her head on the front seat. Both drivers got out and began shouting at each other. Helen got out as well, to ask them to stop quarrelling, but neither of them took any notice of her at all.

Helen was now quite sure that she was going to miss her train, although she was not very far from the station. She was wondering what to do when a bus came into sight, going in the direction of the station. The bus stop was not far off, so Helen got her suitcase out of the taxi and ran towards the bus, which had stopped to let some passengers get off.

The bus conductor saw her running and did not ring the bell for the bus to start until she had got on. Helen reached the station just in time and managed to catch her train after all. But if she had waited for the car driver to stop arguing, she would probably have missed it. 

Questions :
1. What made Helen realise as if a bus had just left? 
2. Why was Helen in a time constraint?
3. Why was it compulsory for her to hire a taxi even in her crisis? 
4. How did the taxi driver plan to reach the station in good time?
5. How did Helen manage to catch the train finally? 
Answers : 
1. There was no one else waiting at the bus stop. This made Helen realise as if a bus had just left. 

2. Helen was in a time constraint beacuse her train was at 2.30 pm and it had already been 2 O'clock. It would take at least 20 minutes to reach the station. 

3. It was compulsory for her to hire a taxi even in her crisis because she had only 30 minutes of time and it would take 20 minutes by taxi to reach the station.

4. The taxi driver planned to reach the station in good time by using a short cut. 

5. Helen managed to catch the train finally by catching a bus going in the direction of the station. If she waited for the quarrel to end, she would miss it.

Passage-2.

There are several distinct dimensions in which our youth must equip itself. The first is the physical. Building a great democracy and defending it from predatory aggressors requires a young generation that is physically strong, with muscles of iron and nerves of steel, and- for this it must equip itself by undertaking physical training and developing fitness to the maximum extent possible. 

Despite technological advances and mechanisation defence is still, to a large extent, a matter of dogged physical endurance and courage as our officers and jawans have so magnificently proved on the field of battle as they emerged victorious against superior and more sophisticated war equipment. 

In this context the National Cader Corps, the Physical Fitness Scheme and other similar organisations play a valuable role in building up the strength of our youth, and these opportunities must be fully availed of. Along with physical fitness the qualities of discipline and teamsmanship are essential, particularly for those planning to join the proud ranks of our defence forces, because what is required is not only individual achievement but corporate progress.

The second dimension is the intellectual. We live in a highly competitive age of science and technology, and can no longer afford the luxury of mediocrity if we are to forge ahead. This rapidly changing nuclear age requires our youth to be intellectually far more alert and competent than their predecessors, and therefore every young man and woman today studying in schools, colleges and universities must aim at academic ability of the highest order. 

In a developing nation like ours, where large numbers are still unable to acquire even primary education, those undergoing higher education constitute a priviledged elite. They must, therefore, repay their debt to society by not wasting a single moment of academic life in futile or disruptive pursuits, but strain every nerve to become able and efficient in their respective fields of study so that they can serve India with greater efficiency. In this context the futility of students getting involved in party politics and intrigues is too obvious to need any reiteration.

The third is the dimension of patriotism. I am concerned here not so much with the routine meaning of this term as with that deeper patriotism which transcends all pettiness and exclusion, and creates in our youth a deep urge for national unity and progress. This alone can eradicate corruption and nepotism from our land and galvanise our whole process of economic development, which is so crucial to the success of our democracy. 

The youth of a nation is always the fountain head of its idealism, and our young men and women must have a full realisation that it is up to them to provide a new moral impetus to India at this crucial juncture in her history as a free nation. In this context I cannot resist the temptation to quote from a speech delivered over half a century ago by one of our great nationalist leaders, Sri Aurobindo ghosh, to students of the Bengal national College.

Questions :

1. In which dimensions should our youth equip themselves ? 
2. What is required from a young generation for building a great democracy and defending it from preditory aggressors ? 
3. How should youth repay their debt to society ? 
4. Why should our officers and jawans be physically strong ?
5. How is patriotism in youth particularly beneficial to the nation ?
Answers : 
1. Our youth should equip themselves in several distinct dimensions such as physical, intellectual and patriotism. 

2. Physical strength with muscles of iron and nerves of steel and development of physical fitness to the extent possible is required from a young generation. 

3. Youth should repay their debt to society by not wasting a single moment of academic life in futile or disruptive pursuits but strain every nerve to be able and efficient in their fields of study. 

4. Our officers and jawans should be physically strong because defence is still a matter of dogged physical endurance and courage. 

5. Patriotism in youth is particulary beneficial to the nation. It will provide a new moral impetus. It can alone eradicate corruption and nepotism. It will galvanise our whole process of economic development.

Passage-3.

Always know what you intend to say. If posible, consider, before you begin, what you are going to say, and make your own mind perfectly clear what is the argument which you want to put, or the facts you want to convey. If your own mind is confused, much more confused will your hearers be. 

Bring your thoughts to a point, reject whatever is irrelevant, and be content if you have one good point and drive it home. It is said to see how often a man who really has some knowledge of his subject goes searching or stumbling about, trying to get somewhere, but not getting anywhere, not because he lacks words, but because he cannot put his ideas into the form of definite statements.

Always arrange your remarks in some sort of order. No matter how short they are to be, they will be the better if they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Nothing pleases an audience more than the sense that they are being led along a path towards a definite goal by a man who knows his way.

It gives them confidence that the speaker understands what he is doing and will bring them out all right somewhere. Do not, however, let your arrangement be so elaborate as to alarm them. It used to be the fashion of Scottish preachers to divide their subject into three or four sections with a 'firstly' a 'secondly' a 'thirdly', and so forth, in each section, so that the listener knew what a long road he had to travel. I remember one sermon in which a venerable minister got as far as nineteenthly under the second head.

The process of classifying facts and arguments and placing them in their right order in one's own mind helps to make it clear, while it adds strength to the argument. It might almost be said that a well-arranged speech is seldom a bad speech, because in the process of arrangement a man of any sense is sure to find out the deficiencies in his facts or the weak points in his arguments in time to cure them.

Whatever you do, be clear. Make your meaning, whatever it is, plain to your audience. Though unclear speech is usually due to unclear thought, this is not always so. Some persons who think clearly have not learned to express themselves clearly, because they are nervous in public, or have an insufficient command of words. In such cases it may be better to resort to the device, otherwise to be condemned, of reading a speech rather than confuse the audience....

Let the construction of your sentences be simple enough for the hearers to follow, and the words such as they cannot fail to understand. To find themselves puzzled over your meaning and while they are still puzzling over your last sentence, to be unable to attend to the next one, annoys your hearers and lessens the chance of pleasing or persuading them. 

Questions :
1. What should a speaker know before speaking to public ? 
2. Why can't a well arranged speech be bad ? 
3. Why are some persons unable to express themselves clearly ? 
4. What pleases an audience more ?
5. What used to be the fashion of Scottish preachers ? 
Answers : 
1. Before speaking to public a speaker should know what she/he intends to speak. Reject irrelevant. Drive point home. 

2. A well arranged speech can't be bad beacuse in the process of arrangement a man of any sense is sure to find out deficiencies and rectify them. 

3. Some persons are unable to express themselves clearly because they are nervous in public or have an insufficient command of words. 

4. The sense that they are being carried to a definite good and the speaker will bring them out all right, pleases an audience more. 

5 It used to be the fashion of Scottish preachers to divide their subject into 3 or 4 sections with sub divisions.

Passage - 4.

Sisters and Brothers of America, It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of the millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honour of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. 

I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shatterred to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zorosatrian nation. 

I will quote to you brethren a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings : 'As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.'

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world, of the Wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita : 'Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to Me.' Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. 

They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization, and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time has come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal. -Swami Vivekananda 

Questions :
1. Which doctrine of the Gita is referred to here ? 
2. Who delivers this speech and where ?
3. Which are the two universal features of Hinduism ? 
4. Where do all the streams mingle ?
5. What does the speaker fervently hope ? 
Answers : 
1. The doctrine of the Gita referred to here is whosoever comes to the Almights God', thorough whatsoever form reach Him. 

2. Swami Vivekanand delivers this speech and in America 

3. The two universal features of Hinduism are tolerance and universal acceptance. 

4. All the streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea. 

5. The speaker fervently hopes the end of fanaticism, persecutions and uncharity.

Passage-5.

“What makes lightning ?” asked John. “It comes from the clouds” explained his uncle. “It sometimes happens that a cloud gets full of electricity.” Now the electricity is trying to get away, as I told you. If the cloud comes near enough to the earth, the electricity will jump over the space between. It will jump from the cloud to the earth. That makes a flash of lightning.
“And what is thunder ?“ asked Tom.
‘Thunder comes because electricity, in jumping the earth, tears its way through the air and makes the air and makes the air shake. Thunder is the noise you hear when the air is shaking. John looked thoughtful for a minute, and then he asked question. 
“We can see lighting,” he said, “and lightning is electricity, isn’t it ?“
“Yes,” said his uncle.
“Then can we see electricity ?“
Only when it jumps. What you see is a flash of light when electricity jumps from one place to another. But unless electricity is jumping you cannot sec it.”
“Then what is electric light ?“ asked tom.
“That is something quite different. I have told you that electricity can flow along a wire, and we make electricity flow along it. But the wìre is so thin that the electricity cannot get along it without making it hot. In fact, the electricity makes the wire white-hot and it is the while-hot wire that gives out the light we see by. When we look at an electric lamp we are not looking at electricity. We are looking at a white - hot wire.”
“From where do we get our supply of electricity ?“ asked John.
‘We get our supply from a central station. That is where they make it.”
“How do they make it ?“ asked Tom
“That would take a long time to explain,’ said Mr. Robertson. “I hope one day when you are an electrical engineer, you’ll know all about it”.
Am I going to be an electrical engineer ?“ asked Tom, rather excited.
“I hope so”. said Mr. Robertson, ‘I think it would suit you. But that would not be for years yet, so don’t get excited now. Do you remember I told you that electricity can be made by moving a wire close to a magnet ?“
‘Yes,” said Tom.
“Well, at the central station they have a lot of magnets of various sizes and power, and they have bundles of wire turning very fast round and round between these magnets. That makes the electricity which flows along the wires to houses that are connected with the station. When anything goes wrong at the central station the total supply of electricity to houses may be cut off at once. This, of course, does not happen very often, as it is the duty of the engineers to prevent accidents.”

Questions :
I. About what is this passage ? 
2. What is lightning ‘ 
3. What is thunder ‘ 
4 What is electric light ‘
5 How is electricity generated and transmittcd 
Answers :
1. This passage is about lightning, thunder and electricity. 

2. Moving clouds get ful of electricity which tries to get away when clouds come near enough to the earth. That makes a flash of lightning 

3. When electricity jumps to the earth, it tears its way through the air and makes the air shake. This shaking of air produces noise. This noise is thunder 

4. When electricity flows along a thin wire, it makes the wire white-hot which gives out light we see by. This is electric light.

5. At the central electricity generation station, there are a lot of magnets of various sizes and power. There are bundles of wire turning very fast between these magnets. This process generates electricity which is transmitted to houses through wires and poles.

Passage-6.

What's your street like ? Take a walk down your street. Stop at the water tap. Water is running out of it into a bucket. The bucket is full and the water has been overflowing for quite some time into the street. Some person living nearby has left the bucket under the tap and gone back into his or her house to do something else. In the meantime, water is being wasted and the street made dirty.

Go to the next street. What is the person doing at the door of his house ? He is emptying a refuse basket into the street. He has cleared up his house but he has put the refuse in the street. The wind will blow it about and the people in the street will breathe the unhealthy air. He keeps his house clean while he makes the road untidy.

Neither person has thought of the needs and rights of others. The first person does not care if his or her neighbours have to go without water for the rest of the day. The second is too lazy to walk to the dustbin. Now let us look for a moment at what is happening at that bus stop. A bus is just coming round the corner. Everyone who has been waiting for it makes a rush towards the bus. The strongest people push and fight their way by trampling on other people's toes and elbowing them out of their way. 

The conductor cries ‘Full up and gives a whistle and off goes the bus, leaving many people behind. If there had been a queue instead, those who had come first and waited longest would have had their chance. You may be saying to yourself, “I'm not like that. Why, the other day I stopped to help an old woman who had been hit by a bicycle! I got some water from the house across the street for her to drink. By then other people had gathered and they got her a cup of tea. And they arranged for a rickshaw to take her to hospital”.

That was a kind thing to do and you showed a proper concern for someone in distress. How pleasant it is to see young people give their parents a hand, help a blind man across the road, or give up their seats in buses to persons who are aged or ill!

We have always had great deal of respect for the aged and for womanhood in India. We still have it but sometimes we fail to show it in our conduct outside our home. We are very affectionate within our family and considerate to our friends. If only we would show due respect for other people's religion, culture and courtesy towards those who make up the larger family of our village, town or city!

Questions :
1. How is the water being wasted ? 
2. What is the person doing at the door of his house ? 
3. How do the strongest people board the bus 
4. What make up the larger family of our village, town or city ?
5. How can we show concern to others ? 
Answers :
1. A bucket is under a turned on tap. Water is overflowing. The bucket is unattended. 

2. The person is emptying a refuse basket into the street. The wind will blow it about. The people will breathe unhealthy air. The road is untidy.

3. The strongest people push and fight their way by trampling on other people's toes and elbowing them out of their way. 

4. The people of other religion, culture etc. make up the larger family of our village, town or city. 

5. We can show concern to others by giving hand to parents, help to a blind man, seat to an aged or ill etc.

Passage-7.

Instead of wasting valuable resources on the provision of more medical facilities, it might be better to use our knowledge and basic common sense in an effort to maintain healthy bodies and minds. For example, learning the value of good nutrition for health, and teaching this to the children.

And, we should use our indigenous simple home remedies to solve simple health problems instead of relying simply on modern drugs which are often very expensive. And remember most drugs have side effects which can be more dangerous that the disease itself.

In nature, animals are not influenced by media campaigns and they trust their own instincts. Nature has given each animal the power to monitor its own body and maintain normal health. As an example, salt is an essential element required by all animals. Wild animals in the forest (like rhinoceros, elephants or deer), try to find a place where salt is present in the soil.

They regularly lick the soil to get the exact amount of salt their bodies need. They eat only the required amount of food and never suffer from obesity as we humans often do. They monitor their body needs by instinct and eat no more than is required. All carnivorous animal eat grass whenever they have diarrhoea or other stomach problems due to indigestion. And they normally manage to maintain good physical health.

We human beings seem to have lost the ability to monitor our own bodies in order to maintain health. We refuse to understand our own body signals and tend, instead to follow the advice of doctors or the media. sometimes, overzealous parents force infants and small children to eat because it is feeding time - not because they are hungry.

Or, children may be fed more than their bodies demand or need because some book dictates how much food a baby requires. As a result, children may grow up ignoring important body signals until finally these signals become week and fail to stimulate normally.

People then either eat far too much or too little (as in the case of some young figure conscious girls) and fail to eat the precise amounts of food required by the body. However, if we change our attitudes and learn to trust our own body signals from the beginning we can have proper nourishment in the correct amounts and, thus, enjoy good health.

By instinct, most parents love and care for their children. Yet, very often, their expectations and ambitions put too much pressure on the children. When children cannot reach the level of their parent's ambition, they can suffer from tremendous frustration and stress. This may lead to drug experimentation and other related behaviours as a way of avoiding the realities of the situation.

From the beginning, children should be allowed to develop in their own natural happy way within the control of parental love, guidance and care and without too much pressure. A change of some conventional parental arttitudes may help to prevent many cases of drug dependence and other adolescent problems. 

Questions :
1. What has nature given to animals ? 
2. Mention the two disqualities of modern drugs ? 
3. How are parents harming the health of their children ? 
4. What happens when children don't reach the level of parents' ambitions ?
5. How should parents behave with their children ? 
Answers : 
1. Nature has given to animals the power to monitor its own body and maintain normal health.

2. Modern drugs are very expensive and they have side effects which may be more dangerous than the disease. 

3. The parents force infants and small children to eat because it is feeding time. They are influenced by media or book and force childrens to eat that. 

4. Children suffer from tremendous frustration and stress. This may lead to drug addiction. 

5. Children should be allowed to develop in their own natural happy way. Parents should change their conventional attitude.

Passage-8.

In this context it would be appropriate to be aware of the fact that fundamental duties have not been explicitly stated in the constitution of any democratic country. Japan is a single exception. In countries like Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States of America, such duties are born out of common law or judicial decisions. On the other hand, in communist countries like Russia and China, greater stress is laid on fundamental duties than on fundamental rights.

Following this tradition, in 1976, certain fundamental duties of the citizens of India were determined and included in our constitution. Though there is no provision in the constitution for punishing any violation of these duties, such a provision can be made as and when required. For the time being these duties derive their authority only from a sense of moral responsibility, fear and force.

All the fundamental duties inspire us to preserve national unity, integrity and sovereignty, give us a message for defending morality and humanity and teach us to be kind and sympathetic to all living beings. These duties are imbued with national and humanitarian feelings, not with selfish interests. It is the duty of every citizen : To respect the constitution, the national flag and the national anthem, to follow the high ideals that inspired the nationalist moment, to defend and protect the country, national unity, integrity and sovereignty, and forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, to serve the nation, to give up.
(a) practices which go against the dignity of woman and 
(b) discrimination on the basis of religion, language, state, or class, 
to have compassion for living beings, to stay away from violence, to protect public property, to develop scientific outlook, humanitarian attitude, a desire for acquiring knowledge and an urge for improvement, to inculcate a feeling of harmony and brotherhood, and to strive for excellence in all spheres of individual and group activities, and to provide opportunity for education to the children between the ages of 6 and 14 years.

To respect and honour the national anthem and the national flag is not only a constitutional but also a moral responsibility. The national anthem is the symbol of the glory of the whole culture of our nation. It neither assails any religion or caste nor does it disregard them.

So far as the dignity of woman is concerned, the Indian woman is even today a victim of several ill practices. Take for instance the custom of sati. Some people regard it as a part of religion. On account of this superstition, several women in no time burn themselves to death on the funeral pyre of their husbands. No civilized society will regard it as justifiable.

Protection of environment too is one of the state's duties. In order to protect our environment, if we have to even close down the mines, it will be in accordance with the constitution of our country. Rights and duties go hand in hand. As we cannot dream of duties without rights, so can we not think of rights without duties. If we have duties, rights will automatically come to us. Rights and duties are two sides of the same coin. 

Questions :

1. What is our first fundamental duty to the constitution ? 
2. Which fundamental duty is of the state for children ? 
3. For what do these fundamental duties inspire us ?
4. What is the final view of the writer about rights and duties ? 
5. What is our duty to women and against discrimination ?
Answers : 
1. To respect the constitution, the national flag and national anthem is our first fundamental duty. 

2. To provide apportunity for educations to the children between the ages of 6 and 14 years is the state's duty for children. 

3. All the fundamental duties inspire us to preserve national unity, integrity and sovereignty, defend morality and humanity and teach to be kind and sympathetic. 

4. Rights and duties are the two sides of the same coin-this is the final view of the writer. 

5. To give up practices which go against the dignity of women and discrimination on the basis of religion, language, state and class are our duties.

Passage-9.

In addition, even in civilized nations today, many actions take place and laws are made on the basis of principles which are just as much unproved assumptions as were many of those of the philosophies of the Middle Ages. For instance, it is often held as a principle that white people are by nature superior to people of other colours. 

In the same sort of way the ancient Greeks believed themselves to be by nature superior to the barbarians of northern and Western Europe. The only way to see if there is anything in such a principle is to make scientific studies of numbers of white and black and brown people under different conditions of life and education and find out just what they can and cannot achieve.

It is, hoviever, true that the increase of scientific knowledge does reduce superstition and also baseless guessing and useless arguments and practices. Civilized people do not argue and get angry about what water is composed of : the composition of water is known, and there is no argument about it. They may be frightened at a volcanic eruption or an outbreak of plague; but they do not try to calm the anger of mysterious powers to stop the eruption, or blame the plague on the sins of their enemies or on the plotting of witchcraft.

These are examples of the fact that advance of science necessarily changes our general ideas. We will mention one or two other examples. The advance of astronomical science has entirely changed our views as to the place of man in nature. Before the time of Copernicus it was universally believed that the universe was quite a small thing, that the earth was its centre, that the sun and moon existed to give light to our world, and that they and the stars travelled round the earth. 

Since then, there have been many changes in our ideas until now we know that the earth travels round the sun; that the sun is only one of millions of stars, which are scattered in space at distances of millions of miles; that all the stars we see make up only a single star-family, and that there are millions of other similar star-families swimming in space at almost inconceivable distances but visible through our telescopes as spiral nebulae. We can no longer think of man or his home as in any way central, or as being anything but very insignificant compared with the universe as a whole.

There are many other ways in which scientific knowledge has changed general ideas--for instance about heredity, and disasters like earthquakes, and disease, and the religious beliefs of primitive peoples—but we have not space to go into them here. When studying history it is a good exercise to try to trace the effects of scientific advance on the ideas prevalent in different periods. 

Questions :
1. What was the unproved assumption about the body colours ? 
2. How does scientific knowledge influence people ? 
3. What is the change in our views before the time of Copernicus and now ? 
4. What was the advance of astronomical science changed ?
5. In what other ways has science changed the general ideas ? 
Answers : 
1. White people are by nature superior to people of other colours. This was the unproved assumption. 

2. Scientific knowledge influences people by reducing superstition, baseless guessing, useless arguments and practices. 

3. Before the time of Copernicus it was believed that universe is a small thing and now it is immeasurable large. 

4. The advance of science has entirely changed our views as to the place of man in nature. 

5. The scienfific knowledge or science has changed the general ideas about heredity, disasters, religious beliefs, primitive peoples and so on.

Passage-10.

Meanwhile, machines deprive us of two things which are certainly important ingredients of human happiness, namely spontaneity and variety. Machines have their own insistent demands; a man who has an expensive plant must keep it working. The great trouble with the machine, from the point of view of the emotions, is its regularity. 

And, of course, conversely, the great objection to the emotions, from the point of view of the machine, is their irregularity. As the machine dominates the thoughts of people who consider themselves ‘serious’, the highest praise they can give to a man is to suggest that he has the qualities of a machine that he is reliable, punctual, exact, etc. And an “irregular' life has come to be synonymous with a bad life.

In life, as opposed to thought, the rebellion of our instincts against enslavement to mechanism has hitherto taken a most unfortunate direction. The impulse to war has always existed since men took to living in societies, but it did not, in the past, have the same intensity or virulence as it has in our day. In the eighteenth century. 

England and France had innumerable wars, and contended for the hegemony of the world; but they liked and respected each other the whole time. Officer prisoners joined in the social life of their captors, and were honoured guests at their dinner-parties. The greater ferocity of modern war is attributable to machines, which operate in three different ways. 

First, they make it possible to have larger armies. Secondly, they facilitate a cheap Press,which flourishes by appealing to men's baser passions. Thirdly and this is the point that concerns us—they starve the anarchic, spontaneous side of human nature, which works underground, producing an obscure discontent, to which the thought of war appeals as affording possible relief. 

It is a mistake to attribute a vast upheaval like the late war merely to the machinations of politicians. In Russia, perhaps, such an explanation would have been adequate; that is one reason why Russia fought half-heartedly, and made a revolution to secure peace.

But in England, Germany, and the United States (in 1917), no Government could have withstood the popular demand for war. A popular demand of this sort must have an instinctive basis, and for my part. I believe that the modern increase in war-like instinct is attributable to the dissatisfaction (mostly unconscious) caused by the regularity, monotony, and tameness of modern life.

It is obvious that we cannot deal with this situation by abolishing machinery. Such a measure would be reactionary, and is in any case impracticable. The only way of avoiding the evils at present associated with machinery is to provide breaks in the monotony with every encouragement to high adventure during the intervals. 

Questions :
1. What do machines deprive us of ? 
2. How are machines and men similar ?
3. Which two countries had innumerable wars in 18th century ? 
4. Where was the popular demand for war in 1917 ?
5. What should we do to avoid the evils of machinery ? 
Answers :
1. Machines deprive us of spontaneity and variety. 
2. Machines and men are similar by regularity-reliable, punctual, exact, etc. 
3. England and France had innumerable wars in 18th century. 
4. In England, Germany and the USA there was popular demand for war in 1917. 
5. We should provide breaks in the monotony with every encouragement to high adventure during the intervals.

Passage-11.

Since the essence of eco-tourism lies in admiration of nature and outdoor recreation, it encompasses a wide range of activities such as trekking, hiking, mountaineering, birdwatching, boating, rafting, biological explorations and visiting wildlife sanctuaries. In that it is akin to adventure tourism with the difference that whereas advanture tourism looks for thrill, eco-tourism ensures statisfaction. 

Its inspirational and emotional aspects are valued because it does not aim at consumptive erosion of n India is one of the seven biodiverse countries of the world and has a rich cultural heritage. it has a vast potential for eco-tourism that needs to be tapped for economic benefits as well as for healthy conservation and preservation of nature. 

In the International Year of Eco-tourism some important decisions were taken by the government and private sectors to promote eco-tourism. It is becoming evident that increased tourism to sensitive natural areas in the absence of appropriate planning and management can become a threat to the integrity of both eco-system and local cultures.

An increasing number of visitors to ecologically sensitive areas can lead to significant environmental degradation. Likewise, local communities and indigenous cultures can be harmed in numerous ways by an influx of foreign visitors and wealth.

Additionally, eco-tourism can provide a viable economic development alternative for local communities, which may lack other income-generating options. Moreover, ecotourism can make travellers enthusiastic and effective agents of conservation.

Conservation and revitalisation of traditional arts, handicrafts, dance, music, drama, customs and ceremonies and certain aspects of traditional lifestyles directly feed into tourism. In the mountain context ecological stability, viable economy, engergetic efficiency, resilience, farmers' security and social justice should be the main indicators of sustainability. 

Keeping this in mind the planning of any eco-tourism policy in its macro, meso and micro dimensions should give utmost importance to the empowerment of the local communities. The inherent qualities of hillmen, which they have developed in the mountain environment-courage, hard work, honesty and the ability to take fast decisionshould grow, as these are the capitals of mankind. 

Only four percent people live in ten percent area of hilly terrain all over the world, but they decide the destinies of the forty per cent living in the foothills. This should never be forgotten. This means that the planning and development of tourism infrastructure, its subsequent operation and its markerting should focus on environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability criteria. 

Questions :
1. What is the difference between eco-tourism and adventure tourism ? 
2. Which activities are included in eco-tourism ? 
3. What things directly feed into tourism ?
4. What are the main indicators in the mountain context ?
5. Oh what should planning and development of tourism infrastructure focus ? 
Answers :
1. Adventure tourism looks for thrill where as eco-tourism ensures statisfaction. 

2. Trekking, hiking, mountaineering, bird-watching, boating, rafting, biological explorations and visiting wild life sanctuaries are included in eco-tourism. 

3. conservation and revitalisation of traditional arts, handicrafts, dance, music, drama, customs, ceremonies and certain aspects of traditional lifestyle directly feed into tourism. 

4. Ecological stability, viable economy, energetic efficiency, resilience, farmers'security and social justice are the main indicators. 

5. Planning and development of eco-tourism infrastructure should focus on environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability criteria.

Passage-12.

You will find yourselves everywhere in India between an immense past and an immense future, with opportunities such as the old world could but seldom, if ever, offer you. Take any of the burning questions of the day—popular education, higher education, parliamentary representation, codification of laws, finance, emigration, poor-law, and whether you have anything to teach and to try, or anything to observe and to learn, India will supply you with a laboratory such as exist nowhere else.

that very Sanskrit, the study of which may at first seem so tedious to you and so useless, if only you will carry it on, as you may carry it on here at Cambridge better than anywhere else, will open before you large layers of literature, as yet almost unknown and unexplored, and allow you an insight into strata of thought deeper than any you have known before, and rich in lessons that appeal to the deepest sympathies of the human heart.

You know how some of the best talent and the noblest genius or our age has been devoted to the study of the development of the outward or material world, the growth of the earth, the first appearance of the living cells, their combination and differntiation, leading up to the beginning of organic life, and its steady progress from the lowest to the highest stages.

Is there not an inward intellectual world also which has to be studied in its historical development, from the first appearance of predicative and demonstrative roots, their combination and differentiation, leading up to the beginning of rational thought in its steady progress from the lowest to the highest stages ?

And in that study of the history of the human mind, in that study of ourselves, of our trueselves, India occupies a place second to no other country. Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special study,

whether it be language, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive science, everywhere you have to go to India, whether you like it or not, because some of the most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India, and in India only.

And while thus trying to explain to those whose lot will soon be cast in India the true position which that wonderful country holds or ought to hold in universal history, I may perhaps be able at the same time to appeal to the sympathies of other members of this university by showing them how imperfect our knowledge of universal history, our insight into the development of the human intellect must always remain, 

if we narraw our horizon to the history of Greeks and Romans, Saxons and Celts, with a dim background of Palestine, Egypt and Babylon, and leave out of sight our nearest intellectual relatives, the Aryans of India, the framers of the most wonderful language, Sanskrit, the fellowworkers in the construction of our fundamental concepts, the fathers of the most natural of natural religions, the makers of the most transparent mythologies, the inventors of the most subtle philosophy, and the givers of the most elaborate laws. 

Questions :
1. Where will you find yourselves between an immense past and future ? 
2. For what is India a laboratory? 
3. Why is there need to go to India for special study of human mind ? 
4. Who gave the most elaborate laws ?
5. How does the author ecologize sanskrit literature ? 
Answers :
1. In India, we shall find ourselves between an immense past and future.

2. India is a laboratory for popular education, higher education, parliamentary representation, codification of laws, finance, emigration, poor law etc. 

3. It is so because some of the most valuable and most instructive materials have been treasured up in India. 

4. The Arayans of India gave the most elaborate laws. 

5. Sanskrit literature will open before you the most unknown and unexplored areas and the lesson that appeal to heart deeply.

Passage-13.

Six hundred and fifty million years ago, a giant amalgamated southern supercontinent-Gondwana-did indeed exist, centred roughly around the present-day Antarctica. Things were quite different then : humans hadn't arrived on the global scene, and the climate was much warmer, hosting a huge variety of flora and fauna.

For 500 million years Gondwana thrived, but around the time when the dinosaurs were wiped out and the age of the mammals got under way, the landmass was forced to separate into countries, shaping the globe much as we know it today.

To visit Antarctica now is to be a part of that history; to get a grasp of where we've come from and where we could possibly be heading. It's to understand the significance of cordilleran folds and pre-Cambrian granite shields; ozone and carbon; evolution and extinction.

When you think about all that can happen in a million years, it can get pretty mind-boggling. Imagine : India pushing northwards, jamming against Asia to buckle its crust and form the Himalayas, South America drifting off to join North America, opening up the Drake Passage to create a cold circumpolar current, keeping Antarctica frigid, desolate, and at the botton of the world.

Human civilisations have been around for a paltry 12,000 years-barely a few seconds on the geological clock. In that short amount of time, we've managed to create quite a ruckus, etching our dominance over Nature with our villages, towns, cities, megacities.

The rapid increase of human populations has left us batting with other species for limited resources, and the unmitigated burning of fossil fuels has now created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, which is slowly but surely increasing the average global temperature.

Climate change is one of the most hotly contested environmental debates of our time. Will the West Antarctic ice sheet melt entirely ? Will the Gulf Stream ocean current be disrupted ? Will it be the end of the world as we know it ? Maybe. Maybe not.

Either way, Antarctica as a crucial element in this debate - not just because it's the only place in the world, which has never sustained a human population and therefore remains relatively 'pristine' in this respect; but more importantly, because it holds in its ice-cores half-million-year-old carbon records trapped in its layers of ice. If we want to study and examine the Earth's past, present and future, Antarctica is the place to go. 

Questions :
1. Where did Gondwana supercontinent indeed exist ? 
2. What can we understand in antarctica ? 
3. How are humans creating ruckus in nature ? 
4. What may be the impact of climate change ?
5. Why is antarctica important for the study of the earth’s past, present and future ?
Answers :
1. Gondwana supercontinent indeed existed in the centre of the present day Antarctica. 

2. In Antarctica we can understand the significance of Cordilliran folds pre-cambrian granite shields : ozone and carbon : evolution and extinction. 

3. Humans are creating ruckus in the nature by battling with other species for limited resources and by increasing the amount of carbondioxide in the environment. 

4. West Antarctica ice sheet may entirely melt, Gulf Stream ocean Current may be disrupted, the word may end. 

5. It is so because it holds in its ice-cores half-million-year-old carbon records trapped in its layers of ice.

Passage-14.

Technology is the highest wealth generator in the shortest possible time. it can provide us with infrastructure and help transform education and training, food and processing, industries and agriculture. It is the key to achieving quality products in an increasingly competitve market and to continually upgrading human skills.

It is the only vital input for ensuring health security and better living conditions for people. It can enable us to double cereals by 2020 and to make arrangements for their storage, transportation, distribution and marketing. It can make us leaders in machine tool industries. Through software engineering we can enter computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing.

Therefore, the major role in India's development is to be played by vast pool of our talented scientists, researchers and technologists. They should shed pessimism and think big because they are the only ones who understand the forces of technological modernisation. They should take it as a challenge to make India a developed country.

They must spearhead the movement by talking about what can be done and encouraging people that difficulties can be overcome. They must extend all possible help to industries, business managers, administrators and others.

A great nation is made of contributions from large number of ordinary persons. This is evident from the remarkable progress we have already made in agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, science and technology. The major technological and industrial achievements of our country have come about through the endeavours of thousands of young women and men who have studies in ordinary schools and colleges.

Not all of the few million Indians who live and work in different parts of the world are from IIT's. They are from ordinary institutions of India. Even the recent Indian software miracle is the making of a large number of ordinary young women and men. They may not be able to talk fluently in English but can master computer operations well enough to stand up to global competition. 

Our work force comprising scientists, engineers, technicians, doctors, nurses, artists, writers, journalists, accountants, clerks, teachers and other kinds of professionals is our greatest strength. Thus we all have a role in making India great.

India can soon emerge a major developed country provided we all vow to ourselves to do the jobs we are doing using all our energies and keeping the nation's interests in mind. Don't think what one person can do. Many drops make a flood. Here are some suggestions that may be followed by different professionals. 

Questions : 
1. Where can we enter through software engineering ?
2. What can technology provide us with ? 
3. Who is our greatest strength ? 
4. How is a great nations made ?
5. How can India soon emerge a major developed country ? 
Answers : 
1. Through software engineering we can enter computer-aided design and computer aided manufacturing. 

2. Technology can provide us with infrastructure and help transforming education and training, food and processing, industries and agriculture.

3. Our work force comprising scientists, engineers technicians, doctors, nurses, artists, writers, journalists, accountants, clerks, teachers and other kinds of professionals is our greatest strength.

4. A great nation is made of contributions from large number of ordinary persons. 

5. India can soon emerge a major developed country by vowing to ourselves to do the jobs we are doing using all our energies and keeping the nation interests in mind.

Passage-15.

Aristotle says somewhere that the good life consists in the exercise of our highest faculties. When we are engaged in a task with the best of our faculties we shall realise that we are happy. Happiness, then, is a by-product of activity. According to Aristotle, it is like the bloom on the cheek of the young man in perfect health. The bloom is not a factor in the health, it is a sign of it. In the like way, happiness is not a necessary factor in an activity, it is a sign that a person is properly engaged. 

If we concentrate our attention upon ourselves we become nervous little clods of wants and ailments, complaining that the world will not organise itself with a view to making us happy. But forget yourself, give all your energies to a mission, make the best effort or endeavour, discipline yourself in cooperation with your fellows—in other words, lift yourself up out of the selfish little pit of vanity and desire and lose yourself in something greater than yourself. Looking back, you will find that you have been happy.

Happiness is not a house that can be built by man's hands, but a song that you hear as you pass the hedge rising suddenly and simply into the night and dying down again. Happiness is optional. It is an inner feeling of contentment and joy. Everyman should give a little thought to the duty of being happy. People generally under-rate and neglect this significant duty. “Nothing too much' is a good maxim of a Greek philosopher. We should control our desires. We should not be a slave to our desires. 

We should learn to stop while we still wish to continue. We should call off our desires before they are satisfied. 'Nothing too much' should be our guiding principle when we control our desires. Happiness is inside, not outside. It is not in the objects. Everyday a person should think and realise that he is a soul and he is alone. For this sake, he should spare sometime and realise that nothing belongs to him for ever. he should smile and try to internalise the effect of this smile. 

He should try to retain the pleasing effect in the inner recesses of his heart and in the ideas of his mind. Health is also related to happiness. Walking, light physical exercise and light food free from harmful components are as useful for health as hobbies and company of good friends.

Company of nature and company of good books create a basis of happy living. Happiness rooted in activity with devotion is an inner feeling of satisfaction or contentment for those who are not enslaved by desires. We are happy only when we exist in relation to the social environment with a positive attitude. 

Questions :
1. What does Aristotle say about good life? 
2. What is happiness according to Aristotle ? 
3. What is the duty of everyman, according to the author ? 
4. What does the author say about desires ?
5. What creates a basis of happy living ? 
Answers : 
1. About good life Aristotle says that it consists in the exercise of our highest faculties. 

2. According to Aristotle, happiness is like the bloom on the cheek of the young man in the perfect health. It is a sign of it. 

3. According to author everyman should give a little thought to the dúty of being happy. People generally neglect this sigificant duty. 

4. About desires the author says that we should control them. We should not be their slave. Nothing too much should be our guiding principle. 

5. Company of nature and good books create a basis of happy living. We are happy when we have devotion to work and positive attitude.

Passage-16.

But every and any ideology will not make a party a fit vehicle for ushering in a democratic era. The ideology must not go counter to the spirit and ideals of democracy itself. In fact, in many a country democracy has suffered much at the hands of those who have used democracy only to subvert it. “Democracy” to quote Dr. Radhakrishanan again, “has for its basic principle the dignity and freedom of the individual. 

The free spirit of man is responsible for all progress in human history. Any system which tends to destroy the individual is undemocratic. The techniques of democratic way of life are discussion, persuasion, compromise, give and take.”

Therefore, any ideology which is rigid and does not believe in human dignity and freedom will not suit a democratic setup. Such parties should either adapt their ideologies to democratic conditions, or stop paying lip service to democracy.

The question of discipline in the ranks of a party is important not only to keep the party in perfect health but also because of its bearing on the conduct of the people in general. A Government is primarily an instrument of conservation and protection and not of destruction, or change.

To inculcate a reverence for law in the people demands that the parties who aspire to be guardians of law should themselves set an example in this direction. The essence of democracy is a spirit of and capacity for self-governance. 

If the parties cannot govern themselves how can they hope to create in the community a desire for self-governance ? While on the one hand it is essential for the community to guarantee and protect individual freedom, it is desirable, on the other hand, for the individual to willingly submit to the general will. The greater this submission, the less will be the coercive power of the State. 

In a party, whose affairs are regulated, not by any state law but by the decisions voluntarily accepted by the party units, one can set an example of how best individual freedom and social responsibility can be balanced. It is, therefore, necessary for the parties to prescribe a code of conduct for their members and to strictly follow it. It is but natural in a democracy that there should be more than one party. These parties should follow some sort of panch-sheel, if they want to develop healthy conventions. 

Defection from a party on ideological grounds can be justified. But the parties should not encourage defections on other grounds. In a situation when no party emerges in an absolute majority, or the margin is very narrow, power hungry politicians are likely to use unfair means to win over support from other parties. It is necessary that we evolve and adopt conventions somewhat different from the two-party parliamentary system of Great Britain. That alone will give to the country a stable government and also keep the parties from becoming an arena of unscrupulous politicians.

 Questions :
1. What are the techniques of democratic way of life? 
2. Which ideology will not suit a democratic set-up ? 
3. Why is discipline important in the ranks of a party ? 
4. What is necessary for the parties ?
5. What happens when no party gets majority ? 
Answers : 
1. Discussion, persuation, compromise, give and take etc. are the ways of life of democratic techniques. 

2. An ideology which is rigid and does not believe in human dignity and freedom will not suit a democratic set up. 

3. Discipline is important in the ranks of a party to keep the party in perfect health and to leave positive impact on the people in general.

4. To prescripe a code of conduct for the members to follow strictly, it is necessary for the parties.

5. The power hungry politicians use unfair means to win over support from other parties. This happens when no party gets majority.

Passage-17.

SCIENCE and the techniques to which it has given rise have changed human life during the last hundred and fifty years more than it had been changed since men took to agriculture, and the changes that are being wrought by science continue at an increasing speed. There is no sign of any new stability to be attained on some scientific plateau. 

On the contrary, there is every reason to think that the revolutionary possibilities of science extend immeasurably beyond what has so far been realised. Can the human race adjust itself quickly enough to these vertiginous transformations, or will it, as innumerable former species have done, perish from lack of adaptability ? The dinosaurs were, in their day, the lords of creation, and if there had been philosophers among them not one would have foreseen that the whole race might perish. 

But they became exitnct because they could not adapt themselves to a world without swamps. In the case of man and science there is a wholly new factor, namely that man himself is creating the changes of environment to which he will have to adjust himself with unprecedented rapidity. But, although man through his scientific skill is the cause of the changes of environment, most of these changes are not willed by human beings.

Although they come about through human agencies, they have, or at any rate have had so far, something of the inexorable inevitability of natural forces. Whether Nature dried up the swamps or men deliberately drained them, makes little difference as regards the ultimate result. Whether men will be able to survive the changes of environment that their own skill has brought about is an open question. If the answer is in the affirmative, it will be known some day; if not, not. 

If the answer is to be in the affirmative, men will have to apply scientific ways of thinking to themselves and their institutions. They cannot continue to hope, as all social habits of the eighteenth century can remain inviolate.

Not only will men of science have to grapple with the sciences that deal with man, but - and this is a far more difficult matter - they will have to persuade the world to listen to what they have discovered. If they cannot succeed in this difficult enterprise, man will destroy himself by his half-way cleverness. I am told that, if he were out of the way, the future would lie with rats. I hope they will find it a pleasant world, but I am glad I shall not be there. 

Questions :
1. What have changed human life? 
2. How did dinosaurs become extinct ? 
3. Why is man's case different from dinosaurs ? 
4. What is an open question ?
5. What do all politicians hitherto hope ? 
Answers :
1. Science and the techniques have changed human life. 

2. Dinosaurs became extinct because of lack of adaptability. They did not adjust themselves to the transformations.

3. Man's case is different from dinosaurs because main himself is creating changes in environment and adjusting himself rapidly according to the changes. 

4. Whether men will be able to survive the changes of environment they have caused is an open question. 

5. All politicians hitherto hope that political and social habits of the 18th century can remain inviolate.

Passage-18.

Anyway, I feel certain of one thing. This Indian appreciation of variety is an object lesson of immense Value for the rest of the World in our time. I will venture to repeat, just once more, a point that I have kept on making. We are living in an age in which technology has suddenly “annihilated distance'. Physically we are now all neighbours, but psychologically we are still strangers to each other. 

We have never been so conscious of our variety as we are now that we have come to such close quarters. How are we going to react ? Are we going to let this consciousness of our variety make us fear and hate each other ? In that event, we should be dooming ourselves to wipe each other out. Or are we going to learn to live together like a single family ? This is the only alternative to mutual destruction; but, to achieve this high degree of amity, we have to value the variety of our human heritage. 

We have not merely to appreciate our neighbour's distinctive contributions. We have to love these as previous parts of mankind's common treasure. And we have to love our neighbours themselves as previous members of a human family which is now exposed to the common danger of being wiped out by atomic warfare This is why India's conspicuous achievement of variety-in-unity is of world-wide importance.

Today the Indian people have many urgent and exacting practical tasks to carry out. I am thinking, for example, of the mass of practical work required by the Community Development Plan. The raising of the Indian peasantry material standard of living is not a materialistic object.

It is one of prime spiritual importance, because it is a necssary enabling condition for spiritual activity but Gandhiji's example shows that it is possible to do arduous practical work without allowing one's spiritual life to be smothered and choked by the cares of the World. More than that, Gandhiji demonstrated that spiritual activity is the well-spring of practical activity, and that this inspiration is what makes practical activity bear fruit and not work havoc.

This is, I believe, the greatest lesson that India has to teach the present-day world. Western Christendom did recognise and practice the virtue of contemplation to some extent in the estern Middle Ages. Since then, we have almost entirely lost this spiritual art, and our loss is serious, because the art of contemplation is really another name for the art of living. So now we turn to India. This spiritual gift, that makes Man human, is still alive in Indian souls go on giving the world Indian examples of it. Nothing else can do so much to help mankind to save itself from self-destruction. 

Questions :
1. Where do we find variety-in-unity in the world ? 
2. How does technology help waking the world a human family ? 
3. What are author's opinion about art of contemplation ? 
4. What do Indian people have today ?
5. What did Gandhiji demonstrate ? 
Answers :
1. In the world we find variety-in-unity in India. 

2. Technology annihilates distances. Physically we are now all neighbours. We have come to close quarters.

3. The art of contemplation is really another name for the art of living. Western christendoms did recognise and practise the virtue of contemplation. 

4. Today the Indian people have many urgent and exacting practical tasks to carry out. 

5. Gandhiji demonstrated that spiritial activity is the well-spring of practical activity and this inspiration makes practical activity bear fruit and not work havoc.

Passage-19.

To understand the learning problems of another person, particularly a child, we must try to see things through their eyes. This is often very difficult. It is almost impossible to imagine what it would be like not to know something that, in fact, you do know.

Trying to see this book through Nora's eys, I began to realise that for someone who doesn't know how to read, and who isn't familiar with print, all words must look like funny squiggly shapes, all more or less alike. We think it should be easy for someone to remember what a word looks like from one page to the next.

But that is because we know the word for a child, who has only just seen the word for the first time, it is not easy, but hard. It is hard to tell which words on a page are the same, or almost the same, and if they are different, where they are different. We readers have the expert's eye for significant detail; the child does not.

There then popped into my mind an experience I had had some years before, and had completely forgotten. While teaching the fifth grade, I ran across an ad. for a British firm that makes type in many oriental languages. I asked them to send me some samples of printing in many of these languages, which they did. I thought the children would be interested in what other alphabets and writing looked like. they were not, but I was, all the more so because even then I was very much interested in the problems of a child beginning to read. 

One day I took a sheet of printing in some Indian language, and tried to find the words that occurred most often on the page. It was amazingly difficult. At first the page looked like nothing but a jumble of strange shapes. Evey when I was concentrating on one short, common word, it took a long time before I could recognise that word at sight and pick it out of the others. Often I would go right by it without noticing it.

In the same way, it takes a child some time to get used to the shapes of letters and words, to the point where he can see at a glance that this word is like that word, and this other word altogether different. So we must give him plenty of time and not be surprised or upset by what looks like slowness, or stupid mistakes. When a child, having looked for a long time at two words on a page, without seeing that they are the same, suddenly exclaims, oh, I see, they are the same!” We must not think that what he has done is trivial. We must realise that the child has made a real and important discovery. 

Questions :
1. How should we understand the learning problems of another person ? 
2. Why is it difficult to teach words to a child ? 
3. Why did the author ask the firm to send some samples of printing in many languages ?
4. In which language did the author try to find a common word on different pages ?
5. Why should we give plenty of time to a child for learning words? 
Answers : 
1. We should understand the learning problems of another person through her/his eyes. 

2. It is difficult to teach words to a child because she/he sees the word first time. She/he doesn't have expert eye. 

3. The author asked the firm to send some samples of printing in many languages because he wanted to know the difficulties in learning a language. 

4. In some Indian language the author tried to find a common word on different pages. 

5. We should give plenty of time to a child for learning words because a child takes time to get used to the shapes of letters and words.

Passage-20.

(Revenge is a kind of wild justice :) 

Which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. Far as for the first wrong, it does but offend the law; but the revenge of that wrong puts the law out of office. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. And Solomon, I am sure says. It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence. 

That which is past is gone, and irrevocable; and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come; therefore they do but trifle with themselves, that labour in past matters. There is no man does a wrong for the wrong's sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honour or the like. Therefore why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me? And if any man should do wrong merely out of ill nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because they can do no other. 

The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is no law to punish; else a man's enemy is still beforehand, and it is two for one. Some, when they take revenge, are desirous the party should know whence it comes. This is the more generous. for the delight seems to be not so much in doing the hurt as in making the party repent. But base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flies in the dark. 

Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable : You shall read (says he) that we are commanded to forgive our enemies; but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends. But yet the spirit of job was in a better tune : Shall we (says he) take good at God's hand, and not be content to take evil also ? And so of friends in a proportion. 

This is certain, that a man that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well. Public revenges are for the most part fortunate; as that for the death of Casear; for the death of Pertinax; for the death of Henry the Third of France; and many more. But in private revenges it is not so. Nay rather, vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they infortunate.

Questions :
1. How does the author define revenge ? 
2. Why should revenge be discouraged ? 
3. Why does a man do wrong things ? 
4. Why is a man with ill nature like a thorn ?
5. How does the vindictive person live the life of witches ? 
Answers :
1. The author defines revenge as a kind of wild justice. 

2. Revenge should be discouraged because it is ignoble and it puts the law out of office. 

3. A man does wrong things for profit or pleasure or honour or the like. 

4. A man with ill nature is like a thorn because he can do nothing but prick and scratch. 

5. He always broods upon mischief and dies gloriously. In these ways the vindictive person lives the life of witches.

Passage-21.

The joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears. They cannot utter the one; nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labours; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death.

The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works, are proper to men. And surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men; which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed.

So the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity. Then that are the first raisers of their houses are most indulgent towards their children; beholding them as the continuance not only of their kind but of their work; and so both children and creatures.

The difference in affection of parents towards their several children is many times unequal; and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother, as Salomon says (A wise son rejoices the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother.)

A man shall see, where there is a horse full of children, one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons; but in the midst some that are as it were forgotten, who many times nevertheless prove the best. 

The illiberality of parents in allowance towards their children is a harmful error; makes them base; acquaints them with shifts; makes them sort with mean company; and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty.

And therefore the proof is best, when men keep their authority towards their children, but not their purse. Men have a foolish manner (both parents and schoolmasters and servants) in creating and breeding an emulation between brothers during childhood, which many times sorts to discord when they are men and disturbs families. 

The Italians make little difference between children and nephews or near kinsfolk; but so they be of the lump, they care not though they pass not through their own body. And, to say truth in nature it is much a like matter; insomuch that we see a nephew sometimes resembles an uncle or a kinsman more than his own parent; as the blood happens. 

Let parents choose betimes the vacations and courses they mean their children should take; for then they are most flexible; and let them not too much apply themselves to the disposition of the children, as thinking they will take best to that which they have most mind to. 

It is true, that if the affection or aptness of the children be extraordinary, then it is good not to cross it, but generally the precept is good, Optimum elige, suave et facile illud faciet consuetudo : [Choose what is best, custom will make it agreeable and easy.) Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or never where the elder are disinherited. 

Questions : 
1. What emotions of parents are secret ?
2. How are children advantageous and disadvantageous, according to the author ? casa
3. How are children (eldest, midst, youngest) discriminated ? 
4. Which according to the author, a harmful error ?
5. When should choice of vocation be made ? 
Answers :
1. Emotions of joys, griefs and fears of parents are secret. 

2. Children sweeten labours but they make misfortune more better. They increase the cares of life but they mitigate the remembrance of death. 

3. The eldest is respected, the youngest makes wanton, the midst is sometime forgotten. 

4. The illiberality of parents in allowance towards their children is a harmful error. 

5. Choice of vocation should be made when children are young so that they may be trained to it when their mind can be most easily impressed.

Passage-22.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. 

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. 

Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; not to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously;

and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. 

And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make man wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. 

Abeunt studia in mores; [Studies pass into the character.] Nay there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies : like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.

If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a speical receipt. 

Questions :
1. How according to the author should we read ? 
2. What does the author convey about books ? 
3. What is the writer's opinion about reading ? 
4. How does the author view various subjects ?
5. Diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. How ? 
Answers : 
1. We should not read to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse but to weigh and consider. 

2. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested 

3. Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. 

4. Histories make man wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend. 

5. Bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head and the like.

Passage-23.

An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden. And certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public. Divide with reason between self-love and society : and be so true to yourself as you are not false to others : especially to your king and country.

It is a poor centre of a man's actions, himself. It is right earth. For that only stands fast upon his own centre : whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move upon the centre of another, which they benefit. 

The referring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a sovereign prince : because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands he crooks them to his own ends, which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master or state. Therefore

let princes, or states, choose such servants as have not this mark; except they mean their service should be made but the accessory. That which makes the effect more pernicious is that all proportion is lost. It were disproportion enough for the servant's good to be preferred before the master's; but it is a greater extreme, when a little good of the servant shall carry things against a great good of the master's. 

And yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, generals and other false and corrupt servants : which set a bias upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs, and for the most part, the good such servants receive is after the model of their own fortune; but the hurt they sell for that good is after the model of their master's fortune. 

And certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers as they will set on house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs, and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters, because their study is but to please them and profit themselves; and for either respect they will abandon the good of their affairs.

Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. 

But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali [lovers of themselves, without a rival), are many times unfortunate. And whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune; whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned.

Questions :
1. On which point do the earth and the self-lover resemble ? 
2. Why is self love more tolerable in a sovereign prince ? 
3. Why is self love an evil in a citizen ? 
4. Who have a bias upon their master's great and important affairs ?
5. With whom does the author compare the self-lovers ?
Answers :
1. They resemble because they stand upon their own centre. 

2. Self love is more tolerable in a sovereign prince because their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. 

3. Self love is an evil in a citizen because whatsoever affairs pass such a man's
hands he bends them to his own ends. 

4. Bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, generals and other false and corrupt servants
have a bias upon this master's great and important affairs. 

5. The author compares the self lovers with rats, fox and crocodiles.

Passage-24.

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoic), that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admited. Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia. Certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen). It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God. 

Vere magnum, habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei. This would have done better in poesy, where transcendences are more allowed. And the poets indeed have been busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seems not to be without mysery nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian : that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom human nature is represented) sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher; lively describing Christian resolution, that sails in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world. But to speak in a mean. 

The virtue of Prosperity is temperance, the virtue of Adversity is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; Adversity is the blessing of the New; which carries the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favour.

Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and Adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground : judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed : for prosperity doesa best discover vice, but Adversity does best discover virtue. 

Questions :
1. What appear most in adversity ? 
2. What is the high speech of Seneca ? 
3. In which does the virtue of Prosperity and Adversity lie ? 
4. What do Prosperity and Adversity discover ?
5. What are not without fears and distates, comforts and hopes ? 
Answers :
1. Miracles appear most in adversity. 

2. The high speech of Seneca is this that the good thing belong to Prosperity are to be wished but the good things belong to Adversity are to be admired. 

3. The virtue of Prosperity lies in temperance and the virtue of Adversity lies in fortitude. 

4. Prosperity best discovers vice but Adversity best discovers virtue. 

5. Prosperity is not without fears and distates. Adversity is not without comforts and hopes.

Passage-25.

We will speak of Nobility first as a portion of an estate, then as a condition of particular persons. A monarchy where there is no nobility at all, is ever a pure and absolute tyranny; as that of the Turks. For nobility attempters sovereignty, and draws the eyes of the people somewhat aside from the line royal, but for democracies, they need it not; and they are commonly more quiet and less subject to sedition, than where there are strips of nobles. 

For men's eyes are upon the business, and not upon the persons; or if upon the persons, it is for the business' sake, as fittest, and not for flags and pedigree. We see the Switzers last well, notwithstanding their diversity of religion and of cantons.

For utility is their bond, and not respects. The United Provinces of the Low Countries in their government excel; for where there is an equality, the consultations are more indifferent, and the payments and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent of nobility adds majesty to a monarch, but diminishes power; and puts life and spirit into the people, but presses their fortune. 

It is well when nobles are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice; and yet maintained in that height, as the insolency of inferiors may be broken upon them before it come on too fast upon the majesty of kings. A numerous nobility causes poverty and inconvenience in a state; for it is a surcharge of expense; and besides, it being of necessity that many of the nobility fall in time to be weak in fortune, it makes a king of disproportion between honour and means.

As for nobility in particular persons; it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay; or to see a fair timber tree sound and perfect. How much more to behold an ancient noble family, which has stood against the waves and weathers of time. For new nobility is the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time. Those that are first raised to nobility are commonly more virtuous, but less innocent, than their descendants; for there is rarely any rising but by a commixture of good and evil arts. 

But it is reason the memory of their virtues remain to their posterity, and their faults die with themselves. Nobility of birth commonly abates industry; and he that is not industrious envies him that is. Besides, noble persons cannot go much higher : and he that stands at a stay when others rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy. On the other side, nobility extinguishes the passive envy from others towards them; because they are in possession of honour. Certainly, kings that have able men of their nobility shall find case in employing them, and a better slide into their business; for people natuarally bend to them as born in some sort to command. 

Questions :
1. What is ever a pure and absolute tyranny ? 
2. Why are men's eyes not upon persons ?
3. Why does the author praise Switzerland ? 
4. Differentiate the new nobility and the ancient nobility ?
5. When will kings find ease in employing men ? 
Answers :
1. A monarchy where there is no nobility at all, is ever a pure and absolute tyranny. 

2. Men's eyes are not upon persons because of business, ever upon person's too it is for the sake of business. Switzerland has unity of religion.

3. There live peacefully many sects of Christianity. Therefore, the author praises Switzerland. 

4. The new nobility is the act of power whereas the ancident nobility is the act of time.

5. Kings will find ease in employing men if they have noble men in their nobility and a better slide into their business.

Passage-26.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features, and that has rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue; as if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labour to produce excellency. 

And therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study rather behaviour than virtue. But this holds not always; for Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits, and yet the most beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that of favour is more than that of colour; and that of decent and gracious motion more than that of favour. 

That is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot express; no nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent beauty that has not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such personages, I think, would please nobody but the painter that made them. Not but but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity, (as a musician that makes an excellent air in music,) and not by rule. 

A man shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a good; and yet all together do well. If it be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel though persons in years seem many times more amiable; pulchorum autumnus pulcher; [the autumn of the beautiful is beautiful;] for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness.

Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it makes virtue shine and vices blush.

Questions :
1. What is virtue like ? 
2. In which body is virtue best? 
3. Mention the high and great spirits given here? 
4. How is a great work of art produced ?
5. Who are put to shame if a person is beautiful and virtuous as well ? 
Answers :
1. Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set. 

2. Virtue is best in a body mat is comely though not of delicate features. 

3. The high and great spirits were Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, and Ismael the Sophy of Persia. 

4. A great work of art is produced by a kind of felicity and not by rule. 

5. If a beautiful person is virtuous as well, men who are vicious are put to shame in his presence.