Direction: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions correctly.
Civilisation has not succeeded so far, in creating an environment suitable to mental and moral activities of mankind. The low intellectual and spiritual value of most human beings is due largely to deficiencies of their psychological atmosphere. The supremacy of matter and the dogmas of industrial religion have destroyed culture, beauty and morals. The Immense spread of newspapers, cheap literature, radios and cinemas. Unintelligence is becoming nor and more general, in spite of the course given in schools, colleges and universities. School children and students form their minds on the silly programs of public entertainments. Social environment instead of favoring the growth of intelligence, opposes it with all its might.
Moral sense is almost completely ignored by modern society. We have, in fact, suppressed its manifestation. Ail are imbued with irresponsibility. Those who discern good and evil, who are industrious and provident, remain poor and are looked upon as morose. The woman who has several children, who devotes herself to their education instead of to her own career, is considered weak-minded. If a man saves a little money for his wife and the education of his children, this money is stolen from him by enterprising financiers or taken by the Government and distributed to those who have been reduced to want by their own improvidence and the short-sightedness of manufactures, bankers and economists. Artists and men of science supply the community with beauty, health and wealth. They live and die in poverty. Robbers enjoy prosperity and peace. Gangsters are protected by politicians and respected by judges. They are the heroes whom children admire at the cinema and imitate in their games. A rich man has every right. He may discard his aging wife, abandon his old mother to penury, rob those who have entrusted their money to him, without losing the consideration of his friends. Sexual morals have been cast aside.
Psychoanalysts supervise men and women in their conjugal relations. There is no difference between wrong and right, just and unjust. No one makes any objection to their presence. Ministers have rationalised religion. They have destroyed its mystical basis. But they do not succeed in attracting modern men. In their half-empty churches, they vainly preach a weak morality.
They are content with the part of policemen, helping in the interest of the wealthy to preserve the framework of present society. Or, like politicians, they flatter the appetites of the crowd. Men are powerless against such psychological attacks. They necessarily yield to the influence of their group. If one lives in the fool or criminal one becomes a fool or criminal. Isolation is the only hope of salvation. But where will the inhabitants of the new city find solitude? Said Marcus Aurelius, “No retreat is more peaceful or less troubled than that encountered by man in his own soul. But we are not capable of such an effort. We cannot fight out social surroundings victoriously.
1. According to the writers the civilisation has so far failed
a) to bridge the gap between the affluent and the indigent
b) to create a climate of peace and adjustment for co-existence of diverse religions and faiths.
c) to create an environment congenial to the growth of mental and moral activities of mankind
d) to shape human life along spiritual lines
2. What according to the writer, is the most conspicuous paradox of the modern civilisation?
a) Poverty is growing in the midst of affluence.
b) irreligion prospers in spite of the establishment of innumerable tempics, churches and mosques, and the springing up of innumerable religious sects.
c) Man is unhappy despite his unremitting efforts for being happy.
d) unintelligence is becoming more and more general in spite of a lot of instruction being imparted in schools, colleges and universities.
3. Which of the following does the author not imply in the passage?
a) men have lost power to fight with attacks of moral degeneration.
b) The wise who can distinguish between good and evil are treated as foolish persons.
c) The industrious and faithful remain poor.
d) Man’s social sense has to be encouraged and strengthened.
Sol:
The author, in fact, feels that social surrounding are what have put a noose around our neck. We ought to fight the dangerous social forces.
