Q.2 Read the following passage and answere the questions that follow:

Strong section of industrials who still imagine that men can be mere machines and are at their best as machines if they are mere machines are already menacing what they call “useless” education. They deride the classics, and they are mildly contemptios of history, philosophy, and English. They want our educational institutions, from the oldest universities to the youngest elementary schools, to concentrate on business or the things that are patently useful in business. Technical instruction is to be provided for adolescent artisans; book keeping and shorthand for prospective clerks; and the cleverest we are to set to “business methods”, to modern languages (which can be used in correspondence with foreign firms), and to science (which can be applied to industry). French and German are the languages, not of Montaigne and Gorthe, but of Schmidt Brothers, of Elberfeld and Dupont et Cie., of Lyons. Chemistry and Physics are not explorations into the physical constitution of the universe, but sources of new dyes, new electric light filaments, new means of making things which can be sold cheap and fast to the Nigerian and the Chinese. For Latin there is a Limited field so long as the druggists insist on retaining it in their prescriptions. Greek has no apparent use at all, unless it be as a source of syllables for the hybrid names of patent medicines and metal polishes. The soul of man, the spiritual basis of civilization- what gibberish is that?

Questions


a) What kind of education does the writer deal with? (2)

The writer deals with the study of Classics.

b) What kind of education does the writer favour? How do you know? (3)

The writer is emphasizing on the study of Classics. It is clearly evident from the passage that he is critising the kind of education Industrialists are inculcating in contemporary society.

c) Where does the writer express most bitterly his feelings about the neglect of the classics? (3)

The writer expresses his feelings most bitterly about the neglect of Classics, where he is referring to the fact that Industrialists disregard and humiliate the study of Classics like philosophy, history and English by regarding their study as 'useless' education.


d) Explain as carefully as you can the full significance of the last sentence. (4)

The last sentence is the essence of the passage where writer is declaring the Industrialists as materialists to whom spirituality is a nonsense and insignificant entity.

e) Explain the underlined words and phrases in the passage (8)

i) Industrials- Industrialists/materialists who view everything in terms of profit and loss

ii) 'useless' education- the education of Classics is unimportant in Industrialists' eyes.

iii) patently useful- Apparently useful and of superficial implications

iv) Adolescent Artisans- Young professionals

v) prospective clerks- Future administrators

vi) Limited field- Narrow scope

vii) Hybrid names- Names formed by the combination of two or more (Greek) words.

viii) gibberish- something that is nonsense and rubbish