One of the peculiarities which distinguish the present age is the multiplication of books. Everyday brings new advertisements of literary undertakings, and we are flattered with repeated promises of…
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One of the peculiarities which distinguish the present age is the multiplication of books. Everyday brings new advertisements of literary undertakings, and we are flattered with repeated promises of growing wise on easier terms than our progenitors. How much either happiness or knowledge is advanced by this multitude of authors, is not very easy to decide.
He that teaches us anything which we know not before, is undoubtedly to be loved as a benefactor; and he that supplies life with innocent amusement, will certainly be caressed as a pleasing companion.
But a few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have often no other task than to lay two books before them out of which they compile a third, without any new materials of their own, and with little application of judgement to those which former authors have supplied.
That all compilations are useless, I do not assert. Particles of science are often widely scattered upon topics very remote from the principal subject, which are often more valuable than formal treatises, and which yet are not known because they are not promised in the title. He that collects those under proper heads is laudably employed; for though he exerts no great abilities in the work, he facilitates the progress of others, and, by making that easy of attainment which is already written, may give some mind more vigorous or more adventurous than his own, leisure for new thoughts and originality of designs.
But the collections poured lately from the press have seldom been made at any great expense of time or inquiry and therefore only serve to distract choice without supplying any real want.
Which of the following statements are true about the given passage:
I. The passage presents a robust picture of the publication industry.
II. The passage presents a bleak condition of publications in the present age.
III. The main idea of the passage is elaborated through juxtaposition.
IV. The passage is primarily in the present tense with active and occasional passive sentence construction.
He that teaches us anything which we know not before, is undoubtedly to be loved as a benefactor; and he that supplies life with innocent amusement, will certainly be caressed as a pleasing companion.
But a few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have often no other task than to lay two books before them out of which they compile a third, without any new materials of their own, and with little application of judgement to those which former authors have supplied.
That all compilations are useless, I do not assert. Particles of science are often widely scattered upon topics very remote from the principal subject, which are often more valuable than formal treatises, and which yet are not known because they are not promised in the title. He that collects those under proper heads is laudably employed; for though he exerts no great abilities in the work, he facilitates the progress of others, and, by making that easy of attainment which is already written, may give some mind more vigorous or more adventurous than his own, leisure for new thoughts and originality of designs.
But the collections poured lately from the press have seldom been made at any great expense of time or inquiry and therefore only serve to distract choice without supplying any real want.
Which of the following statements are true about the given passage:
I. The passage presents a robust picture of the publication industry.
II. The passage presents a bleak condition of publications in the present age.
III. The main idea of the passage is elaborated through juxtaposition.
IV. The passage is primarily in the present tense with active and occasional passive sentence construction.
- I and III only
- II and IV only
- I, III and IV only
- II, III and IV only
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D - II, III and IV only
II is true: the writer laments that most books neither please nor instruct and that recent compilations only ‘distract choice’. III is true: useful authors and good compilations are set against useless ones. IV is true: the passage is mostly present tense and active, with occasional passives (‘is to be loved’, ‘will be caressed’, ‘are not known’). I is false, because the picture of publishing is gloomy, not robust; so II, III and IV are true.
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