Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the question out of the four alternatives given. The best way of understanding our own civilization is to take an ordinary sort…

Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the question out of the four alternatives given.

The best way of understanding our own civilization is to take an ordinary sort of day in the life of an ordinary sort of man, myself for instance, and to see what he does. My home is in London. I get up in the morning when an alarm clock rings on the table by my bed. It is quite a complicated machine and works perfectly. I get into a hot bath, the water for which has been heated by gas. The gas is supplied by the Gas board for the area in which I live, it is part of a national system. The water is supplied by the city water board. After bathing, I shave; the water for my shave comes from a kettle which has been heated by electricity. As far as I am concerned, what happens is very simple. I put a plug in the wall and put on the switch and the electricity does the rest. I use a safety razor, the blade of which, made of very finely tempered steel, has been cut, together with millions of other blades, by machines. The clothes which I put on have also been spun and largely made by steam or electricity driven machines.

The 'complicated machine' in the passage refers to