Read the passage carefully and answer the question. A great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the Gods, yet we…
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Read the passage carefully and answer the question.
A great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the Gods, yet we use them like small children. For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines were made to serve man, yet he has grown so dependent on them that they at times, act like his masters. People, most of them, spend their lives looking after and waiting upon machines. The machines are very stern masters. They must be fuelled, oiled and cleaned, and they must be keep at the right temperature. When they are not properly maintained, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all around them. What do we do with all the time which the machines have saved for us? On the whole, it must be admitted, we do very little. For the most part we use our time and energy to make more and better machines; but more and better machines will only give us still more time and still more energy. The answer is that human beings should try to become more civilized. Machines are just aids to civilization. Being civilized means making and linking beautiful things, thinking freely, living rightly and maintaining justice equally among all.
A great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the Gods, yet we use them like small children. For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines were made to serve man, yet he has grown so dependent on them that they at times, act like his masters. People, most of them, spend their lives looking after and waiting upon machines. The machines are very stern masters. They must be fuelled, oiled and cleaned, and they must be keep at the right temperature. When they are not properly maintained, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all around them. What do we do with all the time which the machines have saved for us? On the whole, it must be admitted, we do very little. For the most part we use our time and energy to make more and better machines; but more and better machines will only give us still more time and still more energy. The answer is that human beings should try to become more civilized. Machines are just aids to civilization. Being civilized means making and linking beautiful things, thinking freely, living rightly and maintaining justice equally among all.
What are the author’s views on civilization?
- Inventing more and better machines to gain still more time and energy
- Spending human lives maintaining, fuelling and waiting upon stern machines
- Using godlike scientific powers without restraint to master nature
- Making and linking beautiful things, thinking freely, living rightly and maintaining justice
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D - Making and linking beautiful things, thinking freely, living rightly and maintaining justice
The passage defines being civilized as making and linking beautiful things, thinking freely, living rightly and maintaining justice equally among all; spending life tending machines or merely building more machines is criticised as a defect rather than true civilization.
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CUSAT CAT Five-Year LL.B.
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