Directions: (101 – 106): Read the following passage carefully and answers the questions given below it. Certain words are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Just when I think I have learned that way to live, life changes and I am left the same as I began. The more things change, the more I am the same. It appears that my life is a constant irony of maturity and regression, but my sense of progress is based on the illusion that things out there are going to remain the same and that, at last, I have gained a little control but there will never be means to ends, only means. And I am means I am what I started with and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me. If there is a me that causes and struggles and a me that winks and walks in peace, do I have a choice of selves?
There are occasions when I talk to a man who is riding high on some recent insight or triumph, and for the moment life probably seems to him to have problems. But I just don’t believe that most people are living the smooth, controlled, trouble-free existence that their careful countenances and bland words suggest. Today never hands me the same thing twice and I believe that for almost everyone else life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories, and vague defeats – with very few moments of clear peace. I never do seem to quite set on top of it. My struggle with today is worthwhile but its struggle nonetheless and one that seems never to end. The payoff must be elsewhere, and I suspect that it’s within that laughing heart that can surface so unexpectedly.
Possibly the greatest crime that we commit against each other is this show of normalcy. I have countless little conversations with a variety of people and the impression that most of them give is that they don’t have problems. Even complainers present themselves as victims. They don’t suggest that they may be participating. They are all right; its circumstances that are wrong.
The comment “Don’t I mind him, he’s got a problem” illustrates this universal attitude toward personal difficulty. The implication is that having a problem is a strange and avoidable weakness. When I come in repeated contact with this daily façade of normality, I begin to assume that I too deserve such a life; and I get annoyed with the present and look upon my facilities as unjust. And because I assume there is something unnatural about my having a problem, I too attempt to present a problem-free appearance.
I live from the one tentative conclusion to the next, thinking each one is final. The only thing I know for sure is that I am confused. What an absurd moment of energy I have been wasting all my life trying to figure out how things “really are”, when all the time they weren’t.
Do I really think there is anything more profoundly true about my interpretation of the situation, now that I am wide awake in bed, than there was when I was in the middle of it this afternoon?
There are no absolutes for something so relative as a human life. There are no rules for something so gentle as a heart.
For me, thinking seems to act at times as a defence mechanism, a way of avoiding some insight, a way of not looking at the situation. This is especially true during encounter, when I tend to lead with my head.
My trouble is I analyze life instead of living it.
1. As understood from the passage, the phrase, “my sense of progress” implies the level of success the author has achieved regarding:
(1) learning the way to live his life.
(2) his achievements in his life.
(3) understanding fellow human beings.
(4) deciphering how others lead a normal life.
(5) None of the above
2. Pick the odd man out:
(1) We can choose that kind of person we want to be.
(2) We have very few moments of clear peace.
(3) The reward for the struggles we have during our life can be found within our heart.
(4) The mask of normalcy put on by many people is unreal.
(5) None of the above.
3. As understood from the passage, the problems being faced by man are:
(I) He thinks that he has no problems whatsoever in his life.
(II) His thinking that only a weak person has problems.
(III) He blames circumstances for his problems.
(IV) He tries to overlook victories, defeats, experience etc that life offers him.
(1) I and II only.
(2) III and IV only.
(3) I, II and III
(4) All the above four statement.
(5) None of the above
4. As per the passage, it can be inferred that:
(1) it is foolish to think that what you think is right.
(2) it one wants, one can avoid problems.
(3) finding out the meaning of life is a fruitful exercise.
(4) confusion is necessary to understand life.
(5) None of the above
5. What does the author mean when he says “there will never be means to ends, only means”?
(1) Once one knows how to reach where one wants to reach in life, one can achieve ones goal.
(2) One should be focused in one’s approach.
(3) One can gain control over life.
(4) There’s nothing which is final and conclusive in life.
(5) None of the above
6. “My trouble is I analyze life instead of living it” – the author says this because:
(1) he thinks most of the time.
(2) there are no absolutes of human life.
(3) he considers the thinking process as an inhibitor to self-realization.
(4) he enjoys life.
(5) None of the above.
ANSWERS
1. 1
2. 3
3. 2
4. 3
5. 4
6. 1
Just when I think I have learned that way to live, life changes and I am left the same as I began. The more things change, the more I am the same. It appears that my life is a constant irony of maturity and regression, but my sense of progress is based on the illusion that things out there are going to remain the same and that, at last, I have gained a little control but there will never be means to ends, only means. And I am means I am what I started with and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me. If there is a me that causes and struggles and a me that winks and walks in peace, do I have a choice of selves?
There are occasions when I talk to a man who is riding high on some recent insight or triumph, and for the moment life probably seems to him to have problems. But I just don’t believe that most people are living the smooth, controlled, trouble-free existence that their careful countenances and bland words suggest. Today never hands me the same thing twice and I believe that for almost everyone else life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories, and vague defeats – with very few moments of clear peace. I never do seem to quite set on top of it. My struggle with today is worthwhile but its struggle nonetheless and one that seems never to end. The payoff must be elsewhere, and I suspect that it’s within that laughing heart that can surface so unexpectedly.
Possibly the greatest crime that we commit against each other is this show of normalcy. I have countless little conversations with a variety of people and the impression that most of them give is that they don’t have problems. Even complainers present themselves as victims. They don’t suggest that they may be participating. They are all right; its circumstances that are wrong.
The comment “Don’t I mind him, he’s got a problem” illustrates this universal attitude toward personal difficulty. The implication is that having a problem is a strange and avoidable weakness. When I come in repeated contact with this daily façade of normality, I begin to assume that I too deserve such a life; and I get annoyed with the present and look upon my facilities as unjust. And because I assume there is something unnatural about my having a problem, I too attempt to present a problem-free appearance.
I live from the one tentative conclusion to the next, thinking each one is final. The only thing I know for sure is that I am confused. What an absurd moment of energy I have been wasting all my life trying to figure out how things “really are”, when all the time they weren’t.
Do I really think there is anything more profoundly true about my interpretation of the situation, now that I am wide awake in bed, than there was when I was in the middle of it this afternoon?
There are no absolutes for something so relative as a human life. There are no rules for something so gentle as a heart.
For me, thinking seems to act at times as a defence mechanism, a way of avoiding some insight, a way of not looking at the situation. This is especially true during encounter, when I tend to lead with my head.
My trouble is I analyze life instead of living it.
1. As understood from the passage, the phrase, “my sense of progress” implies the level of success the author has achieved regarding:
(1) learning the way to live his life.
(2) his achievements in his life.
(3) understanding fellow human beings.
(4) deciphering how others lead a normal life.
(5) None of the above
2. Pick the odd man out:
(1) We can choose that kind of person we want to be.
(2) We have very few moments of clear peace.
(3) The reward for the struggles we have during our life can be found within our heart.
(4) The mask of normalcy put on by many people is unreal.
(5) None of the above.
3. As understood from the passage, the problems being faced by man are:
(I) He thinks that he has no problems whatsoever in his life.
(II) His thinking that only a weak person has problems.
(III) He blames circumstances for his problems.
(IV) He tries to overlook victories, defeats, experience etc that life offers him.
(1) I and II only.
(2) III and IV only.
(3) I, II and III
(4) All the above four statement.
(5) None of the above
4. As per the passage, it can be inferred that:
(1) it is foolish to think that what you think is right.
(2) it one wants, one can avoid problems.
(3) finding out the meaning of life is a fruitful exercise.
(4) confusion is necessary to understand life.
(5) None of the above
5. What does the author mean when he says “there will never be means to ends, only means”?
(1) Once one knows how to reach where one wants to reach in life, one can achieve ones goal.
(2) One should be focused in one’s approach.
(3) One can gain control over life.
(4) There’s nothing which is final and conclusive in life.
(5) None of the above
6. “My trouble is I analyze life instead of living it” – the author says this because:
(1) he thinks most of the time.
(2) there are no absolutes of human life.
(3) he considers the thinking process as an inhibitor to self-realization.
(4) he enjoys life.
(5) None of the above.
ANSWERS
1. 1
2. 3
3. 2
4. 3
5. 4
6. 1
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