II. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars, for when one has consorted with them,
and found that they are ordinary human beings, one cannot help being struck by the curious attitude that
society takes towards them. People seem to feel that there is some essential difference between beggars
and ordinary "working" men. They are a race apart--outcasts, like criminals and prostitutes. Working men
"work," beggars do not "work"; they are parasites, worthless in their very nature. It is taken for granted
that a beggar does not "earn" his living, as a
bricklayer or a literary critic "earns" his. He is a mere social excrescence, tolerated because we live in a
humane age, but essentially despicable.
Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and
that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is work? An
accountant works by adding up figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and
getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course--but,
then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of
others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a
Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout--in short, a parasite, but a
fairly harmless parasite. He seldom extracts more than a bare living from the community, and, what
should justify him according to our ethical ideas, he pays for it over and over in suffering. I do not think
there is anything about a beggar that sets him in a different class from other people, or gives most modern
men the right to despise him.
Then the question arises, Why are beggars despised?--for they are despised, universally. I believe it is for
the simple reason that they fail to earn a decent living. In practice nobody cares whether work is useful or
useless, productive or parasitic; the sole thing demanded is that it shall be profitable. In all the modem talk
about energy, efficiency, social service and the rest of it, what meaning is there except "Get money, get it
legally, and get a lot of it"? Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for
this they are despised. If one could earn even ten pounds a week at begging, it would become a
respectable profession
immediately. A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living, like other
businessmen, in the way that comes to hand. He has not, more than most modern people, sold his honor;
he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at which it is impossible to grow rich.
1. On the basis of your reading of the passage make notes on it, uses
recognizable abbreviations wherever necessary. Use a suitable format. Supply an appropriate title.
2. Write a summary of the passage in not more than 80 words.
Answers
Answer:
Summary:
It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars, for when one has consorted with them, and found that they are ordinary human beings, one cannot help being struck by the curious attitude that society takes towards them. It is taken for granted that a beggar does not "earn" his living, as a bricklayer or a literary critic "earns" his. He is a mere social excrescence, tolerated because we live in a humane age, but essentially despicable. Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. I do not think there is anything about a beggar that sets him in a different class from other people, or gives most modern men the right to despise him. Then the question arises, Why are beggars despised?--for they are despised, universally.
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