Question

Q.1 Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

But then I slowly saw that not only was I not free, but my brothers and sisters were also not free. I saw that it was not just my freedom that was curtailed, but the freedom of everyone who looked like I did. That is when I joined the African National Congress, and that is when the hunger for my own freedom became the greater hunger for the freedom of my people. It was this desire for the freedom of my people to live their lives with dignity and self-respect that animated my life, that transformed a frightened young man into a bold one, that drove a law-abiding attorney to become a criminal, that turned a family-loving husband into a man without a home, that forced a life-loving man to live like a monk. I am no more virtuous or self-sacrificing than the next man, but I found that I could not even enjoy the poor and limited freedoms I was allowed when I knew my people were not free.

*QUESTIONS:*
1. Why did the author join the African National
Congress?

2. What was the only wish of the author?

3. Find out a word from the passage that is similar in meaning to 'reduced'.

4. How did the desire for freedom change the author's life?​

Answer 1

1. The author joined the African National Congress to contribute or help other people to be free & to make his country independent.
2. His desire or wish was to make his people free to let people live their lives with dignity & self respect. He was now giving more importance to the starvation or hunger of other people than him. This made him more eager to achieve independence.
3. Curtailed.
4. The desire for freedom changed him from a frightened young man into a bold one,that drove a law-abiding attorney to become a criminal, he was turned from a family-loving husband into a man without a home, that forced a life-loving man to live like a monk who was no more virtuous or self-sacrificing than the next man, but found that he could not even enjoy the poor and limited freedoms when he was allowed when he knew his people were not free.