Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
People moan about poverty as a great evil and it seems to be an accepted belief that if people had
plenty of money, they would be happy, and get more out of life. As a rule there is more genuine
satisfaction in life and more is obtained from life in the humble cottage of the poor man than in
the palace of rich men, who are attended by servants and governesses at a later stage. At the
same time I am glad to think they do not know what they have missed.
It is because I know how sweet and happy and pure the home of honest poverty is, how free from
perplexing care and social envies and jealousies, how loving and united the members are in
the common interest of supporting the family that I sympathise with the rich man’s boy and
congratulate the poor man’s son. It is for these reasons that from the ranks of the poor so many
strong eminent self-reliant men have always sprung. If you read the list of the “Immortals who
were not born to die” you will find that most of them have been poor.
(i) What is the popular notion about poverty?
(ii) Where can one get more genuine satisfaction in life?
(iii) Why does the author pity the rich man's boy?
(iv) What do people moan about?
(v) Find two other words in the passage with similar meanings to ‘confusing’ and self - dependent
Answers
Explanation:
People moan about poverty as a great evil and it seems to be an accepted belief that if people had
plenty of money, they would be happy, and get more out of life. As a rule there is more genuine
satisfaction in life and more is obtained from life in the humble cottage of the poor man than in
the palace of rich men, who are attended by servants and governesses at a later stage. At the
same time I am glad to think they do not know what they have missed.
It is because I know how sweet and happy and pure the home of honest poverty is, how free from
perplexing care and social envies and jealousies, how loving and united the members are in
the common interest of supporting the family that I sympathise with the rich man‟s boy and
congratulate the poor man‟s son. It is for these reasons that from the ranks of the poor so many
strong eminent self-reliant men have always sprung. If you read the list of the “Immortals who
were not born to die” you will find that most of them have been poor.
(i) What is the popular notion about poverty?
(ii) Where can one get more genuine satisfaction in life?
(iii) Why does the author pity the rich man's boy?
(iv) What do people moan about?
(v) Find two other words in the passage with similar meanings to „confusing‟ and self - dependent