SECTION –A
1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 8
It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars, for when one has consorted with
them, and found thatthey 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 despisehim.
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, whatmeaningisthereexcept―Get
money,getitlegally,andgetalotofit‖?Moneyhasbecome 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, soldhis honor; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at
which it is impossible to growrich.1.1.On the basis of your readingof the passage make notes on it, uses recognizable abbreviations
wherevernecessary. Use a suitable format. Supply an appropriatetitle.
1.2.Write a summary of the passage in not more than 60words. answer plz
Answers
Answer:
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 8
It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars, for when one has consorted with
them, and found thatthey 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 despisehim.
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, whatmeaningisthereexcept―Get
money,getitlegally,andgetalotofit‖?Moneyhasbecome 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, soldhis honor; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at
which it is impossible to growrich.1.1.On the basis of your readingof the passage make notes on it, uses recognizable abbreviations
wherevernecessary. Use a suitable format. Supply an appropriatetitle.
1.2.Write a summary of the passage in not more than 60words.