Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here is a set of English Quiz for SBI PO Prelims on Comprehension Test.
carefully and answer the questions given below.
A difficult readjustment in the
scientist’s conception of duty is imperatively necessary. As Lord Adrain said
in his address to the British Association, “unless we are ready to give up some
of our old loyalties, we may be forced into a fight which might end the human
race”. This matter of loyalty is the crux. Hitherto, in the East and in the
West alike, most scientists, like most other people, have felt that loyalty to
their own state is paramount. They have no longer a right to feel this. Loyalty
to the human race must take its place. Everyone in the West will at once admit
this as regards Soviet scientists. We are shocked that Kapitza, who was
Rutherford’s favourite pupil, was willing when the Soviet government refused
him permission to return to Cambridge, to place his scientific skill at the
disposal of those who wished to spread communism by means of H-bombs. We do not
so readily apprehend a similar failure of duty on our own side. I do not wish
to be thought to suggest treachery, since that is only transference of loyalty
to another national state. I am suggesting a very different thing; that
scientists the world over should join in enlightening mankind as to the perils
of a great war and in devising methods for its prevention. I urge with all the
emphasis at my disposal that this is the duty of scientists in East and West
alike. It is difficult duty and one likely to entail penalties for those who
perform it. But after all it is the labours of scientists which have caused the
danger and on this account, if on no other; scientists must do everything in
their power to save mankind from the madness which they have made possible.
Science from the dawn of history, and probably longer, has been intimately
associated with war. I imagine that when our ancestors descended from the trees
they were victorious over the arboreal conservatives because flints were
sharper than coconuts. To come to more recent times, Archimedes was respected
for his scientific defense of Syracuse against the Romans; Leonardo obtained employment
under the Duke of Milan because of his skill in fortification, though he did
mention in a postscript that he could also paint a bit. Galileo similarly
derived an income from the Grant Duke of Tuscany because of his skill in
calculating the trajectories of projectiles. In the French Revolution those
scientists who were not guillotined devoted themselves to making new
explosives. There is therefore no departure from tradition in the present day
scientist’s manufacture of A-bombs and H-bomb. All that is new is the extent of
their destructive skill. I do not think that men of science can cease to regard
the disinterested pursuit of knowledge as their primary duty. It is true that
new knowledge and new skills are sometimes harmful in their effects, but scientists
cannot profitably take account of this fact since the effects are impossible to
foresee. We cannot blame Columbus because the discovery of the Western
Hemisphere spread throughout the Eastern Hemisphere an appallingly devastating
plague. Nor can we blame James Watt for the Dust Bowl although if there had
been no steam engines and no railways the West would not have been so
carelessly or so quickly cultivated To see that knowledge is wisely used in
primarily the duty of statesmen, not of science; but it is part of the duty of
men of science to see that important knowledge is widely disseminated and is
not falsified in the interests of this or that propaganda. Scientific knowledge
has its dangers; but so has every great thing. And over and beyond the dangers
with which it threatens the present, it opens up, as nothing else can, the
vision of a possible happy world, a world without poverty, without war, with
little illness. And what is perhaps more than all, when science has mastered
the forces which mould human character, it will be able to produce populations
in which few suffer from destructive fierceness and in which the great majority
regard other people, not as competitors, to be feared, but as helpers in a
common task. Science has only recently begun to apply itself to human beings
except in their purely physical aspect. Such science as exists in psychology
and anthropology has hardly begun to affect political behaviour or private
ethics. The minds of men remain attuned to a world that is fast disappearing.
The changes in our physical environment require, if they are to bring
well-being, correlative changes in our beliefs and habits. If we cannot effect
these changes, we shall suffer the fate of the dinosaurs, which could not live
on dry land. I think it is the duty of science – I do not say of every
individual man of science – to study the means by which we can adapt ourselves
to the new world There are certain things that the world quite obviously needs;
tentativeness, as opposed to dogmatism in our beliefs: an expectation of
co-operation, rather than competition, in social relations, a lessening of envy
and collective hatred These are things which education could produce without
much difficulty. They are not things adequately south in the education of the
present day. It is progress in the human sciences that we must look to undo the
evils which have resulted from knowledge of the physical world hastily and
superficially acquired by populations’ unconscious of the changes in them that
the new knowledge has made imperative. The road to a happier world than any
known in the past lies open before us if atavistic destructive passion can be
kept in leash while the necessary adaptations are made. Fears are inevitable in
our time, but hopes are equally rational and far more likely to bear good
fruit. We must learn to think rather less of the dangers to be avoided than of
the good that will be within our grasp if we believe in it and let it dominate
our thoughts. Science, whatever unpleasant consequences it may have by the way,
is in its very nature a liberator, a liberator of bondage to physical nature
and, in time to come a liberator from the weight of destructive passion. We are
on the threshold of utter disaster or unprecedented glorious achievement. No previous
age has been fraught with problems so momentous and it is to science that we
must look for happy issue.
to the author is:
happy new world
own sake
discoveries as conducive to the progress of humanity should be made
we can adapt ourselves in the world
Galileo have been mentioned to substantiate the statement that
intimately associated with war.
has played a leading part in the life of man
only under the patronage of royalty and eminent personages
knowledge was done for its own sake
suggests that all scientists should join in educating mankind regarding the
perils of a great war is that
most learned among people should take the lead in this process of education.
scientists which has led to this perilous situation and so they should do
something to undo the mischief.
associated with war and in the fitness of things; scientists should take the
lead in trying to end it.
and soldiers have vested interest in perpetuating war and by elimination,
scientists alone may be trusted to work for its abolition.
the matter as far as scientists are concerned is that
should be declared in no uncertain terms.
scientist’s conception of duty is imperatively necessary.
stringent control by the state over their activities.
independence and refuse to subject themselves to any kind of control.
by the author goes to prove that
price.
do not tolerate independent scientists.
East or West, have hitherto felt loyalty to their own state is paramount
higher sense of responsibility than their counterparts in the East.
statements is not true according to the information provided in the passage?
in the scientist’s conception of duty, the extinction of the human race by war
is a distinct possibility.
over the world have felt that loyalty to their own state is paramount
scientists which have caused the danger of annihilation of mankind.
been that scientists have been respected for their pursuit of knowledge and not
for their part in devising potent weapons of destruction.
according to the passage, is
his state with as much devotion as possible
regardless of the consequences of their discoveries and inventions.
knowledge is widely disseminated and is not falsified in the interests of
propaganda
interests
from knowledge of the physical world can only be overcome by
scientific knowledge
responsible to society
human sciences
public about the evils
liberator in the sense that:
nations of the world together
great deal happier than what it is now
to physical nature and the weight of destructive passions.
old beliefs and superstitions.
- D
- A
- B
- B
- C
- D
- C
- C
- C
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This post was last modified on November 27, 2017 8:53 am