CULTURE
(C.D.S.1995)
 Culture is the cultivation of a plant or garden, not the eradication of its roots; it is an understanding of the roots and seeds, their patient care and instructed nourishment. Culture is not knowledge, nor is it art, still less is its acquaintance with literature and art. By culture, I mean first of all what the anthropologists mean; the way of life of a particular people living together in one place. That culture is made visible in their arts, in their social system, in their habits and customs, in their religion. It is an aggregate of customs, institutions, manners, standards, tastes, morals and beliefs. Now, these are transmitted rather by the family than by the school, – hence when family life fails to play its part, we must expect our culture to deteriorate. It is a delusion to think that the maladies of the modern world can be put right by a system of instruction. On the contrary, universal education, by lowering standards, morals and tastes to a common denominator, and by sharpening the wits rather than disciplining character, tends to break down existing checks and balances. Education should be the drawing forth of potential values; it should not be the destruction of the safeguards that tradition places around young egos naturally inclined to willful and precarious flights.
1. The writer uses the term ‘culture’ to refer to
(a) the cultivation of a plant or garden by a community
 (b) one’s acquaintance with literature and art
(c)one’s acquisition of knowledge
(d) the way of life of a particular people living together in one place
2. The passage suggests that universal education
 (a) is, in fact, aggravating the existing problems of the modern world
(b) is the solution to the problems in the modern world
 (c) would prevent us from transmitting culture to the future generation
 (d) would help retain the cultural values
3. The culture of a community is said to deteriorate when
 (a) there is a fall in its educational standards.
(b) the family life fails to play its part.
(c) there is universal education.
 (d) it adopts the modern system of instruction.
 4. The culture of a community is transmitted
(a) more by the school than the family
(b) more by the family than a school
(c) equally by both
 (d) by the peer group
5. According to the passage, education is
(a) the sharpening of wits
(b) tapping and encouraging the inherent values in a man
 (c) the substitution of old traditions with new ones
 (d) the development of moral standards
 ANSWERS:-
1. (d)
2. (c)
 3. (b)
4. (b)
5. (a)
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