INSIGNIFICANT
Read the passage given below:
1. Many of us believe that “small” means “insignificant”. We believe that small actions and choices do not have much impact on our lives. We think that it is only the big things, the big actions and the big decisions that really count. But when you look at the lives of all great people, you will see that they built their character through small decisions, small choices and small actions that they performed every day. They transformed their lives through a step-by-step or day-by-day approach. They nurtured and nourished their good habits and chipped away at their bad habits, one step at a time. It was their small day-to-day decisions that added up to make a tremendous difference in the long run. Indeed, in matters of personal growth and character building, there is no such thing as an overnight success.
2. Growth always occurs through a sequential series of stages. There is an organic process of growth. When we look at children growing up, we can see this process at work: the child first learns to crawl, then to stand and walk, and finally to run. The same is true in the natural world. The soil must first be tilled, and then the seed must be sowed. Next, it must be nurtured with enough water and sunlight, and only then will it grow, bear fruit and finally ripen and be ready to eat.
3. Gandhi understood this organic process and used this universal law of nature to his benefit. Gandhi grew in small ways, in his day-to-day affairs. He did not wake up one day and find himself to be the “Mahatma”. In fact, there was nothing much in his early life that showed signs of greatness. But from his mid-twenties onwards, he deliberately and consistently attempted to change himself, reform himself and grow in some small way every day. Day by day, hour by 2 hour, he risked failure, experimented and learnt from mistakes. In small and large situations alike, he took up rather than avoided responsibility.
4. People have always marvelled at the effortless way in which Gandhi could accomplish the most difficult tasks. He displayed a great deal of self-mastery and discipline that was amazing. These things did not come easily to him. Years of practice and disciplined training went into making his success possible. Very few saw his struggles, fears, doubts and anxieties, or his inner efforts to overcome them. They saw the victory, but not the struggle.
5. This is a common factor in the lives of all great people: they exercised their freedoms and choices in small ways that made a great impact on their lives and their environment. Each of their small decisions and actions, added up to have a profound impact in the long run. By understanding this principle, we can move forward, with confidence, in the direction of our dreams. Often when our “ideal goal” looks too far from us, we become easily discouraged, disheartened and pessimistic. However, when we choose to grow in small ways, taking small steps one at a time, performing it becomes easy.
Choose the correct alternatives from the options given below:
(a) According to the writer, the character is developed by
(i) doing big things (ii) working on their lives one day at a time
(iii) taking big decisions (iv) all the above
(b) ‘growth is an organic process means
(i) growth takes time (ii) growth follows a sequence
(iii) growth needs to be nurtured (iv) all the above
Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:
(c) According to the writer, what are the steps that one has to follow to be able to grow fruit?
(d) How did great people remove their weaknesses?
(e) How did Gandhiji benefit from the universal law of growth?
(f) What are the negativities that Gandhiji overcame to become great?
(g) Mention two things that great men have impacted?
(h) What are the three things that the writer asks us to beware?
Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:
(i) discouraged and saddened (para-5)
(j)unimportant/trivial (para-1)
ANSWERS:-
(a) (ii) (b) (iv)
(c) According to the writer, even in the natural world, growth comes through a sequential series of stages. In order to grow fruit, one must first till the soil and then sow the seeds. The seeds must then be nurtured with enough sunlight and water so they can grow into a plant and bear fruit.
(d) Great people transformed their lives through a step-by-step or day-by-day process. They built their character through sm. all decisions, small actions and small choices every day. They nurtured at nourished their good habits and chipped away at
(e) Gandhiji understood their bad habits, one-day universal time. This is how they removed their weaknesses occurs through a sequential in the universal truth that growth is an organic process which des of stages, and used this knowledge to his benefit. From his mid-twenties onwards reform himself in a small way he consistently and deliberately attempted to and took up the responsibility. Hence, he grew in small ways every day.
(f) Gandhiji directed his inner efforts to overcome negativities like fears, struggles, doubts and anxieties to become great.
(g) Two things that great people had an impact through the exercise of their freedoms and choices.
(h) The writer asks us to beware are seem becoming easily discouraged, disheartened and pessimistic when our ideal goal seems far from our reach.
(i) Insignificant.
(j) Disheartened.
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