Oscar Wilde once remarked, ―Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else‘s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.‖ As he so wryly observed, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.‖ The vast majority of us are not who we have been pretending to be, and the lives we‘ve been living until now are moulded according to rules and values that are not our own.
Most of humanity is stuck in someone else‘s discarded chewing gum and, is yet to break free.Unless you have been brave enough to forsake this trap, here is your likely portent: your religious convictions are those of your parents or community and your political allegiances conform to the party system that society offers.These are desirable choices that hold societies together.
They make you who you are, you might argue. True, but only if you might argue. True, but only if you are content with admiring the wrapping and never looking inside the box. If you dared to look you‘d discover how these basic thoughts originate in a fundamental belief formed during the first years of your life.Children usually bend their perceptions and interpretations of reality to match those who care for them.
They find ways to please in order to receive attention. As they grow up, the issues may change, but the initial patterns of conformity remain ingrained in them. The price for surrendering to consensus is steep. It is nothing less than the loss of individuality. You disengage from the grandness of creation and implode into the holographic illusions humans have come to call reality.
You become one of Oscar Wilde‘s other people thinking someone else‘s opinions and assuming they are your own.This condition is virtually universal. It is also the underlying cause of the world as we know it. People cling so tightly to their personal and social identities that they are blinded to anything that does not validate them. The way out is easier than anyone might imagine.
However, very few summon the courage, for it requires them to leave the comfort of their own world and walk alone, unaided by the crutch of dogma. Most people would rather get caught up in the business of earning a living, raising a family unwillingly or helping their community, than deal with the unsettling immensity of all that. Yet it seems that all humans are meant to take this epic journey of discovery at some point in their series of lives on this planet.
1. In spite of the dismal scenario depicted in the passage, the writer talks of his epic journey of
discovery. This discovery pertains to the
(A) longing for immortality (B) Yearning for utopia
(C) quest for excellence (D) search for reality
2. The expression ‗holographic illusions‘ means
(A) sense of bewilderment (B) shady dealings
(C)self-created phantasm (D) artificial images
3. In the context of the passage, children adjust their ideas of reality, so that they
(A) are in conformity with their beloved ones
(B) can modify them according to the need of the situations
(C) may not be considered arrogant
(D) can use them to their advantage
4. Which of these is not true in the context of the passage?
(A)We generally imitate others in everything
(B) People are happy to take on others‘ roles
(C)We speak in other people‘s voices most of the time
(D) People are genuine in expressing their feelings
5. In the context of the passage, ‗wryly‘ means
(A) repulsively (B) hesitatingly
(C) disapprovingly (D) unwillingly
6. In the context of the passage, how can humanity get stuck in someone else‘s discarded
chewing gum?
(A) By using discarded things
(B)By appreciating others’ ideas
(C)By giving preference to others‘ views over one‘s own views.
(D) By choosing a product which is sponsored by some great personality
7. What does the expression ‗lives a mimicry, passions a quotation‘ mean?
(A) Lives an imitation, feelings a borrowing (B) Lives a sham, feelings a deception
(C) Lives a parody, feelings a repetition (D) Lives a duplication, feelings a recitation
8. ‗Unless you have been brave enough to forsake this trap‘ implies that one has to be
(A)very pretentious to discard one‘s convictions
(B) coaxed to come out of the clutches of tradition.
(C) quite serious to give up the old values
(D)daring enough to break free from the stranglehold of others‘ views
9. To which of the following does the picture presented in the passages, not conform?
(A)Adopt a dogmatic approach towards life
(B) Subscribe to others‘ views
(C) Profess borrowed conviction
(D) Cast themselves according to their own ways
10. The writer of this passage envisages a world where people will
(A) desire to make these choices which hold the societies together
(B) profess implicit allegiance to social institutions
(C) have the courage to chart their independent course of action
(D) take pride in an unquestioned loyalty to old values