Short Answer Questions IELTS Reading Lessons, Tips

The Pursuit of Knowledge

A. According to the great English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it (Boswell Life vol. 2 p, 383 18 April 1775). In the information-driven world we now inhabit, the latter has assumed a much greater level of importance. It Is not surprising to see people overwhelmed by the unlimited stream of Information. There is simply too much of it to assimilate, and it is difficult to know what to do with the data once it is received; which brings us back to Johnson’s words. But we need to add an­other dimension to his dictum, one which was probably true in his time, but is even more pertinent today: people need to be able to live the knowledge they acquire and not just know it or know where to find it. Our deficiency in this regard is, perhaps, the most singular failure of the modern information age.

B. Acquisitiveness is a natural human Instinct. Children collect cards of footballers, or whatever is the latest fad, Stamps, coins and books are targets for children and adult collectors (dike, as their basic instincts are played upon and nurtured by market forces. The desire to gather knowledge is nothing new. What is astonishing, however, is the way in which people treat the knowledge once it has been collected. It is as if the collection were an end in Itself; and herein lies the great deception, We have turned the world into a large machine of informa­tion, a veritable vortex into which we are all being Inexorably sucked, People beaver away amassing raw data, labouring under the misapprehension that they are doing something worthwhile when all that is really happening is the movement of information from one place to another, We should hardly be surprised that, as this becomes apparent, disillusion­ment and stress in the workplace are becoming sadly the all too common consequences.

2.  Inability to live the acquired knowledge

3. Large machine of information

4. Disillusionment and stress in the workplace

For the second question, the answer is in the first para, seventh line; “But we need to add an­other dimension to his dictum, one which was probably true in his time, but is even more pertinent today: people need to be able to live the knowledge they acquire and not just know it or know where to find it. Our deficiency in this regard is, perhaps, the most singular failure of the modern information age.”

For the third question, the answer is in the second para, first line; “Acquisitiveness is a natural human Instinct. Children collect cards of footballers, or whatever is the latest fad, Stamps, coins and books are targets for children and adult collectors (dike, as their basic instincts are played upon and nurtured by market forces. We have turned the world into a large machine of information.”

The fourth question is in the second para, fifth line; “It is as if the collection were an end in Itself; and herein lies the great deception, We have turned the world into a large machine of informa­tion, a veritable vortex into which we are all being Inexorably sucked”