Read the text and answer the following questions
WAR has never solved any problem. It leaves behind it hatred and spirit of
revenge in the minds of those who have been defeated and gives rise to pride and vanity
in the mind of one who has conquered. So, the lull after the war should not be taken as an
era of real peace but it is just like the lull before a storm.
Not very long ago, Ashoka, a king of India, learnt after a great battle, that war
causes much suffering on either side and gives rise to many other problems. Alexander,
the great conqueror, also realized this in the end and, so when he was down with serious
illness, he said to his Generals; “When I am dead, let my hands be out of the coffin so
that the people can see that I am leaving this world empty-handed. All my loot and
plunder, all the territory I conquered, has been left behind”. Mr.Dwight D.Eisenhower,
the late President of America, who was once a Commander of the Allied Forces in the
World War II and had seen the upheavals and ravages of war from close quarters, said,
“Having been directly connected with war, I know what it really means in terms of
human misery and I, therefore, now shun war”.
But do the political leaders of today, who are men in seats of power, take this wise
counsel? No, under pressure of public opinion or due to some compelling circumstances,
man again decides to go in for war, overtly or covertly. This is the great weakness in man. Men and nations can solve their problems only in a peaceful manner. Though man
has languages as a potent means of expression and he has the intellect also to argue his
case and convince others, yet man ultimately uses the ways of the animals that strike head
against head.
The difficulty with the animals is understandable because they do not have
language and reason as their means to seek justice nor do they have any developed
system of jurisprudence. So, the lesson I learn from history is that ‘man does not learn
lessons from history’.
I. Fill in the blanks with appropriate expressions chosen from the text.
i) Those who have lost in war will lodge _________ and a spirit of _______
ii) Ashoka realised that war causes much _______ on either side and gives rise to many other ___________.
iii) Eisenhower realized that war only brought about _________
iv) Under pressure man takes up war either __________ or __________
v) Man can avoid war because he has __________ as a potent means of expression and the __________ to argue out his case to the opponents.
vi) Without using the power of reason men, in the end, follow the ways of ____________ and resort to war.
vii) What one learns from history is that man does not learn lessons from _________.
II. Answer the following questions
A)
i) War is not the answer to problems between nations - Discuss.
ii) What message did King Alexander want to convey by asking his generals to have his hands out of the coffin after death?
iii) Why did Mr. Dwight Eisenhower hate war?
iv) Animals can afford to fight amongst themselves, but not men, why?
v) Man does not learn from history – Explain the statement with illustration.
B) Pick out four expressions that are related to war and death from the text and use
them in sentences of your own. | 