TOEFL Test Preparation

Reading Test 3

Passage

Read the passage and answer the questions given below.

The third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science, as we have seen, has given us powers fit for the gods, yet we use them like small children. (Para 1)

For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines, as I have already explained, were made to be man’s servants; yet he has grown so dependent on them that they are in a fair way to become his masters. Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and waiting upon machines. And the machines are very stern masters. They must be fed with coal and given petrol to drink, and oil to wash with, and they must be kept at the right temperature. And if they do not get their meals when they expect them, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all round them. So we have to wait upon them attentively and do all that we can to keep them in good temper. Already we find it difficult either to work or play without machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we rule the animals. (Para 2)

And this brings me to this question: ‘What do we do with all the time which the machines have saved for us, and the new energy they have given us?’ On the whole it must be admitted we do very little. For the most part we use our time and energy to make more and better machines: but more and better machines will give us still more time and still more energy, and what are we to do with them? (Para 3)

The answer, I think, is that we should try to become more civilized. As you probably know there is nothing particularly civilized in getting into a train and being civilized means making and liking beautiful things, thinking freely, and living rightly and maintaining justice equally between man and man. Man has a better chance today to do these things than he ever had before; he has more time, more energy, less to fear and less to fight against. If he will give this time and energy, which his machines have won for him, to making beautiful things, to find out more and more about the universe, to removing the causes of quarrels between nations, to discovering how to prevent poverty, then I think our civilization would undoubtedly be the greatest as it would be the most lasting that there has ever been. (Para 4)

Article courtesy - 'Our Civilization' by CEM Joad

Questions

1. According to the author what is the third great defect of our civilization?

a) Machines
b) our dependence on machines
c) the fact that we don’t know what to do with our knowledge
d) none of these

2. Which of the following were made to be man’s servants?

a) Trains
b) Computers
c) machines
d) animals

3. The machines save us a lot of time and energy. The author feels that these time and energy should be used to

a) make more and better machines
b) learn new languages
c) improve our knowledge
d) become more civilized

4. Look at the word they in paragraph 2. What word does they refer to?

For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines, as I have already explained, were made to be man’s servants; yet he has grown so dependent on them that they are in a fair way to become his masters. Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and waiting upon machines. And the machines are very stern masters. They must be fed with coal and given petrol to drink, and oil to wash with, and they must be kept at the right temperature. And if they do not get their meals when they expect them, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all round them. So we have to wait upon them attentively and do all that we can to keep them in good temper. Already we find it difficult either to work or play without machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we rule the animals.

5. Look at the word it in paragraph 1. What word does it refer to?

The third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science, as we have seen, has given us powers fit for the gods, yet we use them like small children.

6. The following sentence can be inserted into paragraph 4. State where this sentence can be inserted?

For the machines themselves, and the power which the machines has given us, are not civilization but aids civilization.

1. The answer, I think, is that we should try to become more civilized. 2. As you probably know there is nothing particularly civilized in getting into a train and being civilized means making and liking beautiful things, thinking freely, and living rightly and maintaining justice equally between man and man. 3. Man has a better chance today to do these things than he ever had before; he has more time, more energy, less to fear and less to fight against. 4. If he will give this time and energy, which his machines have won for him, to making beautiful things, to find out more and more about the universe, to removing the causes of quarrels between nations, to discovering how to prevent poverty, then I think our civilization would undoubtedly be the greatest as it would be the most lasting that there has ever been.

7. The following sentence can be inserted into paragraph 2. State where it can be inserted?

Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and waiting upon machines.

1. For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. 2. Machines, as I have already explained, were made to be man’s servants; yet he has grown so dependent on them that they are in a fair way to become his masters. 3. And the machines are very stern masters. 4. They must be fed with coal and given petrol to drink, and oil to wash with, and they must be kept at the right temperature. 5. And if they do not get their meals when they expect them, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all round them. 6. So we have to wait upon them attentively and do all that we can to keep them in good temper. 7. Already we find it difficult either to work or play without machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we rule the animals. (Para 2)

Answers

1. the fact that we don’t know what to do with our knowledge
2. machines
3. become more civilized
4. machines
5. civilization
6. at 2
7. at 3

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