Unit-12, Lesson-1
Question No. 1 (A)
1. Read the passage and answer question A.
Beauty is easy to appreciate but difficult to define. As we look around, we discover beauty in pleasurable objects and sights- in nature, in the laughter of children, in the kindness of strangers. But asked to define, we run into difficulties. Does beauty have an independent objective identity? Is it universal or is it dependent on our sense perceptions? Does it lie in the eye of the beholder? - we ask ourselves. A further difficulty arises when beauty manifests itself not only by its presence, but by its absence as well, as when we are repulsed by ugliness and desire beauty. But then ugliness has as much a place in our lives as beauty or may be more - as when there is widespread hunger and injustice in a society. Philosophers have told us that beauty is an important part of life, but isn’t ugliness a part of life too? And if art has beauty as an important ingredient, can it confine itself only to a projection of beauty? Can art ignore what is not beautiful?
Poets and artists have provided an answer by incorporating both into their work. In doing so, they have often tied beauty to truth and justice, so that what is not beautiful assumes a tolerable proportion as something that represents some truth about life. John Keats, the romantic poet, wrote in his celebrated ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn.’ ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ by which he means that truth, even if it’s not pleasant, becomes beautiful at a higher level. Similarly, what is beautiful forever remains true. Another meaning, in the context of the Grecian Urn - an art object - is that truth is a condition of art.
A. Choose the correct answer from the alternatives.
(a) People can easily --- beauty.
i. feel ii. understand iii. define iv. see
Ans: ii. understand.
(b) The task of defining beauty is not ---.
i. difficult ii. hard iii. tiresome iv. easy
Ans: iv. easy.
(c) Beauty may be --- pleasurable objects.
i. present in ii. absent from iii. short in iv. akin to
Ans: i. present in.
(d) If asked to define beauty, people run into ---.
i. dangers ii. problems iii. hazards iv. hardship
Ans: ii. problems.
(e) Beauty may have its --- identity.
i. common ii. uncommon iii. universal iv. individual
Ans: iii. universal.
(f) Widespread hunger and injustice in a society represent ---.
i. satisfaction ii. happiness iii. beauty iv. ugliness
Ans: iv. ugliness.
(g) Poets and artists give place --- beauty and ugliness in their work.
i. to ii. in iii. with iv. for
Ans: i. to.
(h) Ugliness assumes a tolerable --- of something that represents some truth about life.
i. unit ii. role iii. appearance iv. division
Ans: iii. appearance.
(i) Actually, beauty is --- on truth.
i. shaped ii. related iii. liable iv. dependent
Ans: iv. dependent.
(j) Truth becomes beautiful in the --- of art.
i. creation ii. guise iii. shape iv. shade
Ans: iii. shape.
লেখক: সহযোগী অধ্যাপক ও বিভাগীয় চেয়ারম্যান, ইংরেজি বিভাগ, ঢাকা কমার্স কলেজ, ঢাকা
জাহ্নবী
