question_answer

Read the following passage and answer the questions given below it:

'Anyone who had seen me reading would have compared me to a man dying of thirst who was gulping down some fresh, pure water ... Lighting my lamp with extraordinary caution, I threw myself hungrily into the reading. An easy eloquence, effortless and animated, carried me from one page to the next without my noticing it. A clock struck off the hours in the silence of the shadows, and I heard nothing. My lamp began to run out of oil and produced only a pale light, but still I read on. I could not even take out time to raise the wick for fear of interrupting my pleasure. How those new ideas rushed into my brain I How my intelligence adopted them!?

                                                                                                                                                   [Delhi 2008]

(a) Name the writer of this paragraph.

(b) How one finds the writer when he is reading?

(c) Analyse the message given by the writer to the readers.

 

Answer:

(a) Louise Sebastien Mercier a novelist of 18th century France.

(b) While reading a book condition of the reader could be compared to a man dying of thirst who now was gulping down some pure fresh water. As soon as he was refreshed and his thirst quenched he again started reading. He was so engrossed that he lost track of time. Though the lamp was running out of oil he did not get up lest his reading was disturbed. He started comprehending the new ideas.

(c) This passage gives a clear message that printing material is the most powerful engine of progress and knowledge. One should be lost in the world of books create and become enlightened in the process.