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Bihar-Board Class 10 First Chapter

The passage discusses the fast pace of modern life and its effects on people. It uses the example of an elderly Irish corn merchant who is struggling to keep up with the fast pace. He feels overwhelmed by his personal problems and the speed of modern life, exemplified by airplanes that can travel 1000 miles per hour. The passage also discusses how slow thinkers have a difficult time in today's world, where intelligence tests emphasize speed. It suggests modern life has disadvantages like increased accidents and lack of enjoyment due to everyone always rushing.

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231 views

Bihar-Board Class 10 First Chapter

The passage discusses the fast pace of modern life and its effects on people. It uses the example of an elderly Irish corn merchant who is struggling to keep up with the fast pace. He feels overwhelmed by his personal problems and the speed of modern life, exemplified by airplanes that can travel 1000 miles per hour. The passage also discusses how slow thinkers have a difficult time in today's world, where intelligence tests emphasize speed. It suggests modern life has disadvantages like increased accidents and lack of enjoyment due to everyone always rushing.

Uploaded by

Sundram kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter – 1

The Pace for Living


R.C. Hutchinson

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Agony of modern man

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• The essay ‘The Pace for Living’ captures the agony of modern man.
• The fast pace hurts the normal rhythm.
• The fast pace puts undue pressure on men.
• The person who doesn’t maintain the pace feels disabled.
The Corn Merchant as a representative of the agonised modern man
• The Irish Corn merchant fails to keep up with the fast pace of life.
• So out of despair, he says: ‘there’s an aeroplane that goes at 1000 miles an

•
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hour!’

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The corn merchant is an anxious man.
He has many worries and grievances:
 He felt his heart was weak..
 His nephew was cheating him.
 His wife was a spendthrift. She was wasting away his hard earned
money.
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Aeroplane as a symbol of fast life
• Aeroplane is used as a symbol of fast –paced life.
Advantages of fast-paced life
• Travelling has become fast:
 We can dine in London and have lunch in New York the next day.
Disadvantages of fast-paced life
• People are always in a hurry.
• The chances of accidents have increased.
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• We are devoid of real pleasure of travel as well as life.


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Slow thinkers as misfit in the modern age


• Slow thinkers are those who cannot think of a clever come back (are cursed with
'l' esprit de l' escaliert'). They do not understand even a joke quickly.
• They cannot keep up with today’s fast pace of life.
• They fail in modern day intelligence tests.
• These are tests for the speed of one’s mind.
• The author himself is a slow thinker:
o The author once went to watch a movie along with his wife.
o He could not follow the fast-paced scenes in the film.
o He had to frequently ask his wife questions about the scenes in the film.

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 He asked his wife whether the girl in the scene was the same that
appeared at the beginning.
Questions
Now, on the basis of your understanding of this chapter try to answer the following

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questions:
1. Write a few sentences about the elderly corn-merchant.

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2. ‘They tell me there’s an aeroplane now that goes at 1000 miles an hour. Now
that’s too fast.’ What light does the remark of the corn-merchant throw on the
fast life today?
3. What sort of excitement do we have today which our ancestors lacked? Is it an
advantage or disadvantage?
4. Who are taken to be slow thinkers? How are the slow thinkers, handicapped
today?

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5. What enlightenment does the writer seek from his wife? What does it suggest
about the plight of the modern man?
6. Summarise the central idea of this essay.
dyi
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English |3

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