Life and Learning Question and Answer

 

Life and Learning

G.B. Shaw

Textual questions and answers.

I. State true or false.               1 mark each

1. The hardest part of schooling, according to Shaw, is the early part.

Ans: True.

2. School life is always irksome.

Ans: True.

3. There was a time when German boots were not divided into rights and lefts.

Ans: True.

4. The scholar who knows everything exists.

Ans: False

5. Shaw forgets everybody five minutes after they have been introduced to him.

Ans: True.

II. Answer these questions in one sentence.                                   1 mark each

1. What is Shaw's interesting opinion on 'routine'?

Ans: Routine is about where students are expected to do task at fixed hours. According to Shaw, though it is meant to suit everybody, it actually suits nobody.

2. Why were English people going to live in Germany astonished?

Ans: English people going to live in Germany were astonished by discovering that German boots weren’t divided into rights and lefts.

3. Why is Vinci's notebook considered "funny"?

Ans: Vinci’s notebook is considered funny because he wrote his notes in a mirror image which could only by holding it up to a mirror where one can finds the words ‘the earth is the moon of the sun’.

4. Why does Shaw call himself 'an educated man'?

Ans: Shaw calls himself as an educated man because he has earned his living for sixty years by work which only an educated man, and even a highly educated man could do.

5. Why didn't the governess teach Shaw the table of logarithms and the binomial theorem?

Ans: According to Shaw, perhaps the governess wasn’t educated on it. That’s why, she probably didn’t teach him.

III. Answer these questions in two or three sentences.              2 or 3 marks each

1. Why does the author say that the hardest part of schooling is the early part?

Ans: Because in early part, students are very small kid and have to be turned into a walking ready reckoner. They have to know up to 12 times 12, and how many shillings are there in any number of pence up to 144 without looking at a book. They must understand a printed page just as they understand people talking to them.

2. How can a crammer find out what questions are going to be asked?

Ans: A crammer is a person whose whole life is devoted to doing something, that is, to study all the old examination papers and find out what are the questions that are actually asked and what are the answers expected by the examiners and officially recognized as correct.

3. Why does Shaw say that once the students are safely through their examinations, they will discover their education to be defective?

Ans: In the essay Life and Learning, Shaw provides a scathing criticism of the extent system of education. He asserts that the system of education has been same since the days of Copernicus. It is a system that places great value on outdated knowledge. That’s why he considers education would be defective.

4. Who is a savage or an ignoramus according to Shaw?

Ans: For Shaw, a savage or ignoramus is a person who wrote books without knowing how to write even if they were hung all over gold medals.

5. Why does Shaw think he has not grown up yet?

Ans: Shaw thinks that he hasn’t grown up yet as he believes that there is much more knowledge that he is still yet to require. When he was a student, he thought that he was growing up but after eighty one years of expectation, he realizes that he hasn’t grown up yet. He asserts that the same will happen to the readers after leaving school and stepping to a bigger world. They will discover that they are again in the first form.

IV. Answer these questions briefly in your own words.                             5 marks each

1. Why does Shaw say that to do well in an examination, 'you must go to a crammer'?

Ans: A crammer is a person whose whole life is devoted to doing something, that is, to study all the old examination papers and find out what are the questions that are actually asked and what are the answers expected by the examiners and officially recognized as correct. Since the readers haven’t to do for themselves, they must go to a crammer.

2. 'School to me was a sentence of penal servitude.' Explain.

Ans: The line has been taken from G.B. Shaw’s Life and Learning. Through the lines the speaker expresses his opinion about schooling system.

           In the essay Life and Learning, Shaw provides a scathing criticism of the extent system of education. It is a routine where students are expected to do task at fixed hours. School life is irksome because of routine. Students have to get up at a fix hour, wash dress, takes meals, and have to work all at fixed hour. According to Shaw, though it is meant to suit everybody, it actually suits nobody. It is a system that places great value on outdated knowledge. Every student presents an individual case requiring individual attention but one can’t have that in school. However, he says that the subjects that educated him were never taught at his school because his teachers were ignorant of them. According to Shaw, school is an imprisonment with hard labour that doesn't add to the overall growth of an individual.

3. How does Shaw argue that a routine, supposed to suit everybody, suits nobody?

Ans: When Shaw goes on to deliberate upon the nature of school life, he gives an interesting opinion on 'routine. According to Shaw, it is a routine where students are expected to do the tasks at fixed hours in a uniform manner. However, Shaw puts forward the opinion that a routine is supposed to suit everybody but in reality, it suits nobody. For Shaw a routine in school is like German boots that are supposed to suit everybody but suits nobody. This is because everyone is a unique individual with a different set of talents, capacities and potentials that a routine can never give attention to, nor enhance. While discussing about how one's individual personality is crafted by clothes and boots; Shaw recounts an interesting episode from the past when English people were going to live in Germany. The English people were surprise to discover that the German boots were not divided into rights and lefts. He compares the school routine with the German boots and socks as they do not fit any individual properly but one has to manage with them somehow.

4. Explain why it is dangerous to give up-to-date answers in the examinations.

Ans: In the essay 'Life and Learning', Shaw provides a scathing criticism of the extent system of examinations. He asserts that the system of examination has been the same since the days of Copernicus and has become outdated. It is a system that places great value on outdated knowledge. Shaw provides example of a twenty-year-old student who has been examined by an examiner of fifty. But the problem here is that the student has to find out what the examiner was taught thirty years. He further says that the chances of failing in examination for giving up-to-date answers are greatest in technical professions like the navy and medicine. The students will find them themselves uninstructed with respect to many facets of their life and these facets have nothing to do with the school examinations that they have passed. Thus, it is dangerous to give up-to-date answers in the examinations because examiners might be elderly who might know the information that you have access to; or might not agree to your opinions which might make him hold a inferior opinion about you. Another reason may it be that the examiners are old and that their knowledge may be outdated comparing to the students’ knowledge.

Additional Short Questions & Answers

1.   Who is the author of the essay Life and Learning?

Ans: George Bernard Shaw.

2. Name four dramas written by G.B. Shaw.

Ans: Man and Superman, Saint Joan, Arms and the Man, Pygmalion.

3. Which part, according to G.B. Shaw, is hardest?

Ans: Early part when the students are very small kid.

4. Why did the author suggest the students to cram when they are young?

Ans: Because when the readers are young and they learn anything, they could remember it forever. When they will group up, they would forget everything in seconds.

5. What makes school life irksome?

Ans: Routine makes school life irksome.

6. Why did routine, according to G.B. Shaw, irksome?

Ans: Because the students have to get up at fixed hours, wash and dress, have to take meals and do work, all at fixed hours.

7. From how many days, did the author, wear knitted socks?

Ans: Fifty years.

8. What is a crammer?

Ans: A crammer is a person whose whole life is devoted to doing something, that is, to study all the old examination papers and find out what are the questions that are actually asked and what are the answers expected by the examiners and officially recognized as correct.

9. What is Thirty Nine Articles?

Ans: Thirty Nine Articles are the doctrines and practices of the Church of England, finalized in 1571.

10. Who was Copernicus?

Ans: Copernicus was Polish astronomer and mathematician.

11. Who was Leonardo da Vinci?

Ans: Leonardo da Vinci was Italian painter of the Renaissance popularly known for his masterpiece the Mona Lisa.

12. Who was Jenner?

Ans: Edward Jenner was British physician who introduced vaccination.

13. Who was Lister?

Ans: Joseph Lister was British surgeon who introduced antiseptic surgery.

14. Who was Pasteur?

Ans: Louis Pasteur was French chemist and microbiologist.

15. Who was Homer?

Ans: Homer was Greek epic poet during 8^th Century BCE and author of Iliad and Odyssey.

16. Who was Virgil?

Ans: Virgil was Roman poet during 70-19 BCE and author of Aeneid.

17. Which word is noted in Vinci’s funny notebook?

Ans: The Earth is a moon of the sun.

18. What is the meaning of Nelson Touch?

Ans: Extremely able sailor without awareness of the modern techniques.

19. What do you mean by penal servitude?

Ans: Imprisonment with hard work.

The End