Comprehension (B)
Who is as rich as that? Slowly the wasters and despoilers are impoverishing our land, our nature, and our beauty, so that there will not be one beach, one hill, one land, one meadow, one forest free from the debris of man and the stigma of his improvidence.
Who is so rich that he can squander improvidence, wealth of earth and water for the trivial needs of vanity or the compulsive demands of greed, or so prosperous in land that he can sacrifice nature for unnatural desires? The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.
And what will we leave behind us when we are long dead? Temples? Amphora? Sunken treasure?
Or mountains of twisted, rusted steel, canyons of plastic containers, and a million miles of shores garlanded, not with the lovely wrack of the sea, but with the cans and bottles and light-bulbs and boxes of a people who conserved their convenience at the expense of their heritage, and whose ephemeral prosperity was built on waste.
Questions:
i. What titles could be given to the passage, also summarize it.
ii. Explain the meaning of the expressions "the stigma of his improvidence" and "the lovely wrack of the sea" in the context of the passage.
iii. Analyze the author's perspective on the consequences of human actions on the environment, emphasizing the themes of wealth, vanity, and greed.
iv. How does the passage explore the idea that the exploitation of nature and the abuse of the environment will have repercussions on the future?
v. What theme or message about the responsibility of individuals and society towards preserving the environment can be inferred from the passage?
vi. How might the concerns raised in the passage be applied to real-life situations where individuals and communities make choices about consumption, waste management, and environmental conservation?
