Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of

Question

New Project RC Butler 2019 - Practice 2 RC Passages Everyday
Passage # 188, Date : 05-Jul-2019
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Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of scepticism. To be content with what we at present know is, for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction. From the very gradual character of our education, we must continually forget and emancipate ourselves from knowledge previously acquired; we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; and, as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and anxiety to acquire.

And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive superstitions, are working as actively in literature as in society. The credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as powerful a touchstone and as wholesome a chastisement in the healthy scepticism of a temperate class of antagonists, as the dreams of conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to:

(A) Doubt the credulity of writers who question established knowledge
(B) Discuss the revenues traditionally generated by the Papal sinecurist
(C) Discuss the consequences of the affiliation of knowledge with skepticism
(D) Critique the traditional methods of acquiring knowledge
(E) Discredit old notions and traditional conservatism

2. Each of the following can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT:

(A) Our learning is acquired with labor and anxiety.
(B) The Church has its share of sinecures.
(C) Traditional abuses have thrived under the onslaught of progress.
(D) Scepticism has had a concurrent presence with knowledge.
(E) Unlearning is an integral component of acquiring knowledge.

3. From the passage, it can be stated that the author views skepticism:

(A) as beneficial
(B) with contempt
(C) impassively
(D) as having both positive and negative aspects
(E) as the means to end the supremacy of sinecurists

Source: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/homer/ ... ction.html

Show Answer Question #1

Official Answer

C

Show Answer Question #2

Official Answer

C

Show Answer Question #3

Official Answer

A

Diya52 · Answer

In this passage the author first talks about how scepticism and knowledge is interlinked. And then talks about how this is applicable to learning.
In the next paragraph he goes on to discuss about how this is more relatable in the age where progress has gained an edge over prejudice and gives some examples where this is applicable.

Q1. 1. The primary purpose of the passage is to:

(A) Doubt the credulity of writers who question established knowledge - The credulity of the writer is not doubted and there is no writer mentioned in the passage who questions established knowledge.
(B) Discuss the revenues traditionally generated by the Papal sinecurist - Nothing about this is mentioned in the passage
(C) Discuss the consequences of the affiliation of knowledge with skepticism - Literally what the whole passage talks about and is the correct answer.
(D) Critique the traditional methods of acquiring knowledge - No traditional methods of acquiring knowledge is discussed in the passage.
(E) Discredit old notions and traditional conservatism - There is no old notions or traditional conservatism that the author wants to discredit. The author only says we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones but he needs to elaborate on what those old notions are in order to actually discredit them. Either way, this is definitely not the primary purpose of the author.

2. Each of the following can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT:

(A) Our learning is acquired with labor and anxiety. - "we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and anxiety to acquire" From this line we can infer that learning is acquired with labor and anxiety.
(B) The Church has its share of sinecures. - "as the dreams of conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church." Therefore we can infer.
(C) Traditional abuses have thrived under the onslaught of progress. - "The same principles which have swept away traditional abuses" Nowhere in the passage the author says that traditional abuses thrive. Hence this cannot be inferred and is our correct answer.
(D) Scepticism has had a concurrent presence with knowledge. - The very first sentence in the passage supports this.
(E) Unlearning is an integral component of acquiring knowledge. - "we must continually forget and emancipate ourselves from knowledge previously acquired" This sentence helps us infer.

3. From the passage, it can be stated that the author views skepticism:

(A)as beneficial
(B) with contempt
(C) impassively
(D) as having both positive and negative aspects
(E) as the means to end the supremacy of sinecurists

If you look through the passage the author talks about scepticism and how it goes side by side with knowledge, later in the passage the author talks about credulity of writer and "healthy scepticism". A. as beneficial is the correct answer.

P.S. I must admit that I didnt understand the passage fully and whatever was comprehended by my small brain I wrote down and even though I am not sure if my thinking was 100% correct, the answers all turned out to be right

TheNightKing · Answer

SajjadAhmad

Sorry for the tag but I have this one thing to point out.

Sometimes the timer is placed above the question and sometimes it is placed below the question.

It has happened, at least with me, that I end up marking wrong selections and have later on realised that I answered the wrong question.

Can we try to avoid this? or let me know what you think about this.

Thank you!

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Hello TheNightKing

I had discussed the same issue with the founder of GC after that we have ran a poll to get vote for the best position of the timer and timer above the question wins. Then I updated RC Formatting rules and now according to the rules the timer should be placed above the questions statement. The questions having timers below the question statement are posted before that rule although I have edited a large number of questions to set timer position but a lot of questions are still floating and hopefully I will catch up those.

Regards
Sajjad

vikramgade · Answer

Dear SajjadAhmed
Thanks a lot for doing this. Thanks a lot for all the things done by you for the community.

Regards.....

Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of

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Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of

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