Page 163 - DENG401_Advance Communication Skills

Advanced Communication Skills

Notes Going forward from the aforesaid understanding, we see that reading comprehension requires
an ability to understand the meaning of what is put forth, as well as the competence to re-state
the meaning clearly. We learn that the meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings
of the individual words that constitute it. Therefore, to understand a passage fully, one should
know the nature of the words, as well as the function of the ‘inter sentence and inter paragraph
links’. This ability can be acquired through intensive and disciplined practice.

Passages for Comprehension

Education has always had two objects
on the one hand, to give skill; and on the other, to impart a vaguer thing which we may
call wisdom. The role of skill has become very much larger than it used to be and is
increasingly threatening to oust the role of wisdom. At the same time it must be admitted
that wisdom in our world is useless except for those who realize the great part played by
skills, for it is increase of skill that is the distinctive feature of your world.

Although scientific skill is necessary, it is by no means sufficient. A dictatorship of men of
science would very soon become horrible. Skill without wisdom may prove to be purely
destructive. For this reason, if for no other, it is of great importance that those who receive
a scientific education should not be merely scientific, but should have some understanding
of that kind of wisdom which, if it can be imparted at all, can only be imparted by the
cultural side of education. Science enables us to know the means to any chosen end, but it
does not help us to decide upon what ends should be pursued. If you wish to exterminate
the human race, it will show you how to do it. If you wish to make the human race so
numerous that all are on the very verge of starvation, it will show you how to do that. If
you wish to secure adequate prosperity for the whole human race, science will tell you
what you must do. But it will not tell you whether one of these ends is more desirable than
another. Nor will it give you that instinctive understanding of human beings that is
necessary if your measures are not to arouse fierce opposition which only ferocious tyranny
can quell. It cannot teach you patience, it cannot teach you sympathy, it cannot teach you
a sense of human dignity. These things, in so far as they can be taught in formal education,
are most likely to emerge from the learning of history and great literature.
(By Bertrand Russell From: Fact and Fiction, 1960)

Questions
1. What are the two objects of education?
2. Why is it necessary to study history and great literature?
3. Bring out the distinction between ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom’?

I am always amazed when I hear people say that sport creates goodwill between the
nations, and that if only the common people of the world could meet one another at
football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield.

Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game
has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win… Anyone who has played even in a
school football match knows this. At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare.
But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators,
of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously
believe-at any rate for sort periods-that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of
national virtue.
Contd...

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