CBSE Class 12 English Passages Assignment

CBSE Class 12 English Passages Assignment. Based on CBSE and CCE guidelines. The students should read these basic concepts to gain perfection which will help him to get more marks in CBSE examination.

PASSAGE : 2

Intellect & intelligence : Know the difference

1. For long there has been no awareness or endeavour by us to develop the art of thinking. As a result the lives of people are based on groundless beliefs. And their beliefs rest on some absurd superstitions. Or mere assertions which bear no proof. And now they find it difficult to question their veracity.

2. Following this trend humanity has reached a perilous state. We need to realise the emergent need to develop and strengthen the intellect. The process of thinking should start from an early age. Develop the art of thinking. Follow it up with the study of the impeccable truths of life.

3. Delve deep into the truths. Accept those that appeal to logic and reason. Apply them in practical living. Adopt this procedure all through life. It will enable you to build your intellect. Albert Einstein said that intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

4. We need strong intellect to exercise the right choice of action in life. We face endless trials and tribulations. The human species alone is provided with intellect to face and surmount mundane challenges.

5. All other species, devoid of intellect, are helpless victims of the rigours of the external world. A powerful intellect helps us overpower these onslaughts. But the role of the human intellect does not end there. The intellect has the unique capacity to even transcend the world and reach the ultimate state of spiritual enlightenment.

6. Unaware of the need to build the intellect, we tend to entertain ourselves with merely reading ourselves with merely reading others’ periodicals and publications. We indulge in the mere length of study. Just pouring over pages of literature apathetic to its deeper implications. Rare indeed are those who go into the depth of study. Thus little is assimilated or absorbed by readers. People have been educated robots for generations. And have been traversing through life without knowing the meaning and purpose of it.

7. The world abounds in personalities with one-sided development. Intelligence and no intellect. Take the example of a scientist who is an alcoholic. His liver is damaged. He is extremely short-tempered and his blood pressure has shot up. And he is stressed, unable to face even small worldly challenges. Analyse his personality carefully.

8. He is a brilliant scientist with profound knowledge of his subject. He has acquired abundant intelligence but never cared to develop his intellect. His intellect has always remained weak.

9. It lacks the strength to handle the multifarious demands of the mind. His mind craves for alcohol. His intellect is not powerful enough to control the nagging desire. So his mind raves in foul temper. His frail intellect is unable to control its ravings. And when his mind is humiliated, strained and stressed by the problems confronting it, his intelligence looks on helplessly.

10. On the contrary, there are luminaries possessing awesome intellects which hold their minds under perfect control. Some of them possess no academic qualification but academies are built around them. Only by developing the intellect can we save ourselves from self-destruction and evolve to spiritual perfection.

I. Answer the following questions :

   (a) How are superstitions an obstacle in developing the art of thinking ? 

   (b) Why is it important to develop the art of thinking ? 

   (c) What happens to people without intellect ? 

   (d) What do we need to do for building intellect ? 

   (e) Briefly explain the difference between intellect & intelligence. 

   (f) How can building intellect help us know the meaning &purpose of life ? 

II. Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following : 

   (a) Truthfulness (para 1) (b) Dangerous (para 2 & 3)

   (c) Attacks (para 5 & 6)

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 12 English Passages Assignment