Text I – questions 1 through 4

1 We are tempted to assume that technological progress is

real progress and that material success is the criterion of

civilization. If the Eastern peoples become fascinated by

4 machines and techniques and use them, as Western nations do,

to build huge industrial organizations, large military

establishments, they will get involved in power politics as it is

7 currently happening. Scientific and technological civilization

brings great opportunities and great rewards but also great risks

and temptations. The problem facing us is a universal one. Both

10 East and West are threatened with the same danger and face the

same destiny. Science and technology are neither good nor bad.

They are not to be tabooed but tamed and assigned their proper

13 place. They become dangerous only if they become idols.

From that dim and distant date when a human creature

struck out the first flint instrument, through all the ages until

16 now, when man belts the globe with computers and can

annihilate whole nations with bombs from the sky, the course of

human life has been a career of material conquest and

19 mechanical achievement. The pen, the brush, the wheel, the

spade, the plough, the boat, the lever, the locomotive and the

internal combustion engine form a continuous ascent. Nuclear

22 fission is not anything new in principle from, say, the discovery

of the fire. The machine is an expression of the victory of mind

over matter. It is not an end in itself. It is a tool devised by man

25 to give practical effect to his ideals. If our ideals are wrong, the

fault is in ourselves, not in the machines. If our ideals are right,

machines could be used to remove injustice, improve the lot of

28 mankind, and help the spirit to grow into maturity. There is

nothing in a motor-car which requires us to drive so fast to kill

innocent pedestrians. There is nothing in a plane, which compels

31 us to drop bombs on fellow men. There is nothing wrong with

machines as such. If they turn out to be evil, it is because we are

evil.

_{J. V. Skinner. Reading and reasoning (with adaptations).}

In text I,

"the wheel, the spade, the plough" (R.19-20) are agricultural devices.