Sample comprehension passage with questions for school students. As a young man I was a Marxist, and believed that if the environment was changed, the individual would change, because an individual was a product of his environment. Therefore, I thought that once Capitalism and Feudalism were abolished and the private profit motive eliminated from life, everything would be all right.
In Russia, there was this tremendous revolution. Capitalism and Feudalism were destroyed from the roots, and the private profit motive was destroyed. But what happened? Did the good society emerge? Did the good can emerge? Not at all. All the ideals of Communism or at least what I consider to be the ideals of Communism seem to me to have been buried deep under the Russian soil. The very people who made the revolution became thirsty for one another’s blood; and blood flowed on the streets of Moscow and other cities.
And I saw what was happening in the democratic countries that were trying to create a socialist society. I found the ideals of Socialism were becoming fainter and fainter, dimmer and dimmer. Nationalisation at one time used to be such an exciting and promising slogan. But today, we find that it leads to a bureaucratic order. We find that the relationships between the producers and the consumers, the management and other sectors of society have become frozen. There is no Socialism left in the life of the people.
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Glossary: 1. Taking over by, 2. Supreme-officialdom and lengthy procedure state following state.
Read the above passage and answer the following questions:
1. Give a suitable title to the above passage.
2. How is a change in man a condition for a social revolution?
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3. What happened in the U.S.S.R. after the Communist Revolution?
4. Were the aims of a revolution actually realised there?
5. How far was nationalisation a success in the democratic countries?
6. What do you know about Marx?
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7. Where was Marxism tried first?
8. What are Capitalism and Feudalism?