It is common saying that thought is free. A person can never hindered from thinking whatever he chooses so long as he conceals what he thinks. The working of his mind is limited only by his experience and the power of his imagination. But this natural liberty of private thinking is of little value. It is unsatisfactory and even painful to the thinker himself if he is not permitted to communicate his thoughts to others, and it is obviously of no value to his neighbors. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to hide thoughts that have any power over the mind. If a man's thinking lead him to call in question ideas and customs which regulate the behavior of those about him, to reject beliefs which they hold, or to see better ways of life than those they follow. it is almost impossible for him, if he is convinced of the truth of his own reasoning, not to betray by silence, chance words, or general attitude that he is different from them and does not share their opinions. Some has preferred, like Socrates, and some would prefer today, to face death rather than conceal their thoughts. Thus, freedom of thoughts , in any valuable sense, includes freedom of speech.
At present, in the most civilized countries, the freedom of speech has been taken as matter of course and seems a perfectly simple thing. We are so accustomed to it that we look on it as a natural right. But this right has been acquired only in quite resent times, and way to its attainment has been lain through lakes of blood. It has taken centuries to persuade the most enlightened people that publish one's opinions and discuss all questions is a good and not a bad thing. Human societies in the past are generally opposed to the freedom of thought, or in other word, to the new ideas and it is easy to see why.
The average brain is generally lazy and tends to taken the line of least resistance. The mental world of the ordinary person consists of beliefs that she has accepted without questioning and to which she is firmly attached. She is instinctively hostile to anything that upset the established order of the familiar world. New ideas, inconsistent with some of the beliefs she hold, means necessity of rearranging her mind, and this process is laborious. requiring painful expenditure of brain energy. To his and her peers, who form the vast majority , new ideas and opinions that cast doubt on established beliefs and institutions seem evil because they are disagreeable.
Repugnance due to mere mental laziness is increasing by positive feeling of fear. The conservative instinct hardence the conservative doctrine that the foundations of society are endangered by the alternations in its structure. It is only recently that people have been abandoning thae belief that the welfare of a state depends the rigid stability and on the perservation of its traditions and institutions unchanged. However, whatever the belief prevails, novel opinions, are felt tovbe dangerous as well as annoying. and anyone who ask why and wherefore the of accepted principle is considered a pestilent person.
Q1. the passage primarily concerns with:
A. free thought and its continued social prominence.
B. customs that regulates the behavior of people in society.
C. free sppech, the relatively newfound right to express free thought openly in society.
D. laziness, the abhorrence of new ideas.
E. the attainment of natural rights in a lazy society.
Q2. The main idea of the first paragragh is to:
A. explain that natural liberty of private thinking is particularly valuable to an individual or a society.
B. present freedom of thoughts as a basic natual right.
C. Argue that it is worth dying rather than having to conceal all one's thoughts
D. suggest that the only limits on freedom of thoughts are the bounds of imagination.
E. justify philosophically the natural link between the freedom of thoughts and freedom of speech.
Q3 The second paragragh primarily servers to:
A. dramatize the subject through the mention of shed blood.
B. introduce the freedom of speech as an age-old right in most human societies.
C. decry society's fight against all odds for freesom of thought and speech
D. explain that the attainment of freedom of speech was not simple task
E. illustrate the governmental resistance to freedom of speech
Q4. The goal of the third paragragh is to
A. debate whether or not free thought is evil
B. describe why people feel threatened by new idea and in turn, free speech
C. explain why the majority in a society is typically politically conservative
