After reading the passage, answer the questions that follow:
Unhappiness and discontent spring not only from poverty. Man is a strange creature, fundamentally different from other animals. He has far horizons, invincible hopes, creative energies, spiritual powers. If they are left undeveloped and unsatisfied, he may have all the comforts which wealth can give, but will still feel that life is not worthwhile. The great humanist writers, Shaw and Wells, Arnold Bennett and Galsworthy, who are regarded as the prophets of the dawn, expose the foibles, inconsistencies and weaknesses of modern life, but they ignore the deeper currents and sometimes misrepresent them. At any rate, they give nothing in their place. In the void left by the removal of tradition, morality and religion, others are putting in vague sentiments of race and power. The modern mind is shaped by Rousseau's Social Contract, Marx's Capital, Darwin's On the Origin of Species and Spengler's The Decline of the West. The outward chaos and confusion of our life reflect the confusion of our hearts and minds. Constitutions, says Plato, "are but the reflections in the outside world of the values which prevail in men's minds." There must be a change in the ideals we cherish, in the values we adopt, before we can give social expression to them. We help to secure the future only to the extent to which we ourselves are changed. What is missing in our age is the soul; there is nothing wrong with the body. We suffer from sickness of spirit. We must discover our roots in the eternal and regain faith in the transcendent truth which will order life, discipline discordant elements, and bring unity and purpose into it. If not, when the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon our houses, it will fall.
According to the author, unhappiness and discontent spring from _____.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Poverty along with the moral and spiritual degradation of man
The passage opens: "Unhappiness and discontent spring not only from poverty." "Not only" means poverty is one cause, but not the only one. The author goes on to say that if man's spiritual powers are left undeveloped he feels life is not worthwhile, and that "we suffer from sickness of spirit" after the loss of tradition, morality and religion. Degradation means a fall to a lower or worse condition, so poverty along with moral and spiritual decline is the cause he gives.
Example: The degradation of the soil has reduced the harvest.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Poverty alone — Incorrect. Contradicted: the very first line rules this out: "not only from poverty".
Option 2: Ignorance — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage does not name ignorance as a cause of unhappiness.
Option 4: Mental turmoil — Incorrect. Wrong cause: Turmoil is a state of great confusion or disturbance. The passage does speak of the confusion of our hearts and minds, but as something reflected in the chaos of our life, not as the source of unhappiness; the source it names is poverty together with the sickness of spirit.
Example: The country was in turmoil after the election.