RC
It is their sensitive response to human circumstance that accounts for the persistence of certain universal ideas. Rabbi Meir, a second-century scholar, admonished his disciples to look not at the pitcher but at its contents because, he stated, “Many anew pitcher has been found to be full of old wine. “This was his way of emphasizing the importance of the distinction between form and idea and of stressing that the integrity of an idea is more important than the form of its expression. Creative ideas not only produce their own instruments of survival as time and circumstances demand, but permit the substitution of new forms for old under the pressure of changed circumstances. For example democracy, as an idea originated in ancient Greece and was carried from there to Western Europe and the Americas. But it did not retain the ancient Greek form: it passed through several reforming processes and exists today in many countries. Democratic governments differ in form because democracy is in principle dynamic and has therefore responded to local needs.
According to the passage, democracy is an example of
a. an instrument of survival that has altered its original form
b. a creative idea that has persisted because of its adaptability.
Answer given is a, whereas in the passage, democracy is mentioned as an idea and not as an instrument of survival.
Kindly clarify
Hi Deparbit,
You need to understand the context and read between the lines in RC. You cannot just stick to the one line that holds the word democracy and hunt for the answer. That sentence starts with “for example”. This indicated democracy is being stated as an example of the content in the preceding line.
Preceding line:
Creative ideas not only produce their own instruments of survival as time and circumstances demand, but permit the substitution of new forms for old under the pressure of changed circumstances. For example democracy……….
Clearly democracy is given as an example of an instrument of survival that changed according to circumstances
