Class 12 English Guide Unit 3 Essays 1.On Libraries By:- Oliver Sacks Summary Exercise Question Answer With Solution

 Class 12 English Guide 

Unit-3     Essays  1.On Libraries                      By:- Oliver Sacks

           The essay 'On Libraries' is written by Oliver Sacks. In this essay, the essayist remembers his childhood. He grew in an oak-panelled library inherited from his father where so many books were stacked. Oliver is happy in this essay because it is his autobiographical writing. He is so delightful. It is written in praise of intellectual freedom, community work, a high state of unexpected discovery and so on.

           The essayist has the good habit of reading books in libraries. He has found his natural curiosity unstimulated by the industrial model of education into which he was pushed. At the library, he was the master of his own time and mind. He got so many ideas from books. He discovered the living substance of learning without the ill-fitting structure of schooling. He apprehended liberation through self-directed learning. He also found a surprising sense of community, which became a wonderful complement to his newfound intellectual autonomy. Autonomous learning is very important and good to achieve success. 

         The essayist moved to New York City in 1965. He started to live in a small apartment. It was difficult for him to read and write but he began to write. He wrote the books on the mind. Then, he was accepted into Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he felt comfortable reading and writing. He met another friend there who was also searching for the books of the brain. They had a close connection because they shared their knowledge with each other. He continued reading books in the library. At that time students ignored bookshelves because of their access to the materials on the computers. Some libraries started to discard old books. He didn’t like that. For him, it was the very bad thing that he took as murder or crime. The library became his escape from the oppressions and adversity of a young person.

                                    Answer the following questions.

a. Where could the author be found when he was late for lunch or dinner?

➜ The author could be found in a little lab along with the oak-panelled library that belonged to his father when he was late for lunch or dinner.

b. What are his first memories?

➜ The beautiful oak panel library and books were the first memory of the writer.

c. Why did he dislike school?

➜ The author didn't like school because he had to listen to the teachers passively obeying their instructions. The author liked to learn himself in libraries being free to choose books of his own choice. 

d. What did he feel about at the library?

➜ At the library, he felt free to look out thousands of books, to roam around and to enjoy the special atmosphere and the quiet companionship of other readers all like him in the same quest.

e. Why was he so biased about sciences especially astronomy and chemistry?

➜ He was so biased about science especially astronomy and chemistry because science was his study of interest. Any library could provide books on various subjects and faculties, and to read all of them is not possible. We must focus our study on a specific subject to get a wide range of knowledge on that subject so the writer, to get specific knowledge, focused himself in astronomy and chemistry.

f. Why did he become so fascinated by Hook?

➜ The writer became so fascinated by Theodore Hook because he was greatly admired in the 19th century for his wit and his genius for theatrical and musical improvisation. He was said to have composed more than 500 operas on the spot.

g. Describe library at the Queen’s College.

➜ The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. It has a magnificent library building which was designed by Christopher Wren, one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. Beneath the library building, there is the vast subterranean holding of the library.

h. Why did the students ignore the bookshelves in the 1990s?

➜ The students ignored the bookshelves in the 1990s because they have access to computerized books.

i. Why was he horrified when he visited the library a couple of months ago?

➜ He was horrified when he visited the library a couple of months ago because most of the shelves were sparsely occupied. Most of the books were had been thrown out or digitalized.