Unseen Passage- 14 | English Language for Grade 8 PDF Download

14. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

Although Louis Braille died when he was only forty-three years old, he succeeded in devising a system of reading and writing for the blind which is now taught all over the world.

Braille lost his sight accidentally as a child. Nevertheless, he was able to complete his education at a school for the blind in Paris and became a teacher. In his days, the few books that were available for blind people were printed in big raised type; the letters used were those of the ordinary alphabet. The reading of such books required immense effort. Not only that. writing was almost impossible for a blind person, it was still restricted to an alphabet which was extraordinary, difficult to reproduce on paper. Braille’s idea was to use raised dots instead of raised letters. He evolved a system which made use of only six dots in all. By various combinations of these dots, it not only proved possible to represent each letter in the alphabet, but punctuation marks, numbers, and musical notation as well. Reading and writing have thus been enormously simplified. The sensitive fingers of a blind person can travel rapidly over the dots; and there is a small machine, something like a typewriter, which enables the blind to write quickly and clearly.

Improvements are continually being made on the system, though basically it is the same as that contrived by Braille. Large raised dots, printed on one side of a page only, make many books for the blind cumbersome. A single book in ordinary print often runs several volumes when it is transcribed into the dot system. Furthermore, the books that are used in lending libraries for the blind eventually become unreadable. The dots are subjected to a great deal of wear and tear; and finally disappear; so that the books become useless. A machine has now been invented which fixes plastic dots on to paper, instead of just making depressions in the pages. These dots do not wear out at all, and there is no danger of their becoming unstruck. Since it is possible, by this means, to make use of both sides of a page, books for the blind are now less bulky. This new way of ‘dotting’ pages can also be used for such things as the production of atlases with the outlines of countries clearly imprinted.

Though many modern inventions like the radio have brought great benefits to the blind, Braille’s system remains the greatest landmark of all. It has provided a simple means for producing books, magazines, and even newspapers, and ensured that no blind person needs to spend his life in ignorance as well as darkness.

I. Answer the following questions briefly:
(i) What did Louis Braille do before he died at the age of forty-three?
(ii) What system did he evolve that enabled the blind people to read and write?
(iii) How do the blind people read and write Braille?
(iv) How did the invention of books and newspapers help the blind people?

II. Write words that mean the same as the following:
(i) that cannot be measured, vast, big —
(ii) Write over from one book to another —

III. Complete the following sentences by taking help from the passage:
(i) Although Louis Braille lost his eyesight in his childhood, he was able to ______
(ii) In earlier days the few books available for blind people were ______
(iii) Braille evolved a system which ______
(iv) Despite many modern inventions Braille’s system remains ______