In a few sentences, summarize the main idea of the paragraph: "Life is not self-authenticating, any more in a person than in an animal. That a given thing—a housefly, a horse, a man, whatever—should be living is a fact, but not as such a meaningful one; for a life just considered by itself can be quite devoid of significance. Meaningfulness does not follow automatically on the mere occurrence of a heartbeat."

The stories make us question the search for a stable meaning in life, often highlighting existential moments of despondency and emptiness. This is rather poignantly asserted by Kersi when he says, “Failure to swim through filth must mean something other than failure of rebirth─ failure of symbolic death? Does that equal success of symbolic life? death of a symbolic failure? death of a symbol? What is the equation?”53 As much as this seems like a complex mathematical equation, it can be understood in simpler terms. These lines are uttered by him when he completely abandons the idea of pursuing his swimming class, with the sheer disappointment that they had resulted in, as discussed earlier. Here he is comparing the swimming pool with Chaupatty beach and its filth, in that, both had resulted in his failure to swim through them, but with a difference. He says “the swimming pool, like Chaupatty beach, has produced a stillbirth”54, for if water symbolizes “regeneration only if it is pure and cleansing”55 failure to swim through clear water must equate to “failure of rebirth”56 and logically then the “failure of symbolic death”57, where rebirth is nothing but symbolic death. This leads us on to logically concur that this must imply through a use of double negative a balanced equation, which can be seen as “success of symbolic life”58 or in other words by reversing each again “death of a symbolic failure”59 with the obvious play of words and syntax by the writer. Clearly then does this draw the questionable inference of the very “death of a symbol” 60 , for logically “death of a symbolic failure” would mean literally and metaphorically the very “death of the symbol”, which ceases to exist and represent anything as a symbol. The equation seems to him only too perplexing and baffling, where seeing it in reductive terms only further increases the angst , sense of hopelessness, futility and vacuity. This attempts to highlight in plain terms, the existential travails of humankind in the modern day world, fraught with an endless search for meaning, but often leading one eventually to only sheer exasperation and cynicism. convert it into easy english

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer key in it.Henry David Thoreau once said, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour.”This is why almost every major change in your life will be associated with a change in the people you live or work with.In a few weeks, that person's attitude has completely changed.By continued association with optimistic, result-oriented, go-ahead people, the previously average individual begins to perform at extraordinary levels.There are countless examples where a person working at an average job, getting average results, and earning average pay has gone to work with a highly progressive company.

How is significance or mattering defined in the context of meaning in life? A value-laden evaluation of daily activities Worthwhileness and value of one’s life A measure of achievements and success A focus on personal desires and wishes

. Write a short note on ‘Human being as a co-existence of self and body’

When we try to define ‘living’, we conventionally look for distinctivecharacteristics exhibited by living organisms. Growth, reproduction, abilityto sense environment and mount a suitable response come to our mindimmediately as unique features of living organisms. One can add a fewmore features like metabolism, ability to self-replicate, self-organise,interact and emergence to this list. Let us try to understand each of these