"Education"

Passage from "The Count of Monte Cristo"

 

"You must teach me a small part of what you know," said Dantes, "if only to prevent your growing weary of me. I can well believe that so learned a person as yourself would prefer absolute solitude to being tormented with the company of one as ignorant and uninformed as myself. If you will only agree to my request, I promise you never to mention another word about escaping."...

"Alas, my boy," said he, "human knowledge is confined within very narrow limits; and when I have taught you mathematics, physics, history, and the three or four modern languages with which I am acquainted, you will know as much as I do myself. Now, it will scarcely require two years for me to communicate to you the stock of learning I possess."

"Two years!" exclaimed Dantes; "do you really believe I can acquire all these things in so short a time?"

"Not their application, certainly, but their principles you may; to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other."

"But cannot one learn philosophy?"

"Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth; it is like the golden cloud in which the Messiah went up into heaven."

"Well, then," said Dantes, "What shall you teach me first? I am in a hurry to begin. I want to learn."

"Everything..." And that very evening the prisoners sketched a plan of education

 

Reading Comprehension Questions

1)     In the first paragraph of the above passage, Dantes makes a comment that suggests the characters are in which setting?

a.      a school

b.      a library

c.      a prison

d.      a mansion

 

2)     In the first paragraph of the above passage, Dantes uses which argument to try to convince the man to teach him?

a.      it will make Dantes more tolerable

b.      it will help the man escape

c.      it will make the man smarter

d.      it will keep Dantes from getting into trouble

 

3)     In the above passage, there is the statement "to learn is not to know."  This statement is saying that "to learn" is only to do which of the following?

a.      memorize something

b.      understand something

c.      philosophize about something

d.      disagree with something

 

4)     In the above passage, a character states: "it is like the golden cloud in which the Messiah went up into heaven."   What is the "it" referring to in this simile?

a.      knowledge

b.      philosophy

c.      money

d.      memory

 

5)     The above passage can best be described as which of the following?

a.      a monologue

b.      a dialogue

c.      a stream of consciousness

d.      a verse

 

6)     Based on the events of the above passage, which of the following most likely happened next?

a.      the men will begin studying together

b.      the men will try to escape

c.      the men will go their separate ways

d.      the men will begin fighting

 

Answer Key

1)     In the first paragraph of the above passage, Dantes makes a comment that suggests the characters are in which setting?

a.      a school

b.      a library

c.      a prison

d.      a mansion

 

2)     In the first paragraph of the above passage, Dantes uses which argument to try to convince the man to teach him?

a.      it will make Dantes more tolerable

b.      it will help the man escape

c.      it will make the man smarter

d.      it will keep Dantes from getting into trouble

 

3)     In the above passage, there is the statement "to learn is not to know."  This statement is saying that "to learn" is only to do which of the following?

a.      memorize something

b.      understand something

c.      philosophize about something

d.      disagree with something

 

4)     In the above passage, a character states: "it is like the golden cloud in which the Messiah went up into heaven."   What is the "it" referring to in this simile?

a.      knowledge

b.     philosophy

c.      money

d.      memory

 

5)     The above passage can best be described as which of the following?

a.      a monologue

b.     a dialogue

c.      a stream of consciousness

d.      a verse

 

6)     Based on the events of the above passage, which of the following most likely happened next?

a.      the men will begin studying together

b.      the men will try to escape

c.      the men will go their separate ways

d.      the men will begin fighting