At about the age of twenty-five, the Prince, heretofore shielded from the sufferings of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so moved him that he at once went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed. He wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a peepal tree, where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came.
Enlightened after ? seven days, he renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree(Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to s share his new understandings. At that point he became known as the Buddha (the Awakened ? or the Enlightened). The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares, most holy s of the dipping places on the River Ganges; that sermon has been preserved and is given here. It reflects the Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.
1. The meaning of the word ‘heretofore’ in the extract means …….. ?
A. ‘before’
B. ‘previously’
C. ‘earlier’
D. All these three
2. Gautama Buddha became an ascetic ………..
A. to show that he had lost his interest in his s royal life.
B. to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed.
C. to know the secrets of the world.
D. to understand the reality of life.
3. Gautama became Buddha when he …………..
A. sat under the Bodhi Tree.
B. gave up all the luxuries of life.
C. was awakened to the reality of the world.
D. preached his first sermon at the city of Benares.
4. …….. reflects the Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.
A. Buddha’s ‘awakening’
B. Buddha’s first sermon at the city of Benares
C. Budddha’s renunciation of royal life
D. Buddha’s vow to stay under the Bodhi Tree until enlightenment
