Question

Read the passage from How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day.

Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put the mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside and out; you run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you employ a whole army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour. Why not devote a little attention to the far more delicate machinery of the mind, especially as you will require no extraneous aid? It is for this portion of the art and craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of quitting your door to the moment of arriving at your office.

The author’s main purpose is to convince readers to

a. devote less time to worrying about what to eat.
b. resist working too much in favor of taking up the arts.
c. avoid endangering themselves just so they can look better.
d. spend as much time developing the mind as developing the body.

Answer 1

d. spend as much time developing the mind as developing the body.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this excerpt, the author wants to persuade the reader to devote as much time developing the mind as he or she does developing the body. The author tells us that as humans, we spend an enormous amount of time tricking the body in several ways, such as being full. We employ many people, from the milkman to the pig-killer, in order to satisfy this desire. However, we need no outside help to develop the mind, and this is a much more delicate machine. Therefore, it requires just as much attention.

Answer 2

d. spend as much time developing the mind as developing the body.

The author begins the paragraph with the statement that a person should "put the mind through its paces". This mean that a person should give their mind a stretch or a work out. The author then describes how a person would take care of his body by shaving, drinking milk, and eating pork. The author connects this to his main idea by saying if you take care of your body this well, shouldn't you also take care of your mind just the same? The author does not talk about worrying about food or working too much. While the author does mention how people take care of their bodies, the purpose is only to show that it is important to take care of the mind too.