Unit 3 : Essay

Chapter 2 : How to Live Before You Die Exercise Question Answers Class 11 by Steve Jobs

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Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. What is the story about Steve Jobs’ birth?

=> According to Steve Jobs’ speech, he was born from an unwed mother, who was still a college graduate and she decided to put him up for adoption and later he was adopted by Jobs family.

b. What does he mean when he says, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”?

=> In his quoted line, Steve means ‘strong plans and their results’ by dots, which we can’t make prediction in present but we can make strong plans and think of possible positive results learning our mistakes from our past.

c. What happened when Steve Jobs turned 30?

=> According to Steve Jobs, he was fired from his own company Apple, which he had cofounded with Wozniak.

d. Jobs contends that you need to love to do what you do in order to be great at it. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

=> Yes, I do agree with this Steve Jobs’ view that one needs to love to do what s/he does in order to be great at it. It is because if one loves to do sth, his/her huge interest or passion in it is invested with great time and labour. No one wants his labour to go in vain. To make it worth s/he continues a task with great care and respect until the success is kissed.

e. Is death really life’s greatest invention?

=> According to Steve Jobs, death is life’s greatest invention because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important and the trap of thinking we have something to lose will be gone for good.

Reference to the context

a. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

“We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.”

i. Who was the baby boy?
=> The baby boy was Steve Jobs himself.

ii. What does ‘do you want him?’ mean?
=> This means Steve Jobs’ biological mother wanted to put him up for adoption.

iii. Who does ‘they’ refer to?
=> They refer to parents, who adopted him with the surname of Jobs.

b. Explain the following lines:

i. “You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
=> The given quote has been extracted from Steve Jobs’ popular speech “How to live before you die”. As he quotes we have to trust in something-our gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever because any one of these events motivates us or makes us aware of our responsibility to pay. It also makes us be alert for the risk we may bear. It revives us from our ignorance to bliss.

ii. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
=> The given quote has been extracted from Steve Jobs’ popular speech ” How to live before you die”. In his quote, Steve Jobs opines that there are lots of things to do in our life but we have very short time. We will be unable to achieve our goals if we depend on others. So, he expects us not to waste our precious time of our life by depending or just copying others’ life. He means us to make our life fruitful with our own efforts and run with the time until the success kisses us.

c. What does he mean by “don’t settle”?

=> By his short expression in imperative form, “don’t settle”, Steve Jobs means not to give up on something until your goal is achieved. We must love what we do and move ahead through ups and downs until we at least feel that we’ve made things come true.

d. Which style of speech is used by the speaker to persuade the audience?

e. It is not easy to motivate others. How do you think Steve Jobs’ speech is so inspiring?

=> Certainly, it is not easy to motivate others because people of different background are guided by different principles and one’s motivation can bring those principles into a single spirit. It requires a great skill and experience. I think Steve Jobs’ speech is so inspiring because his life story full of ups and downs is enough to motivate us. He uses the personal narrative story telling style. The moments of happiness and sorrow he went through in his life draw our sharp attention in his speech. Moreover, his skill of oratory is simple, clear and strong. So his speech is inspiring.

f. Why do you think Steve Jobs used the personal narrative story telling technique in his speech? What influence does it have on the audiences?

=> I think by using the personal narrative story telling technique Steve Jobs wanted to address anew fresh students of Stanford University about the importance of education in greater extend of their life. By mentioning why he had to leave Reed College soon after he joined it, he wanted to share his feelings with the students to gain quality education for their career development when they have favourable time and support from their parents. Definitely, it has affirmative influence on the audiences because his motivational speech was worth of great concern for them.

Reference beyond the text

a. One of Steve Jobs mottos was: ‘Think differently’. Can this make a person succeed in life? What challenges are there in thinking differently?

=> Yes, we must acknowledge his moto: ‘Think Differently, which makes a person succeed in life without any doubt. It is because we’ve read many stories of successful people, who haven’t done any different things but they’ve done same things in a different way. I would like to give a sound example of my own college, which has stood as one of the topmost distinguished and pioneering colleges not only in the district but also entire in the country. All other colleges teach their students by their qualified teachers but here in my college, the classes are run with multimedia. There is uniformity among all teachers, staffs, and students. We have to follow each and every single rule by every single unit, which is not in other college. In other college, we hear much more freedom than they do need in fact. There are some challenges in thinking differently. For example:
– Criticism,
– Lack of plan and knowledge,
– lack of manpower, and
– It may take us a bit longer time to achieve a goal.

b. What does the slogan “Stay hungry; stay foolish” mean to you?

=> The slogan “stay hungry; stay foolish” means to be eager, curious, creative, driven or keen in for learning or gaining knowledge. We must apply different techniques, ways, methods but shouldn’t stay idle. We must catch the different paths to get the destination.

c. What does it mean to be a visionary? What makes Steve Jobs different from a fortune teller?

A vision is a product of our imagination with logic. So to be a visionary means to be imaginative. A vision or a logical imagination makes Steve Jobs different from a fortune teller.

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Class 11 How to Live Before You Die Exercise Solution – Question Answers [ NEB ]