Direction for the following 7 (seven) items: Read the following seven passages and answer the items (21-27) that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

The greatest blessing that technological progress has in store for mankind is not, of course, an accumulation of material possessions. The amount of these that can be effectively enjoyed by one individual in one lifetime is not great. But there is not the same narrow limit to the possibilities of the enjoyment of leisure. The gift of leisure may be abused by people who have had no experience of making use of it. Yet the creative use of leisure by a minority in societies has been the mainspring of all human progress beyond the primitive level.

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. People always see leisure time as a gift and use it for acquiring more material possessions.
2. Use of leisure by some people to produce new and original things has been the chief source of human progress.

Which of these assumptions is/are valid?

The correct answer is 2 only.

Step-by-step Explanation:

Analyzing Assumption 1: "People always see leisure time as a gift and use it for acquiring more material possessions."

The passage explicitly mentions that the gift of leisure "may be abused by people who have had no experience of making use of it." It does not state that people always view it as a gift or that they use leisure time specifically to acquire more material possessions. In fact, the passage contrasts material possessions with the enjoyment of leisure. Therefore, Assumption 1 is invalid.

Analyzing Assumption 2: "Use of leisure by some people to produce new and original things has been the chief source of human progress."

The passage states: "Yet the creative use of leisure by a minority in societies has been the mainspring of all human progress beyond the primitive level." Here, "creative use" corresponds to producing new and original things, "a minority" corresponds to "some people", and "mainspring" translates to the "chief source". Therefore, Assumption 2 directly aligns with the passage and is valid.

Thus, only Assumption 2 is valid, making 2 only the correct choice.