Direction for the following 8 (eight) items: Read the following eight passages and answer the items (1-8) that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

There is no harm in cultivating habits so long as they are not injurious. Indeed, most of us are little more than bundle of habits. Take away our habits and the residuum would hardly be worth bothering about. We could not get on without them. They simplify the mechanism of life. They enable us to do a multitude of things automatically, which, if we had to give fresh and original thought to them each time, would make existence an impossible confusion.

The author suggests that habits

Correct Answer: make it easier for us to live

Step-by-Step Explanation:

1. Analyze the passage:

The passage highlights the importance and utility of habits in daily life. Key phrases from the passage include:

• "We could not get on without them."

• "They simplify the mechanism of life."

• "They enable us to do a multitude of things automatically, which, if we had to give fresh and original thought to them each time, would make existence an impossible confusion."

2. Evaluate the Options based on the passage:

• Option 1 ("tend to make our lives difficult"): Incorrect. The passage states the opposite, mentioning that without habits, existence would be an "impossible confusion."

• Option 2 ("add precision to our lives"): Incorrect. Precision is not mentioned as the primary function of habits in the text.

• Option 3 ("make it easier for us to live"): Correct. The author explicitly states that habits "simplify the mechanism of life" and allow us to carry out tasks automatically, which prevents existence from becoming impossibly confusing and thereby makes living easier.

• Option 4 ("tend to mechanize our lives"): Incorrect. Although the phrase "mechanism of life" is used, the author's primary suggestion is about simplification and making life manageable, not negatively mechanizing human existence.

Conclusion:

Therefore, the correct choice derived directly from the passage is that habits make it easier for us to live.