Question

Read the following extract carefully and answer the questions that follow (from 'Keeping Quiet' by Pablo Neruda):
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.

a) What do we lose in our single-minded desire? (2)
b) What is the 'sadness' that the poet talks about? (2)
c) How are we threatening ourselves? (2)

Answer 1

Step 1: Reading the extract as a single argument:
The poet's logic runs: single-mindedness → no pause → no self-understanding → sadness and threat of death. Each answer follows this chain.

Step 2: a):
We lose the possibility of a pause — a 'huge silence' — that could otherwise interrupt our sadness and let us reflect.

Step 3: b):
It is the sadness born of permanently 'never understanding ourselves', i.e. living without genuine self-knowledge.

Step 4: c):
By staying perpetually busy and combative (a theme the poem develops further with images of wars and threats), we edge closer to our own destruction rather than peace.

Final Answer:
Answers derived from the poem's cause-and-effect logic: loss of stillness → unresolved sadness → self-threatening restlessness.