Here is a sentence from the text that uses semicolons to combine clauses. Break up the sentence into three simple sentences. Can you then say which has a better rhythm when you read it, the single sentence using semicolons, or the three simple sentences?

For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings.

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At twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures and four years later he returned home to marry a princess. They had a son and lived for ten years as befitted royalty.

1. Who does ‘He’ here stand for?
2. What did he study for four years?
3. What does the phrase ‘As befitted royalty’ mean?

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At about age twenty-five, the Prince, heretofore shielded from the suffering of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms.

1. Who does the prince refer to in the passage?
2. What did he see at this time of his life?
3. Give the meaning of the phrase ‘chanced upon’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.
 These sights so moved him that he at once became a beggar and went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed. He wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a fig tree, where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came.

1. What were these sights?
2. How did these sights influence him?
3. Find a word from the passage which means the same as ‘illumination’.

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 Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree the Bo Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to share his new understandings. At that point he became known as the Buddha (The Awakened or The Enlightened).

1. What enlightenment came over him?
2. Where did he sit down for meditation?
3. Give the meaning of the phrase ‘be awakened’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.
 At length, Kisa Gotami met a man who replied to her request : “I cannot give thee medicine for thy child, but I know a physician who can.” And the girl said: “Pray tell me, sir; who is it ?” And the man replied, “Go to Salyamuni, the Buddha.”

1. What was the cause for Kisa’s suffering?
2. What did she do after her only son died?
3. Pick out a phrase from the passage which means the same as ‘finally’.

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The Buddha answered : “I want a handful of mustard-seed.” And when the girl in her joy promised to procure it, the Buddha added : “The mustard-seed must be taken from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend.”

1. What did Buddha ask for and why?
2. Why was the girl happy when she heard the demand made by the lord?
3. Give the meaning of the word ‘procure’.

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Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless and sat down at the wayside watching the lights of the city, as they flickered up and were extinguished again. At last the darkness of the night reigned everywhere. And she considered the fate of men, that their lives flicker up and are extinguished again. And she thought to herself: “How selfish am I in my grief. Death is common to all; yet in this valley of desolation there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness.”

1. Why did Kisa become weary and hopeless?
2. What did she do at the end of the day?
3. Give the meaning of the word ‘desolation’.

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The Buddha said: “The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain. For there is not any means by which those that have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings. As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling so mortals when born are always in danger of death.

1.  What according to Buddha is the nature of human life on this earth?
2.  Can the humans escape death?
3.  Give the meaning of the word ‘avoid’.

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“Of those who, overcome by death, depart from life, a father cannot save his son, nor kinsmen their relations. Mark! while relatives are looking on and lamenting deeply, one by one mortals are carried off, like an ox that is led to the slaughter.

1. Can a father or a kinsman stop the death of any human?
2. How are the humans carried off?
3. How are the humans carried off?

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So the world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world. “Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; on the contrary, his pain will be the greater and his body will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale, yet the dead are not saved by his lamentation.

1. Why do wise people do not grieve when there is a death?
2. Can our weeping or grieving have any benefit?
3. Given the meaning of the word ‘lamentation’.