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1.An overall poll conducted by the BBC has concluded that Sir Isacc Newton was the “Greatest Briton” of all time, followed by Churchill and Princess Diana.
2. Newton’s enormous scientific achievements seem to have influenced the outcome; while in the case of Churchill, it was his leadership qualities during World War II.
3. Ranking Diana third has destroyed the credibility of the whole exercise. Her charm, kindness and involvement in charitable causes contributed greatly to make her an icon all over the world. But that is where the admiration for her has to stop.
4. However, I was shocked to find Shakespeare, the greatest genius of all time, had been relegated to the status of a ‘runner up’! There is also no justification to deny Darwin his rightful place, in as much as his contribution to biology is as significant as Newton’s is to physics! For all these reasons, opinion polls of these kinds are unreliable, misleading and invite ridicule.
5. Take a look at Shakespeare’s enormous vocabulary. He employed 9, 36, 433 words in his writings, out of which 27, 780 are different words. The average person uses less than 1,000 words in writing, a little more than that in speech and has a recognition vocabulary of about 5,000 words. Some of the greatest writers may have twice this capability.
6. Today English has a total vocabulary of 2 million words followed by German as a pathetic second with 1, 86,000 words, Russian with 1,36,000 words, French with 1,26,000 words. Thus, Shakespeare in the 16th century used five times the number of words in modern German!
7. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in history. His plays have been translated into 50 languages. In the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations containing about 20,000 quotations, Shakespeare alone monopolizes a staggering 60 pages (10 percent ). He coined 1700 new words. Many of the phrases and terms created by him are in daily use. Some of them have been used as titles for books and movies.
8.The vastness of vocabulary and the ability to see the relationship between words is one of the major factors in measuring genius. Shakespeare excelled any other human being in this aspect. His encyclopedic knowledge of science, history, mathematics, classical literature, sociology, psychology, law, Latin, French politics, music and art acquired by studying books relating to almost every mental discipline and observing the habits and style of life of various sections of people, all around him enabled him to draw ideas generously from all those sources for being used in his plays.
9.The lyrical grandeur of his language covers every known figure of speech from metaphor to simile, hyperbole to hendiadys. The alchemic process in the crucible of Shakespeare’s brain transformed emotions like ambition, frustration, jealousy, greed, romantic love, joy and sorrow he found all around him in people into rich gold of his ever-lasting plays. Hence there is no emotion or activity or situation in the human condition that is not found in his plays. ( 476 words CBSE 2004)
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The above passage is a criticism of an opinion poll result and gives reasons as to why the opinion poll is flawed. It criticises the inclusion of Lady Diana in the list and the exclusion of Charles Darwin from it. It also criticises the position of Shakespeare as a "runner up" and goes on to establish his credentials and his contribution to the English Language. He highlights the vocabulary used in Shakespeare's works, which is far more advanced and diverse than any other writer. He also goes on to praise Shakespeare's writing style, appreciating his usage of all the available literary devices of the English language in his works, his quotations and knowledge, revealing his literary genius.
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Please find the solution to your query below.
The above passage is a criticism of an opinion poll result and gives reasons as to why the opinion poll is flawed. It criticises the inclusion of Lady Diana in the list and the exclusion of Charles Darwin from it. It also criticises the position of Shakespeare as a "runner up" and goes on to establish his credentials and his contribution to the English Language. He highlights the vocabulary used in Shakespeare's works, which is far more advanced and diverse than any other writer. He also goes on to praise Shakespeare's writing style, appreciating his usage of all the available literary devices of the English language in his works, his quotations and knowledge, revealing his literary genius.
Hope this clears your doubt about the summary of the passage.
If there are any more doubts, you can ask us here on this forum and our experts will surely help you.