Character
One Sentence Summary
Summary
Long- Questions
1. Describe what the writer thinks will
happen in the future.
Or, Describe
what think will happen when fuel begins to run out.
Or, What
will happen if we do not conserve the world's natural resources?
2. What specific problem does Asimov
focus on in his essay 'The Nightmare Life Without Fuel'?
3. Drawing ideas from 'The Nightmare Life Without
Fuel' and using your own, discuss what will happen if the fuel resources of the
world are finished.
Short- Questions
1. According to the writer/ author, what
will be the advantage of the fuel crisis?
2. What kinds of serious problems could
a fuel shortage cause?
3. What does the author mean when he
says “the suburbs were born with the auto, lived with the auto and are dying
with the auto”?
4. What specific problem does Asimov
focus on in this essay? Why does he consider this issue worth of attention?
5. Do you believe we can prevent any of
these problems if we act now?
17. The Nightmare Life Without Fuel
Isaac Asimov
Character
Speaker : essayist
Subject
Fuel crisis
Advantages of fuel crisis
Disadvantages of fuel crisis
Back to 18th century's life
U.S.A. & U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
One Sentence Summary
When the limited natural fuels will be used up, the human advancement will go back to the situation of 18th century with only one billion (one hundred krore) people left in the world.
Summary
In the essay, 'The Nightmare Life Without Fuel' the writer describes fearful situation of human beings, when fuel would have used up in the world. The fuel of the world will end soon and people will suffer a lot. He describes the world of 1997. According to him, that fuel of the world is decreasing. So, very soon few vehicles move with overcrowded. There is no new and easy work. People have to break down old buildings to get raw materials. The work is too difficult without using machines. People use bicycle to go to work. Coal is very difficult to dig up and transport. Nuclear fission is dangerous and expensive. Due to lack of fuel, only rich people drives car.
Writer says that there are many advantages of fuel crisis. As very few vehicles move there is no pollution, people become healthy. The streets are full of people. They protect themselves when they are in trouble. Therefore, crime rates have decreased. Then, the writer describes the disadvantages of fuel crisis. Due to lack of fuel and electricity, the comforts and joys of people have vanished away (disappear). People do not use electric equipments properly. They wear sweaters instead of using heaters. People use animal and push carts work and travel. They get a fixed quantity of food but the amount goes on increasing. They cannot stock food due to lack of electricity. The little remaining energy will not allow to the people. People outside of America suffer more because of the lack of food. Many babies are suffering and dying of malnutrition. Only about forty percent of the working people get enough food. Outside the USA newspapers print about starvation, diseases, malnutrition etc. many people are dying due to the lack of medicine. Only the USA and USSR have armies and fighter vehicles.
Finally, he says that the fuel of the world is decreasing day by day. They are going to back to the 18th century and use animals in various works. It has become too late and we cannot do anything. If we saved the fuel from 50 years before, it would easy for us.
Long- Questions
1. Describe what the writer thinks will happen in the future.
Or, Describe what think will
happen when fuel begins to run out.
Or, What will happen if we do
not conserve the world's natural resources?
The writer focuses on the decreasing resources of fuel in the world. He describes human difficulties without natural resources. The writer thinks that when fuel begins to run out the world becomes old, tired and ugly. It has some advantages too.
Decreasing fuel crisis causes many serious problems. There will be fewer lights in streets and homes. No luxurious equipments will be possible. It will be hard to go for miles. Difficulties will arise in transportation and shortage of food. Shortage of food will be cause of death of people by starvation, malnutrition, weakness of brains is also possible danger. The suburbs depend on transportation for all kinds of things. Surely, they will face danger of extinction at the lack of fuels and food. Everything would have minimized due to lack of fuel and food. Starvation, malnutrition, weak health and weak brain all will be results of the loss of fuel.
2. What specific problem does Asimov focus on in his essay 'The
Nightmare Life Without Fuel'?
In the essay “The Nightmare Life without Fuel”, Isaac Asimov has tried to foresee into future when human will have to suffer from extreme fuel crisis.
The essayist is an American and has started the essay by mentioning the negative effects of fuel scarcity on American society. According to him, the American life will be changed into a nightmarish life. They will find themselves unable to keep private vehicles and have to travel in crowded public transport. The factories will stop production and they will have to rescue the metal parts from old and demolished buildings. Inside the house, they won’t be able to operate AC’s, heaters of refrigerators. Hardly any Americans will be able to lit lights after supper. In short, they will have to live inside their dark cold and cave like houses. The fuel shortage will put the human settlements in and end in suburbs.
The American government will have to overlook the personal interests of his citizen. They will only allow the railway to use the coal. The remaining energy will be used by agriculture sector. The car factories will start producing agricultural machines. This will grow the agricultural product in America. But the price of food will knowingly kept high. This will discourage the people to buy more food and allow the government to export them, as it will be the only source of national income.
The condition outside America will be more pathetic. There will be widespread starvation, as only one out five people will get sufficient food. About 80% people will suffer from hunger. Around 2 billion will have their brain permanently damaged. Human muscles and beasts of burden will replace the use of machines. They will have to work for longer hours with less leisure time and amusement. Even then, there won’t be any guarantee of food. In short, the whole human race will be hopeless to suffer in the hell like situation.
3. Drawing ideas from 'The Nightmare Life Without Fuel' and using your
own, discuss what will happen if the fuel resources of the world are finished.
The life without fuel will be very difficult. If the fuel resources of the world are finished, fewer lights will be in streets and homes. Luxurious things such as shower T.V. computer, fan etc. will not be available. Absence of transportation and shortage of food will make life very difficult. Many people will die of starvation and malnutrition. Brains will damage by malnutrition. Those small towns, which had built up with the auto, will disappear in absence of auto. People will lose their works. The writer has also shown some good aspects. However, he has presented a dark side of life.
I think we must be optimistic as well, because they will discover alternative resources, solar power, and biogas, wind power, which makes less air and sound pollution too. It is unlimited resources of fuels. In the place of fuel vehicles, electrical vehicles will be manufacturing, there is no need to worry so much about the fuel crisis.
Short- Questions
1. According to the writer/ author, what will be the advantage of the
fuel crisis?
The author says that there are many advantages of fuel crisis. As very few vehicles move. The air becomes clean. There is no pollution and people become healthy. The streets are full of people. They protect themselves, when they are in trouble. There will be more security in the society. So crime rates will decrease.
2. What kinds of serious problems could a fuel shortage cause?
There are so many serious problems causes the fuel shortage. Some of them are as follows: there will be fewer lights in streets and homes, no luxurious requirements and equipments will be possible. It will be hard to go for miles. Difficulty will arise in transportation and shortage of food. Shortage of food will be cause of death of people by starvation, malnutrition, weakness of brains is also possibly dangerous result of lack of food supply. Development will be slow than past because of the scientific instruments.
3. What does the author mean when he says “the suburbs were born with
the auto, lived with the auto and are dying with the auto”?
Writer says that because if there is lack of fuel then fewer vehicles run on the way, and it causes the less employment on the way. There are so many hotels and lodges on the way for the travelers. Those suburbs will decrease automatically. In our country on the highway, establishes so many suburbs cities like Muglin and so on. But it will finish if no vehicles run. So author says the suburbs were born with the auto, lived with the auto and are dying with the auto, and it is really true.
4. What specific problem does Asimov focus on in this essay? Why does
he consider this issue worth of attention?
In this essay, Asimov focuses on the problem of constantly decreasing fuel resources. He considers this issue worth of attention because we are living in a highly industrialized society and our life at every step depends on machinery. Without natural fuels resources, our social and industrial life would rust. We would not even have enough energy to operate bus and train service. Even agriculture would suffer due to the lack of transportation. Lack of food, household tool, cars, light, etc. would slowly become a thing of the past. Thus the lessening of fuel resources has unspoken an alarming section. For this reason Asimov, shows his concern at this problem in the essay.
5. Do you believe we can prevent any of these problems if we act now?
Of course we can prevent some of these problems if we act now. First of all we should not be extravagant, everybody should be frugal. Afforestation should be taken up by one and all as a national campaign. The government should be serious about its efforts. People in general should be convinced of the long term consequences of their acts. Only a made aware and warned collective effort may save us from this slow death. And we should find out and generate new sources of fuel.
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