Directions: In these questions, you have brief passages with five questions following each passage. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives

Vacations were once the prerogative of the privileged few, even as late as the nineteenth century. Now they are considered the right of all, except for such unfortunate masses as in China, for whom life, except for sleep and brief periods of rest, is uninterrupted toil. They are more necessary now than before because the average life is well rounded and has become increasingly departmenta-lised. The idea of vacations, as we conceive it must be incomprehensible to primitive people. Rest of some kind has of course always been a part of the rhythm of human life, but earlier ages did not find it necessary to organise it in the way that modern man has done. Holidays, feast days, were sufficient. With modern man’s increasing tensions, with the useless quality of so much of his work, this break in the year’s routine became steadily more necessary. Vacations became necessary for the purpose of renewal and repair.

Q:

The author’s main purpose in this passage is to 

• 1
  contrast holidays and festive occasions with vacation.
• 2
  demonstrate that vacations are not really necessary.
• 3
  explore the history of vacations.
• 4
  tell why vacations have become more common.