Page 129 - Aesthetic grammer-4

Comprehension 2

Read the story.

ARISTOTLE

Aristotle lived many years ago. He was born in a Greek colony about 350 years before
the birth of Christ (BC).

His father, Nichomachus, was the physician for the king of Macedonia. Unfortunately,
Nichomachus died when Aristotle was young. When he was 17 years old, he was sent
to Athens to study. Athens was a centre of learning. He joined the academy and studied

for twenty years under Plato, the foremost philosopher and teacher of the time. When
Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and went to Mysia, where he taught for three years in
the king’s court and married the king’s daughter Pythias. They had a daughter and
Pythias died when she was young. Some writers claim that Philip, king of Macedonia,
invited him to come and teach his son Alexander who was 13 years old at the time.
He tutored him for five years. This same Alexander would later go on to conquer the
then-known world.

He returned to Athens. Aristotle set up his school, the Lyceum, where he would teach for
13 years. The school he started continued for more than two hundred years. Aristotle
was a genius. He studied many subjects; science, plants, animals, the human body,
weather, the Earth, the heavens, politics, government, ethics and philosophy. He taught
moderation, urging his students to follow the middle road between extremes. He defined
virtue as the disposition of the soul that promotes human flourishing. Aristotle thought
men of virtue were capable of governing themselves. He died in 322 BC at the age

of 62.

A. Answer the following questions.

1. What do you know about the early life of Aristotle?

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2. What did he do in Mysia?

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3. What did some writers claim about Aristotle?

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