Page 291 - New Medley 5 Semester 2

St. Teresa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace in 1979 and the Bharat

Ratna in 1980. She died on 5 September 1997 in Kolkata. St. Teresa is
now known as St Teresa of Calcutta.

Socrates

Socrates was born in Greece about 2,500 years ago. He was

a teacher and a philosopher. He strictly followed the path
of truth. According to him, the source of true knowledge
is thinking and reasoning. In his time, people in Athens

had blind faith in gods. They were also superstitious.

Socrates was against blind faith.

Socrates always worked in search of truth and goodness.
He advised people to believe in honesty, freedom and Socrates

frank thinking. Many rich and powerful people did not like his ideas
and his way of working.

The state accused Socrates of misguiding the people in Greece. They told
him to give up his ideas or face death. He did not agree as he was not

afraid of death. Socrates drank hemlock, a poison, cheerfully and died
at the age of about 70 years. Plato, a disciple of Socrates, preserved the

teachings of his master and made him immortal.

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was born in a poor family in the

USA in 1809. Due to poverty, he could not get formal
education. He worked as a farm labourer and then as

a storekeeper. His mother taught him how to read and
write. She advised him to take life as a challenge and

fight against all hardships.

He became a lawyer. In those days, black people were

brought from Africa and kept as slaves. The white people Abraham Lincoln
treated them badly. The Southern States wanted slaves to work on their

plantations. Lincoln joined politics and in 1860 he was elected the President
of USA. Some Southern States wanted to form a separate nation.

289