When necessary labor was shared equally among all able citizens, the burden on each individual became light and sufficient time remained for education, culture, and genuine leisure.
2Reading· 오늘의 본문
We · Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1924
In the island nation of Utopia, there was no such thing as private property. The land, the harvest, and the workshops all belonged to everyone. Because of this common ownership, the idea of working for personal wealth vanished. Every citizen, from scholars to magistrates, spent part of their day in the fields or at a craft. This shared labor was not a heavy burden, but a simple, necessary part of community life. It ensured that no one was overworked and that all basic needs were met. The fruits of this collective work were stored in public warehouses, from which families could freely take what they needed. This system meant that greed and poverty were unknown, and people were free to pursue knowledge, art, and true leisure, united by their shared contribution.
B2 · 128 wordsavg 25.6 w/s
Thomas More's 'Utopia' presents a radical reimagining of societal foundations through the lens of common property and labor. The abolition of private ownership is not merely an economic policy but the very cornerstone of Utopian social philosophy, designed to eradicate the root causes of avarice and social stratification. By mandating that all able-bodied citizens engage in essential physical work—primarily agriculture—for a limited period each day, Utopia ingeniously distributes societal burdens. This equitable distribution of necessary toil renders individual loads light, a deliberate mechanism that liberates a significant portion of the day. The liberated time is not for idleness but is channeled into intellectual and cultural pursuits, fostering a citizenry devoted to self-cultivation and communal well-being. Thus, labor transforms from a private means of accumulation into a public, unifying duty that sustains both the material and spiritual fabric of the commonwealth, making genuine leisure and collective advancement possible. What makes Utopia endure as a work of literature is precisely this refusal to offer easy consolation — it demands that readers sit with the discomfort of a world that does not resolve neatly, and find their own position within it.
C1 · 170 wordsavg 34.0 w/s
3Vocabulary· 핵심 어휘 & 연습
burden
부담
The shared work lightened the individual burden on each citizen.
sufficient
충분한
There was sufficient time left for education after the shared labor.
genuine
진정한
They enjoyed genuine leisure, free from the anxiety of poverty.
necessary
필수의, 필요한
All citizens performed the necessary labor for the community.
leisure
여가
Their system of shared work guaranteed time for leisure and culture.
Activity 1 · 빈칸 채우기5 questions
1. Every hour of D-503's life was carefully ____ by the Table of Hours.
2. The ____ of privacy did not exist in the One State.
3. Individual names were ____ and replaced with numbers.
4. The glass walls guaranteed there was no ____ for citizens.
5. The State was ____ declared to represent perfect happiness.