Read the following passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Unlike religion and science, poetry does not posit or expect any belief in absolute truths. Those forces or individuals who claim to have absolute truths in their grasp tend to turn dictatorial and tyrannical. Truth usually does not admit any contradictions or imperfections. It is unitarian. It is, therefore, not of much use for poetry. Poetry abides by the plurality of life and existence. Perhaps poetry follows reality which is plural, anachronistic, full of contradictions. Against the tyranny of truth, poetry remains a partisan of democratic reality. Against the arrogance of power, wealth and hierarchy, poetry proposes both humility and defiance.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational message conveyed by the above passage?

Read the following passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

The flower was not invented to please us. It flaunted its petals and spread its perfume to attract an insect. The insect carries the pollen from flower to flower so that pollen is not carried away by wind and thus not wasted. What we call a flower’s beauty is merely a by-product and a human invention. The perfume is not there to please us, it pleases us because it is there and we have been conditioned to it.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. The author of the passage believes that flowers are creations of Nature’s luxury.

2. The author of the passage does not believe in the usefulness of flowers except as things of beauty.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?