What is the main point of the essay?

Solitude, unlike loneliness, is a chosen and valuable skill worth practicing. (The essay separates loneliness from solitude and calls solitude 'one of the quiet skills a full life depends on.')

How does the passage define loneliness?

The ache of wanting company you do not have (The text states directly: 'Loneliness is the ache of wanting company you do not have.')

The claim that 'in constant company we perform a version of ourselves' suggests the author believes:

We edit ourselves for others and reveal our true beliefs only when alone. (The next sentences say that alone 'we remember what we actually believe, as opposed to what we say when someone is listening.')

In 'always be at the mercy of others for their peace,' the phrase "at the mercy of" most nearly means:

dependent on and controlled by (Someone who cannot be alone needs others 'for their peace,' so the phrase means dependent on and controlled by them.)

In Praise of Solitude: Level 5 Reading Comprehension Questions

We tend to treat being alone as a problem to be solved. A free evening feels like a gap that ought to be filled with company or, failing that, with the low hum of a screen. Yet there is a difference between loneliness and solitude that our restlessness hides from us. Loneliness is the ache of wanting company you do not have. Solitude is the deliberate choosing of your own company, and it is one of the quiet skills a full life depends on.

The value of solitude is not that it empties the mind but that it lets the mind settle. In constant company we perform a version of ourselves, adjusting our words to the room. Alone, that performance can finally stop. Thoughts we were too busy to notice rise to the surface. We remember what we actually believe, as opposed to what we say when someone is listening.

This is not an argument against friendship, which is among the best things we have. It is an argument against fearing the hours when friendship is absent. A person who cannot bear their own company will always be at the mercy of others for their peace. The capacity to sit alone without reaching for a distraction is not loneliness matured into sadness; it is a form of inner steadiness, and like any skill, it grows only with the practice most of us are careful never to give it.

Comprehension questions