A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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English -
Civil Services Examination - 2002
Time allowed: Three
hours
Maximum marks: 300
Instructions
Candidates should
attempt all questions.
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
The number of marks
carried by each question is indicated at the end of the question.
Answers must be
written in English.
1. Write an essay in
about 300 words on any one of the following: (100)
(a) The ways to enrich
our regional languages.
(b) Whither Indian
democracy today?
(c) Terrorism in India
(d) Science and
religion
(e) If I were the
Prime minister of India
2. Read the following
passage and answer in your own words the questions that follow (5x15=75)
The scientific and
technological revolution has brought that fundamental changes in the
socio-economic sphere. The use of diesel engine and electricity and the
beginning of the application of atomic energy have changed the modes of
production. These things have led to the concentration of capital in a few
hands. Great enterprises are replacing cottage industries and small firms. The
working classes have certainly benefited economically. The miracle of
production has necessitated the miracle of consumption. Better amenities are
available at a lower cost. A man can buy anything he wants today, if e can only
afford. But what kind of men are needed today for our society? Men who can
co-operate in large groups, men whose tasks are standardized, men who feel free
and independent and at the same time are willing to fit in the social machine
without any friction.
Modern man is faced
with a sort of moral and spiritual dilemma. The crisis of values yawns before
him. Today the old values are in the melting pot, and the new values have not
found their foothold. Man has become the automaton he has contrived; he has
lost ownership of himself. The discord between the development of positive
science on the one hand and the dehumanization of man on the other is the worst
crisis of the modern age.
Apart from the
economic sphere, the socio-political sphere has not escaped this stratification
and the congruent crisis of values. Since the Renaissance, man has been
striving for individual rights and self-dignity. But under the present set-up,
only two types of men are found the conditioner and the conditioned. The
propaganda officers and the planning bureaus have almost crushed the 'individual
self', and it has resulted in the rise of the 'social self'. Due to this
pressure, the personality fulfillment or its all-round development is denied to
many.
(a) What has changed
the modes of production today?
(b) What things are
being replaced by great enterprises?
(c) What kind of men
are needed today for our society?
(d) Why has man become
the automaton of his own creation?
(e) Is modern man able
to attain personality fulfillment?
3. Make a precise of
the following passage in your own language, in about 230 words on the special
precise-sheets provided. The precise-sheets should be securely fastened inside
the answer book. Indicate the number of words used by you in your precise.
N.B.: Marks will be
deducted if your precise is much longer and shorter than the prescribed length.
(75)
"What is the use of a
house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?" asked Henry David
Thoreau. More than a century later, the Earth seems to be literally falling to
pieces - recent environmental set-backs include billions of tones of ices
shelves breaking off in the Antarctic and unusually warm temperatures in
different part of the world. Panic reactions range from predictions of sinking
islands to lamenting the ill-effects of global warming induced by release of
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The trouble is that we are too much
obsessed with the problem of climatic change to even acknowledge the fact that
the state of the planet hinges on much more. Climatic change is at best a
symptom of a far more complex malaise, just as a fever is most often only an
indicator of something that's gone awry in our body. It is time for a complete
and comprehensive planetary health check, that will examine the impacts of
change in land use, loss of biodiversity, use of fertilizers and pesticides and
consistent pollution of water bodies. This would overcome the limitations of
evaluating how ecosystems work by reacting to just one major environmental
concern as is happening in the case of global warming. These considerations
have been responsible for the setting up of an international panel, the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Financed by four major international bodies,
including the UNO and the World Bank, the eco-panel was set up without much fuss
last June (2001), and is expected to determine, over a period of our years and
at a cost of $21 million, the state of the Earth's ecosystems.
The eco-panel will
have source inputs from more than 2,000 natural and social scientists the world
over. Put simply, the earth will go through the equivalent of a through
physical analysis, so that biological, economic and social information can be
collated to help scientists arrive at a final diagnosis. What is crucial, says
one of the scientists, is that "no one has previously tried to work out how all
of these conflicting pressures interact". The other important factor is how
well we can orchestrate tread-offs and interactions in order to maintain
ecological balance. Scientific bodies like the International Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) have access to vast amounts of baseline data relating to the
subject - although critics point out that the information available is mostly
from the North, leaving the concerns of the South largely unpresented. The
newly-constituted eco-panel will have to take all these aspects into account.
For instance, it will have to ensure that data collection is more representative
of the regions of the world. Today, we have the advantage of sourcing data from
remote sensing satellites as well. The information thus gathered would have to
be sorted out and analyzed by specialists and also by generalists - before the
panel comes out with specific periodic predictions, prescriptions and warnings.
the e\healing process can begin only if all the scientific evidence and
direction is made available to a wide audience and not just restricted to policy
makers. Rather than depending solely upon governments to listen to and take
corrective action, the focus should now be on convincing individuals and
communities whose collective or individual action will eventually make the
difference between regression and recovery.
4. (a) Fill in the
blanks using appropriate forms of the words given below:
ride, diminish,
devotion, shout, watch, contest, disastrous, pleasure, philosophizing, finance
(10)
(i) Mohan is
_________________ to his father
(ii) None seems to
have been ______________ with his speech.
(iii) She ________ at
the peon when he sat down.
(iv) His _________
condition is at a low ebb now.
(v) Several candidates
are _________________ the Panchayat elections.
(vi) The boy was
frightened to __________ the movie.
(vii) What does
Samkara's _________ teach us?
(viii) Hariharan's
suspicious moves herald a _______
(ix) In the circus
show, I saw a bear _____________ a bicycle.
(x) The chances of
starvation deaths have __________ today.
4 (b) Use each of the
following words in two separate sentences first as a noun and then as a verb:
(10)
(i) race (ii) hit
(iii) play (iv) touch, (v) experiment.
4 (c) Rewrite the
following sentences as directed parenthetically: (5)
(i) "Do not make a
noise", said the teacher to his students. (Change into indirect form)
(ii) Hari is so short
that he cannot touch the ceiling. (Replace 'so' by 'too')
(iii) I gave him a
ten-rupee note yesterday. (change into passive voice)
(iv) She bought a
house last year. the house is white. (Change into simple sentence).
(v) Hard as as he
worked, he failed in the examination. (Use 'though').
5. (a) Correct the
following sentences: (10)
(i) He boasts his
achievements now and then.
(ii) She is living in
this flat since 1995.
(iii) The principal
was angry upon the boys.
(iv) Character is more
preferable than intelligence.
(v) Krishna hanged all
the pictures on the wall.
(vi) The sceneries of
Kashmir move me most.
(vii) Cattle is
grazing in the field.
(viii) Hari is going
foreign next month.
(ix) She knew that I
am leaving the place.
(x) His elder brother
gave him many good advices.
5. (b) Of the words
given in brackets, choose the one you think appropriate to fill in the blanks:
(10)
(i) The road accident
proved to be ______ (fateful, fatal)
(ii) He got a ________
opportunity to qualify in the test. (gold, golden)
(iii) Faridabad is an
______ city. (industrial, industrious)
(iv) An ashram is a
________ place. (quiet, quite)
(v) Sohan's
handwriting is _________ (eligible, illegible)
(vi) We should not
disturb the ___________ of his mind. (piece, peace)
(vii) You should ____
an example to strengthen your viewpoint. (site, cite)
(viii) Akbar was an
______ to Humayun. (hair, heir)
(ix) Rajasthan is a
well known ___________ (desert, dessert)
(x) The _______ turned
me out of the class. (principle, principal).
5. (c) Use of the
following phrases in sentences so as to bring out their meaning: (5)
(i) bring about
(ii) call names
(iii) run out
(iv) by leaps and
bounds
(v) lame excuse