Paper : IES General English Previous Year Paper (2002)

Answers must be written in English.
1. Write an essay on ONE of the following topics in 1000- 1200 words;     (40)
(a) Indian Culture Today
(b) Globalization and Its Impact on India
(c) Women’s Empowerment: Myth or Reality!
(d) Your Vision of India in 2050
(e) Journalism in India : Prospects and Challenges
(f) Science and Human Happiness.
(g) Interesting People I Have Known or My Idea of Happiness.
(h) Should Sales Tax be Abolished?

2. Write a precise of the following passage in about 200 words, using your own words as far as possible. Please state the number of words used in your precise :—     (20)
(Note: The precise must be written only on the special sheets provided for the purpose — one word in each block — and these sheets should be fastened securely inside the answer book)

An atmosphere of trust is as necessary as air or water to human life. We cannot be ourselves unless we trust the people around us; how imprisoned we are behind our masks when w dare no disclose ourselves to others! And to be on guard all the time paralyses our psychic energy. Moreover, it takes trust to love and be loved. Love is an act of faith and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.

On the other hand, in the presence of those who believe in us, we feel safe and free. As a psychologist puts it, ‘We are not only our brothers keeper; in countless large and small ways, we are our brothers maker.” By our trust or distrust we shape him. A woman, who was the wife of the warden of a prison, used to go into the prison yard almost every day. When the men played games, her children often played with them while she sat among the other prisoners and watched. When people protested, she replied that she had no fear. “They are our friends”, she used to say, “My children and I are never so safe as we are here in tie prison.” Her trust in them was remarkably commemorated. When she died suddenly, word spread quickly through the prison and the men .gathered as close to the gate as possible. The principal keeper looked at the silent men, and then flung open the gates. All day long the men filed to the house where her body lay. There were no walls around them, yet not one prisoner broke the trust that had been placed in them.

They all reported back to the prison Why do human beings find it so difficult to trust each other? The main reason is that we are afraid. Watch a pair of stiff people sitting side by side on a plane or train, each fearing to spe. Are afraid of being disparaged, rejected, and unmasked?

How different are the small encounters of everyday life for someone who trusts the world! Once I heard a man describe a woman he had known. “She came to meet everyone’, he said, “with both hands out. You felt as if she were saying, ‘Howl trust you .l feel so fine just being with you! “The man added, ‘You went away feeling as if you could do nothing your tried.” Leftover memories of childhood often make us defensive. A business executive I know, for example, has few friends. His mother died when he has seven, and the well-meaning aunt who took him home with her told him that his mother had ‘gone away on a visit”. He waited vainly for weeks for his mother to return. As a result of this well-intentioned betrayal, he grew up unable to trust anyone again.

To increase our capacity to trust on another, we first need faith in ourselves. There’s nothing I’m afraid of like sacred people”, wrote Robert Frost. And, in fact, he who feels inferior and inadequate cannot trust others. But to believe in our own words does not mean to see nothing wrong with ourselves. What we must trust about ourselves is simply what we must trust about others — that we, too, are seriously trying to do what is right. however faultily Second, trust requires realism. “It’s risky to trust people” an acquaintance of mine said bitterly. ‘You can be fooled.” She was right, if to trust people means betting that they will never do anything wrong. Trust cannot be founded on illusion. For, the insensitive will not overnight become sensitive; the gossip will not necessarily keep your secret. The world is not an innocent playground on which everyone wishes us well, and we must fact this fact. No, real trust is unwavering acceptance of the other person as he is, and a sensitive reaching out for the best in him.’

Finally, trust requires a gamble — a gamble of love, time, money, sometimes even our lives, on someone else. Trust will not always win. As a statesman puts it,‘The man who trusts other men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them.” No great human achievement has ever been accomplished without trust. ‘Trust men and they will be true to you”, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. ‘Treat them greatly and they will showthemselves great.”

3. Write a single paragraph, in about 200 words, on ONE of the following topics :—     (10)
(a) The scars of others should teach us caution.
(b) Failure can light up ones path to success.
(c) He who can, do He who cannot, teaches.
(d) The scene at a village fair.

4. Use the following words in sentences so as to bring out their meaning clearly. Do not change the form of the word. No marks will be given for a vague or ambiguous sentence:    (10)
(a) Contrast (as verb)
(b) Sinister
(c) Charismatic
(d) Precarious
(e) Involve.

5. Supply the correct forms of verbs given in parentheses in the following passage. Please write the correct verb forms in your answer book against the numbers given in parentheses; do not reproduce the entire passage     (10)

In 1877 Pasteur :-
(I become) interested in animal diseases that
(ii be) destroying flocks of sheep and poultry in his country. As a result of intense studies, he
(iii identify) the bacterium of fowl cholera and
(iv discover) a method of immunizing sheep against the dreaded disease, anthrax.  Pasteur’s greatest discovery
(v announce) in 1885 after he
(vi administer) the first vaccination for rabies to a nine-year-old boy, Joseph Meister, who
(vii bite) by a rabid dog. The vaccination
(viii save) the boy’s life. Pasteur
(ix receive) acclaim from all over the world for this discovery and research institutes
(x name) for him in Europe. Asia and Africa. 6. Correct the following sentences without changing their meaning.

Please do not make unnecessary changes in the sentences     (10)
(a) The book comprises of three parts of which the first is more useful than the others.
(b) Both the teachers as well as the students need to realize that there is no justification for continuing the strike.
(c) It is generally believed that tea is more preferable than coffee.
(d) While explaining about the reasons for his action, he made unpleasant and unwarranted remarks.
(e) Rahul has left for London last week.
(f) For havig abused the English teacher, one of the students have been suspended by the Principal.
(g) Ram, as well as Priya, are learning not only French but also German.
(h) We are looking forward to hear from you.
(i) If you are very busy, you would better not go to the function
(j) I offered Economics as one of my elective subject. 

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