(Paper) IAS Mains Previous Year Paper : English Compulsory (2002)

Paper : IAS Mains Previous Year Paper : English Compulsory (2002)

English - 2002 (Main) (Compulsory)

1. Write an essay in about 300 words in 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: (5 x 15 = 75)
The scientific and technological revolution has brought about 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 he can only afford. But what kinds of men are needed today for our society? Men who can cooperate 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. Modem 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 modem 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 offices 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 enterprise?
(c) What kind of men is needed today for our society?
(d) Why has man become the automation of his own creation?
(e) Is modem man able to attain personality fulfillment?

3. Make a précis of the following passage in your own language in about 230 words, on the special precis-sheets provided. The precis-sheets should be securely fastened inside the answer book. Indicate the number of words used by you in your précis.

N.B.: Marks will be deducted if your précis is much longer or 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 century later the Earth seems to be literally falling to pieces — recent environmental set-backs include billions of tonnes of ice shelves breaking off in the Antarctic and unusually warm temperatures in different parts of the world. Panic reactions range from predictions of sinking islands to the 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 Milleniurn 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 four 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 thorough 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, and 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 trade-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 points out that the information available is mostly from the North, leaving the concerns of he south largely unrepresented. 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 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: (10)
ride, diminish, devotion, shout, watch, contest, disastrous, pleasure, philosophizing, finance.
(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) Hariharans suspicious moves herald a………………….
(ix) In the circus show, I saw a bear ……………a bicycle.
(x) The chances of starvation deaths have ……………….today

(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

(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) Han is so short that he cannot touch the ceiling. (Replace ‘so by ‘too’)
(iii) I gave him a ten-rupee not yesterday. (Change into passive voice)
(iv) She bought a house last year. The house is white. (Change into a simple sentence)
(v) Hard 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 more me most.
(vii) Cattle is grazing in the field.
(viii) Han is going foreign next month.
(ix) She knew that I am leaving the place.
(x) His elder brother gave him many good advices.

(b) Of the words given in the 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) Fariciabad is an …………….. city. (industrial, industrious)
(iv) An ashram is a ………………..place. (quite, quiet)
(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)
(ix) The ………………..turned me out of the class. (principle, principal)

(c) Use 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

ESSAY - 2002
Write an essay on any ONE of the following subjects
(1) Modern Technological Education and human values.
(2) Search for Truth can only be a spiritual problem.
(3) If youth knew, if age could.
(4) The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
(5) Privatization of Higher Education in India.
(6) Responsibility of media in a democracy.