Paper : IES General English Previous Year Paper (1995)

1. Write an essay on anyone of the following topics in not less than 1500 words:     (50)
(a) Without communal harmony and a general atmosphere of tolerance, democracy cannot survive for long in India.
(b) How to build a strong movement among Indian women to fight against gender injustice and discrimination.
(c) Impact of economic liberalization on the employment situation in India.
(d) Maintaining dignity and mental balance becomes really difficult in old age.
(e) Your programme of action for improvement of sanitary conditions in big cities in India.
(f) Seeking refuge in’ dreams and fantasies is a. dangerous addiction which we should do our best to get over.

2. Write a precis of the following passage in about 250 words. As far as possible, your answer should be in your own words. State the exact number of words used in your precis. This passage has about 750 words. (Note: The precis must be written on the special sheets provided for the purpose and these sheets should be fastened securely inside the answer book)

Overvaluation is by far the most common object of exchange management or control. There are several reasons why a country should wish to keep its currency at a higher value than would prevail in a free market. But nearly all of them arise from one .circumstance-namely that for one reason or another, the country’s trading relationships are badly out of balance, and free market would lead to much larger quantities of the national currency being offered for sale than demanded for purchase. It may be that the country is at war with little effort to spare for making goods for export, and with the most pressing need to import both raw materials and finished goods, if the right to purchase foreign currencies were not most closely restricted; there would, in those circumstances, be a catastrophic fall in the exchange rate. The period of recovery after a hard war, particularly one in which a nation’s economy has been wrenched and distorted, produces a similar situation in which for a time, a country may have more pressing needs for imports, and less possibility of producing exports to pay for them, that in normal times, A fall in the exchange rate, in such circumstances, could hardly be expected to restore the factors of supply and demand to equilibrium. Overvaluation is usually a desirable policy for any country that is under the sudden necessity of making very large purchases from abroad.

A second reason for over valuation is very similar. There are many countries in the world which at different times have owed, or still owe large debts to foreigners and expressed in the foreigner’s currency. These countries, like a country at war, were also under the necessity of makin9 large payments- to other countries. They were under the, necessity of acquire large amounts of pounds or dollars and the cost of their debt payments at least appeared to be less if their currencies were kept at a high level relatively to the pound or dollar.

A third reason for desiring the overvaluation of a nation’s currency may arise, not out of its international circumstances so much as out of its domestic position. Let us suppose that the country is threatened, for purely domestic reasons, with an inflation of prices. Let us further suppose that it is a country where imports and exports play a large part in the national economy. If the external value of the nation’s currency is allowed to fall imports will immediately become dearer, while exporters will presented with sudden windfall profits. In both cases, fuel will be added to the flames of inflation. And if, indeed, there is in consequence a general rise in prices and wages, the purchasing power parity of The currency will fall and there is a real danger of a vicious spiral arising, with the internal and external-values of the currency alternating in pushing each other downwards.

These are the main reasons for seeking to maintain the value of a currency at a level higher than what would prevail in a free market. But overvaluation has certain very serious consequents. When a country’s currency is overvalued, prices in that country are by definition higher than the corresponding prices in other countries. It follows that the exporting trades are handicapped and imports into that country stimulated. In some circumstances, in fact, a sort of progressive paralysis appears to creep over the whole economy of a country whose currency is overvalued. There are thus times- when a country can derive advantage from having an overvalued currency, and times when it would prefer to have its currency undervalued. It would be unwise to be very dogmatic about what constitutes the different sorts of circumstances; but one general rule may make the choice a little easier to understand. Very generally speaking, over valuation is an advantage when a country’s great necessity is to make heavy payments to other countries, either for greatly increased imports on in payment for debts. Overvaluation of course, makes the country’s exports more expensive, but in a time of universal boon (such as war time), that wil1not greatly restrict the country’s volume of exports. But in times of depression and of universal buyers markets it is an advantage to a country to have its currency undervalued. The rough rule-of4humb, therefore, is in times of war and scarcity, overvalue your currency; in times of slump and surfeit, undervalue your currency. The rule is very rough. Special circumstances may alter it in particular cases.

3. (a) Write a letter to a friend who has gone abroad fr higher studies telling him about the Panchayat elections which .have recently taken place in your area and giving him an idea of how the Panchayat Raj bodies aje functioning under the new system. Sign yourself X. Do not give your name or roll number or place of residence or that of the addressee.)     (20)

Or

(b) Write a brief press-note spelling out your ‘.news on the new proposals in the Union budget, particularly mentioning their impact on the life of the common people.     (20)

4. Use any five of the following idiomatic expressions in meaningful sentences:     (10)
(a) Work wonders
(b) flare up
(c) carry conviction
(d) draw a blank
(e) set at naught
(f) put up with
(g) look into
(h) see through
(i) get over
(j) make a mess

5. (a) Do as directed in each one of the following:     (10)
(i) Puneeta has been elected as secretary of the club. (Change the sentence into the active voice):
(ii) You want to read this book……………?
(Insert, the correct question tag in the blank space in this sentence)
(iii) He said to his friend, “I am in trouble. Can you help me in any way?”
(Rewrite the above in the Indirect form of narration)
(iv) It is beyond dispute that he is the best candidate in the field.
(Convert this complex sentence into a simple sentence using a single word in place of the clause in bold italics)
(v) Electricity may fail. So keep a few candles. (Combine the two sentences using in case a conjunction)

(b) Correct any ten of the following sentences:    (10)
(i) As international language, English is useful link for us - with rest of word
(ii) He does not understand even this simple matter.
(iii) I wonder whether there is some time left.
(iv) A thousand rupees are all the money I need.
(v) It is high time that we settle this question.
(vi) He was not only rude to me but also to my father.
(vii) How can we find out the man whom you say is the real culprit behind this mischief?
(viii) The college building is under repairs these days.
(ix) Rarely he has discussed his personal problems with me.
(x) They sat under the shade of a mango free.
(xi) He expects being appointed on this post.
(xii) I wish I didn’t write this letter.
(xiii) His spendthrift habits soon reduced him into poverty.
(xiv) He occupies an office of not small importance and dignity in this establishment.
(xv) If you had such an important work to do at home, your needed not to have come to office today.