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(Paper) ISS - Indian Statistical Service General English Previous Year Paper (2000)
Paper : ISS - Indian Statistical Service General English Previous Year Paper (2000)
1. Write an essay on one of the following topics in 1000 -
1200 words: 40
(a) Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is
chaos.
(b) How TV programmes in India can be made more socially responsible?
(c) How far has the common man benefited from economic liberalization in India?
(d) What success means to you?
(e) The importance of forests.
(f) More than anything else, it is a sense of humor which makes life bearable.
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)
What is prejudice? Its characteristics and origins have by
now been carefully studied by psychologists and sociologists so that today we
know a good deal about how it is transmitted from one person to another.
Prejudice is a false generalization about a group of people - or things - which
is held on to despite all facts to the contrary. Some generalizations, of
course, are true and useful - often needed to put people and things into
categories. The statements that Negroes have darkly pigmented skin and nearly
always curly hair, isn’t a prejudice but a correct generalization about
Negroes. Ignorance isn’t the same as prejudice, either. Many people believe
that Negroes are basically less intelligent than white people because they’ve
heard this and never been told otherwise. These people would be prejudiced if
they persisted in this belief after they knew the facts! Well documented studies
show that when Negroes and whites are properly matched in comparable groups,
they have the same intelligence.
Prejudiced thinking is rarely, probably never, confined to any one subject.
Those prejudiced against one group of people are nearly always prejudiced
against others. Prejudice, then, could be said to be a disorder of thin king a
prejudiced person makes fully generalizations by applying to a whole group what
he has learned from one or a few of its members. Sometimes, he doesn’t even
draw on his own experiences but bases his attitudes on what he has heard from
others. Then he behaves toward a whole group as if there were no individual
differences among its members. Few people would throw out a whole box of
strawberries because they found one or two bad berries at the top - yet this is
the way prejudiced people think and act.
The first important point about how children learn prejudice is that they do.
They aren’t born that way, though some people think prejudice is innate and
like to quote the old saying. “You can’t change human nature.” But you can
change it. We now know that very small children are free of prejudice. Studies
of school children have shown that prejudice is slight or absent among children
in the first and second grades it increases there after building to a peak
usually among children in the fourth and fifth grades. After this, it may fall
off again in adolescence. Other studies have show that, on the average, young
adults are much freer of prejudice than older ones.
In the early stages of picking up prejudice, children mix it with ignorance
which, as I’ve said, should be distinguished from prejudice. A child as he
begins to study the world around him tries to organize his experiences. Doing
this, he begins to classify things and people and begins to form connection - or
what psychologists call associations. He needs to do this because he saves time
and effort by putting things and people into categories. But unless he
classifies correctly, his categories will mislead rather than guide him. For
example, if child learns that ‘all fires are hot and dangerous,” fires have
been put firmly into the category of things to be watched carefully - and thus
he can save himself from harm. But if he learns a category like “Negores are
lazy” or “foreigners are fools,’ he’s learned generalization that
mislead because they’re unreliable. The thing is that, when we use categories
we need to remember the exceptions and differences, the individual variations
that qualify the usefulness of all generalizations. Some fires, for example, are
hotter and more dangerous than others. If people had avoided all fires as
dangerous, we would never have had cooking or central heating.
School can help undo the damage. Actual personal experience with children of
other groups can show a child directly, immediately and concretely that not all
members of a group are blameworthy, stupid, dirty or dishonest. In addition,
unprejudiced teachers can instruct children in the ways of clear thinking that
underlie tolerance. There is definite evidence that education reduces
prejudices. It’s been found, for example, that college graduates are less
prejudiced on the whole than people with less education. Direct instruction
-about different groups and Cultures, another Study shows, reduced prejudice in
those who were taught.
Fortunately, we seem today to be making progress in the direction of less
prejudiced belief and behaviour. Today, parents treat children with greater
respect for them as individuals - in short, with less prejudice. This will
continue to exert a healthy influence on the next generation. In fact, one
survey has shown that t already has College students of our generation, it
demonstrates, are less prejudiced than college students of the last generation.
But since, prejudice against members of a minority group or the peoples of other
countries is a luxury we can increasingly ill afford - no parent should relax
his vigilance in guarding against sowing the seeds of intolerance.
3. Write a single paragraph, in about 200 words, on one of
the following topics : 10
(a) Man spoils mattes much more by speech than by silence
(b) When all think alike no one thinks very much.
(c) A traffic jam.
(d) Scene in an examination hall before the beginning of the examination.
4. Use the following words in sentences so as to bring their meaning clearly.
Do not change the form of the word. No mark will be given for a vague or
ambiguous sentence: 10
(a) potential
(b) legacy
(c) interpret
(d) elaborate
(e) environments
5. Supply the correct forms of verbs given in parentheses in the following
passage. Please write correct verb forms in your answer book against numbers
given in parentheses; do not reproduce the entire passage: 10
Albert Camus, an Algerian writer who (i die) some time age, (ii note), for
his symbols of the absurd hero. When he (iii write). Camus (iv draw) upon
mythology, history, fiction, and drama in order (v illustrate) his absurdism.
Camus (vi choose) Sisyphus as the absurd hero in classic form. According to
legend, Sisyphys (vii accuse) by the gods of (viii steal) their secrets. The
gods condemned him to an eternity of (ix push) a rock to the top of a bill and
(x see) it roll down the slope again.
6. Correct the following sentences without changing their
meaning. Please do not make unnecessary changes in the sentences: 10
(a) I am believing what you tell me.
(b) I like Rita because she is too helpful.
(c) What a fine weather.
(d) Coffee keeps person awake.
(e) I want you and she to help me.
(f) Hardly he had left the house when the storm broke.
(g) He was very too much happy to know that he had won a lottery.
(h) They demanded that the manager is dismissed.
(i) “Didn’t you meet Kailash?” “Yest, l didn’t.”
(j) The party comprises of Dinesh, Ramesh and Mohan.