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.
