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(Download) CAPF (AC) Exam, 2012 Paper - "General Studies, Essay & Comprehension"

Exam Name: CAPF (AC)

Year: 2012

Subject: General Studies, Essay & Comprehension

1. Write an essay on any ONE of the four topics given below in about 800 words : 80

(A) Emergence of regional parties and its effect on the federal structure of India.
(B) Population stabilization—India's critical need.
(C) Migration from neighbouring countries to India and its socio-economic impact.
(D) The role of technology in coping with challenges to internal security.

2. Attempt a précis of each of the following passages in your own words, reducing it to about a third of its present length and assigning a short appropriate title. The précis must be written only on the special precis sheet(s) provided :

(A) The financial expert's office was under a banyan tree : his office furniture an old tin box. From the first pages of Mr Narayan's novel The Financial Expert we are back in the town of Malgudi with which for nearly twenty years we have been as familiar as with our own birthplace. We know, like the streets of childhood, Market Road, the snuff stalls, the vendors of toothpaste, Lawley Extension with its superior villas, the Regal Haircutting Saloon, the river, the railway. We expect at any moment to see the Bachelor of Arts waving a long farewell to a friend from the platform, small Swami wrapped in his adventurous dreams coming down Market Road, Mr Sampath at the door of his dubious film studio. It is through their friendly offices that we have been able to meet these new—and rather doubtful—characters : Margayya, the financial expert himself, who graduates from the banyan tree to publishing, and back to more elaborate and more crooked banking (but how innocent is all his crookedness); Dr. Pal, 'journalist, correspondent and author'; and Margayya's son Balu whose progress from charming childhood to spoilt frustrated manhood is perhaps the saddest episode Mr Narayan has written.

All Mr Narayan's comedies have had this undertone of sadness. Their gentle irony and absence of condemnation remind us how difficult comedy is in the West today— arce, savage, boisterous, satirical, is easy, but comedy needs a strong framework of social convention with which the author sympathizes but which he does not share. Miss Compton-Burnett is forced to place her stories in the Edwardian or Victorian past; Mr Henry Green substitutes elaborate conventions of his own for our social vacancies, so that his characters move in the kind of dance we learnt at kindergarten—'one step forward, one step to the right, twirl on the right toe'. But the life of Malgudi—never ruffled by politics—proceeds in exactly the same way as it has done for centuries, and the juxtaposition of the age-old convention and the modern character provides much of the comedy. The astrologer is still called in to examine the horoscopes for a marriage, but now if you pay him enough he will fix them the way you want : the financial expert sits under his banyan tree opposite the new Central Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank. To push away a tumbler of milk is to insult a goddess; the caste of a great-grandfather is still of great importance, Margayya, astute about mortgages, consumed by the modern desire for wealth and motorcars, yet consults the priest of the Goddess Lakshmi and finds himself seeking a red lotus to pound up in the milk drawn from a smoke-coloured cow (the forty days of prayer have results : he becomes the owner of a pornographic manuscript called first Bed Life or the Science of Marital Happiness but afterwards, through the caution of the printer, Domestic Harmony). Margayya—the sad ambitious absurd financial expert—is perhaps the most engaging of all Mr Narayan's characters. In his ambitions for his boy, his huge dreams, his unintended villainies and his small vanities, his domestic tenderness, he has the hidden poetry and the unrecognized pathos we so often find in Chekov's characters who on the last page vanish into life.

(B) In the last decades of the twentieth century, the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transitions to democracy in scores of countries, plus the significant expansion of international trade, investment, transportation, and communication, usually labeled globalization, profoundly changed America's external environment and had at least three major consequences for American identity. First, the collapse of the Soviet Union and of communism left America not only with no enemy, but also for the first time in its history without any clear "other" against which to define itself. For over two centuries the liberal, democratic principles of the American Creed had been a core component of American identity. American and European observers had often referred to this creedal component as the essence of "American exceptionalism." Now, however, exceptionalism was becoming universalism, as democracy became more and more accepted around the world, at least in theory, as the only legitimate form of government. No other secular ideology existed to challenge democracy as fascism and communism had in the twentieth century.

Second, the extensive international involvements of American business, academic, professional, media, nonprofit, and political elites lowered the salience of national identity for those elites, who now increasingly defined themselves, their interests, and their identities in terms of transnational and global institutions, networks, and causes. As we have seen, some American elites tended to attribute greater salience to subnational identities than did the American public. Many of these same elites also assigned greater salience to transnational identities than did the public, which remained highly nationalistic.

Third, the decline in the relevance of ideology increased the importance of culture as a source of identity. The collective counterpart to the growing number of individuals with dual identities, dual loyalties, and dual citizenships was the growing number and importance of diasporas. Diasporas are cultural communities cutting across the boundaries of two or more states, one of which is viewed as the homeland country of that community. Immigrant ethnic groups promoting their interests within American society have been a reality since the mid-nineteenth century. Immigrants now, however, can much more easily maintain ties, interactions, and communications with people in their origin country and thus see themselves as members of a diaspora. In addition, homeland governments now view their diasporas as key sources of financial and other support and as sources of influence on host country governments. Hence they promote the expansion, mobilization, and institutionalization of their diasporas. The absence of an other until 2001, the spread of democracy, the denationalization of elites, and the rise of diasporas all blur the distinction between national and transnational identities.

3. Study the following passages and answer the questions that follow each passage :

(A) The power of the State is only limited internally by the fear of rebellion and externally by the fear of defeat in war. Subject to these restrictions, it is absolute. In practice, it can seize men's property through taxation, determine the law of marriage and inheritance, punish the expression of opinions which it dislikes, put men to death for wishing the region they inhabit to belong to a different State, and order all able-bodied males to risk their lives in battle whenever it considers war desirable. On many matters disagreement with the purposes and opinions of the State is criminal. Probably the freest States in the world, before the war, were America and England; yet in America no immigrant may land until he has professed disbelief in anarchism and polygamy, while in England men were sent to prison in recent years for expressing disagreement with the Christian religion or agreement with the teaching of Christ. In time of war, all criticism of the external policy of the State is criminal.

Certain objects having appeared desirable to the majority, or to the effective holders of power, those who do not consider these objects desirable are exposed to pains and penalties not unlike those suffered by heretics in the past. The extent of the tyranny thus exercised is concealed by its very success : few men consider it worth while to incur a persecution which is almost certain to be thorough and effective.

Universal military service is perhaps the extreme example of the power of the State, and the supreme illustration of the difference between its attitude to its own citizens and its attitude to the citizens of other States. The State punishes, with impartial rigour, both those who kill their compatriots and those who refuse to kill foreigners. On the whole, the latter is considered the graver crime. The phenomenon of war is familiar, and men fail to realize its strangeness; to those who stand inside the cycle of instincts which lead to war it all seems natural and reasonable. But to those who stand outside the strangeness of it grows with familiarity. It is amazing that the vast majority of men should tolerate a system which compels them to submit to all the horrors of the battlefield at any moment when their Government commands them to do so.

A French artist, indifferent to politics, attentive only to his painting, suddenly finds himself called upon to shoot Germans, who, his friends assure him, are a disgrace to the human race. A German musician, equally unknowing, is called upon to shoot the perfidious Frenchman. Why cannot the two men declare a mutual neutrality ? Why not leave war to those who like it and bring it on ? Yet if the two men declared a mutual neutrality they would be shot by their compatriots. To avoid this fate they try to shoot each other. If the world loses the artist, not the musician, Germany rejoices; if the world loses the musician, not the artist, France rejoices. No one remembers the loss to civilization, which is equal whichever is killed.

(i) What does the author mean when he saysthat the power of the State is absolute, subject to certain restrictions ?
(ii) What examples of America and England does the author cite to indicate the power of the State ?
(iii) Explain the term 'graver crime' used in the second paragraph.
(iv) What are the citizens supposed to do when their government asks them to participate in war ?
(v) Explain the term 'mutual neutrality' used in the second paragraph.

(B) It is several years now since we reached the reduction ad absurdum of our examination system.

The leakage of question papers and the consequent postponement of examinations, are the least disturbing of the reports in this regard that the newspapers publish. At Fatehgarh, some time ago, the superintendent and ten invigilators at an examination withdrew from their duties in protest against 'inadequate security arrangements.' Earlier, a mixed crowd of students and outsiders had invaded the examination centre on the very first day of the examination, and adopted a threatening attitude when their attempts to pass on prepared answers to the candidates were thwarted. A day or two later a crowd climbed the roof of the examination hall and indulged in the most unspeakable acts of wretchedness. Many candidates were caught cheating. The news agency added that 'the administration appeared to be reluctant to handle the situation firmly as sons of some prominent citizens were said to be involved in these malpractices.'

Our examinations, instead of bringing out the best in students, seem to bring out the worst. Everyone is agreed that the system should be reformed. But if one may indulge in a piece of levity on so grim a theme, the situation is rather like what Oscar Wilde said about the weather, namely, that everyone complains about it and no one does anything about it.

The pace of reform is so unhurried as to be imperceptible. Meanwhile, examinations on the mass scale have at best become feats of organization by the Registrar's office, and their academic value as tests of proficiency has become negligible. The only skills that they bring out are the ingenious ways which candidates employ for cheating. In the High School and Intermediate examinations of Uttar Pradesh, about 4,000 cases of the use of 'unfair means' are detected every year. A minister of education, while deploring this, pointed out, however, that considering the four hundred thousand that take the examinations, the proportion of such cases cannot be considered large !

Reforms have no chance of success if they are based, as at present, on a wholly wrong view of the malady. The two most commonly recommended reforms, namely 'internal assessment' and 'objective tests', although they often carry the blessings of the same experts, proceed from two opposite views in regard to the validity of the old-fashioned type of examinations. Internal assessment is based on the recognition that if a teacher is good enough to teach, he is also good enough to examine his students. Objective tests, on the other hand, are intended to eliminate the chancy and subjective element in the older methods of academic evaluation. If the objective tests are really objective, it should make no difference whether their source is internal or external. In fact they eliminate the personal judgement of the teacher, and their logical evolution is towards the machine-scored tests of the Educational Testing Service at Princeton. These tests, like other examinations, are useful if we are clear in our minds as to what we are testing. An academic examination should ordinarily be expected to test the student's judgment, his powers of expression and his memory— n that order. The trouble with our present examinations is that with the passage of time, this order has been reversed, and the student's judgment is now left out of account altogether. We have now reached a stage where the annual external examination, on which so much depends, seems to the student a big gamble. The evils of a final external examination at he end of a course have been exaggerated. Since the American way of internal assessment and the piling up of credits is what finds favour with reformers today, it would perhaps be wise to have a look at what the British educator has to say about his own system.

It is wrong to suppose that we have to choose between internal assessment and external examinations. We should have both. The former will ensure that the student applies himself to his studies throughout the year, and the latter will have the advantages that Harrison talks of. It would however be a mistake to add internal assessment scores to the external; this may tempt institutions to inflate the internal scores. The Education Commission suggests giving the two separately in the student's record. To the extent that institutions establish a name for reliability, their internal grades may protect a student from mishaps in the external examination. The internal grades will also give the student greater confidence and eliminate the tensions that are partly responsible for those mishaps. As for what happens in many examination centres, from rowdyism to murder, the cure is not examination reform, but firm handling of wrongdoers. Now that the hooligans have discovered that they can get away with anything, an improvement in the reliability of examinations will not induce them to desist. Education had better conserve its energies for matters purely educational, leaving it to the law to deal with crime.

(i) What is the significance of Oscar Wilde's complaint about the weather ?
(ii) What are the advantages recognized in the Internal assessment and Objective test respectively ?
(iii) What is the order of priority ordinarily expected of an academic examination to test the students ?
(iv) What is the cure, recommended in the passage, other than the examination reforms ?
(v) (a) Specify the words from the passage meaning : condemning, distorted
(b) Use the following words/phrases in your own sentences : imperceptible, get away with

4. (A) Develop counter-arguments to the following statements in about 75 words each :

(i) MI in retail in India is a bane for a small trader.
(ii) Control of social media is an anti-democratic proposition.

(B) Write a report in about 250 words on ONE of the following :

(i) As a correspondent of a national newspaper, write a report on the impasse in the 2012 Monsoon Session of the Indian Parliament.
(ii) Draft a report suggesting measures to encourage Water Harvesting in India.

(C) Do as directed :

(a) (i) He was very tired. He did not go out for a walk. (Combine using `too....to')
(ii) As soon as the Chief guest arrived, the programme started. (Rewrite the sentence starting with `No sooner')
(iii) Had I known you were not coming • (Complete the sentence)
(iv) It is very humid. It is better to wear cottons. (Combine these sentences starting with `Considering')
(v) The mason is building the wall. (Change the voice)
(vi) Why couldn't you complete the work in time ? (Change the voice)
(vii) I admire her. I cannot agree with everything she does. (Combine the sentences using 'Much')
(viii) The reason why she is absent today is because her husband is ill. (Correct the sentence)
(ix) "Climb the mountain, cross the river and attack the enemy," said the Commanding Officer to the soldiers. (Change the narration)
(x) The teacher said to Rakesh, "What time will the train arrive ?" (Change the narration)

(b) Use the following phrasal verbs in sentences of your own so as to bring out their correct meaning :

put up with
fall out
make out
deal in
call on

(c) Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions in the following sentences :

(i) The railway track runs_ the river and the road.
(ii) Since Raju was_ the influence of bad company, his parents were greatly perturbed.
(iii) While walking_ the small door, she hurt her head.
(iv) Nobody dies_ a bad cold.
(v) Dr. Pandit is an authority_ Mathematics.