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(Download) UPSC IFoS (Main) Exam Paper 2018 "General English"

(Download) UPSC IFoS (Main) Exam Paper-2018

"General English"

Exam Name: IFoS (Main) Exam

Exam Year: 2018

Subject: General English

1. Write an essay of 800 to 1000 words on any one of the following topics : 100

Education as Social Justice
The Earth as Home
The Future of Heritage Buildings
Compassion as a Human Virtue

2. (a) Write a letter to the Editor of a newspaper complaining about the errors in the language of news reporting. 25
(b) Write a report on a school programme you organized on the theme— "Good sense is ecological sense". 25

3. Write a précis of the passage given below in about one-third of its length. Please do not give any title : 50

The main principle of good management, in its simplest form, can be stated as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Personal failures in an organization are seldom the result of the individual alone— far too often they are failures in leadership, which can be prevented. To prevent failure, the leadership of every organization must accept full accountability, and be committed to the positive actions necessary for successful human resources management.

The success of an organization depends on having an adequate number of people in the right job at the right time, all producing at their highest capacity. Managers cannot, then, expect intelligent human relations to develop spontaneously while most lime and effort is devoted to consideration of tasks and resources. It complicates things significantly when a struggle is necessary to place human resource activities on the same level of importance in the minds of managers as material resources. Whenever consideration of the human element is of less than primary importance in management circles, ultimate success of the organization is in question.

Management has been defined in very simple terms as getting things done with and through the efforts of other people, and that function breaks down into two major responsibilities, planning and control.

Planning consists of deciding what you want your people to accomplish. This involves the careful determination of needs, the establishment of objectives, the outlining of procedures that will attain those objectives, and the proper
assignment of responsibility to individuals or groups of individuals.

Control requires the use of various methods which will stimulate the people control factors that require attention : organization structure and supervision.

Unless the organization structure is simple and all who are part of it understand it, it will defeat its own purpose, which is to enable people to work together in groups as effectively as they would work alone. There should be no misunderstanding about individual or departmental authority and responsibility, or about interrelationships between individuals and organizational units.

The function of supervision is to close the gaps between desired performance and actual human performance. If the mere issuance of policies and instructions would cause people to do what they are supposed to do, supervision would not be necessary.

Management, then, is the development of people—not the direction of things. If this fact is accepted, many management difficulties disappear. The manager who says that he or she would rather exhaust him or herself doing things correctly than expend the time and patience necessary to get other people to do them correctly is admitting that he or she cannot manage.

Thus, management and human resources administration are one and the same, and should never be separated. Management is human resources administration.

4. Read the passage and answer the questions that follow in about 30-40 words each: 10x5=50

Trees are nature's pumps; they take up water through their roots and release moisture through their leaves. We don't directly consume wood and so the water that is unsuitable for crop irrigation is quite all right for them.
In soaking up the wastewater, the trees prevent waterlogging and accumulation of water in large stagnant ponds.

A technique known as the 'ridge and furrow method' that uses trees to deal with sewage water, has been developed. Shallow furrows are dug two metres apart and the excavated soil is heaped up between these furrows to form ridges about one metre wide and 60 cm high. The length of the furrow-ridge depends on how much sewage water has to be released into the area everyday.

On the ridge are planted tree species which take up lots of water and tolerate high moisture contents in their root zone. The best species for this is eucalyptus since it is an evergreen tree and therefore, an active 'pump' throughout the year. The next best is poplar—but it is inactive during winter when it sheds its leaves. Subabul is also suitable for the purpose.

The very hot and the very cold months are not a good lime to plant, but otherwise, if water is available, one can plant at any time. The best period is February. This goes for both eucalyptus and poplar. A three metres space between the saplings should be provided. After planting, sewage water should be diverted into the furrows.

An excellent 'finishing touch' is to add the algae called Spirulina platensis. The trees and the algae together soak up the dirty water and release pure, clean moisture into the air.

Industries can make use of trees to reduce the harm done by their effluents and they should choose the tree species according to the nature of their waste products.

Depending on the factory, its wastewater may be loaded with heavy toxic elements like copper, zinc, cadmium, nickel, cobalt, chromium, manganese and lead. If this water is used to irrigate crops, the plants will take up these toxic elements and when we eat the grain, vegetables or fruit, the concentrated elements will enter our bodies too, with harmful consequences for our health.

But water is precious and should never be wasted, so how can effluents be removed? There are several means of water purification—some of them involving expensive installations. The industrialists baulk at these because it will add to the cost of their product and make them 'less competitive'.

The cheapest, safest, most effective way to tackle factory effluents is by planting trees.

The movement towards a deeper commitment to environmental protection through planting new trees and taking care of the existing ones, is rapidly increasing all over the world. At the global level, trees and forests are closely linked with weather patterns and also the maintenance of a crucial balance in nature. Hence, the task of environmental protection is a universal responsibility of all.

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