EXAMINATION 1981
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: - 20 An important part of
management is the making of rules. As a means of regulating the
functioning of an organisation so that most routine matters are resolved without referring each
issue to the manager they are an essential contribution to efficiency. The mere presence of
carefully considered rules has the double-edged advantage of enabling workers to know how far
they can go, what is expected of them and what channels of action to adopt on the one side, and,
on the other, of preventing the management from the behaving in a capricious manner. The body
of rules fixed by the company for itself acts as its constitution, which is binding both on
employees and employers, however, it must be remembered that rules are made for people, not
people for rules. If conditions and needs change rules ought to change with them. Nothing is
sadder than the mindless application of rules which are out-date and irrelevant. An organisation
suffers from mediocrity if it is too rule-bound. People working in will do the minimum possible.
It is called “working to rule or just doing enough to ensure that rules are not broken. But this
really represents the lowest level of the employer/employee relationship and an organisation
afflicted by this is in an unhappy condition indeed. Another important point in rule-making is to
ensure that they are rules which can be followed. Some rules are so absurd that although
everyone pays lip-service to them, no one really bothers to follow them. Often the management
knows this but can do nothing about it. The danger of this is, if a level of disrespect for one rule
is created this might lead to an attitude of disrespect for all rules. One should take it for granted
that nobody likes rules, nobody wants to be restricted by them, and, given a chance, riots people
will try and break them. Rules which cannot be followed are not only pointless, they are actually
damaging to the structure of the
organization.
2. Critically examine the following passage: 20
Some societies have experimented with eliminating the middleman. Prices can certainly be
controlled better if the government acts as the middleman, because, after all, goods have to be
lifted and transported to the other parts of the country. But governments are not usually very
efficient or quick in these matters. Nor are they economical — a lot of file-and-paperwork
involving a lot of people adds up to a lot of indirect expense. Although in theory it ought to be
possible to reduce prices by eliminating the middleman, in practice it seems to be an essential
evil.
Business can be left to find its own level in accordance with the so-called ‘laws’ of supply
and demand. By and large, Pakistan is what is called a ‘sellers’ market because essential goods
are usually in short supply or are inclined to fall below the needs of an overgrowing population.
Market manipulation in such a situation is easy and unfortunately fairly common. Goods usually
disappear at about the time they are needed most, leading to price spirals and malpractices. Price
control under such circumstances becomes a little unrealistic unless a huge department can be set
up with vigilance terms and inspectors empowered to raid shops and warehouses. The efforts to
control a seller’s market is so great and the costs so high that in fact not a great deal of ôontrol
can be exercised. And alternative method is to encourage the growth of buyer’s market in which
the customer has a choice between many competing products. Competition automatically-forces
good quality and low prices on the goods. This is at present only possible in the high production
areas of the world. But competition leads to malpractices of a different kind. Survival for a
business often depends upon the destruction of competing business and big companies have a
natural advantage over small ones. An obsessive drive to ‘sell’ is generated in such a system.
Huge sums are spent on advertising, the costs of which are transferred to the buyer. People are
tricked and badgered into buying things they do not really need.
3. a) Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their
meanings: -
i) Canvas, canvass, ii) Cast, caste,
iii) appraise, apprise iv) allusion, illusion
v) continual, continuous vi) berth, birth
vu) apposite, opposite viii) artist, artiste
ix) adapt, adopt.
b) Use any five of the following expressions in sentences so as to bring out their
meaning: 10
i) to have your cake and eat it too,
ii) between the devil and the deep blue sea,
iii) to be in hot water,
iv) to be on the carpet,
v) it never rains but it pours,
vi) a miss is as good as a mile,
vii) to give oneself airs,
viii) to have the courage of one’s convictions,
ix) the onlooker sees most of the game, -
x) out of sight out of mind.
4. Write a paragraph on any one of the following topics:
a) The authoritarian society.
b) Civilized dissent is necessary for social progress.
c) Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.
d) Eventually all human action must be judged by its moral content.
e) Those who can, do, those who can’t teach.
5. Write a paragraph on one of the following topics: 20
a) What we-call progress is largely delusory.
b) Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil.
c) Render unto Caeser that which is Caescr’s, and unto God that which is God’s.
d) A man’s personality, morality, intellect and attitudes are all the product of his bodily
chemistry.
e) All the world’s a stage.
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EXAMINATION 1982
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage in about 100 words and suggest a title: 20 Objectives
pursued by, organisations should be directed to the satisfaction of demands
resulting from the wants of mankind. Therefore, the determination of appropriate objectives for
organised activity must be preceded by an effort to determine precisely what their wants are.
Industrial organisations conduct market studies to learn what consumer goods should be
produced. City Commissions make surveys to ascertain what civic projects would be of most
benefit. Highway Commissions conduct traffic counts to learn what constructive programmes
should be undertaken. Organisations come into being as a means for creating and exchanging
utility. Their success is dependent upon the appropriateness of the series of acts contributed to
the system. The majority of these acts is purposeful, that is, they are directed to the
accomplishment of some objective. These acts are physical in nature and find purposeful
employment in the alteration of the physical environment. As a result utility is created, which,
through the process of distribution, makes it possible for the cooperative system to endure.
Before the Industrial Revolution most cooperative activity was accomplished in small
owner-managed enterprises, usually with a single decision maker and simple organisational
objectives. Increased technology and the growth of industrial organisations made necessary the
establishment of a hierarchy of objectives. This, in turn, required a divison of the management,
function until today a hierarchy of decision maker exists in most organisations..
The effective pursuit of appropriate objectives contributes directly the organisational
efficiency. As used here, efficiency is a measure of the want satisfying power of the cooperative
system as a whole. Thus efficiency is the summation of utilities received from the organisation
divided by the utilities given to the organisation, as subjectively evaluated by each contributor.
The function of the management process is the delineation of organisational objectives and
the coordination of activity towards the accomplishment of these objectives. The system of
coordinated activities must be maintained sothateach contributor, including the manager, gains
more than he contributes.
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
After a situation has been carefully analysed and the possible outcomes have been evaluated
as accurately as possible, a decision can be made. This decision may include the alternative of
not making a decision on the alternatives presented. After all the data that can be brought to bear
on a situation has been considered, some areas of uncertainty may be expected to remain. If a
decision is to be made, these areas of uncertainty must be bridged by the consideration and
evaluation of intangibles. Some call the type of evaluation involved in the consideration of
intangibles, intuition, others call it hunch on judgement, whatever it be called, it is inescapable
tat this type of thinking must always be the final part in arriving at a decision about the future.
There is no other way if action is to be taken. There appears to be a marked difference in
people’s abilities to come to sound conclusions, when some facts relative to a situation are
missing, those who possess sound judgement, are richly rewarded.
But as effective as as intuition, hunch on judgement may some times be, this type of thinking
should be reserved for those areas where facts on which to base a decision, are missing.
a) How is it possible to come to a sound decision when facts are missing?
b) What part in your opinion. does decision making play in the efficient functioning of an
organisation.
OR
Bring out the implications of the following observation. Traveller, there is no path:
paths are made by walking.
3. Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following:
i) To come to a dead end.
ii) To turn a deafer
iii) Every dark cloud has a silver lining
iv) Blowing hot and cold together
v) To let the cat out of the bag
vi) To put the cart before the horse
vii) To sail in the same boat
viii) A Swan Song.
Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences to bring out their
meaning: -
i) Mitigate, Alleviate ii) Persecute, Prosecute
hi) Popular, Populace iv) Compliment, Complement -
v) Excite, Incite vi) Voracity, Veracity
vii) Virtual, Virtuous viii) Exceptional, Exceptionable
5. Write a paragraph on at least 100 words on any one of the following topics:
20
a) All that glitters is not gold.
b) Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
c) Problems of developing countries.
d) There is no short cut to success.
c) To err is human, to forgive is divine.
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EXAMINATION 1983
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25
Rural development lies at the heart of any meaningful development strategy. This is the only
mechanism to carry the message to the majority of the people and to obtain their involvement in
measures designed to improve productivity levels. Rural population exceeds 70 percent of the
total population of the country, despite a rapid rate of urbanization. Average rural income is 34
percent less than per capita urban income. A large part of under employment is still concealed in
various rural activities particularly in the less developed parts of the country. For centuries, the
true magnitude of poverty has been concealed from view by pushing a large part of it to the rural
areas. This set in motion a self-perpetuating mechanism. The more enterprising and talented in
the rural society migrated to the cities in search of dreams which were seldom realized. Such
migrants added to urban squalor. The relatively more prosperous in the rural society opted for
urban residence for different reasons. The rural society itself has in this way systematically been
denuded of its more enterprising elements, as rural areas developed the character of a huge and
sprawling slum. Development in the past has touched rural scene mainly via agricultural
development programmes. These are essential and would have to be intensified. Much more
important is a large scale expansion of physical and social infrastructure on the village scene.
These included rural roads, rural water supply and village electrification as a part of the change
in the physical environment and primary education and primary health care as the agents of
social change. The task is to provide modern amenities as an aid for bringing into motion the
internal dynamics of the rural society on a path leading to increase in productivity and self-help,
changing the overall surrounding, while preserving coherence, integrated structure and the rich
cultural heritage of the rural society.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any two of the Questions that follow
in your own words: (20)
“The third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its
knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the gods, yet we use them like small children.
For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines were made to be man’s
servants, yet he has grown so dependent on them that they arc in a fair way to become his
masters. Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and waiting upon machines.
And the machines are very stern masters. They must be fed with coal, and given petrol to drink,
and oil to wash with and they must be kept at the right temperature. And if they do not get their
meals when they expect them, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow
up and spread ruin and destruction all round them. So we have to wait upon them very attentively
and do all that we can to keep them in a good temper. Already we find it difficult either to work
or play without the machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we
rule the animals. And this brings me to the point at which I asked “What do we do with all time
which the machines have saved for us, and the new energy they have given us?” On the whole, it
must be admitted, we do very little. For the most part we use our time and energy to make more
and better machines, but more and better machines will only give us still more time and still
more energy and what are we to do with them? The answer, I think, is that we should try to
become more civilized. For the machines themselves, and the power which the machines have
given us, are not civilization but aids to civilization. But you will remember that we agreed at the
beginning that being civilized meant making and liking beautiful things, thinking freely, and
living rightly and maintaining justice equally between man and man. Man has a better chance
today to do these things than he ever had before, he has more time, more energy, less to fear and
less to fight against. lf he will give his time and energy which his machines have won for him to
making more beautiful things, to finding out more and more about the universe to removing the
causes of quarrels between nations, to discovering how to prevent poverty, then I think our
civilization would undoubtedly be the greatest, as it would be the most lasting that there has ever
been.”
a) What is your concept of “Civilization”? Do you agree with the author’s views on the
subject?
b) Science has given us powers fit for the gods. If it a curse or blessing?
c) The use of machines has brought us more leisure and energy?
Are we utilizing it to improve the quality of human life?
d) Instead of making machines our servants, the author says, they have become our masters.
In what sense has this come about?
3. Expand the idea contained in one of the following:
i) “Give every man thy ear but few thy voice”
ii) “if winter comes, can spring be far behind”
iii) To err is human, to refrain from laughing, humane.
iv) House are built to live in and not to look on
v) “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air”
vi) What is this life, if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?
vii) A Yawn is a Silent Shout.
4. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their
meaning:
i) allusion, illusion, ii) ardour, order, iii)conquer, concur, iv)Cite, site, vi) addict, edict, vi)
proceed, precede, vii) right, rite, viii) Weather, wether.
5. Fill in the blanks:
1) Much ___________ about nothing.
ii) _______ is the last refuge of the Scoundrel.
iii) To put the____before the _______
iv) ________of the same ______ flock-together.
v) A _______ in time saves _______
vi) ______ Dog seldom ___
vii) Sweet are the uses of______
viii) Eternal ________is the price of_____
ix) A __________ child _______ the fire.
x) One man’s _ is another man’s ________
6. Check and write the word or phrase you believe is nearest to the meaning of any ten of the
following words:
i) Moratorium: a) Large tomb b) waiting period c) Security for debt d) Funeral house.
ii) Prolific: a) Skilful b) Fruitful c) Wordy d) Spread out.
iii) Bi-Partisan: a) Narrow minded b) Progressive c) representing two parties d) Divided.
iv) Unequivocal: a) careless b) unmistakable c) variable d) Incomparable.
v) Covenant a) Prayer b) debate c) garden d) agreement
vi) Tentative: a) expedient b) nominal c) provisional
vii) Demographic: Relating the study of:
a) Government b) Demons c) Communications d) Population.
viii) Sonar Apparatus to:
a) detect something in the air
b) locate objects under water.
c) measure rain
d) anticipate earthquake.
ix) Progeny: a) a genius b) offsprings c) ancestors d) growth.
x) Empirical: a) Relay on theory b) based on experience
c) having vision of power d) disdainful.
xi) Polarize: a) chill (b) to separate into opposing extremes (c) slant
(d) cause to be freely movable.
xii) Apolitical: a) conservative b) rude
c) non-political d) radical
xiii) Plenary: a) Timely b) Combined c) Florid d) full.
xiv) Entourage: a) decorators b) Tourist c) attendant d) adversaries.
xv) Diagnosis: a) identification of an illness b) Prophecy c) Plan d) likeness.
xvi) Nucleus: a) Core b) outer part c) inedible nut d) quality.
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EXAMINATION 1984
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following Passage and suggest a suitable title:
It is no doubt true that we cannot go through life without sorrow. There can be no sunshine
without shade. We must not complain that roses have thorns, but rather be grateful that thorns
bear flowers. Our existence here is so complex that we must expect much sorrow and much
suffering. Many people distress and torment themselves about the mystery of existence. But
although a good man may at times be angry with the world, it is certain that no man was ever
discontented with the world who did his duty in it. The world is a looking-glass, if you smile, it
smiles, if you frown, it frowns back. If you look at it-through a red glass, all seems red and rosy:
if through a blue, all blue, if through a smoked one, all dull and dingy. Always try then to look at
the bright side of things, almost everything in the world has a bright side. There are some
persons whose smile, the sound of whose voice, whose very presence seems like a ray of
sunshine and brightens a whole room. Greet everybody with a bright smile, kind words and a
pleasant welcome. It is not enough to love those who are near and dear to us. We must show that
we do so. While, however, we should be grateful, and enjoy to the full the innumerable blessings
of life, we cannot expect to have no sorrows or anxieties. Life has been described as a comedy to
those who think, and a tragedy to those feel. It is indeed a tragedy at times and a comedy very
often, but as a rule, it is what we choose to make it. No evil, said Socrates, can happen to a good
man, either in Life or Death. -
2. Read the following Passage carefully and answer any two questions given at the end:
During the last few decades medicine has undoubtedly advanced by huge strides in
consequence of innumerable discoveries and inventions. But have we actually become healthier
as a result of this progress? Admittedly, tuberculosis or cholera is today a much rare cause of
death in many countries. On the other hand, various other no less dangerous diseases have
appeared, which we term “time diseases”. They include not only certain impairments of the heart
and the circulatory system, of the skeletal structure and internal organs, but also an increased
psychic instability, the addiction to all manner of drugs etc., and states of nervous shock and
exhaustion.
According to Bodamer, “Man’s hystorical and vain attempt to overtax and do violence to his
nature in order to adjust it to the technical world leads to a dangerous threat to health.” In other
words, our organs can no longer cope with the noise, the bustle and all the inevitable
concomitants of our modern civilization. A man’s body is simply not a machine to be used as he
thinks fit, and as long as he likes. It is something living, a part of the image of God in which we
were created. That is why the body has a rhythm of its own, a rhythm that can make itself heard.
The most deep-seated of all the diseases of our time is that man no longer takes God into
account, that he has lost confidence in God’s dominion over the world, that he considers the
visible as the ultimate, the only, reality. But man without God suffers from hi-s fate because he
cannot accept it from the hand of God. He suffers from the world because he senses its
disordered state without being able to put it right. He begins to suffer from his work -because it
exhausts him without satisfying him. He begins to suffer from his fellowmen because they are
not his neighbours, to whom God would have him turn, but because he less them get on his
neighbours, to whom God would have him turn, but because he-lets them get on his nerves and
make him ill. And he suffers from himself because he finds himself out of tune and dissatisfied
with himself. It is only because our time is no longer centered in God that its structure is
increasing becoming what critics of our civilization call “pathological” dominated by the fear of
life as well as by the lust for life, ending in the splitting of personality. 20
a) How does the expression “time diseases” indicate that these various ailments have
something fundamental in common? Explain
b) Why does modern man suffer from his time? It is not because he has not adapted his
body sufficiently to the demands of the machine?- It is not rather because he has
surrendered his soul to time and its powers?
c) What cure would you suggest to combat these ills?
d) Explain the last sentence fully.
3.Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following: 15
a) To look a gift horse in the mouth.
b) To have an axe to grind.
c) To wash one’s dirty linen in public.
d) To pocket an insult.
e) To take to one’s heels.. -
f) To win laurels.
g) A gentleman at large.
4. Examine the following word groups. Explain and use any five of them in sentences to
determine where genuine differences of meaning and function exist within the group:
a) Table, brand b) opinion, judgement
c) uninterested, disinterested d) revolt, mutiny
e) decay, spoil f) adjourn, postpone
g) ignore, neglect h) conspiracy, plot
5. Discuss each of the following situations and determine the validity of the direct testimony
involved:
a). A witness testifies to seeing a holdup and identifies one of the gunmen. it is established
that this witness was about two hundred yards from the scene of the crime. Under crossexamination,
the attorney for the defence brings out the fact that the witness habitually wears
glasses to correct a severe condition of nearsightedness, but that on the day of holdup, his glasses
were broken and he had just left them to be repaired.
b) A series of witnesses agrees that a-particular crime was committed by a man who is bald,
walks with a slight lip, is about 510 tall, and wears thick glasses. They differ on the matter of the
colour of his clothing, the type of shoes he was wearing, and the size of satchel he was carrying.
OR
Explain as clearly as you can any two of the following statements:
.a) The political structure of a society is always the power structure of that society.
b) It is better to be silent and be thought stupid than to speak and prove it’s true.
c) The only knowledge worth having is that which is applicable to some part of the
economic life of the community: -
d) Any “labour-saving” device is the most in-human aspect of work.
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EXAMINATION 1985
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25 Climate influences
labour not only by enervating the labourer or by invigorating him,
but also by the effect it produces on the regularity of his habits. Thus we find that no people
living in a very northern latitude have ever possessed that steady and unflinching industry for
which the inhabitants of temperate regions are remarkable. In the more northern countries the
severity of the weather, and, at some seasons, the deficiency of light, render it impossible for
the people to continue their usual out-of-door employments. The result is that the working
classes, being compelled to cease from their ordinary, pursuits, arc rendered move prone to
desultory habits, the chain of their industry is, as it were, broken, and they lose that impetus
which long-continued and uninterrupted practice never fails to give. Hence there arises a national
character more fitful-and capricious than that possessed by a people whose climate permits the
regular exercise of their ordinary industry. Indeed so powerful is this principle that we perceive
its operations even under the most opposite circumstances. It would be difficult to conceive a
greater difference in government, laws, religion, and manners, than that which distinguishes
Sweden and Norway, on the one hand, from Spain and Portugal on the other. But these four
countries have one great point in common. In all of them continued agricultural -industry is
impracticable. In the two Southern countries labour is interrupted by the dryness of the weather
and by the consequent state of the soil. In the northern countries the same effect is produced by
the severity-of the winter and the shortness of the days. The consequence is that these four
nations, though so different in other respects, are all remarkable for a certain instability and
fickleness of character.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any two questions given at the end:20
Whoever starts a new diary does it, if he is wise, in secret, for if it be known to his friends
that he keeps a punctual record of his doings and theirs, they will treat him with a reticence that
may embarrass him. That is the first rule of diary keeping, but others, such as whether the diary
should be regular, or irregular, are more disputable. It is, however, a fatal practice to attempt
regularity in amount.., to aim, as some do, at filling a page or two a day. It is equally futile to
strive for uniformity of style or, indeed forany styleat all. The advantage of the diary form is that
it exempts its users from all ordinary rules, you may spell as you like, abbreviate, or wander into
side-tracks as-and when it pleases you. Above all, you need preserve no sense of proportion or
responsibility. A new hat may oust a new Parliament, a new actress who amused you may,
without any complaints, sweep all the armies and potentates of Europe over your margin into
nothingness and oblivion. Nobody’s feelings have to be considered, no sense of critical audience
need force gaiety from a mood of sadness or cast a shadow on the spirits of Puck.
Why, then does not everyone keep a diary if it is so full of the delights of freedom and
omnipotence? Perhaps it is because we like to have an audience for what we say, and grow a
little tired of entertaining our great-great-grand-children. Some aver that all diarists are vain, but
it would appear, on the contrary, if they keep their secret and let none pry into their locked
drawer, that they have an irrefutable claim to modesty. it is possible, of course, that they may be
puffing themselves up before the mirror of posterity, but that is such a remote and pardonable
conceit — particularly, if we remember that posterity is far more likely to mock than to admire
that nobody who turns over the blank pages of this year and wonders what other fingers will turn
them some day need be ashamed of his diarist’s dream.
a) What are your own impressions about diary-keeping? Write a short paragraph of about
100 words:
b) State in your own words why the writer thinks that a diary should be kept in secret.
c) Explain the Linderlined portions.
3. Use any live of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out the
difference in meaning clearly: 15
a) Eminent, Imminent b) Deference, Difference
c) Eligible, Illegible d) Judicial, Judicious
e) President, Precedent f) Superficial, Superfluous
g) Immigrant, Emigrant h) Rightful, Righteous
j) Contemptible, Contemptuous k) Ingenious, Ingenuous.
4. Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following: 10
a) By and by b) The lion’s share
c) In black and white d) To bring to book
e) To read between the lines 0 To stick to one’s guns
g) To be under a cloud h) By fits and starts.
5. Use any five of the following phrases in your own sentences so as to make their meaning
clear: 10
Ab initio, Bona fides: En bloc; Ex paste, Sine die, Status quo, Ad valorum; Alter ego.
6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in a passage of about 150 words:
20
a) “Men are not hanged for stealing horses but that horses may not be stolen.”
b)- “Three may keep a secret if two are dead.”
c) “All philosophy is in two words, sustain or abstain.”
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EXAMINATION 1986
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage, suggesting a suitable title: 25 One of the
fundamental facts about words is that the most useful ones in our language
have many meanings. That is partly why they are so useful: they work overtime... Think of -all
the various things we mean by the word “foot” on different occasion: one of the lower
extremities of the human body, a measure of verse, the ground about a tree, twelve inches,
- the floor in front of the stairs. The same is true of nearly every common noun or verb...
considering the number of ways of taking a particular word, the tusk of speaking clearly and
being understood would seem pretty hopeless if it were not for another very important fact about
language. Though a word may have many senses, these senses can be controlled, up to a point,
by the context in which the word is used. When we find the word in a particular verbal setting -
we can usually decide quite definitely which of the many senses of the word relevant. If a poet
says his verse has feet, it doesn’t occur to you that he could mean it’s a yard long or is threelegged
(unless perhaps you are a critic planning to puncture the poet with a pun about his
“lumping verse”). The context rules out these maverick senses quite decisively.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any two questions given at the end in
about 70 words each: 20
Biofeedback is a process that allows people with stress-related illnesses such as high blood
pressure to monitor and improve their health by learning to relax. In biofeedback, devices that
monitor skin temperature are attached to a patient’s arm, leg, or forehead. Then the person tries
to relax: As he or she relaxes completely, the temperature of the area under the devices rises
because more blood reaches the area. When a machine that is attached to the devices detects the
rise in temperature a buzzer sounds, or the reading on a dial changes. As long as the patient is
relaxed, the buzzer or dial gives encouragement.
The next part of the biofeedback process is learning how to relax without the monitoring
devices. The patient recalls how he or she or she felt when the buzzer or’ dial indicated
relaxation and then tries to imitate that feeling without having to check the biofeedback machine.
After succeeding in doing so, the patient tries to maintain the relaxed feeling throughout the day.
Stress may cause as much as 75 percent of all illness, therefore,
biofeedback promises to bean outstanding medical tool.
1) What is a biofeedback? Describe in your own way.
2) Can learning to relax improve health? Explain your view-point.
3) Why is biofeedback considered to be an instrument with great potential for the treatment
of stress-related illnesses?
3. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences to differentiate them
in their meaning and functions:
a) Complement, Compliment b) Outbreak, Breakout
c) Facilitate, Felicitate d) Precede, Proceed
e) Layout, outlay 0 Cease, Seize
g) Career, Carrier h) Acculturate, Acclimitise
4. Transform any five of the following sentences into direct/Indirect Form as the case may be:’
15
a) He said, “Don’t open the door.”
b) He offered to bring me some tea.
c) He aid, “Thank you!”
d) He said, “Can you swim?” and I said, “NO”.
e) He told Aslam to get his coat.
0 “If 1 were you, I would wait,” I said.
g) He ordered the peon to lock the door.
h) He warned me not to leave my car unlocked as there had been lot of stealing from cars.
5. Describe the meaning of any five of the following foreign phrases: - 10
a) Prima facie b) Ex post facto
c) Fait accompli d) Vis-a-vis
e) Modus operandi 0 Aide memoire -
g) Laissez faire h) Au revoir.
6. Explain briefly any three in your own words to illustrate the central idea contained
therein in about 50 words each: 15
a) Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.
b) To rob Peter to pay Paul.
c) The child is father of the man.
d) Art lies in concealing art.
e) Life without a philosophy is like a ship without rudder.
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EXAMINATION 1987
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25 The incomparable
gift of brain, with its truly amazing powers of abstraction, has rendered obsolete the slow and
sometimes clumsy mechanisms utilized by evolution so far.
Thanks to the brain alone, man, in the course of three generations only, has con4uered the realm
of air, while it took hundreds of thousands of years for animals to achieve the same result
through the process of evolution. Thanks to the brain alone, the range of our sensory organs has
been increased a million fold, far beyond the wildest dreams, we have brought the
moon within thirty miles of us, we see the infinitely small and see the infinitely remote, we hear
the inaudible, we have dwarfed distance and killed physical time. We have succeeded in
understanding them thoroughly. We have put to shame the tedious and time consuming methods
of trial and error used by Nature, because Nature has finally succeeded in producing its
masterpieces in the shape of the human brain. But the great laws of evolution are still active,
even though adaptation has lost its importance as far as we are concerned. We are now
responsible for the progress of evolution. We are free to destroy ourselves if we misunderstand
the meaning and the purpose of our victories. And we are free to forge ahead, to prolong
evolution, to cooperate with God if we perceive the meaning of it all, if we realize that it can
only be achieved through a whole-hearted effort toward moral and spiritual development. Our
freedom, of which we may be justly proud, affords us the proof that we represent the spearhead
of evolution: but it is up to us to demonstrate, by the way in which we use it, whether we are
ready yet to assume the tremendous responsibility which has befallen us almost suddenly.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end: 20 There is
a sense in which the aim of education must be the same in all societies. Two hundred years
from now there will be no one alive in the world who is alive today. Yet the sum total of
human skill and knowledge will probably not be less than it is today. It will almost certainly
be greater. And that this is so is due in large part to the educational process by which we pass
on to one generation what has been learned and achieved by previous generations. The
continuity and growth of society is obviously dependent in this way upon education, both
formal and informal. If each generation had to learn for itself what had been learned by its
predecessor, no sort of intellectual or social development would he possible and the present
state of society would be little different from the society of the old stone age. But this basic
aim of education is so general and so fundamental that it is hardly given conscious
recognition as an educational purpose. It is rather to be classed as the most important social
function of education and is a matter of interest to the sociologist rather than to the
educational theorist, Education does this job in any society and the specific way in which it
does it will vary from one society to another. When we speak in the ordinary way about the
aims of education, we are interested rather in the specific goals set by the nature of society
and the purposes of its members.
The educational system of any society is a more or less elaborate social mechanism
designed to bring about in the persons submitted to it certain skills and attitudes that are
judged to be useful and desirable in the society. ‘
a) How is the continuity and growth of society dependent upon education?
b) In what way the aims of education are related with a society and its members?
c) What importance does the writer give to the education system of a society?
3. Use any live of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out the
difference in meaning clearly:
Disclosure, exposure, rigorous, vigorous, custom, habit, peculiar, particular, prescribe,
proscribe, accident, incident, choice, preference, ascent, assent, emigrant, immigrant, continuous,
continual.
4. Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following: 10 to back out, to keep
out of, bang into, to smell a rat, to burn one’s fingers, null and void,
to catch up with, to stand up for, to skim through. to narrow down.
5. Complete any five of the following sentences supplying the missing word or phrase in
each: 10
a) He wondered _________ he had lost his money.
b) Her father knew that she ____________________________________ disobey him.
c) When Ahmed saw me coming he
d) Don’t imagine you can get away
e) He puts up almost anything.
f) 1 have applied ______ a new job.
g) Her parents strongly object ________ her travelling alone.
h) As soon as the plane had refuelled ______
i) __________ you take this medicine, you will feel better.
j) A car with a good engine can go
6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in about 150 words:
20
a) Learn to walk before you run.
b) Marriage is a lottery.
c) Success has many friends.
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EXAMINATION 1988
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum mark: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest suitable title: 25
The touring companies had set up their stages, when playing for towns-folk and not for the
nobility in the large inn yards where the crowd could sit or stand around the platform and the
superior patrons could seat themselves in the galleries outside the bedrooms of the inn. The
London theatres more or less reproduced this setting, though they were usually round or oval in
shape and stage was more than a mere platform, having entrances at each side, a curtained inner
stage and an upper stage or balcony. For imaginative Poetic drama this type of stage had many
advantages. There was no scenery to be changed, the dramatist could move freely and swiftly
from place to place. Having only words at his command, be had to use his imagination and
compel his audience to use theirs. The play could move at great speed. Even with such limited
evidence as we possess, it is not hard to believe that the Elizabethan audience, attending a poetic
tragedy or comedy, found in the theatre an imaginative experience of a richness and intensity that
we cannot discover in our own drama.
2. Read the following passage and answer any two questions given at the end: 20 Another
intellectual effect of almost all teaching, except the highest grade of university tuition, is that
it encourages docility and the belief that definite answers are known on questions which are
legitimate matters of debate. I remember an occasion when a number of us were discussing
which was the best of Shakespeare’s plays. Most of us were concerned in advancing
arguments for unconventional opinions but a clever young man, who, from the elementary
schools, had lately risen to the university, informed us, as a fact of which we were
unaccountably ignorant, that Hamlet is the best of Shakespeare’s plays. After this the subject
was closed. Every clergyman in America knows why Rome fell: it was owing to the
corruption of morals depicted by Juvenal and Petronius. The fact that morals became
exemplary about two centuries before the fall of the Western Empire is unknown or ignored.
English children are taught one view of the French Revolution, French children are taught
another, neither is true, but in each case it would be highly imprudent to disagree with the
teacher, and few feel any inclination to do so. Teachers ought to encourage intelligent
disagreement on the part of their pupils, even urging them to read books having opinions
opposed to those of the instructor. But this is seldom done, with the result that much education
consists in the instilling of unfounded dogmas in place of spirit of inquiry. This results, not
necessarily from any fault in the teacher, but from a curriculum which demands too much
apparent knowledge, with a consequent need of haste and definiteness.
a) What is the main defect of teaching? Describe in your own words.
b) What are the causes of the instilling of unfounded dogmas in the mind of students?
c) Briefly describe the main points presented by the writer of this passage.
3. Write an essay about 200 words on any one of the following: 20
a) Competition in Education
b) Science and Religion
c) My View of Life
4. Use any five of the following idioms in your sentences: 15
a) As cool as a cucumber.
b) Have your cake and eat too.
c) In a Pickle.
d) Take a cake.
e) Sell like hot cakes.
f) As flat as a Pancake.
g) Take something with a grain of salt.
h) Like two peas in a pod.
5. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your sentences to differentiate their
meaning: 10
Custom, habit, deface, efface, differ ,defer, conduct, character, considerate, considerable,
complement, compliment, feet, feat, fair, fare, enviable, envious.
6. Transform any five of the following sentences into Indirect form: 10
a) The boy said to his teacher, “I do not know the answer”.
b) The beggar said, “May you live long and grow rich”
c) "It is very hot today, “cried the boys, “we cannot play.”
d) She said, “what a fine morning it is!”
e) She said, “I am not telling a lie.”
f) He said, "I will come to see you tomorrow.”
g) He said to him, “I really need your help.”
h) She said. “Can you tell me what the time is.”
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EXAMINATION 1989
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum mark: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
The Greatest” civilization before ours was the Greek. They, too, lived in a dangerous
world. They were a little, highly civilized people, surrounded by barbarous tribes and always
threatened by the greatest Asian power, Persia. In the end they succumbed, but the reason they
did was not that the enemies outside were so strong, but that their spiritual strength had given
way. While they had it, they kept Greece unconquered. Basic to all Greek achievements was
freedom. The Athenians were the only free people in the world. In the great empires of antiquity
— Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia — splended though they were, with riches and immense
power, freedom was unknown. The idea of it was born in Greece, and with it Greece was able to
prevail against all the manpower and wealth arrayed against her. At Marathon and at Salamis
overwhelming numbers of Persians were defeated by small Greek forces. It was proved there that
one free man was superior to many submissively obedient subjects of a tyrant. And Athens,
where freedom was the dearest possession, was the leader in those amazing victories.
Greece rose to the very height, not because she was big, she was very small, not because she
was rich, she was very poor, not even because she was wonderfully gifted. So doubtless were
others in the great empires of the ancient world who have gone their way leaving little for us.
She rose because there was in the Greeks the greatest spirit that moves in humanity, the spirit
that sets men free.”
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end:
“Teaching more even than most other professions, has been transformed during the last
hundred years from a small, highly skilled profession concerned with a minority of the
population, to a large and important branch of the public service. The profession has a great and
honourable tradition, extending from the dawn of history until recent times, but any teacher in
the modem world who allows himself to he inspired by’ the ideals of his predecessors is likely to
be made sharply aware that it is not his function to teach what he thinks, but to instill such beliefs
and prejudices as are thought useful by his employers. In former days a teacher was expected to
be a man of exceptional knowledge or wisdom, to whose words men would do well to attend. In
antiquity, teachers were not an organized profession, and no control was exercised over what
they taught. It is true that they were often punished afterwards for their subversive doctrines.
Socrates was put to death and Plato is said to have been thrown into prison, but such incidents
did not interfere with the spread of their doctrines. Any man who has the genuine impulse of the
teacher will be more anxious to survive in his books than in the flesh. A feeling of intellectual
independence is essential to the proper fulfillment of the teacher’s functions, since it is his
business to instill what he can of knowledge and reasonableness into the process of forming
public opinion.
In our more highly organized world we face a new problem. Something called education is
given to everybody, usually by the State the teacher has thus become, in the vast majority of
cases, a civil servant obliged to carry out the behests of men who have not his learning, who have
no experience of dealing with the young, and whose only attitude towards education is that of the
propagandist.”
a) What change has occurred in the profession of teaching during the last hundred years?
b) What do you consider to be the basic functions of a teacher?
c) What handicaps does a modern teacher face as compared to the teachers in the olden
days?
3. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out
the difference in meaning clearly: 15
-a) Collision, Collusion, b) Verbal, Verbose,
c) Facilitate, Felicitate, d) Conscious, Conscientious,
e) Wave, Waive, Wreck, Wreak,
g) Virtual, Virtuous, h) Flatter, Flutter,
i) Deference, Difference, j) Humility, Humiliation.
4. Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following: 10
a) Account for, b) Carry weight,
c) To fall back upon, d) To be taken aback,
e) A wild goose chase, f) By leaps and bounds,
g) As cool as a cucumber, h) To burn midnight oil.
5. Given below area number of key-words. Select any five and indicate the word or phrase
you believe is nearest in meaning to the key word: 10
i) Foible: a) Witty refort b) Petty lie c) Personal weakness.
ii) Premise: a) Assumption b) Outline c) Commitment.
iii) Sacrosanct: a) Peaceful b) Sacred c) Mundane d) Painful.
iv) Calumny: a) Misfortune b) Praised) Quietness d) Slander.
v) . Viable: a) Credible b) Questionable c) Workable d) Vital.
vi) Decorum: a) Style of decoration b) Innocence c) Social conformity d) Modestly.
vii) Touch stone: a) Goal post b) worry bead c) Magic Jewel d) Standard or Criterion.
viii)Sheepish: a) Embarrased b) Conforming c) Cowardly d) Unfortunate.
6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in about 150 words: 20
a) “If winter comes, can spring be far behind.”
b) “Slow and steady wins the rae”
c) Eternal vigilance is the. Price of Liberty.
d) Man does not live by bread alone.
e) Full many a flowers is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air.
f) “Foreign Aid” — Is it a blessing or a curse? -
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EXAMINATION 1990
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum mark: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25 Not all the rulers
signed the Instrument of Accession at once. Afraid that the Socialist
Congress Party would strip him of his amusements, flying, dancing girls and conjuring delights
which he had only just begun to indulge since he had only recently succeeded his father to the
throne, the young Maharajah of Jodhpur arranged a meeting with Jinnah. Jinnah was aware that
both Hindu majority and geographical location meant that most of the Princely states would go
to India, but he was gratified by the thought that he might be able to snatch one or two from
under Patel ‘s nose. He gave Jodhpur a blank sheet of paper.
‘Write your conditions on that’ he said, 'and I’ll sign it’
Elated, the Maharajab returned to his hotel to consider. It was an unfortunate- move on his
part, for V. P. Menon was there waiting for him. Menon’s agents had alerted him to what
Jodhpur was up to. He told the young ruler that his presence was requested urgently at viceroy’s
House, and reluctantly the young man accompanied him there. The urgent summons had been an
excuse, and once they had arrived, Menon had to go on a frantic search for Viceroy, and tell him
what had happened. Mountbatten responded immediately. He solemnly reminded Jodhpur that
Jinnah could not guarantee any conditions he might make, and that accession to Pakistan would
spell disaster for his state. At the same time, he assured him that accession to India would flot
automatically mean end of his pleasure. Mountbatten left him alone with Menon to sign a
provisional agreement.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any four questions given at the end as
briefly as possible. 10
Mountbatten was taking his family to Simla to snatch a few days’ rest. He had brought
with him a copy of the Draft Plan for the transfer of power (which he had sent to London for
approval). Menon had come up and they were expecting Nehru for the weekend. Mountbattcn
was delighted that Edwina (his wife) and Jawaharlal had taken to each other so much. It could
only help his work, and it seemed to do them both so much good.
Nehru himself had been in fine form. Mieville and George Nicolis (Principal Secretary to
the Viceroy and Deputy Personal secretary to the Viceroy respectively) had shown some -
dismay at Viceroy’s openness with the Indian leader but Mountbatten chose to ignore them.
Despite his continuing optimism for the Plan, Menon's contention that it would not be well
received by the Congress had given him more than usual pause for thought. After dinner on
Saturday night, he invited Nehru in the Viceregal Lodge for a nightcap.
The Viceroy handed Nehru his drink, and then quite suddenly crossed the room to the safe
and unlocked it, taking out the Draft Plan handed him the papers (giving free run his instinct
whatever the result). Nehru took the Draft Plan eagerly and sat down with it. immersing
himself in it immediately. Mountbatten watched him... The Indian had stopped reading the
Plan, and was riffling angrily through the final pages. His face was-drawn and pale.
Mountbatten was shaken. He had never seen Nehru so furious.
Nehru made an effort to control himself.... ‘I will try to summarise my thoughts tonight
and leave you a note of my objections. This much I can tell you now: Congress will never
agree to plan of India’s fragmentation into a host of little states'.
The following day, the Viceroy sat on the secluded rear terrace of Viceregal Lodge while
V. P. Menon read over Nehru’s promise memorandum of objections.
‘Mr. Nehru only questions certain Section of the Plan, said Menon.
‘Yes — the key ones!’ snapped Mountbatten. ‘Look we have tO redraft and resubmit
immediately,- in the light of his comments. Can you do it?”
‘Very well, Your Excellency,’ said Menon.
‘..-... I want it (the fresh draft) by six O’clock this evening.’
a) How did Lord Mountbatten view the relationship between his wife, Lady Edwina and
Jawaharalal Nehru? -
b) How did the officers on the staff of Lord Mountbatten view his close relationship with
Nehru and what was Mountbatten’s reaction to it? -
c) Why did Lord Mountbatten show the Draft Plan to Nehru?
d) Did Lord Mountbatten show the Draft Plan to Quaid-e-Azam? If not, what will -the
showing of secret Draft Plan to Nehru alone will be called?
e) What motivated the drawing up of a fresh Plan for transfer of power?
f) Within what time was the fresh plan prepared and by whom?
g) Was the person who drew up the fresh plan, under orders of Mountbatten, a neutral and
impartial person, not connected with any Indian community? -
3. Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any four of the following: 8
a) White elephant, b) Blue Blood,
c) Cleanse the Augean stable, d) Apple of discord,
e) In good books, 0 Between the devil and the deep sea,
g) Stare in the face, h) Make off with.
4. Use any three of the following sets of words in sentences so as to bring out clearly the
difference in their meaning: 18
a) Adept, Adopt, Adapt, b) Alleged, Accused, Suspected,
c) Bear, Borne, Born d) Raise, Rise, Raze,
e) Smeel, Stink, Scent, f) Least, Less, Lest,
g) Quiet, quite, Quite, h) Their, There, They’re
5. Gwen below are a number of key words: Select any three and indicate the word or phrase
you believe is nearest in meaning to the key word:
i) Domesticate: a) to turn native, b) be exclusive, c) cut claws, d) tame.
ii) Antics: a) expectation, b) temper, c) string games,- d) absurd behaviour.
iii) Recapitulate: a) to surrender, b) be indecisive, c) summarisè, d) retract.
iv) Hypothetical: a) philosophical, b) truce, c) assumed, d) volatile.
v) Data: a) ideas, b) belief, c) point of origin, d) information.
vi) - Era: a) a disaster, b) cycle, c) period of history, d) -curious event.
vii) Trait: a) a narrow enclosure, b)strong point, c) distinguishing feature, d) footprint.
6. Develop the idea contained in any one of the following in about 150 words: 20
a) A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, -
b)Cowards die many times before their death,
c) In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place,
d)Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter,
e) Unity, Faith, Discipline.
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