ISS-2010: General English

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Candidates should attempt ALL questions unless otherwise directed.

The number of marks carried by each question is indicated at the end of the question. Answers must be written only in English.

Candidates are requested to write clear, legible and concise answers and to adhere to word limits whenever indicated. Irrelevance, diffuseness and disorganization will be penalized. Failure to adhere to word limit will also be penalized. Precis question must be attempted only on the special precis sheet provided, which should thereafter be fastened securely inside the answer book.

  1. Write an essay on any one of the following topics in about 1000 1200 words. 40

    1. Causes and remedies for the Maoist-insurgency in the North Eastern states.

    2. India's Major Problem is not unemployment, rather ‘Unemployable educated’

    3. Consequences of Global warming Myth and reality.

    4. Where injustice Prevails, it is crime to be a silent spectator.

  2. Write a precis of the following passage in about one-third of the original length using your own words as for as possible. Please state the number of words used in your precis and suggest a suitable title (Note: The precis must be written only on the special sheet provided for this purpose One word in each blocks and the sheet should be fastened securely inside the answer book.). 20 “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest,” Said Bertrand Russell once. What the famous Philosopher asserted in effect is that language is the exclusive property of the human species. The idea of talking animals is as old and as Wide spread among human societies as language itself. All cultures have legends in which some animal plays a speaking role. All over West Africa, Children listen to folk tales in which a “spider man” is the hero. “Coyote” is a favourite figure in many Native American tales, and many an animal takes the stage in Aesop's famous fables. The fictional Doctor Doolittle's forte was communicating with all manner of animals, from giant snails to tiny sparrows. If language is viewed only as a system of communication, than many species communicate. Humans also use systems other than language to relate to each other and to send and receive “massage” like so called “body language.” The question is whether the communication system used by other species are at all like human linguistic knowledge, which is acquired by children with no external instruction, and which is used creatively rather than in response to internal or external stimuli. Most humans who acquire language use speech sound to express meanings, but such sound are not a necessary aspect of language, as evidence by the sign languages. The use of speech sound is therefore not a basic part of what we have been calling language. The chirping of birds, the squeaking of dolphins, and the dancing of bees may potentially represent systems similar to human languages. If animal communication systems are not like human languages, it will not be due to a lack of speech. Conversely, when animals vocally imitate human utterances, it does not mean they possess language. Language is system that relates sounds or gestures to meanings. Talking birds such as parrots and mynah birds are capable of faithfully reproducing words and pharses of human languages that they have heard, but their utterances carry no meaning. They are speaking neither English nor their own language when they sound like us. Talking birds do not dissect the sound of their imitations into discrete units. Polly and Molly do not rhyme for a parrot. They are as different as hello and goodbye. One property of all human languages is the discreteness of the speech of gestural units, which are ordered and recordered, combined and split apart. Generally, a parrot says what it is taught, or what it hears, and no more. If Polly learns “Polly wants a cracker” and “Polly wants a chocolate and also learn to imitiate the single words” Cake “and” bun “she will not spontaneously produce, as children do,” Polly wants a cake “or” polly wants a bun “or” Polly wants a cake and a bun." If she learns Cat and Cats, and dog and dogs, and then learns the word parrot, she will be unable to form the plural parrots as children do by the age of three; nor can a parrot form an unlimited set of utterances from a finite set of units, nor understand utterances never heard before. Therefore, the ability to produce sounds similar to those used in human language, even if meanings are realated to these sounds, cannot be equated with the ability to acquire the complex grammer of human language.

  3. Write a single paragraph of about 200 words on any one of the following: 10

    1. Struggle with your mind is the greatest struggle.

    2. Sweet are the uses of adversity.

    3. Time heals even the deepest wound.

    4. Fortune Favours only the brave.

  4. Use each of the following words to make sentences that brings out the meaning of each clearly. Do not change the form of the words. No marks will be given for vague or ambiguous sentences: 2 × 5 = 10

    1. Meltdown

    2. Imbroglio

    3. Cerebral

    4. Convergance

    5. Obligation

  5. Rewrite each of the following sentences as directed without changing the meaning of each: 2 × 5 = 10

    1. The judgement was heard with rapt attention (Change the voice of the verb).

    2. The Kashmir problem is too complex to allow any amicable solution (Rewrite using “so. That” ),

    3. The government banned all processions. Yet, the defiant workers took out a long procession (Combine the sentences to form ‘One simple sentence’ ).

    4. The high command ousted the rebels. They formed a new party, They urged their friends also to resign from the old party (Combine the sentences to form one complex sentence).

  6. Correct the following sentences without changing their meaning. Please do not make unnecessary change in the original sentence in each case. In case you think there is no error, then write down the sentence as it is; 1 × 10 = 10

    1. The women told me that there was no place in the compartment.

    2. Many computer professionals wear half pants these days.

    3. Mr. Amitabh Bachan is a tall gentleman.

    4. During the vacation, try to spend some time with your family members.

    5. The front side of the house looks impressive.

    6. Whenever Mary visits the Marina, she takes a bath in the sea.

    7. The new servant takes troubles to do his work.

    8. The class IV employees took insult at being called peons.

    9. As we climbed the mountain, we enjoyed the sceneries around:

    10. The students of third standard are learning a new poetry.

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