ESSAY - 2002
Write an essay on any ONE of the following subjects
(1) Modern Technological Education and human values.
(2) Search for Truth can only be a spiritual problem.
(3) If youth knew, if age could.
(4) The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
(5) Privatization of Higher Education in India.
(6) Responsibility of media in a democracy.
C.S.E-Mains 2003
ENGLISH
1. Write an essay in about 300 words on any one of the following:
(100)
(a) The Need for Alternative Sources of Energy
(b) The Role of Judiciary in India
(c) Freedom of Expression
(d) My Idea of an Administrator
(e) Pleasures of Reading
2. Read the following passage and answer in your own words the questions that follow:
(5 × 15 = 75)
This rule of trying always to do things as well as one can do them has an important bearing
upon the problem of ambition. No man or woman should be without ambition, which is the
inspiration of activity. But if one allows ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond
one’s own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result: If one imagines that one can do
everything better than other people, then envy and jealousy, those twin monsters, will come to
sadden one’s days. But if one concentrates one’s attention upon developing one’s own special
capacities, the things one is best at, then one does not worry over much if other people Ere more
successful.
There are those again who are discontented with their own job and complain of drudgery. But
there is no job in the world which does not contain a large element of drudgery. Do you imagine that
a Prime Minister has no drudgery to do, or an artist, or an author? I loathe drudgery as much as any
man; but I have learnt that the only way to conquer drudgery is to get through it as neatly, as
efficiently as one can. You know I am right when I say that. A dull job slackly done becomes twice
as dull; a dull job which you try to do just as well as you can becomes half as dull. Here again effort
appears to me the main part of the art of living.
Have I any other, and less disagreeable, hints to suggest? I believe that every man and woman
has somewhere tucked away inside them a sense of beauty. Without this sense life on this earth is
veiled in dim grey clouds. It may be that you do not care, or think you do not care, for poetry or art
or music. If you make the least effort, you may find that some or all of these things will cause you
sudden delight; and once you catch that delight it will never leave you. Because if life, as I believe, is
a constantly renewed effort, then the human frame aid nerves require some relaxation.
(a) When does ambition lead to unhappiness?
(b) How can a person avoid envy and jealousy?
(c) How can we avoid the feeling of drudgery?
(d) Should we avoid ambition?
(e) What does the phrase “to get through it” mean?
3. Make a precis of the following passage in your own words in about 230 words. Marks will be
deducted if the precis is not written on the separate precis sheets provided and the length of the precis
exceeds or falls short of more than 10 words of the prescribed length. State the number of words
used by you in the precis and securely fasten the precis-sheets inside the answer-book.
(75)
Some wars in the past were quite as disorganizing and as destructive of the civilization of
devastated areas as was the Second World War. North Africa has never regained the level of
prosperity that t enjoyed under the Romans. Persia never recovered from the Mongols nor Syria from
the Turks. There have always been two kinds of wars, those in which the vanquished incurred
disaster, and those in which they only incurred discomfort. We seem, unfortunately, to be entering
upon an era in which wars are of the former sort.
The atom bomb, and still more the hydrogen bomb, have caused new fears, involving new
doubts as to the effects of science on human life. Some eminent authorities, including Einstein, have
pointed out that there is a danger of the extinction of all life on this planet. I do not myself think that
this will happen in the next war, but I think it may well happen in the next but one, if that is allowed
to occur. If this expectation is correct, we have to choose, within the next fifty years or so, between
two alternatives. Either we must allow the human race to exterminate itself, or we must forgo certain
liberties which are very dear to us, more especially the liberty to kill foreigners whenever we fell so
disposed. I think it probable that mankind will choose its own extermination as the preferable
alternative. The choice will be made, of course, by persuading ourselves that it is not being made,
since (so militarists on both sides will say) the victory of the right is certain without risk of universal
disaster. We are perhaps living in the last age of man, and, if so, it is to science that he will owe his
extinction.
If, however, the human race decides to let itself go on living, it will have to make very drastic
changes in its ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We must learn not to say ‘Never! Better death
than dishonour’. We must learn to submit to law, even when imposed by aliens whom we hate and
despise, and whom we believe to be blind to all considerations of righteousness. Consider some
concrete examples. Jews and Arabs will have to agree to submit to arbitration; if the award goes
against the Jews, the President of the United States will have to ensure the victory of the party to
which he is opposed, since, if he supports the international authority, he will lose the Jewish vote in
New York State. On the other hand, if the award goes in favour of the Jews, the Mohammedan world
will be indignant, and will be supported by all other malcontents. Or, to take another instance, Eire
will demand the right to oppress the Protestants of Ulster, and on this issue the United States will
support Eire while Britain will support Ulster. Could an international authority survive such a
dissension? Again: India and Pakistan cannot agree about Kashmir, therefore one of them must
support Russia and the other the United States. It will be obvious to anyone who is an interested
party in one of these disputes that the issue is far more important than the continuance of life on our
planet. The hope that the human race will allow itself to survive is therefore somewhat slender.
But if human life is to continue in spite of science, mankind will have to learn a discipline of
the passions which, in the past, has not been necessary. Men will have to submit to the law, even
when they think the law unjust and iniquitous. Nations which are persuaded that they are only
demanding the barest justice will have to acquiesce when this demand is denied them by the neutral
authority. I do not say that this is easy; I do not prophesy that it will happen; I say only that if it does
not happen the human race will perish, and will perish as a result of science.
4. (a) Fill in the blanks using the appropriate form of the words given below:
(10)
offensive, imagination, psychological, conceive, vacation, entire, enthusiasm, lacerating,
deify, margin
(i) I do not believe in the ……………….of an ordinary politician.
(ii) She could not bear to look at his …………….hand.
(iii) Most people do not have any clear ……………of judicial activism.
(iv) Who can dare to ………………….the boss?
(v) A sensible person can ………………….the plight of others.
(vi) You have to consider the matter in its …………………
(vii) It is difficult to ………………..such dullards.
(viii) We can no longer ………………..the poor and the suppressed.
(ix) You will have to …………….the house.
(x) ………………..is an interesting subject.
(b) Use each of the following words in two separate sentences, first as a noun and then as a verb:
(10)
(i) help
(ii) nurse
(iii) judge
(iv) pillory
(v) round
(c) Rewrite the following sentences as directed within brackets:
(5)
(i) No metal is as costly as gold. (Use the comparative degree of “costly”)
(ii) I doubt if you have done it. (Change into a negative sentence without changing the
meaning)
(iii) He was elected leader. (Change into active voice)
(iv) She confessed that she was guilty. (Turn it into a simple sentence)
(v) She said, “Can you write a poem?” (Change into indirect speech)
5. (a) Correct the following sentences:
(10)
(i) Each of the scholars, belonging to various countries, have spoken about it.
(ii) All were present except he and his sister.
(iii) I wonder if ten thousand rupees are a large sum.
(iv) She lay the table an hour ago.
(v) He absented from the class for no reason.
(vi) He is untidy boy.
(vii) All his plans fell out for lack of help.
(viii) Of milk, coke and coffee the latter is my favourite.
(ix) All this happened prior 1971 war.
(x) Scarcely had she gone that he arrived.
(b) Choose the appropriate words given in the brackets to fill in the blanks in the following
sentences:
(10)
(i) Nehruji made a ………………. speech in Parliament on this occasion.
(historical, historic)
(ii) Such heavy responsibilities cannot be ………………….easily.
(born, borne)
(iii) The doctor visits him on ………………….days.
(alternative, alternate)
(iv) I do not know why he is …………………..towards me.
(contemptuous, contemptible)
(v) To work for more than eight hours is quite ……………………
(exhaustive, exhausting)
(vi) Democracy does not allow the ………………..of the minorities.
(prosecution, persecution)
(vii) No meeting of the ……………..of ministers has been scheduled for tomorrow.
(council, cabinet)
(viii) All worldly pleasures are considered to be …………………..by saints.
(momentary, momentous)
(ix) Any …………………. of secret documents is punishable by law.
(tempering, tampering)
(x) He is an ……………..person to work with.
(amiable, amenable)
(c) Use the following phrases in your own sentences so as to bring out their meaning:
(5)
(i) to come across
(ii) to be cut out for
(iii) over head and ears
(iv) to see eye to eye
(v) to draw the line
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