CDS General English Solved Paper (II) : 2007
(COMPREHENSION)

Directions (For the 30 items which follow): In this Section, you have seven short passages. After each passage, you will find several questions based on the passage. First, read a passage, and then answer  the questions based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passageand opinion of the author only.

Examples: ‘I’ and ‘J’ are solved for you.

Passage

In our approach of life, be it pragmatic or otherwise, a basic fact that confronts us squarely and unmistakable is the desire for peace, security and happiness. Different forms of life at different levels of existence make up the teeming denizens of this earth of ours, And, no matter whether they belong to the higher groups such as human beings or to the lower groups such as animals, all beings primarily seek peace, comfort and security. Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man. Even the lowliest insect strives for protection against dangers that threaten its life. Just as each one of us wants to live and not to die, so do all other creatures.

I. The author ’s main point is that
(a) different forms of life are found on earth
(b) different levels of existence are possible in nature
(c) peace and security are the chief goals of all living beings
(d) even the weakest creature struggles to preserve its life

J.Which one of the following assumptions or steps is essential in developing the author ’s position ?
(a) All forms of life have a single overriding goal
(b) The wil l to survive of a creature is identified with a desire for peace
(c) All beings are divided into higher and lower groups
(d) A parallel is drawn between happiness and life, and pain and death

Explanation

I. The idea which represents the author ’s main point is ‘peace and security are the chief goals of all living beings’, Which is response  (c). So (c) is the correct answer.

J. The best assumpt ion under l ying the passage is ‘The will to survive of a creature is identified with a desire for peace’, which is response (b). So (b) is the correct answer.

Passage – I

We should preserve Nature to preserve life and beauty. A beautiful landscape, full of green vegetation, will not just attract our attention but willfill us with infinite satisfaction. Unfortunately, because of modernization, much of nature is now yielding to towns, roads and industrial areas. In a few places some Natural reserves are  now being carved out to avert the danger of destroying Nature completely. Man will perish without Nature, so modem man should continue this struggle to save plants, which give us oxygen, from extinct ion. Moreover, Nature is essential to man’s health

1.Why a beautiful landscape ‘will fill us with infinite satisfaction’ ?
(a) We love beauty
(b) It is full of green vegetation
(c) It will ensure our future existence
(d) It will show our command over Nature

2.What does ‘struggle’ in the passage mean ?
(a) Man’s struggle to exist in the world
(b) Man’s struggle to save Nature
(c) Man’s struggle to catch up with modern trends
(d) Man’s struggle to conserve oxygen

3.What does the writer suggest ?
(a) We should not modernize, so that Nature can be preserved
(b) While modernizing we should be careful not to destroy Nature completely
(c) All Nature has been destroyed by modern living
(d) Carving out Natural reserves will hamper the growth of industries

4.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? According to the passage,
(a) beauty is only skin-deep
(b) everything is beautiful in its natural state
(c) there is beauty in Nature
(d) Nature is a moral teacher

5.What does ‘Nature’ in the passage mean ?
(a) Countryside covered with plants and trees
(b) Physical power that created the world
(c) Inherent things that determine character
(d) Practical study of plants and animals

Passage – I I

The world is very full of people-appallinglyfull, it has never been so full before, and they are all tumbling over each other. Most of these people one doesn’t know  and some of them one doesn’tlike. Well, that is one to do ? There are two solutions. One of them is the Nazi solution. If you  don’t like people, kill them, banish them, and segregate them. The other way is much less thrilling, but it is on the whole the way of the democracies, and I prefer it. If you don’t like people, put up with  them as well as you can. Don’t try to love them : you can’t, you’ll only strain yourself. But try to tolerate them.

6.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? The author prefers the second solution because
(a) he likes it
(b) he is not a Nazi
(c) he is essentially being a democrat
(d) there is no other way

7.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? The author thinks that the other solution is much less thrilling because it is
(a) dull
(b) based on tolerance
(c) not based on love
(d) lacking in adventure

8.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? According to the writer Nazi solution is
(a) the easiest solution
(b) the readiest solution
(c) the national solution
(d) the Hitlerian solution

9.What does the author mean by ‘appallingly’?
(a) He is making an appeal to the leaders of the masses
(b) ‘In disconcertingly large numbers
(c) Very interesting
(d) Unpredictably

Passage – I I I

Once upon a time I went for a week’s holiday in the Continent with an Indian friend. We both enjoyed ourselves and were sorry when  the week was over, but on parting our behaviour was absolutely different. He was plunged in despair. He felt that because the holiday was over all happiness was over until the world  ended. He could not express his sorrow too much. But in me the Englishman came out strong. I could not see what there was to make a fuss about. It wasn’t as if we were parting forever or dying. “Buck up”, I said, “do buck up”. He refused to buck up, and I left him plunged in gloom.

10.What is the author’s intention in the passage?
(a) To contrast the Indian character with the English character
(b) To show that an Indian is sorrowful
(c) To ridicule the Indian traditions
(d) To praise the Englishman

11.What does ‘But in me the Englishman came out strong’ imply ?
(a) He was a strong Englishman
(b) He had the typical English character
(c) The Englishman went out of him
(d) He started following Indian traditions

12.Why was the Indian friend plunged in despair ?
(a) He was hopeless
(b) He experienced racial discrimination
(c) He would never be so happy again -
(d) He had spent lot of money

13.What does the author mean by ‘buck up’ ?(a) Buckle yourself up
(b) Stand up
(c) Cheer up
(d) Shut up

14.What is the Continent in the context of the passage ?
(a) An island (b) The countryside
(c) Africa (d) Europe

CDS General English Solved Paper (II) : 2007
(COMPREHENSION)

Passage – IV

What is to be the limit of forgiveness? It would probably have been allowed by many of  the ancients that an unforgiving temper was not to be commended. They would have said, we are not to exact a penalty for every nice offence, we are to overlook some things, we are to be blind sometimes. But they would have said at the same time, we must be careful to keep our self-respect, and to be on a level with the world. On the whole, they would have said, it is the part of a man fully to  requite to his friends their benefitsand to his enemies their injuries.

15.What is the underlying tone of the passage?
(a) We must be forgiving in general
(b) We must forgive our friends
(c) There is no limit whatsoever to our duty to forgive
(d) We must always punish the wrong doer

16.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? In ancient times people were
(a) ordered to lose their tempers
(b) permitted to lose their tempers and not forgive their enemies
(c) told that it was not good to have an unforgiving temper
(d) advised to forgive each and every offence committed by both friends and foes

17.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? We must
(a) be blind if we want to forgive others
(b) be blind to the faults of our friends
(c) be indifferent to what others do
(d) overlook certain things

18.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? According to the writer we must
(a) ignore an offence if it is nice
(b) forgive people if they bring us nice presents
(c) forgive pretty offenders
(d) not punish each and every offence

Passage – V

The psychological causes of unhappiness, it is clear, are many and various. But all have something in common. The typical unhappy man is one who, having been  deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, some come to value this one kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achiev ement as opposed to the activities connected with it. There is, however, a further development  which is very common inthe present day. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and obl ivion. He then becomes a devotee of ‘pleasure’. This is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide - the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness.

19.What does “becoming less alive” imply?
(a) Neglect of health
(b) Decline in moral values
(c) Living in a make believe world
(d) Leading a sedentary way of living

20.Which one of the following is the correct statement ? Drinking helps the unhappy only to
(a) forget their dissatisfaction
(b) get sublime happiness
(c) get the motivational needs fulfilled
(d) concentrate harder

21. “One sided direction” refers to the pursuit of which one of the following ?
(a) Drinking and forgetfulness
(b) The satisfaction one had been deprived of
(c) Activities leading to happiness
(d) Every form of psychological satisfaction

22.Who is a typical unhappy man ?
(a) One who has been deprived of normal satisfaction in youth
(b) One who finds l ife unbearable and attempts suicide
(c) One who does not mind momentary unhappiness
(d) One who seeks every form of satisfaction

Passage – VI

I t is said that ideas are explosive and dangerous. To allow them unfettered freedom is, in fact, to invite disorder. But, to this position,  there are at least two f inal answers. I t is impossible to draw a line round dangerous ideas, and any attempt at their definition involves monstrous folly. If views, moreover, which implydisorder are able to disturb the foundations of the state, there is something supremely wrong with the governance of the state. For disorder is not a habit of mankind. We cling so eagerly to our accustomed ways that , as even Burke insisted, popular violence is always the outcome of a deep popular sense of wrong.

23.Which of the following statements may most correctly bring out the significance of the opinion of Burke quoted in the passage ?
(a) Bur ke advocated v iolence against injustice
(b) Burke’s opinion coincides wi th the author ’s opinion on explosive and dangerous ideas
(c) Burke hated any popular uprising
(d) Burke had no belief in political liberty

24. The author says, “We cling eagerly to out accustomed ways”. Whi ch one of the following statements may be considered as the assumption of the author ?
(a) We are afraid of social changes
(b) Mankind is averse to any disorder
(c) We have developed inertia that makes us incapable of social action
(d) “There is an all-round lack of initiative in the society

25. From a close study of the passage, which one
of the following statements emerges most clearly ?
(a) The author is against the exercise of political freedom
(b) He is indi f ferent to dangerous and explosive ideas
(c) He welcomes violence as a method to change governments
(d) He warns that violence is the outcome of popular dissat isfact ion wi th the government

26.What is the central point that the passage emphasizes ?
(a) It is unnecessary to define dangerous ideas
(b) Dangerous ideas are born out of the enjoyment of freedom
(c) A weil-governed state is unaffected by dangerous ideas
(d) Dangerous ideas originate from man’s preoccupation with politics

Passage – VI I

As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the points of supplying all the basic essentials of life, food, shelter, cloth, and warmth. Then we are  faced wi th a choice between using technology to provide and fulfil needs which have hitherto been regarded as unnecessary or, on the other hand, using technologyto reduce the number of hours of work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living. In other words, we either raise our standard of  living above that necessary for comfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours. I shall take it as axiomatic that mankind has, by that time, chosen the latteral ternative. Menwill be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment.

27.What does the author suggest ?
(a) Man will gradually rise above his present stage in civilization
(b) Man will gradually settle down to the same stage with fewer hours of work
(c) Man will gradually raise his standard of living by working longer hours
(d) Man w i l l gradual l y ear n a given standard of living wi th the help of technology

28.What does increased use of technology imply?
(a) An advanced stage in human civilization
(b) A backward step in human culture
(c) Unnecessary comfort and happiness for mankind
(d) Man’s zest for more and more work

29.What does the passage suggest about  the useof technology ?
(a) It creates new and essential needs for mankind
(b) It is opposed to the basic essentials of life
(c) It is complementary to a raised standard of living
(d) It is responsible for man’s love of comfort and happiness

30. “Then we are faced with a choice ...” what does `then’ refer to ?
(a) When automation takes over many aspects of human life
(b) The present state of civilization
(c) The past stage of civilization
(d) A f ter hav ing prov ided the basi c essentials of life

(E-Book) UPSC CDS EXAM Papers PDF Download