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IAS Mains English Papers 2003 Overview

The document contains the IAS Mains English Papers from 2003, including essay topics, reading comprehension questions, and grammar exercises. It emphasizes the importance of ambition, the challenges of drudgery, and the need for personal development. Additionally, it discusses the implications of war and science on humanity's future and the necessity for international cooperation to prevent self-destruction.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
44 views4 pages

IAS Mains English Papers 2003 Overview

The document contains the IAS Mains English Papers from 2003, including essay topics, reading comprehension questions, and grammar exercises. It emphasizes the importance of ambition, the challenges of drudgery, and the need for personal development. Additionally, it discusses the implications of war and science on humanity's future and the necessity for international cooperation to prevent self-destruction.

Uploaded by

upsc.onlykarma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

6/25/22, 8:06 AM IAS Mains English Papers 2003- Examrace

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IAS Mains English Papers 2003

IAS Mains English 2003


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?

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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. Answer the following questions


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
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i. I do not believe in the-of an ordinary politician.

ii. She could not bear to look at his ________ and.

iii. Most people do not have any clear ________ 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 ________ he 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. Answer the following questions


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.


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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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