Main Test Series
English

Maximum Marks - 200
Time - 3 Hrs

• Write an essay on any one of the following topics in 1000-1100 words.
  i. The time to fight climate change is now.
  ii. Is technology gaining unprecedented importance in post-COVID world
  iii. Digital currency in modern times
  iv. Is the sphere of education changing in modern times?
  v. Drug Menace – A Rampant Menace     [100 marks]
• Attempt a precis of the given passage in one-third of its length:
  Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion. Freedom to learn or not to learn can be only partially conceded in childhood. It is necessary to make sure that all who are notimbecile learn to read and write. How far this can be done by the mere provisions of opportunity, only experience can show. But even if opportunity alone suffices, children must have the opportunity thrust upon them. Most of them would rather play out of doors, where the necessary opportunities would be lacking. Later on, it might be left to the choice of young people whether, for distance, they should go to the university; some would wish to do so, others would not. This would make quite as good a principle of selection as any to be got from entrance examinations. Nobody who did not work should be allowed to stay at a university. The rich young men who now waste their time in college are demoralizing others and teaching themselves to be useless. If hard work were exacted as a condition of residence, universities would cease to be attractive to people with a distaste for intellectual pursuits. (Words: 220)      [20 marks]
• Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below:
  I am now going to address myself especially to my foreign hearers. I have to give them another warning of quite a different kind. If you are learning English because you intend to travel to England and wish to be understood there, do not try to speak English perfectly, because, if you do, no one will understand you. I have already explained that though there is no such thing as perfectly correct English, there is presentable English which we call "Good English"; but in London nine hundred and ninetynine out of every thousand people not only speak bad English but speak even that badly. You may say that even if they do not speak English well themselves they can at least understand when it is well spoken. They can when the speaker is English; but when the speaker is a foreigner, the better he speaks, the harder it is to understand him. No foreigner can ever stress the syllables and make the voice rise and fall in question and answer, assertion and denial, in refusal and consent, in enquiry or information, exactly as a native does. Therefore the first thing you have to do is to speak with a strong foreign accent, and speak broken: that is English without any grammar. Then every English person to whom you will at once know that you are a foreigner, and try to understand you and be ready to help you. He will not expect you to be polite and to use elaborate grammatical rules. He will be interested in you because you are a foreigner and pleased by his cleverness in making out your meaning and being able to tell you what to know. If you say, "Will you have the goodness, Sir, to direct me to the railway terminus at Charing Cross," pronouncing all the vowels and consonants beautifully, he will not understand you and will suspect you of being a beggar or a confidence trickster.
  But if you shout, "Please! Charing Cross! Which way!" you will have no difficulty. (Half a dozen people will immediately overwhelm you with directions.)
  i. What warning does the authorgive to his foreignhearers ?
  ii. What does he explain to them?
  iii. What can be the drawbacks of a foreigner while speaking English?
  iv. How should a foreigner speak, as advised by the author?
  v. When will he not be understood properly?     [20 marks]
• Make sentences from the following pairs of words :
  i. Affection, Affectation
  ii. Advice , Advise
  iii. Egoist, Egotist
  iv. Adverse, Averse
  v. Flagrant, Fragrant
  vi. Avocation, Vocation
  vii. Tamper, Temper
  viii. Award , Reward
  ix. Alternate, Alternative
  x. Continual, Continuous      [20 marks]
• Write the meanings of the idioms and make sentences :
  i. Flogging a dead horse
  ii. The green-eyed monster
  iii. Close shave
  iv. Take with a grain of salt
  v. Thick and thin
  vi. Let sleeping dogs lie
  vii. To cast a die
  viii. A wild goose chase
  ix. Know the ropes
  x. Watching grass grow      [20 marks]
• Correct the following sentences:
  i. I saw man running in the field.
  ii. A judge should not be partial with anyone.
  iii. Now he is ill, we shall finish his work.
  iv. It is somewhat his fault.
  v. It is high time that you work hard.
  vi. Do not make castles in the air.
  vii. She comes off a noble family.
  viii. I filled water in the bucket.
  ix. He is our mutual friend.
  x. He gets a less salary.      [20 marks]