CDS 2014 English Question Paper -1

ORDERING OF SENTENCES

SPOTTING ERRORS

Directions for the following 20 items : Each question in this section has a sentence with three underlined parts labelled (a), (b) and (c). Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part and indicate your answer in the Answer Sheet against the corresponding letter i.e. (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your answer should be indicated as (d).

He asked her that whether she knew what had happened last week when she was on
(a) (b) (c)
No error

(d)

Until you do not go to the station to receive him I can hardly feel at ease. No error.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

I did not know where they were going nor could I understand why had they left so
(a) (b) (c)
soon. No error

(d)

The distinguished visitor said that he had great pleasure to be with us for some time

(a)

and that the pleasure was all the greater because his visit afforded him an opportunity

(b)

to study the working of an institution of such eminence as ours. No error
(c) (d)

Please convey my best wishes back to your parents. No error.
- (b) (c) (d)

The call of the seas have always found an echo in me. No error.
- (b) (c) (d)
Hardly I had left home for Bombay when my son who is settled in Calcutta arrived
- (b)

without any prior information. No error

Now it can be easily said that the population of this city is greater than any other city
(a) (b) (c)
in India. No error
(d)
It is difficult to explain why did Rajgopalachari resigned from the Congress in 1940 .No
(a) (b) (c)

(d)
The boss reminded them of the old saving that honesty was the best policy. and told
(a) (b)
them that they had better be honest in their work. No error.
(c) (d)
“Gulliver’s travels” are the most fascinating adventure story that I have ever had. No
(a) (b) (c)

(d)
The teenager reassured his father at the station “Don’t worry, dad’ I will pull on very
(a) (b) (c)
nicely at the hostel.” No error.
(d)
The way he’s behaving. he’ll soon spill the beans. I’m afraid. No error.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Most of the developing countries find it difficult to cope up with the problems

(a) (b)

created by the sudden impact of technological progress. No error.

People blamed him for being a coward person. No error .
(a) (b) (c) (d)
We swam UP to the drowning man, caught hold of his clothes before he could go
(a) (b)
down again and pulled him out, safe to the shore. No error.

Meena was so tired that she could not hardly talk to the guests for a few minutes.

(a) (b) (c)

No error.
(d)

If I was knowing why he was absent. I would have informed you .No error.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
He goes to office by foot. No error.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
The hundred-rupees notes that he gave them for the goods bought from them looked
(a) (b)
genuine but later they reliably learnt that the notes were all counterfeit. No error.

SENTENCE IMPROVEMENT

Directions for the following 20 items : Look at the underlined part of each sentence. Below each sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of them (a), (b) or (c) is better than the underlined part, indicate your response on the Answer Sheet against the corresponding letter (a), (b) or (c). if none of the substitutions improve the sentence, indicate (d) as your response on the Answer Sheet. Thus a ‘No improvement’ response will be signified by the letter (d).

There is no rain in our village for the last six months.
- has been
- was
- had been
- No improvement
The police investigated into the matter.
- with the matter
- at the matter
- the matter
- No improvement
Ramachandra Murthy and his family have been in Guyana from
- since
- about
- on
- No improvement
I am living in this town since 1980.
- was living
- shall live
- have been living
- No improvement
If was you I should tell him the truth,
- am you
- were you
- had been you
- No improvement
He is better than any boy in the class.
- any boys
- all the boys
- any other boy
- No improvement
Anil ought not to tell me your secret, but he did.
- to be telling
- tell
- to have told
- No improvement
If I were him I would have not accepted the offer.
- If I was him
- If I were he
- If I had he
- No improvement
What the nation needs is people of character.
- are the people of character
- are people of character
- is a people of character
- No improvement
We now come to the important question of where this great swarm of galaxies have come from.
- have come
- has come from
- are coming from
- No improvement
Fewer rainfall means less traffic accident ,according to the experts’ report on highway safety.

Less rainfall means fewer traffic accidents
Less rainfall means less traffic accidents
Fewer rainfall means fewer traffic accidents
No improvement

I never saw you at the party yesterday.
- have not seen
- did not see
- had never seen
- No improvement
Ajeet is a bigger scholar than his brother.
- better
- smaller
- superior
- No improvement
I did not wait for him because he went out before I arrived.
- has gone out
- had gone out
- had been out
- No improvement
Whenever I saw him, he has been reading the same novel.
- had been reading
- read
- was reading
- No improvement
Since the beginning of the term, we are spending a lot of time on poetry.
- spent
- will spend
- have spent
- No improvement
Your sister cooks well, isn’t she ?
- isn’t it ?
- doesn’t she ?
- doesn’t it ?
- No improvement
Dickens’ novels, like many writers, are largely autobiographical.
- like those of many other writers
- like so many others
- like many other novelists
- No improvement
She was as pretty as, if not prettier than , any other girl at the pretty.

She was very pretty
She was pretty
She was the prettiest
No improvement

Never I have seen such breathtaking scenery.

Never have I
Ever I have
I cannot ever
No improvement

SYNONYMS

Directions for the following 10 items : In this section, you find a number of sentences, parts of which are underlined. For each underlined part, four Words/phrases are listed below. Choose the word/phrase nearest in meaning to the underlined part and blacken the corresponding space on the Answer Sheet.

She is a woman of sterling
- interesting
- genuine
- irritating
- exciting
Although the boys in his class were naughty, he never resorted to corporal
- harsh
- physical
- unjust
- general
He wanted to mitigate his burdens.
- lessen
- increase
- postpone
- leave
She adjusted quite well with her husband’s idiosyncrasies.
- peculiar habits
- bad habits
- weaknesses
- stupid manners
The Deputy Inspector General made a perfunctory inspection of the police station.
- thorough and complete
- superficial
- done as a routine but without interest
- intensive
The decision to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima was a grave one.
- serious
- momentous
- instinctive
- impulsive
A scientist generally carries out his investigations empirically.
- intuitively
- verbally
- through written communication
- by observation and experiment
He is employed in an ordnance
- orthodox
- arms and ammunition
- electrical and electronic
- ordinary and common
He is a sycophant who tries to win over politicians.
- a psychologist
- an opportunist
- an unscrupulous man
- a flatterer
I cannot believe in the veracity of his statement.
- Truth
- usefulness
- sincerity
- falsity

ANTONYMS

Directions for the following 10 items : In this section, each item consists of a word or a phrase which is underlined in the sentence given. It is followed by four words or phrases. Select the word or phrase which is closest to the opposite in meaning of the underlined word or phrase.

Kapil’s bowling yesterday proved very costly.
- economical
- frugal
- thrifty
- expensive
1 cannot see much likeness between the two boys.
- enmity
- hatred
- difference
- dislike
I am still dubious about that plan.

certain
doubtful
docile
faithful

The wise say that life is meant not merely to accumulate wealth but for self-realization.
- amass
- produce
- scatter
- gather
He will never turn down your request.
- turn up
- turn over
- reject
- accept
Real happiness does not lie in material possessions alone.
- physical
- essential
- spiritual
- manual
I was upset by his hostile
- friendly
- positive
- negative
- inimical
Ashoka was a magnanimous
- small
- petty
- kind
- majestic
Mala is always defiant in her behaviour.
- obedient
- rebellious
- meek
- friendly
I find his views repugnant.
- amiable
- repulsive
- amoral
- apolitical

SELECTING WORDS

Directions for the following 20 items : In the following passages at certain points you are given a choice of three words in brackets, one of which fits the meaning of the passage. Choose the word which best fits the meaning of the passage and mark the corresponding letter viz (a), (b) or (c) on your Answer Sheet.

PASSAGE—I

One of the most interesting new books published recently is “Spaceship” by Prof. E.C. Walker. Our earth he says like a spaceship, and all the(61), 400 million people earth are passengers on it.(62), And we are heading a disaster. (63)The levels of atmospheric pollution in the cities and arriving coming industrial areas of the world could in time change the weather patterns of the earth,(64), raising the temperature the whole planet. (65),If this rose a few the deserts of the world would expand to double their size. The polar ice caps would start melting.(66), If the polar ice caps melted, the level all over the world(67), would rise about 60 meters. Prof. (68),Walker’s is not at all about gloom and doom. (69),He admits that the he describes could take thousands of years.(70).

is
have been
will be
none of these

over
on
open
none of these

about
to
towards
none of these

increasing
arriving
coming
none of these

in
of
for
none of these

degress
steps
meals
none of these

water
ice
see
none of these

in
by
to
none of these

idea
thought
book
none of these

ideas
solutions
changes
none of these

PASSAGE—II

Sometimes the messages are sent with accompanying words and (71),we speak in language alone. (72) But, what gestures make language ? (73),Most of us are with the common hand gestures(74),. Some cannot talk without using their hands,(75), reach out as they explain almost (76),their words, emphasizing and exaggerating and (77), with their hands.(78), Other people hardly (79),their hands at all when they.(80).

many
few
no
none of these

body
signal
foreign
none of these

with body
up
into
none of these

easy
familiar
efficient
none of these

students
people
officers
none of these

we
arms
they
none of these

exacting
shaping
changing
none of these

teaching
holding
punctuating
none of these

adjust
use
wave
none of these

lecture
unite
talk
none of these

ORDERING OF SENTENCE

Directions (for the following 10 items) : In the following items, each passage consists of six sentences. The first and sixth sentence are given in the beginning as S₁and S₆. The middle four sentences in each have been jumbled up. These are labelled P, Q, R and S. You are required to find out the proper sequence of the four sentences and indicate your answer accordingly on the Answer sheet.

S₁ : The lions used to be widely distributed in Africa and Asia.

S₆ : No hunting .is permitted in such reserved areas.

P : There are special forest zones set aside for wildlife in various countries.

Q : Indiscriminate killing by hunters has been the cause of this drastic fall in their numbers.

R : Today they are a relatively rare species.

S : If the species survives at all, it will be only in national parks.

The proper sequence should be :

RSQP
SQRP
RQSP
SRPQ

S₁ : The woman who lives a normal life is able to check the swelling conceit and egotism of her men folk simply because her outlook is so different.

S₆ : And both ranges of interest make her what only fools deny her to be, namely, essentially practical; her eye is steadily fixed on the concrete thing, i and she mistrusts that chasing of the wild goose which is one of the chief pastimes and delights of man.

P : She is primarily concerned with little ordinary things, the minutiae of talk and behaviour for example, on the one hand, and with very big ones, the colossal elementary facts of life, such as birth, mating and death on the other.

Q : The first are personal and particular; whereas the second, those enormous facts about life which women are never allowed to lose sight of, are, of course, universal, meaning just as much in the Fiji Islands as they do here.

R : Her interests are at once narrower and wider than those of men.

S : It is more personal and yet more impersonal.

The proper sequence should be :

PQSR
PRSQ
SPQR
SRPQ

S₁ : What soda-water is composed of you may see for yourself if you watch your glass as it stands on the table after you have slaked your first thirst.

S₆ : ‘Carbonic acid’ is the old name for it, but it is more correct to name it, when it is out of the water, ‘Carbon dioxide’.

P : The liquid is plain water, as you will find out if you are too slow about drinking.

Q : You will see that it is separating into two different things, a liquid and a gas.

R : The gas is so heavy that you can fairly drink it from the glass, and it has, as you know, a tingle-tangle taste.

S : The other is a heavy, sour and invisible gas that slips up through the water in little bubbles and collects in the empty half of the glass.

The proper sequence should be :

QRSP
PRQS
QPSR
RSPQ

S₁: what Martin Luther king , the peaceful warrior and his followers suffered, it is very difficult to describe.

S₆ : For they had taken an oath to ‘refrain from the violence of the fist, tongue or heart’.

P : The police used fire hoses and ferocious dogs to rout them.

Q : The law courts sent them to solitary confinement where not a ray of the sun entered.

R : They were abused and stoned by the mob, slapped and kicked by the police.

S : They suffered and tolerated all this without ever lifting a hand in self defence.

The proper sequence should be :

SRPQ
RPQS
PRSQ
QRSP

S₁ : There are, I think, several factors that contribute to wisdom.

S₆ : You have not time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine.

P : This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the specialized knowledge required of various kinds of technicians.

Q : Of these I should put first a sense of proportion : the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight.

R : The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your intellectual energy.

S : Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific medicine.

The proper sequence should be :

QPSR
QRPS
QSPR
QSRP

S₁: There were no finger prints anywhere.

S₆ : These conclusions made the detectives think that it was a fake theft.

P : First of all it was impossible even for a child to enter through the hole in the roof.

Q : When the investigators tried to reconstruct the crime, they came up against facts.

R : Moreover, when the detectives tried to push a silver vase, it was found to be double the size of the hole.

S : Again, the size of the hole was examined by the experts who said that nothing had been passed through it.

The proper sequence should be :

PQRS
QPRS
SQRP
QRSP

S₁ : If you want to film a scene in slow motion you run the camera twice as fast as usual, which sounds ridiculous but isn’t.

S₆ : On the screen, everything appears at half the speed at which the camera recorded it when it was filmed.

P : If you are filming in slow motion, however, the camera runs at twice the normal speed, yet, in spite of this, the projector which shows the film will be run at the normal speed, and this means that the projector will show the film at half the speed at which it was photographed.

Q : This is because the camera which took the pictures and the projector which shows them run at the same speed.

R : When a film camera is running at normal speed, it takes twenty-four pictures a second.

S : When the film is run through the film- projector in the camera twenty-four pictures a second appear on the screen.

The proper sequence should be :

PSRQ
PSQR
SRQP
RSQP

S₁: Great quantities of animal oil come from whales.

S₆ : A few other creatures also yield oil.

P’ : It produces a great quantity of oil which can be made into food for human consumption.

Q : These enormous creatures of the sea are the largest remaining animals in the world.

R : When the whale is killed, the blubber is stripped off and boiled down.

S : To protect the whales from the cold of the Arctic seas, nature has provided it with a thick covering of fat called blubber.

The proper sequence should be :

PSRQ
QSRP
PRQS
RPQS

S₁ : The distance between theatre and reality has stretched so far that when we come across a truly contemporary play, it is a cause for rejoicing.

S₆ : But the question is, have we forgotten his legacy in modem India ?

P : It searches our collective psyche like an unrelenting laser beam.

Q : Most importantly, the play questions whether religion and politics can fuse together in modem India.

R: Gandhi ji had both the spiritual and political dimensions that we so lack today.

S : Prasanna’s ‘Gandhi ji’ staged recently by the National School of Drama is one such play.

The proper sequence should be :

SRPQ
RSPQ
SPQR
RQPS

S₁ : We who live in the present day world are proud to call ourselves civilized.

S₆ : In fact science has added to our worries.

P : But let us search our hearts and ask ourselves, ‘Has science solved our problem V

Q : Is it because we live and dress better than our forefathers ?

R : Frankly speaking, the answer is ‘No’.

S : Of course, we have the advantages of the inventions of science which our ancestors had never known.

The proper sequence should be :

PQRS
QSPR
PRSQ
SPRQ

COMPREHENSION

Directions, for the following 15 (fifteen) items : Read the following passages and answer the items that follow.

PASSAGE—I

Those responsible for teaching young people have resorted to a variety of means to make their pupils learn. The earliest of these was the threat of punishment. This meant that the pupil who was slow, careless or inattentive risked either physical chastisement or the loss of some expected privilege. Learning was thus associated with fear. At a later period, pupils were encouraged to learn in the hope of some kind of reward. This often took the form of marks awarded for work done and sometimes of prizes given at the end of the year to the best scholar. Such a system appealed to the competitive spirit, but was just as depressing as the older system for the slow pupil. in the nineteenth century sprang up a new type of teacher, convinced that learning was worthwhile for its own sake and that the young pupil’s principal stimulus should neither be anxiety to avoid a penalty nor ambition to win a reward, but sheer desire to learn. Interest, direct or indirect, became the keyword of instruction.

The educational system which caused fear in the pupil’s mind was based on :
- rewards
- labour
- punishment
- competition
The system based on rewards satisfied all except :
- the slow pupil
- the very intelligent pupil
- the laborious pupil
- the casual .pupil
The system which appealed to the competitive spirit in the pupils was largely based on :
- punishment
- marks
- chastisement
- cash prizes

PASSAGE—II

On a surface which is free from obstacles, such as a clear road or a path, only two or three species of snakes can hope to catch up with a human being, even if they are foolish to try. A snake seems to move very fast but its movements are deceptive. In spite of the swift, wave-like motions of its body, the snake crawls along the ground at no more than the speed of man’s walk. It may, however, have an advantage inside a jungle, where the progress of a man is obstructed by thorny bushes. But in such places, the footsteps of a man are usually more than enough to warn snakes to keep away. Although they have no ears of the usual kind, they can feel slight vibrations of the ground through their bodies, and thus get an early warning of danger.

The snake has an advantage over men inside a jungle, because there :

it can crawl faster.
it gets advance warning.
man’s movement is obstructed.
it is dark inside a jungle.

What helps the snakes to receive advance warning is their sensitivity to :

obstacles in the path.
smell of other beings.
sounds made by other beings.
movements of other beings.

PASSAGE—III

This rule of always trying 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 are more successful.

Which one of the following alternatives brings out the meaning of ‘to have a bearing upon’ clearly ?
- to have an effect on
- to carry the weight on oneself
- to put up with
- to decrease friction
Which one of the following statements is correct ?

There is a close relationship between ambition and activity.
Ambition and activity belong to two different areas.
Ambition is useless.
Activity is responsible for ambition.

The statement ‘If one allow ambition to drive one to attempt things which are beyond one’s own personal capacity, then unhappiness will result,’ means that :

One must always try to do Jess than one’s capacity.
One must always try to do more than one’s capacity.
Ambition must be consistent with one’s capacity.
There should be no ambition at all.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the underlying tone of the passage ?

One must do everything as well as one can.
One must try to be better than others.
One must continuously worry about others.
One must try beyond one’s capacity to get results.

Which one of the following statements can be assumed to be true ?

It is good to imagine oneself better than others.
One should not imagine oneself always to be better than others.
All persons have equal capacity.
One should have more ambition than others.

PASSAGE—IV

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses which would stand up on end like ninepins. When a shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus the rods by falling and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist, the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the direction from which it came. But, instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record’ with a pen on paper the movements, of the ground or of the table, as the quake passed by. While I write my pen moves but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could, in time, learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving how is it possible to write ‘ legibly ? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made ? It is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

The passage says that early instruments for measuring earthquakes were :
- faulty in design
- expensive
- not sturdy
- not sensitive enough
Why was it necessary to invent instruments to observe an earthquake ?

Because an earthquake comes like a thief in the night.
To make people alert about earthquakes during their conscious as well as unconscious hours.
To prove that we are technically advanced.
To experiment with the control of man over nature.

A simple device which consisted of rots that stood up on end like ninepins was replaced by a more sophisticated one because it failed :

to measure a gentle earthquake.
to measure a severe earthquake.
to record the direction of the earthquake.
to record the facts with a pen on paper.

The everyday observation referred to in the passage relates to :

a moving bus or train.
the sudden start of a bus.
the tendency of a standing person to fall when a bus or train moves suddenly.
people standing in a bus or train.

The early seismometers adopted the idea that in order to record the earthquake, it is :

the pen that should move just as it moves when we write on paper.
the pen that should stay still and the paper should move.
both pen and paper that should move.
neither pen nor paper that should move.

ORDERING OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE

Directions : In each of the following 11 (eleven) items: there is a sentence of which some parts have been jumbled up. You are required to rearrange these parts which are labeled P, Q, R and S, to produce the correct sentence. Choose the correct sequence and mark in your answer sheet accordingly.

There must be countries now in which peasants can spend several years in universities
P
so that a lot of young persons are going without substantial meals .

Q R S

The proper sequence should be :

SRQP
PQRS
SQRP
QPSR

Athens it was also the first democracy in the world was not only an almost perfect
P Q R S
democracy

The proper sequence should be :

RSPQ
PQRS
RQPS
QPSR

The practice of taking performance-boosting drugs among athletes but checking it is
P
not going to be easy is generally conceded to be unfair of the detection technology for
Q R
the user is generally one lump ahead

The proper sequence should be :

RSPQ
QPSR
QPRS
PQRS

All religion are to advance the cause of peace in a holy partnership justice and
P Q R
freedom bound together.

The proper sequence should be :

PRQS
PQRS
SQPR
SPQR

Seventy-two people reports PTI were affected by food poisoning including several
P Q R
women and children of the central part of the city
S

The proper sequence should be :

SPQR
PQRS
RSPQ
RSQP

The Prime Minister declared that those states will get all help and aid where family
P Q R
planning is effected very efficiently.

The proper sequence should be :

PRSQ
PQRS
RSPQ
QPSR

Hardly had my brother descended from the plane when the people waved and
P Q
cheered who had come to receive him from the lounge.

R S

The proper sequence should be :

PRQS
PQRS
SPQR
PRSQ

My friend when he was going to his office met with an accident on his scooter due to
P Q R
rash driving
S

The proper sequence should be :

PQRS
PRQS
SRQP
QSRP

The boy said I am not going to the school with my friends in the class room where my
P Q
teacher scolds me when I want to play

R S

The proper sequence should be :

PQRS
PSQR
SQPR
PRSQ

Mohan, the son of my friend, gave me a set of pens which is very precious while
P Q
working in Japan who died in an accident

R S

The proper sequence should be :

PQRS
SRPQ
RSPQ
SPQR

The clerk on the desk left the money in the safe which he should have locked up

P Q R S

The proper sequence should be :

PQRS
RSPQ
QPRS
QPSR

Directions for the following four items : Each of the following sentences has a blank space and four words given after the sentence. Select whichever word you consider most appropriate for the blank space and indicate your choice on the Answer Sheet.

It is necessary to______ that adequate standards are maintained.
- insure
- influence
- ensure
- control
Many of the city’s narrow streets have been______ .
- distinguished
- widened
- doubled
- rehabilitated
Only the Chairman ______ to the proposal to build more houses.
- avoided
- admitted
- prevented
- objected
He hoped to bring the_____ to a satisfactory conclusion.
- quarrel
- negotiations
- conflicts

concession