CS-610 Foundation Course in English for Computing

Note : Attempt all the questions.

Q. 1. Read the passage and answer the questions that follow :

As human civillzations have changed from agrarian to industrial economies, they have become increasingly dependent on fossil fuels (petroleum, coal and natural gas) and derived forms of energy (heat and electricity). Early agricultural societies depended entirely on the energy of sunlight to grow food, and the energy of physicai labour for its cultivation and harvest. Domestic animals, introduced later, converted food energy into fats, fibres and proteins and provided greater physical strength to draw ploughs, pull carts and turn waterwheels. These early societies obviously did not require electricity or combustion engines to drive machines.

The invention of the electric motor and the internal combustion engine in the nineteenth century changed this orientation completely. Firstly, these machines were a startling boost to productivity. They enabled man to do far more work and to cultivate and harvest greater acreage. Secondly, machines replaced draft animals, with the result that modern agricultural operations became dependent on petroleum and electricity. An absence of either one would be disastrous to present food production throughout much of the world.

Essentially the same transition has occurred in energy requirements for industrial, transportation and domestic needs. One hundred years ago, electricity was a novelty, automobiles were a freakish invention and the diesel truck was unknown. Since then, all three have become essential. A modern city cannot exist without electricity and petroleum. Within another hundred years we will have to find alternatives for the latter, since the world's reserves will not last that long, but our need for electrical energy will continue to rise.

(From : Ecology and the Quality of our Environment by Charles H. Southwick)

(i) Give a suitable title to the passage.

(ii) What is the collective name for energy sources such as petaoleum and coal?

(iii) What two basic forms of energy were sufficient to support life in early agricultural societies ?

(iv) What caused a change from the older system in the nineteenth century ? Discuss briefly.

(v) What are the three essentials of modern life ? Will they continue to exist in the future ? Give a reason for your answer.

Q. 2. (a) Change the following sentences into the passive voice :
(i) The police caught the culprits red-handed.
(ii) The people beat up the terrorists with hockey sticks.

(b) Fill in the blanks in the following sentence with the correct tense form of the verbs given in brackets :
(i) My mother ___________ (reach) home much before I left for college.
(ii) Usually she ____________ (return) home by 4 o'clock.
(iii) I ___________ (finish) my work so I can accompany you to the market.

Q. 3. In the following questions do as directed :
(a) Conect the following sentences :
(i) These days travel is costing a lot of money.
(ii) You can't get good marks unless you don't work hard.
(iii) Neena and Reena both are doctors.

(b) Complete the given sentence with a suitable tag question :
Sarita is very intelligent.

(c) Fiil in the blanks with suitable articles (a, an, the) ____________ woman in ___________ wheelchair is my aunt.

(d) Use the following words in one sentence each to bring out the difference in their meanings :
(i) advice
(ii) advise

(e) Complete the following sentence by adding a suitable relative clause:
She showed me the photograph of her friend .....

(f) Use the phrasal verb take on in your own sentence.

(g) Rewrite the following in reported speech :
She said, "Ravi, are you going to the market just now ?"

Q.4. Write a paragraph in about 150 words on any one of the following. The topic sentence is given to you. Develop it keeping in mind unity, order and coherence.
(i) Cyber crime is the dark side of computers.
(ii) Population control is not the responsibility of the Government only.
(iii) We owe it to the future generations to protect the environment.

Q.5. Read the passage and summarize it to one-third of its length.

The newspaper has always taken upon itself the role of mentor to its subscribers, but whereas the journal of the last generation took pride in its independence, and the editorial chair was regarded as a pulpit from which serious views were uttered with a full sense of responsibility, the newspaper of today is a huge financial undertaking with the same outlook as any other limited company. The editorial staff have to run me concern so as to produce dividends for the shareholders; in other words, they have to make circulation, and if they do not they will soon be supplanted by those who can. Their independence therefore suffers a very grave limitation. It is further curtailed by the fact that a newspaper is as much an advertising medium as a vehicie for news. It is said that the price which the public pays for its newspapers covers no more than a third of the cost of production; the other two-thirds is accounted for by advertlsement revenue. The need for rnaintaining the value of its advertising space in competition with its rivals makes it all the more important for a paper to raise its circulation to the utmost. Thus, as a matter of editorial policy, it becomes much less necessary to instruct readers of the latest move of the Government than to persuade them of the advantages they will secure if they become registered, insured subscribers and are forlumate enough to lose a relative in a railway accident.

After two generations of compulsory schooling, which has at least taught everyone to read, the business of forcing circulations up above the million mark has not been difficult once the method was discovered. The last Lord Northcliffe showed the way with the Daily Mail in the nineties. He saw that there was a vast body of people who were not attracted by the newspaper that catered for the professional man and the club member, but who would be eager to buy a Journal that would deal in an interesting and arresting fashion with the things that were reah a part of their lines. He realized that unparalleled success awaited the newspaper that would reduce politics to a minimum, provide chatty articles on sport, hobbies, and everyday interests, substitute literary and theatrical gossip for serious criticism of books and the stage, and, above all, appeal to the special interests ol women. Once this new policy had been put into practice, its commercial value was obvious enough. The other papers were bound to follow the lead of the Daily Mail sooner or later. The process was hastened by the influence of American journalistic methods. Since the War the transformation of penny journals has proceeded with sudden acceleration. ln reaching out to an ever-wider public belonging to the lower cultural levels, mosi of them have rapid9 dropped in intellectual and literary quality until now they scarcely pretend to appeal to people of intelllgence. They provide news and views, not for their own sake, but as a means of purveing a daily dose of entertainment that will save readers the trouble of turning to books.

6. Write a composition in about 300 words on any one of the following topics : (10)
(i) The negative impact of technology
(ii) Noise Pollution
(iii) The Uses and Abuses ol Advertising

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