1. Write a precis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title.
Rural development lies at the heart of any meaningful development strategy. This is the only mechanism to carry the message to the majority of the people and to obtain their involvement in measures designed to improve productivity levels. Rural population exceeds 70 percent of the total population of the country, despite a rapid rate of urbanization. Average rural income is 34 percent less than per capita urban income. A large part of under employment is still concealed in various rural activities particularly in the less developed parts of the country. For centuries, the true magnitude of poverty has been concealed from view by pushing a large part of it to the rural areas. This set in motion a self-perpetuating mechanism. The more enterprising and talented in the rural society migrated to the cities in search of dreams which were seldom realized. Such migrants added to urban squalor. The relatively more prosperous in the rural society opted for urban residence for different reasons. The rural society itself has in this way systematically been denuded of its more enterprising elements, as rural areas developed the character of a huge and sprawling slum. Development in the past has touched rural scene mainly via agricultural development programmes. These are essential and would have to be intensified. Much more important is a large scale expansion of physical and social infrastructure on the village scene. These included rural roads, rural water supply and village electrification as a part of the change in the physical environment and primary education and primary health care as the agents of social change. The task is to provide modern amenities as an aid for bringing into motion the internal dynamics of the rural society on a path leading to increase in productivity and self-help, changing the overall surrounding, while preserving coherence, integrated structure and the rich cultural heritage of the rural society.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any TWO of the questions that follow in your own words.
"The third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the gods, yet we use them like small children. For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines were made to be man's servants, yet he has grown so dependent on them that they arc in a fair way to become his masters. Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and waiting upon machines. And the machines are very stern masters. They must be fed with coal, and given petrol to drink, and oil to wash with and they must be kept at the right temperature. And if they do not get their meals when they expect them, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow up and spread ruin and destruction all round them. So we have to wait upon them very attentively and do all that we can to keep them in a good temper. Already we find it difficult either to work or play without the machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we rule the animals. And this brings me to the point at which I asked "What do we do with all time which the machines have saved for us, and the new energy they have given us?" On the whole, it must be admitted, we do very little. For the most part we use our time and energy to make more and better machines, but more and better machines will only give us still more time and still more energy and what are we to do with them? The answer, I think, is that we should try to become more civilized. For the machines themselves, and the power which the machines have given us, are not civilization but aids to civilization. But you will remember that we agreed at the beginning the being civilized meant making and liking beautiful things, thinking freely, and living rightly and maintaining justice equally between man and man. Man has a better chance today to do these things than he ever had before, he has more time, more energy, less to fear and less to fight against. If he will give his time and energy which his machines have won for him to make making more beautiful things, to finding out more and more about the universe to removing the causes of quarrels between nations, do discovering how to prevent poverty, then I think out civilization would undoubtedly be the greatest, as it would be the most lasting that there has ever been."
(a) What is your concept of "Civilization"? Do you agree with the author's views on the subject?
(b) Science has given us powers fit for the gods. Is it a curse or blessing?
(c) The use of machines has brought us more leisure and energy. Are we utilizing it to improve the quality of human life?
(d) Instead of making machines our servants, the author says, they have become our masters. In what sense has this come about?
3. Expand the idea contained in one of the following.
(i) Give every man thy ear but few they voice
(ii) If winter comes, can spring be far behind
(iii) To err is human, to refrain from laughing, humane
(iv) Houses are built to live in and not to look on.
(v) Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. And waster its sweetness on the desert air.
(vi) What is this life, if full of care / We have no time to stand and stare
(vii) A Yawn is a Silent Shout.
4. Use any FIVE of the following pair of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings.
(i) Allusion, Illusion
(ii) Ardour, Order
(iii) Conquer, Concur
(iv) Cite, Site
(v) Addict, Edict
(vi) Proceed, Precede
(vii) Right, Rite
(viii) Weather, Whether
5. Fill in the blanks.
(i) Much __________ about nothing.
(ii) __________ is the last refuge of the Scoundrel.
(iii) To put the __________ before the __________.
(iv) __________ of the same __________ flock together.
(v) A __________ in time saves __________.
(vi) __________ dogs seldom __________.
(vii) Sweets are the uses of __________.
(viii) Eternal __________ is the price of __________.
(ix) A __________ child __________ the fire.
(x) One man's __________ is another man's __________.
6. Check and write the word or phrase you believe is nearest to the meaning of any TEN of the following words.
(i) Moratorium: (large tomb, waiting period, security for debt, funeral house)
(ii) Prolific: (skillful, fruitful, wordy, spread out)
(iii) Bi-Partisan: (narrow minded, progressive, representing two parties, divided)
(iv) Unequivocal: (careless, unmistakable, variable, incomparable)
(v) Covenant: (prayer, debate, garden, agreement)
(vi) Tentative: (expedient, nominal, provisional, sensitive)
(vii) Demographic: (relating the study of: government, demons, communications, population)
(viii) Sonar Apparatus to (detect something in the air, locate objects under water, measure rain, anticipate earthquake)
(ix) Progeny: (a genius, offspring, ancestors, growth)
(x) Empirical: (relay on theory, based on experience, having vision of power, disdainful)
(xi) Polarize: (chill, to separate into opposing extremes, slant, cause to be freely movable)
(xii) Apolitical: (conservative, rude, non-political, radical)
(xiii) Plenary: (timely, combined, florid, full)
(xiv) Entourage: (decorators, tourist, attendant, adversaries)
(xv) Diagnosis: (identification of an illness, prophecy, plan, likeness)
(xvi) Nucleus: (core, outer part, inedible nut, quality)
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