CDS English Exam Paper – 9 February 2014

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 stands 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 for 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 movement. 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, lean 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 bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made ? it is because his feet move on, but his head stays still.

31. The passage says that early instruments for measuring earthquakes were :
A. fault in design
B. expensive
C. not sturdy
D. not sensitive enough

32. Why was it necessary to invent instruments to observe an earthquake ?
A. because an earthquake comes like a thief in the night.
B. to make people alert about earthquakes during their conscious as well as unconscious hours.
C. to prove that we are technically advanced.
D. to experiment with the control of man over nature.

33. A simple device which consisted of rods that stood up on end like ninepins was replaced by a more sophisticated one because it failed :
A. to measure a gentle earthquake
B. to measure a severe earthquake
C. to record the direction of the earthquake
D. to record the facts with a pen on paper

34. The everyday observation referred to in the passage relates to :
A. a moving bus or train
B. the sudden start of a bus
C. the tendency of a standing person to fall when a bus or train moves suddenly
D. people standing in a bus or train

35. The early seismometers adopted the idea that in order to record the earthquake, it is :
A. the pen that should move just as it moves when we write on paper
B. the pen that should stay still and the paper should move
C. both pen and paper that should move
D. neither pen nor paper that should move

Ordering of Words in a Sentence

Directions-(Q. 36-46) in each of the following items, there is a sentence of which some parts have been jumbled up. You are required to rearrange these parts which are labelled P, Q, R and S, to produce the correct sentence. Choose the correct sequence and mark in your answer sheet accordingly.

36. There must be countries now in which peasants
P. can spend several years in universities
Q. so that
R. a lot of young persons are going
S. without substantial meals
The proper sequence should br :
A. SRQP
B. PQRS
C. SQRP
D. QPSR

37. Athens
P. it was also
Q. the first democracy
R. in the world was not only
S. an almost perfect democracy
The proper sequence should br :
A. RSPQ
B. PQRS
C. RQPS
D. QPSR

38. The practice of taking performance-boosting drugs among athletes
P. but checking it is not
Q. going to be easy is generally conceded to be
R. unfair of the detection technology for the user
S. is generally one jump ahead.
The proper sequence should be :
A. RSPQ
B. QPSR
C. QPRS
D. PQRS

39. All religions are

P. to advance the cause of peace
Q. in a holy partnership
R. justice and freedom
S. bound together
The proper sequence should be :
A. PRQS
B. PQRS
C. SQPR
D. SPQR

40. Seventy-two people
P. reports PTI were affected
Q. by food poisoning
R. including several women
S. and children of the central part of the city.
The proper sequence should be :
A. SPQR
B. PQRS
C. RSPQ
D. RSQP

41. The prime minister declared that
P. those states
Q. will get all help and aid
R. where family planning
S. is effected very efficiently.
The proper sequence should be :
A. PRSQ
B. PQRS
C. RSPQ
D. QPSR

42. Hardly had my brother descended from the plane
P. when the people
Q. waved and cheered
R. who had come to receive him
S. from the lounge.
The proper sequence should be :
A. PRQS
B. PQRS
C. SPWR
D. PRSQ

43. My friend
P. when he was going to his office
Q. met with an accident
R. on his scooter
S. due to rash driving.
The proper sequence should be :
A. PQRS
B. PRQS
C. SRQP
D. QSRP

44. The boy said
P. i am not going to the school
Q. with my friends in the class room
R. where my teacher scolds me when
S. i want to play.
The proper sequence should be :
A. PQRS
B. PSQR
C. SQPR
D. PRSQ

45. Mohan, the son of my friend,
P. gave me a set of pens
Q. which is very precious while working
R. in japan
S. who died in an accident.
The proper sequence should be :
A. PQRS
B. PSQR
C. SQPR
D. PRSQ

46. The clerk
P. on the desk
Q. left the money
R.in the safe
S. which he should have locked up.
The proper sequence should be :
A. PQRS
B. RSPQ
C. QPRS
D. QPSR

Directions-(Q. 47-50) each of the following sentences has a blank space and four world given after the sentence. Select whichever world you consider most appropriate for the blank space and indicate your choice on the answer sheet.

47. It is necessary to …….. that adequate standards are maintained.
A. insure
B. influence
C. ensure
D. control

48. Many of the city’s narrow streets have been …….. .
A. distinguished
B. widened
C. doubled
D. rehabilitated

49. Only the chairman ……….. to the proposal to build more houses.
A. avoided
B. admitted
C. prevented
D. objected

50. He hoped to bring the ………… to a satisfactory conclusion.
A. quarrel
B. negotiations
C. conflicts
D. concession

Spotting Errors

Directions-(Q. 51-70) 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 the corresponding letter i.e., (A) or (B) or (C). If you find no error, your answer should be indicated as (D).

51. A. he asked her that
B. whether she knew
C. what had happened last week / when she was on leave.
D. no error

52. A. unitil you do not go to the station
B. to receive him
C. i can hardly feel at ease.
D. no error

53. A. i did not know where they were going
B. nor could i understand
C. why had they left so soon,
D. no error

54. A. the distinguished visitor said that he had great pleasure to be with us for some time
B. the pleasure was all the greater
C. because his visit afforded him an opportunity to study the working of an institution of such eminence as ours.
D. no error

55. A. please convey
B. my best wishes
C. back to your parents.
D. no error

55. A. the call of the seas
B. have always
C. found an echo in me.
D. no error

57. A. hardly i had left home for bombay
B. when my son who is settled in calcutta arrived
C. any prior information.
D. no error

58. A. now it can be easily said
B. that the population of this city is greater
C. than any other city in india.
D. no error

59. A. it is difficult to explain
B. why did rajgopalachari resigned
C. from the congress in 1940.
D. no error

60. A. The boss reminded them of the old saying

B. that honesty was the best policy
C. and told them that they had better be honest in their work.
D. no error

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