Section – I: English

Directions for Questions 1 to 20: The sentences given in each question, when properly
sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. Choose the
most logical order of sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent
paragraph.

1. A. This is an apt moment for giving a lecture on new politics for India.
B. After a decade of unstable politics, there is now a government in power which has
sufficient parliamentary strength to be able to last, bar accidents, the full five years in
power.
C. We are celebrating this month the fiftieth anniversary of the completion of the
drafting of the Constitution of India, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Republic is
only two months away.
D. It is a coalition of the BJP and many small caste and regional parties though some
carry ideological labels.
a) ACBD b) CBAD c) CDAB d) BDCA

2. A. The appellation of “Indian,” when used for the women’s movement implies a political
and cultural singularity that obscures the movement’s diversity, differences, and
conflicts.
B. But gender cannot be separated from other, conflicting political identities, all of
which play a crucial role in the life of the nation.
C. The term Indian women’s movement is highly contested.
D. The problem is not simply one of disunities but rather has to do with intractable
conflicts involving the word “women” that derive from the central position of gender
in postcolonial Indian culture and politics.
E. Indeed, processes of gender— the construction of identities, roles, and relations
based on sexual differences— played a key role in the historical formation of the
Indian nation state.
a) EACDB b) CEBAD c) CADEB d) BEDCA

3. A. Women’s issues entered the fields of culture, religion, and law; of family and
community structures; of the problems of and official responses to population,
poverty, illiteracy, and labor; and of the new social movements of dalits,
environmentalists, tribals, anti-dam activists, peasants, and trade unions.
B. There were cases of rape in police custody, wife murder (usually called bride-burning
or dowry deaths) on a large scale, and sexual harassment in the workplace and on the
street.
C. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, taking stock of the 50th independence celebrations,
comments that in “all these discourses, disciplines and sites of action, gender began
to figure as an ‘issue’ as well as a category of analysis”
 D. At the same time violence against women was on the rise and widely reported in the
media.
a) CDBA b) BACD c) DBAC d) BDCA

4. A. Early experiences have also revealed considerable uncertainty and confusion about
the precise political, administrative and fiscal powers panchayats have in relation to
the States, line ministries, and local user groups.
B. In 1993, the Government of India passed a series of constitutional reforms, which
were intended to empower and democratise India’s rural representative bodies – the
Panchayats.
C. Since this time, the process of decentralisation has been highly variable, ranging from
ambitious attempts at Gram Swaraj (or village self-rule) in Madhya Pradesh to
political re-centralization in Karnataka.
D. The 73rd amendment to the Constitution formally recognised a third tier of
government at the sub-State level, thereby creating the legal conditions for local self-
rule – or Panchayati Raj.
E. This, in part, reflects the fact that the 73rd Amendment gave the State governments
considerable autonomy to interpret and implement the constitutional reforms.
a) AECDB b) CEDBA c) CEDAB d) BDCAE

5. A. But not many think of justice as an economic input.

B. Everybody knows that justice is a basic need.
C. Justice is as essential an input for liberalising economy as deregulation or
globalisation.
D. Yet no economic reform, including the one India has embarked on, can succeed fully
without judicial reform.
a) BADC b) DCBA c) CDAB d) BDCA

6. A. Liberalisation empowers people to invest where they want, without being told that
they must go to such-and-such place and produce just so much of such-and-such
thing.
B. The fundamental aim of liberalisation is to empower people, both as producers and
consumers, and thus harness their innovativeness and energies for the national good.
C. It means that consumers are not forced to buy goods from a tiny handful of callous,
inefficient businessmen or government agencies, and can buy from any supplier,
Indian or foreign.
D. Liberalisation empowers people to take up any profession or business.
E. This means, for instance, that there can be no government monopolies on bus routes,
tourist huts, or mutual funds—any person should be able to enter any field without
encountering hurdles and demands for bribes.
a) ACEDB b) CEBAD c) CEADB d) BDEAC

7. A. There is an old saying in north India, jiskadanda, uskibhains (he who wields the staff
owns the buffalo).
 B. This underlines the fact that in traditional Indian society, property rights depended
on force, not on law or justice.
C. Where property rights are not secure, it makes little sense for any peasant to invest
his money or efforts in ventures whose fruit will be snatched away by the upper
castes of the village, by goondas, or even the police.
D. Empowering the individual through liberalisation implies the disempowerment of
those breaking the rules to enrich themselves.
a) ACDB b) ABCD c) CDAB d) DACB
8. A. As I have said in earlier columns, we need a change in the Constitution to reduce the
powers of politicians and increase those of autonomous investigative and judicial
agencies.
B. The police dance to the tune of their political masters instead of enforcing the law.
C. After which they will issue endless stay orders and adjournments.
D. Judges are fond of saying that justice delayed is justice denied.
a) DBAC b) CBDA c) DCBA d) DBCA

9. A. Civic education is at the core of the school-state relation-ship.

B. This is intimately linked with a key issue in the sangh-inspired attempts to rewrite
school curriculum – the question of moral decline.
C. To address this NCERT has expanded the civics curriculum at the cost of other social
science areas.
D. It reflects basic understandings of the character of society under the Indian state and
the changes which have come with capitalism and modernity.
a) ADBC b) ACBD c) CABD d) DCAB

10. A. For any serious attempt to rethink Indian education and its impact on society it is
necessary to closely examine both what educationists wish to say as well as what
they are speaking against.
B. And these must always be negotiated against counter agendas.
C. Education is thus, primarily an assertion of cultural power.
D. For instance, that a certain way of speaking is better than what your parents might
have taught you, the rules of the state are better than what you are told on the street
corners, etc.
a) CDBA b) DCBA c) ABCD d) BDCA

11. A. Under this agreement, the industrialized world agreed to cut its emissions by just 5.2
percent of 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
B. It is important to note that the world is nowhere close to achieving even this
education.
C. Not only has the world’s largest polluter – the US - walked out of the global
agreement but also the Europe is finding it difficult to reach to this small target.
D. In late 1997, after years of protracted negotiations, the world agreed to the Kyoto
Protocol.
a) DBAC b) CBAD c) DABC d) BADC
12. A. Finance, bureaucratic administration, complicated machine production in a factory,
and the very idea of science are beyond the mental reach of human beings who have
lived in misery on the margin of over cultivated lands or in the forest.
B. Their payment might be made in a lump sum to a foreman who happens to be the
chief of their small guild and the head of their clan at the same time.
C. Most of them have been driven by famine conditions in the jungle to become the
cheapest form of drudge labour in the city.
D. The wretched workmen who actually built it generally use the crudest tools.
E. Certainly these workmen can rarely grasp the nature of the work done by the people
for whom the structures were erected.
a) AECDB b) DBEAC c) ECDAB d) BDECA

13. A. LEGENDS of man's fall from a pristine state of perfection are found in the myths of
many different lands and people.
B. It was supposedly preceded by three nobler periods.
C. The first and best was the golden 'Age of Truth' (satyayuga or kritayuga).
D. Modern Hindus speak of the present as the Dark Age (kaliyuga) of mankind.
a) ADBC b) CBAD c) CABD d) CADB

14. A. These sinful activities led successfully to the treta, dvapara and kali ages, each worse
than the preceding.
B. The Buddhist and Jain religious books contain similar versions.
C. Life spans became shorter: war, disease, poverty, and hunger afflicted mankind
because of its lapse from purity.
D. Then human greed developed; men began to accumulate private property, to hoard
acquisitions.
a) ACDB b) BACD c) DACB d) CADB

15. A. Political parties that are serious about the subject have to move beyond blaming the
police and the government of the day.
B. They have to understand the issues involved, internalise the values that will make a
difference and get its cadre and followers to actively enforce these norms in public
life.
C. Yet more laws and VIP visits to the hospital beds of the victims or families of the
deceased, as the case may be, will not stem the rising tide of crimes against women.
D. Only democratic politics can.
a) BDAC b) CBDA c) CDAB d) BADC

16. A. The Gita suggests the path of complete surrender in order to get rid of ego.
B. Tagore glorifies 'self' in such a wider and greater context that it loses its independent
existence and merges with the universal.
C. Tagore shows the path of taking pride in the love of God.
 D. So he says if it has to stay, let it remain as a slave. I am here to serve the Almighty – in
thinking this let that 'i' become subservient.
E. Ramakrishna realised how difficult it is to surrender ego since our way of life makes it
an indispensable part of our existence.
a) ACEDB b) CEBDA c) EABCD d) AEDCB

17. A. These tend to be evanescent, lasting till the next outrage or scam hogs the headlines,
leaving the basic issues unattended.
B. This gets compounded by poor laws, worse enforcement of the law and lax policing.
C. These incidents have led to public outrage and media outcry.
D. What are the basic issues?
E. Gender inequality, layered by social inequality, is the basic issue.
a) DBCEA b) ADCBE c) DEACB d) CADEB

18. A. Mental disorder apart, conduct in society is determined by social norms, which in
turn depend on social values, and the disposition to abide by social norms.
B. Values that see women primarily as objects of sexual desire, with no right to agency
of their own, lead to behaviour known as eve teasing.
C. This is blasphemy as far as traditional society is concerned.
D. The opposite value is neither denial of sexuality nor sexual anarchy but democratic
equality, the woman’s right to be treated on par with men as they go about the
business of life, including in sexual choice.
a) ABDC b) CBAD c) CDAB d) ADCB

19. A. However, the Centre's motives seem questionable

B. Since it has decided to activate a dormant constitutional provision especially for nine
states that have of late been ruled by opposition parties.
C. It would seem that the UPA dispensation refuses to learn from the history of Centre-
state relations in India which have been marked more by conflict than cooperation.
D. Citing its concern over growing leftwing extremism as well as lack of development,
the UPA government is planning to create a more proactive role for governors by
allowing them to intervene directly in tribal zones.
a) DABC b) CBAD c) BDAC d) BADC

20. A. When a person carries baggage more than his capacity to carry weight, his face
becomes distorted in pain.
B. This creates a huge barrier between the person who carries the baggage and all
others who are around him.
C. Similar is the case when one's personality carries the heavy load of ego and self-
interest.
D. A constant conflict, a feeling of perpetual dissatisfaction and irritation with the self
and the rest of the world are some of the obvious outcomes.
E. We are aware of all this, yet we do not make efforts to reduce the weight of the
baggage.
F. He becomes unpopular, unpleasant and emotionally volatile.
a) BEDACF b) ADECFB c) FACDEB d) ACDBFE