Set 1

The English and Foreign Languages UniversityHyderabad - 500605

BA Honours English Entrance Test Paper, 2011

Total Marks: 100Time: 2hrs (2 pm. to 4 pm.)

SECTION A: LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY (40 marks)

I. Given below is a passage with ten blanks. A set of fifteen words is provided in a box. Choose the most suitable word and write it in the blank

(10x1 ½ =15)to

is

but

make

could

might

the

own

have

themes

up

difficult

ideas

on

and

Every time you buy something you exercise your taste. The things you own tell stories about

you as surely as the Joneses you’re keeping 1 _______ with. Each purchase reveals something

your partner or closest friend may not realize from your intimate exchanges. Before the age of

mass production, taste used to be the province of an educated elite. 2______________ when the

entire population became consumers for the first time, taste came out of the salons and onto the

streets. Suddenly everybody had the opportunity to 3 __________________ a choice.

Exercising taste is not 4 ________________. You decide what stories you want your

possessions to tell and get on and orchestrate them. But be warned: not every story is a flattering

one. Buy an onyx ashtray and you 5 _______________ as well rent poster space and tell the

world “I am the dupe of cynical manipulators who have succeeded in seducing me with flashy

rubbish”.

1

Set 1

The rules of taste are simple. No taste is 6 _______________ acquiesce and act like a pygmy

enchanted by beads and mirrors. With no taste you take what is offered and leave your soul

undisturbed. Good taste 7 _______________ to care and to choose, to make your own

surroundings and even your appearance more pleasing and more interesting by positive acts of

discrimination.

Underpinning what is always thought to be good taste are recurrent 8 _____________ such as

refinement, restraint, appropriateness and good manners. These all lead to delight:

9______________ alternative is vulgar excess which is ultimately unsatisfying.

So, bear these ideas in mind and look at what you 10_________________ and think about the

stories your possessions are telling.

II. Read this passage and answer the questions that follow.

When we think of the people who make our lives miserable by hacking into computers, or spreading malicious viruses, most of us imagine an unpopular teenage boy, brilliant but geeky, venting his frustrations from the safety of a suburban bedroom.

Actually, these stereotypes are just that – stereotypes—according to Sarah Gordon, an expert in computer viruses and security technology, and a senior research fellow with Symantec Security Response. Since 1992, Gordon has studied the psychology of virus writers. “A hacker or a virus writer is just as likely to be the guy next door to you,” she says , “or the kid at the checkout line bagging your groceries. Your average hacker is not necessarily some Goth type dresses entirely in black and sporting a nose ring; she may very well be a 50-year old female.”

The virus writers Gordon has come to know have varied backgrounds; while predominantly male, some are female. Some are solidly academic, while others are athletic. Many have friendships with members of the opposite sex, good relationships with their parents and families, most are popular with their peers. They don’t spend all their time in the basement. One virus writer volunteers in his local library, working with elderly people. One of them is a poet and a musician; another is an electrical engineer, and another works for a university quantum physics department. You wouldn’t pick them out of a lineup as being the perpetrator.

Hackers and virus writers are actually very different, distinct populations. “Hackers tend to have a more thorough knowledge of systems and a more highly developed skill set,” Gordon says, “whereas virus writers generally take a shallower approach to what they’re doing.” Hackers tend to have a much deeper knowledge of individual applications and are still regarded as being somewhat ‘sexy’ in today’s counterculture, while virus writing is looked down upon, mostly for its random damage and lack of required skill.

2

Set 1

Their motivations may also differ. While both hackers and virus writers are initially attracted by the technical challenge, hacking is more about power and control. When you’re hacking and you get into a system, you remain involved with that system – you take it over and dominate it. On the other hand, once a virus writer releases a program into the wild, the virus goes off and keeps on making copies of itself independently of the author. It’s not as intimate or connected a relationship as between a hacker and the computer – the virus writer relinquishes control and becomes disassociated from the actual activity he or she has set in motion.

People write viruses for a number of reasons. Some may perceive it as a technical challenge, even though writing a virus is actually very easy. Also, younger virus writers like to be a part of a group. They look for peer identity, which is important to them. Or it may be a way to make a social statement. If you are a young person who doesn’t have a lot of power and you can assert yourself with a political statement in a virus that travels all around the world, you might think you are making a difference, imaging yourself a modern-day social activist.

(Questions 11 to 15) For each of these questions choose the best option and write its letter in the box provided. (5X2=10)

11. According to public imagination, the average hacker tends to be……..

a. a stereotypical geek.

b. socially frustrated.

c. more often male.

d. scientifically inclined.

12. “You wouldn’t pick them out of a lineup as being the perpetrators”. Prepetrator

here means:

a. someone who harms others.

b. electrical engineers.

c. someone who writes virus.

d. someone who commits a crime.

13. Which of these statements is NOT TRUE about the differences between hackers

and virus writers?

a. Hackers tend to possess more technical knowledge.

b. Virus writers take a shallow approach to what they do.

c. Hackers have more knowledge of program applications.

d. Hackers have been found to be younger than virus writers.

3

Set 1

14. One main motivation that drives a hacker is….a. power and control.

b. it is easy to write a virus.

c. fame.

d. intimacy.

15. All of the following are reasons given for the writing a virus except the fact that….

a. it is a technical challenge

b. it can prove to be malicious

c. it is easy to write

d. it establishes peer identity

III. In each of the following sentences one word is in italics. Below each sentence are four words. Choose the word which is closest to the meaning to the italicised word and write its letter in the box provided. (5X1 ½ =7 ½)

16. I admired them for their munificence when they gave to the poor.

a. generosity with money

b. stinginess

c. misery

d. tact in handling business

17. The clever salesman inveigled us into buying things we didn’t really need.

a. persuaded

b. encouraged

c. simulated

d. lured

18. Suppressed anger is said by psychologists to have an insidious effect on our health.

a. frightening

b. causing harm gradually and secretly

c. regular and planned

d. threatening

4

Set 1

19. Some medicines work like miracles but they may have deleterious effects.

a. harmful

b. imagined

c. indecent

d. tenuous

20. I could feel his malevolent gaze as I walked away. I started wondering what he would do next.

a. doing good

b. truthful

c. courteous

d. wanting to cause harm

IV. Some lines in the passage below contain an error each. Underline the error and write the correction in the space provided. Write “No error” if the line does not contain any error.

(15x½=7½) A new painting was hanging in one corner of an India Art Gallery. 21) ...................

Through the day, visitors stood before the new exhibit and 22) ...................

speculate as to what it represented. 23) ...................

“I think that it’s a terrifying monster,” said Misty. 24)....................

“There’s no name for it, but I’m sure it was drawn by a famous artist.” 25)....................

“I would say that it is a picture of a park as was seen from an airplane,” 26)....................

mused Sreenivas. “I see many trees and road in the painting.” 27) ...................

Miss Pittie, the art local critic for the New India Weekly, 28)....................

made her pronouncement. “This is clear a masterpiece created by 29) ..................

an artist who wishes to anonymous at this stage of his or her career. 30)...................

The brilliant strokes of colour symbolizes a person who is 31)...................

looking back to an exciting lifetime of accomplishments!” 32)...................

At that moment, Mr. GV Reddy, the gallery curator, entered in the room. 33)...................

“Isn’t it great?” he asked with big smile on his face. “My three year old 34) ..................

did that this morning. He is saying it’s a maze. I think it’s amazing!” 35) ...................

5

Set 1

SECTION B: GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (15 marks)

(Questions 36-45) Choose the correct answer in each case and write its letter in the box provided. (10x1 ½ =15)

36. The author of the book Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century is

a. Shashi Tharoor.

b. Arun Shourie.

c. Nandan Nilekani.

d. Amartya Sen.

37. Caracas is the capital city of which of the following countries?

a. Zambia.

b. Libya.

c. Yemen.

d. Venezuela.

38. Which one of the following statement is correct with regard to the term “Reva”?

a. It is the name of a famous rock band in the nineties.

b. It is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world that produces pain-killers and anti-inflammatory drugs.

c. It is the name of an electric car manufacturing company based in India.

d. All of the above.

39. The India-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for

a. Producing atom-by-atom maps of the human ribosome.

b. Analyzing the capacity of the mitochondria of the human cell in absorbing oxygen and iron among a host of other nutrients/minerals.

c. Discovering chlorophyll like pigmented green substance in the human cell which he termed ‘humophyll’.

d. Investigating the thermodynamic reaction within the cell between cytoplasm and plasma membrane during a diseased condition such as cancer.

6

Set 1

40. Which one of the following writers is the creator of the fictional character Reginald Jeeves?

a. P. G. Wodehouse.

b. Herman Melville.

c. Somerset Maugham.

d. Mark Twain.

41. Which were the two forces that fought the First Battle of Panipat in the year 1526 A.D.?

a. Akbar and Maharaj Jai Singh.

b. Mahammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhaan.

c. Babur and Ibrahim Lodi.

d. Sher Shah Suri and Humayun.

42. The city of Hyderabad was founded by

a. Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur.

b. Sikandar Ali Khan Bahadur.

c. Nizam Iltamush Jahangir Shah.

d. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.

(Questions 43-45) Expand the following abbreviations.

43. NREGA: ……………………………………………………………………………….

44. CHOGM: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

45. SEBI: …………………………………………………………………..……………….

7

Set 1

SECTION C: REASONING (15 marks)

(Questions 46-55) Choose the correct answer in each case and write its letter in the box provided. (10x1 ½ =15)

46. Spot the incorrect answer.

a. make a movie

b. make a painting

c. make a promise

d. make a model

47. Spot the incorrect word-combination.

a. boiling hot

b. bored stiff

c. drink sick

d. badly hurt

48. Spot the odd one out.

a. cigarette

b. diskette

c. kitchenette

d. etiquette

49. Spot the odd one out.

a. sing- singer

b. tail-tailor

c. paint-painter

d. teach-teacher

8

Set 1

50. Spot the odd one out.

a. catch

b. match

c. batch

d. watch

(Questions 51 to55) A related pair of words is followed by four pairs of words. Select the pair that expresses a relationship that comes nearest to the one expressed by the original pair, and write the letter corresponding to that pair in the space provided against the original pair.

51. SEDATIVE: DROWSINESS

a. VACCINE: VIRUS

b. ANESTHETIC: NUMBNESS

c. LAXATIVE: DRUG

d. DISEASE: TREATMENT

52. AUTO: GARAGE:: PLANE: ----------------------

a. RUNWAY

b. AIRPORT

c. HANGAR

d. PILOT

53. HAND: ELBOW:: FOOT:----------------------

a. KNEE

b. HEEL

c. ANKLE

d. TOE

9

Set 1

54. LARGE: GIANT:: SMALL:-------------------------

a. YOUNG

b. PETITE

c. TINY

d. WEAK

55. CLOCKWISE: ANTI-CLOCKWISE:: TRUST:------------------

a. UNTRUST

b. NONTRUST

c. DISTRUST

d. DETRUST

SECTION D: LITERATURE (15 marks)

(Questions 56 to75) choose the correct answer in each case and write its letter in the box provided. (10x1 ½ =15)

56. Which of the following novels won the Man Booker Prize for the year 2008?

a. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

b. Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence

c. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

d. Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger

57. Name the short story writer who wrote under the pseudonym (pen name) ‘Saki.’

a. William Sydney Porter

b. Hector Hugh Munro

c. Rudyard Kipling

d. Washington Irving

58. The term “plot” refers to

a. the sequence of events and actions in a narrative.

b. the main characters.

c. the style of writing.

d. the author’s philosophy.

10

Set 1

59. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” Which Shakespearean play is this line from?

a. Hamlet

b. Julius Caesar

c. Macbeth

d. Othello

60. In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the other characters in the cast think that Juliet is dead, but the audience knows that she only took a sleeping potion. This is an example of

a. a. satire

b. euphemism

c. dramatic irony

d. apostrophe

61. Name the poet who wrote these famous lines:

But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep

a. a. Robert Burns

b. Robert Frost

c. Robert Louis Stevenson

d. Robert Lowell

62. Aslan is a character in which of the following works of popular fiction?

a. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

b. The Lord of the Rings

c. Earthsea

d. Chronicles of Narnia

63. Which of the following novels features the American Civil War as its backdrop?

a. For Whom the Bell Tolls

b. The Naked and the Dead

c. Gone With the Wind

d. All Quiet on the Western Front

11

Set 1

64. Which famous English Romantic poet was initially trained to be a surgeon?

a. John Milton

b. John Keats

c. Christina Rossetti

d. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

65. Name the Greek god of theatre.

a. Zeus

b. Apollo

c. Dionysus

d. Hephaestus

SECTION E: GENERAL ESSAY (15 marks)

66. Write a short essay (in not more than 250 words) on any one of the following.

(15x1=15)

1. India has always been vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomena. Disaster management has to occupy a more important place in the country’s developmental frame work as it is the poor and the under-privileged who are worst affected by calamities and disasters. Do you agree with this statement?

2. Do you think reading books is important? Is reading books still necessary for your personal and academic success? Present your views keeping in mind the all-pervasive alternative, called the Internet.

12