I. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that
follow. 5 x 3 = 15
Our need for water is constantly increasing. There is an automatic increase due to population growth, while the overall improvement of living standards, the fight against hunger through the irrigation of more land for food growing, and the creation and expansion of new industries, all foretell the need for even greater water supplies throughout the world. Though it is difficult to calculate the exact amount, it is safe to say that in 20 years time the demand for water will be roughly double. Faced with such a situation it is obvious that we should search as widely as possible and with every available means for sources of fresh water that seem to be the least costly. But where do these sources exist? Only a sustained and coordinate programme of scientific observation and research in hydrology will give us the answer. This is the purpose of the International Hydrological Decade, 1965-1975.
Underground water reserves are much larger than those on the surface, but as they are unseen we tend to underestimate them. It is vitally important that we make use of the underground reserves, but never haphazardly. For example, where does the water come from which we find in one or another of the underground water-bearing layers (“aquifers”)? How does it move? How is it renewed? And if this water is used, what effect will it have on the discharge and future level of the water table? What are the laws of hydrogeology? Despite the immense progress of recent years, all these questions have still not been fully answered.
1. Why is the requirement of water always growing?
2. Where do sources of fresh water exist?
3. What is meant by underground water? How do you think this is created?
4. What are aquifers?
5. What is hydrology?
II. Make a precise of the following passage in about 140 words and give it a title. 15 x 1 = 15
The actual course of human evolution before the dawn of history, is traced chiefly by the tools and ornaments left by man, but also by actual human remains in the shape of bones. Through these letters we know that in the early days of man’s existence the Taungs man-ape, the ape-man of Java, the Heidelberg man. The piltdown man, the Neanderthal man-all of which have now become extinct, leaving the none species now existing.
From the evidence of tools, specially flat instruments, we can trace man’s progress more in detail. First came the crude objects known as eoliths-flints that needed only a few rough chips to make them service able. Then in the old stone age, the flints were polished too; but never polished. In the new stone age they were polished too; but we never get a trace of metals.
Then began the age of metals, first with bronze and then with iron; and with that we are at the beginning of the recorded history. What is interesting is to find that progress becomes more and more rapid as time goes on we may date the earliest know flint implement at something like half a million years ago. Atleast three quarters, probably nine-tenths of that time had passed before man learned to polish his flints. The age bronze started perhaps ten thousand years ago. Practically all history is crowded into five thousand years, while the last thousand alone have been responsible for a whole host of fundamental inventions like printing, gun powder, anaesthetics, mechanical transport, flying, wireless and the control over the bacterial diseases from man’s first beginning until the present, the rate of progress has been growing more and more rapid; and there are no signs that it is slackening now.
Once the human type of mind originated, it brought with it the speech and as a result, permanent tradition, first by means of
speech alone, then also by means of writing and later by printing
through tradition man comes to differ fundamentally, from all other organisms; for tradition provides a man a new method of inheritance, which stimulates the inheritance of the acquired characters and makes possible the passing on to later generations of the results of learning and training. it is on tradition that the social environment depends, and what we call human progress has almost all been progress in our tradition. (400 words)
III. Write a report on ‘Drug abuse’. (or)
Write a report on ‘Biodiversity and its threats’. 15 x 1 = 15
IV. Translate the following passage into Telugu. 15 x 1 = 15
Price rise is a matter of great concern for all, particularly
common man. In recent years prices of essential commodities have gone up so high that common man is finding it difficult to have his both ends meet. It is said that India’s population has increased geometrically while the production of various goods and services has increased mathematically. To say the production has failed to keep pace with the rate of population growth.
This has led to the rise in demand of goods and services resulting
in sky-rocketting price hike. Prices have risen unprecedently in recent times. Prices of commodities which are of our day-today need and which constitute the basic requirement seem to stepping out of reach of the common man. The rise of prices of hundred commodities measured at Wholesale Price Index as compared to the prices of those commodities prevailing at the corresponding week of the previous year is known as inflation. The government is determined to keep the inflation between 3 to 5 percent, which means that the price rise to the minimum acceptable level is considered to be a natural phenomenon in any economy particularly a growing economy like India. It also reflects government’s concern for the common man. However,
price rise is an integral part of economic growth. This is evident
from the fact that the prices of commodities like cereals and other eatables reveals that their prices have risen four-fold during the last couple of years while the earnings of the common man have not increased in that ratio. Obviously, they are bound to face problems.
V. Write a letter to your father requesting him to give permission
to go to New Delhi as an excursion, and also send some money for expenses. (or)
You are S. Venkateshwar. Write a letter to the Railway General Manager asking him to reserve a compartment for a marriage party. 15 x 1 = 15
VI. Write an essay on Reservation in Educational Institutions. (or)
Write an essay on F.D.I. (Foreign Direct Investments) (or)
Write an essay on corruption: Its causes and remedies.