UPSC CISF AC(EXE) LDCE 2024 Previous Year Question Paper PDF Free Download Essay Precis Writing Comprehension

UPSC CISF AC(EXE) LDCE 2024 Previous Year Question Paper PDF Free Download

Essay Precis Writing Comprehension

1. Write an essay in about 500 words on any one of the following topics :

(a) Artificial intelligence : a blessing or a curse?

(b) The use of technology in prevention of crime

(c) Prospects of eco-tourism

(d) The future of India as a global power

(e) Can there be rights without duties?

2. Write a précis of the following passage by reducing it to one-third of its length. Failure to adhere to the word limit may result in deduction of marks. Do not suggest any title. The précis must be written only in the space provided for it :

It had been asserted for long that in primitive society, being characterized (allegedly) by unbridled violence, anarchy and chaos, primitive law was preponderantly criminal law. Lowie showed the errors of assumption involved; he pointed out that since inter-personal relations are governed by fixed status, inheritance of property by well-defined customs, and since the contractual basis of inter-relationship is unknown, the scope for civil law in primitive jurisprudence was limited. Primitive law, he maintains, is different from our own in three different ways. It is largely conceived of in terms of the kinship bond and not the territorial tie; it is more or less identical with ethical norms and public opinion; and it does not distinguish between 'crimes' and 'torts', that is, between public and private wrongs as is done in modern jurisprudence.

Territory is not an interest by itself in primitive society perhaps because the pressure on land is nearly absent. Kinship bonds are the main integrating force, and all external (socio-political) organizations are conceived in terms of these and enforced through an appeal to these.

In primitive society, public opinion is a very powerful influence in the life of its individual members. The number of people constituting a primitive society being generally small, the total picture we have is that of a well-integrated homogeneous group of people, where each is known to everyone else, and where due to limited numbers and integration there is no scope for segments of various public opinions, as is the case in modern society. Public opinion in a primitive society is one, exclusive, strong and compelling. It is based not on expediency and the self-interest of a group within the society, but on certain common sentiments shared by all. These sentiments pertain to some conception of what is good and right. In other words, public opinion in primitive society originates from the moral and ethical notions of the people concerned, and nearly coincides with the same. There is no escape from it and no protection against it; everybody as its representative is a policeman; and the arm of law is the longest in such societies, though perhaps not so comprehensive and ruthless as in our own. In a primitive society, the individual's dependence upon the group is absolute, and in this group there is no multiplicity of ethical norms and standards. Therefore, the individual is very sensitive to the group comment which is always uniform.

Since the territorial tie remains in the background, wrongs against the state can hardly be recognized. A wrong is a personal wrong. The wronged one is somebody's kin and so is the wrong-doer. The kin of the wronged will avenge themselves on the wrong-doer and his kin. It is a direct dealing without the whole society stepping in. But in certain instances, the society as a whole does wake up from its slumber to take collective cognizance of a breach of a norm. This is done when the effects of the breach are feared to be harmful to the whole society. Thus, to take a classic example, the Eskimo do not bother themselves as a group over homicide, but no sooner are witchcraft and sorcery suspected than they act as a group overriding all considerations, even those of kinship ties.

It has been already said that laws often coincide with ethical norms. Therefore, a breach of the norm would often amount to a sin; and sins are feared to bring down wholesale supernatural punishment upon the heads of one and all. Thus, we find a strong collective opinion ever vigilant and ruthless against such breaches as insect, adultery, witchcraft, and so on, which affect society as a whole.

For the above-mentioned reasons, viz., the predominance of kinship ties over territorial bonds, and the fear of supernatural punishment of crimes against society as a whole, we have a preponderance of the law of torts over the law of crimes in primitive society.

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFoS) MAIN Previous Year Question Paper 2024 – ESSAY-PRECIS-WRITING-COMPREHENSION

3. Read the following passage and write clear and precise answers to the questions that follow, in your own words : 4x5=20

People of India are accustomed to moderate flooding during monsoon period. They utilize the floodwater for growing paddy in their fields and are benefited by the increased fertility of the soil. But recurrent floods and severe floods such as during 1988 and 1991, resulting from excessive Himalayan runoff and storms, have caused disastrous impacts including heavy loss of human life and damage to properties. The flood caused in 1970 brought about drowning of about one million people. In India, river floods, primarily caused due to peculiarities in rainfall, are the most frequent and often most devastating disaster. Nearly 75 percent of the total rainfall is concentrated over a short monsoon season of hardly four months (June to September) resulting the rivers to witness a heavy discharge during this period leading to widespread floods. Moreover, the problem of flood is compounded by sediment deposition and drainage congestion and in the coastal plains synchronization of river floods with sea tides. The rivers originating in the Himalayas carry with them a large amount of sediments causing erosion of banks in the upper reaches and overtopping in the lower segments. In India, the most flood-prone areas are the Brahmaputra-Ganga-Meghna basins which carry 60 percent of the country's total river flow into the Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains in the north and the northeast part of the country. This basin is one of the largest in the world and is spread over 15 states. It covers a geographical area of 1.75 million square km of which 75.8 percent lies in India and the remaining in Bangladesh and elsewhere. About 47 percent of population of the country resides in this basin. The basin is spread over into four regions, viz., Himalayan zone, the plains, the hilly tracts of northeast and southwest hilly tracts along fringe states in India. The other flood-prone areas are the northwest regions of west-flowing rivers, viz., Narmada and Tapti, the Central India, and the Deccan Plateau with major east-flowing rivers, viz., Krishna, Cauvery and Mahanadi.

In lack of proper flood policy and flood control schemes in the country, flood damage is increasing and larger populations are subjected to distress in flood-prone areas. Presently the locus has shifted away from the Gangetic belt with worst-hit being in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south; Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west; Uttar Pradesh in the north; and Bihar and West Bengal in the east. The problem has become recurrent in 10 out of 19 states exposed to the flood. Of these, four Assam, Bihar, Punjab and West Bengal alone lie in the Gangetic flood plains and the other six lie in the peninsular India or in the Himalayan ranges. Since 1965, Kalahandi, Koraput, Bolangir, Malkangiri, Phulbani and Rayagada districts of Orissa have witnessed recurrent floods.

(a) Why does the author think that moderate flooding can do no real harm?

(b) Why are the recurrent floods a matter of serious concern?

(c) What are the major flood-prone regions of India?

(d) What are the factors mainly responsible for frequent floods?

(e) Make sentences with the following words used in the passage to bring out their meaning:

(i) Accustomed

(ii) Utilize

(iii) Erosion

(iv) Synchronization

4. Read the following passage and write clear and precise answers to the questions that follow, in your own words: 4×5=20

Most people have a hard time digesting modern science because its mathematical language is difficult for our minds to grasp, and its findings often contradict common sense. Out of the 7 billion people in the world, how many really understand quantum mechanics, cell biology or macroeconomics? Science nevertheless enjoys immense prestige because of the new powers it gives us. Presidents and generals may not understand nuclear physics, but they have a good grasp of what nuclear bombs can do.

In 1620, Francis Bacon published a scientific manifesto titled The New Instrument. In it he argued that knowledge is power'. The real test of knowledge' is not whether it is true, but whether it empowers us. Scientists usually assume that no theory is 100 percent correct. Consequently, truth is a poor test for knowledge. The real test is utility. A theory that enables us to do new things constitutes knowledge.

Over the centuries, science has offered us many new tools. Some are mental tools, such as those used to predict death rates and economic growth. Even more important are technological tools. The connection forged between science and technology is so strong that today people tend to confuse the two. We often think that it is impossible to develop new technologies without scientific research, and that there is little point in research if it does not result in new technologies.

In fact, the relationship between science and technology is a very recent phenomenon. Prior to 1500, science and technology were totally separate fields. When Bacon connected the two in the early seventeenth century, it was a revolutionary idea. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries this relationship tightened, but the knot was tied only in the nineteenth century. Even in 1800, most rulers who wanted a strong army, and most business magnates who wanted a successful business, did not bother to finance research in physics, biology or economics.

Here and there people did develop new technologies, but these were usually created by uneducated craftsmen using trial and error, not by scholars pursuing systematic scientific research. Cart manufacturers built the same carts from the same materials year in, year out. They did not set aside a percentage of their annual profits in order to research and develop new cart models. Cart design occasionally improved, but it was usually thanks to the ingenuity of some local carpenter who never set foot in a university and did not even know how to read.

This was true of the public as well as the private sector. Whereas modern states call in their scientists to provide solutions in almost every area of national policy, from energy to health to waste disposal, ancient kingdoms seldom did so. The contrast between then and now is most pronounced in weaponry.

(a) Give two reasons why modern science is difficult to understand.

(b) What, according to the author, is the real test of knowledge?

(c) What makes the nineteenth century different in terms of the relationship between science and technology?

(d) How is the carpenter different from the modern scientist?

(e) How are modern states different from ancient kingdoms?

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