This model question was published by Tribhuvan University Faculty of Management.
Tribhuvan University
Faculty of Management
BBS First Year
C. English
2071
Full Marks: 100 Time: 3 hours
Candidates are expected to answer the questions in their own words as far as practicable.
The figures in the margin indicate full marks.
Answer all the questions.
Question 1. Answer any two of the following: (15 marks each)
(a) Read the following passage and answer the questions below:
It is many months now since I found myself obliged by conscience to end my silence and to take a public stand against my country’s war in Vietnam. The considerations which led me to that painful decision have not disappeared; indeed, they have been magnified by the course of events since then. The war itself is intensified; the impact on my country is even more destructive. I cannot speak about the great themes of violence and non-violence, of social change and of hope for the future, without reflecting on the tremendous violence of Vietnam. Since the spring of 1967, when I first made public my opposition to my government’s policy, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my decision. “Why you?” they have said. “Peace and civil rights don’t mix. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?” And when I hear such questions, I have been greatly saddened, for they mean that the inquirers have never really known me, my commitment, or my calling. Indeed, that question suggests that they do not know the world in which they live.
In explaining my position, I have tried to make it clear that I remain perplexed—as I think everyone must be—by the complexities and ambiguities of Vietnam. I would not wish to underrate the need for a collective solution to this tragic war. I would wish neither to present North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front as paragons of virtue nor to overlook the role they can play in the successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reasons to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give-and-take on both sides. Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I had several reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America.
(Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Trumpet of Conscience”)
i. Why did Dr. King feel that he had to clarify his position against the war?
ii. Why didn’t Dr. King feel the United States could solve the problems between the two sides in Vietnam by fighting there?
iii. Why did Dr. King bring Vietnam into the field of his moral vision?
iv. Was Dr. King as concerned about Vietnamese victims as he was about U.S. victims? Explain.
v. When a government starts a war, its position is that it is acting justly and morally. If a citizen refuses to participate in the war because of personal moral principles, is he/she less moral than the government?
Explain.
(b) Apply the four levels of reading a text to Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” or Lekhanath Paudyal’s “The Parrot in the Cage”.
(c) Who would you argue are more intelligent: men or women? Why? You can base your answer, if you wish, on Bertrand Russell’s essay “Keeping errors at
Bay”.
OR
Are good manners a matter of how we look at ourselves or how we look at other people? Explain. You can use Dr. Peale’s ideas as given in the essay “Courtesy: Key to a Happier World”
Question 2. Answer any five of the following: (10 marks each)
(a) What do you think: If two people from two different linguistic groups, or religions, or tribes, or nationalities, or castes, fall in love, should they marry, even if their families are opposed? Give reasons for your answer.
(b) Edit this paragraph for coherence.
English, like other languages, has conflicting sayings about important matters like love, friendship, and work. In English we say about work, “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” The message is that one can and should always work more—at least until all the work is done. In English we have this proverb: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” The advice is not to work too much. Life without recreation makes one an uninteresting person. How is it that the language has two sayings that give opposite messages? We can assume that work is important to native English speakers. They respect it a lot—perhaps too much. The second saying may be a kind of safety valve. It warns people against going too far in following the advice of the first saying.
(c) Describe a famous building or structure? Where is it? Who built it? When? What is it used for? What do you like or dislike about it?
(d) Tell a story from your life that supports the saying, “Experience is the best teacher.”
(e) Explain the unconventional interpretation in each joke below:
(i) STRAIGHT MAN: Would you call me a taxi, please.
COMEDIAN: Okay. You’re a taxi.
(ii) STRAIGHT MAN: Who was that lady I saw you with last night.
COMEDIAN: That was no lady. That was my wife.
(f) A café owner wants to attract children to he café. She has devised an icecream dish wit cream, chocolate sauce, and strawberries in it. Invent two
different two- or three-word phrases for
(i) the title for the café (specially catering for ice cream, for children)
(ii) the name of the ice-cream (on the menu, containing cream, chocolate sauce, and strawberries)
Question 3. Answer any ten of the following: (2 marks each)
(a) Condense the main point of Parijat’s “New Year” into one sentence.
(b) Edit the sentence: “He resembles his brother, who is such a handsome man, and who has been known for a long time to be a hard working kind of guy.”
(c) Choose the better of the two words shown in parentheses and rewrite each item as one sentence: “Some people feel that total honesty is essential in a
loving relationship others feel it as dangerous to be completely honest. (however / therefore)
(d) The best meaning of the underlined phrase in the sentence: “I recognize this attitude as a healthy component of our survival instinct and one that enables us to carry on so we can make additional choices that sustain us.” is
a. part of our will to live
b. part of the law of the world
c. part of our need to take care of others
(e) Write down the topic and the controlling idea in the sentence: “There are several ways to reduce stress.”
(f) Write down four adjectives to describe the smell of a food.
(g) Match the likely purpose to the audience:
Audience Purpose
1. ------ friends a. to show what I have learned
2.------ younger relatives b. to show my ability to do a job
3. ------ instructors c. to teach by example
4. ------ employers d. to entertain
(h) Rewrite the following headline, so as to make it less formal and more “tabloid”: TEENAGERS BURN CAR
(i) What does the word “halo” suggest in the sentence: “The rock singer sang in a halo of spotlight.”
(j) Give any two content words along with their contexts.
(k) Write the sentence “Once there was a poor widow” in four different ways as possible openings for a fairytale.
(l) What is the effect of the mime in “with beaded bubbles winking at the brim"?
