SOLVED PAPER 2024 (CDS) (II) (English)

Total Questions: 120

51. (Questions 51-55) In this section, you have two short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. Read the passage carefully and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and the opinion of the author only.

Passage-1

It must not be imagined that a walking tour, as some would have us fancy, is merely a better or worse way of seeing the country. There are many ways of seeing landscape quite as good; and none more vivid, in spite of canting dilettantes, than from a railway train. But landscape on a walking tour is quite an accessory.

He who is indeed of the brotherhood does not voyage in quest of the picturesque, but of certain jolly humours of the hope and spirit with which the march begins at morning, and the peace and spiritual repletion of the evening's rest.

He cannot tell whether he puts his knapsack on, or takes it off, with more delight. The excitement of the departure puts him in key for that of the arrival. Whatever he does is not only a reward in itself, but will be further rewarded in the sequel; and so pleasure leads on to pleasure in an endless chain.

It is this that so few can understand; they will either be always lounging or always at five miles an hour; they do not play off the one against the other, prepare all day for the evening and all evening for the next day.

Now, to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone upon alone. If you go in a company or even in pairs, it is no longer a walking tour in anything but name; it is something else and more in the nature of a picnic.

A walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on and follow this way or that, as the freak takes you; and because you must have your own pace and neither trot alongside a champion walker, nor mince in time with a girl. And then you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see.

You should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon. "I cannot see the wit", says Hazlitt, 'of walking and talking at the same time. When I am in the country I wish to vegetate like the country' which is the gist of all that can be said upon the matter. There should be no cackle of voices at your elbow, to jar on the meditative silence of the morning.

And so long as a man is reasoning he cannot surrender himself to that fine intoxication that comes of much motion in the open air, that begins in a sort of dazzle and sluggishness of the brain and ends in a peace that passes comprehension.

According to the passage, what is the primary purpose of a walking tour?

Correct Answer: (c) Longing for pleasure
Solution:The primary purpose of a walking tour, according to the passage, is not to see the landscape or quest for the picturesque, but rather to experience the joy and spirit of the journey itself. The correct answer is 'Longing for pleasure'.

52. According to the passage, a walking tour should be gone upon alone because

Correct Answer: (d) it will provide freedom which is of the utmost importance
Solution:The passage emphasises that a walking tour should be done alone to ensure freedom, allowing one to stop, go and follow any path as desired. The correct answer is 'It will provide freedom which is of the utmost importance'.

53. According to the passage, what can adversely affect the walking tour?

Correct Answer: (a) Walking and talking at the same time.
Solution:The passage suggests that walking and talking at the same time can disrupt the meditative silence and the fine intoxication of motion in the open air. The correct answer is 'Walking and talking at the same time'.

54. According to the passage, how should a walking tour conclude?

Correct Answer: (b) With a peace that delights you.
Solution:The passage indicates that a walking tour should end with a peace that passes comprehension, which delights you. The correct answer is 'With a peace that delights you'.

55. What is the meaning of the word 'dilettantes' in the passage?

Correct Answer: (a) Persons who cultivate an aesthetic pursuit without real interest
Solution:In the passage, 'dilettantes' refers to persons who cultivate an aesthetic pursuit without real interest. The correct answer is 'Persons who cultivate an aesthetic pursuit without real interest'.

56. (Questions 56-60) In this section, you have two short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. Read the passage carefully and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and the opinion of the author only.

Passage-2

Historical analysis combines several levels of thinking and study, posing a question about the past, setting up the problem in a form intended to facilitate its solution, solving the problem and verifying the solution or interpretation. Academic history relies on formal analysis, based on rational and systematic apprehension of relevant evidence. Yet such formal analysis can be seen as a subset of the broader category of interpretation, including responses to evidence that are impressionistic and informal rather than formal and logically structured. Indeed, the many genres of academic and popular history run the full gamut from logically systematic to impressionistic.

Historians come from a widely varying range of philosophical traditions and the varying philosophies lead to quite different ways of posing questions and The distinctions answers. among philosophical principles sketched here help to show how it is that different analytical priorities arise on the main topics proposed for analysis; they also show how historians can rely on similar data yet come to different or conflicting conclusions.

Nineteenth century philosophical outlooks remain central to the world-historical analysis: most notably the dialectics of GWF Hegel and the materialism of Karl Marx. Another great 19th century current of thought was positivism, elaborated by Auguste Comte and focusing on study through breaking large problems into small ones, seeking deterministic relationship within the smaller problems. Philosophies of structuralism and post modernism have developed in more recent times, rejecting the positivist separation of problems into discrete sub-problems and emphasising interaction among aspects of a problem.

Which of the following does not amount to historical analysis?

Correct Answer: (c) Combines several levels of thinking and study to arrive at a conclusion.
Solution:The passage describes historical analysis as involving posing questions, setting up problems, solving them and verifying solutions. Drawing from evidence to make impressionistic and informal conclusions does not fit this description. The correct answer is option (c).

57. 'The many genres of academic and popular history run the full gamut from logically systematic to impressionistic' means

Correct Answer: (a) the range of texts varies from those based on objective analysis and those based on subjective assertions
Solution:This phrase means that historical texts range from those based on objective analysis to those based on subjective assertions.

58. What according to the author, makes historians come to conflicting conclusions?

1. They are influenced by their philosophical beliefs in asking questions on the same data.
2. They apply different interpretations on the same data.
3. They go for the primary data and evidence.
4. They are influenced by the current political developments.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Correct Answer: (a) 1 and 2
Solution:Historians come to conflicting conclusions because they are influenced by their philosophical beliefs and apply different interpretations to the same data. The correct answer is 1 and 2.

59. Which word(s) from the passage can be substituted for the assertion that 'all events and human actions are ultimately shaped by causes external to the will'?

Correct Answer: (a) Impressionistic
Solution:The term 'Impressionistic' fits this description.

60. Which one of the following relates to the post-modernist approach to History?

Correct Answer: (b) Post-modernist approach emphasises interaction among aspects of a problem.
Solution:The post-modernist approach emphasises interaction among aspects of a problem and rejects the separation of problems into discrete sub-problems. The correct answer is 'Post-modernist approach emphasises interaction among aspects of a problem'.