B.E./B.Tech. DEGREE EXAMINATION, MAY/JUNE 2009.
First Semester
Civil Engineering
HS 2111 — TECHNICAL ENGLISH — I
(Common to all branches except Marine Engineering)
(Regulation 2008)
Time : Three hours Maximum : 100 marks
Answer ALL questions.
PART A — (10 × 2 = 20 marks)
1. Match the words in Column A with their meanings in Column B. (4 × 21 = 2)
A B
repository starting point
jeopardy confined within narrow limits
fission place where things are stored
cramped division of the atom
danger
2. Punctuate the following. (4 × 2
1 = 2)
an essay is a piece of writing several paragraphs long written
on one topic the aim of the essay should be deduced strictly
from the wording of the title or question and needs to be defined
3. Complete the following table with appropriate forms of the words given.
(8 × 4
1 = 2)
Noun Verb Adjective
—————— Prescribe ——————
Globalization —————— ——————
—————— Repeat ——————
—————— —————— economical
4. Complete the following ‘If’ conditionals with suitable effects. (4 × 2
1 = 2)
(a) If the roads of the city are widened ——————
(b) If I had not worn a helmet that day ——————
(c) If he were kinder ——————
(d) If I had a million dollars ——————
5. Give the expansions of the following compound nouns. (4 × 2
1 = 2)
(a) Mobile banking
(b) Data transfer
(c) Business Administration
(d) Communication system.
6. Rewrite the following sentences in the passive voice. (2 × 1 = 2)
(a) The library will acquire a new stock of books this month.
(b) Someone broke into the house last night and stole jewels worth Rs. One
lakh.
7. Edit the following passage. (8 × 4
1 = 2)
Making paper involve reducing a plant to its fibres, and then aligned them and
coating a fibres with materials such of glues, pigments and mineral fillers the
first steps on the process is obtaining the raw material.
8. Fill in the blanks in the given sentences with the comparative forms of the
adjectives given in brackets. (4 × 2
1 = 2)
(a) Oil is —————— (light) than water. That is why oil floats on water.
(b) The University campus was —————— (far) away from the station
than I was given to believe.
(c) The Afternoon session of the workshop was definitely ——————
(interesting) than the morning session.
(d) The weapons used in the Second World War were ——————
(destructive) than those used ever before in history.
9. Write one sentence definitions of the following. (2 × 1 = 2)
(a) Bluetooth
(b) Abacus.
10. Fill in the blanks in the given sentences with the correct form of the verb,
choosing the right option from the choices given in brackets. (4 × 2
1 = 2)
(a) A Commission —————— (was/has been) appointed to investigate the
massacre of the innocent villagers two days after the incident.
(b) This year the University —————— (introduced/has introduced) the
new online system of examination.
(c) The machine —————— (was/has been) purchased in 1973 and
—————— (is/has been) functioning for the past 35 years with the
same efficiency.
PART B — (5 × 16 = 80 marks)
11. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow it.
When the first white men arrived in Samoa, they found blind men, who could
see well enough to describe things in detail just by holding their hands over
objects. In France just after the First World War, Jules Romain tested
hundreds of blind people and found a few who could tell the difference between
light and dark. He narrowed their photosensitivity down to areas on the nose
or in the fingertips. In Italy the neurologist Cesare Lombroso discovered a
blind girl who could ‘see’ with the tip of her nose and the lobe of her left ear.
When a bright light was shone unexpectedly on her, she winced. In 1956 a
blind schoolboy in Scotland was taught to differentiate between coloured lights
and learned to pick out bright objects several feet away. In 1960 a medical
board examined a girl in Virginia and found that, even with thick bandages
over her eyes, she was able to distinguish different colours and read short
sections of large print. The phenomenon is obviously not new, but it has
reached new peaks of sensitivity in a young woman from a mountain village in
the Urals.
Rosa Kuleshova can see with her fingers. She is not blind, but because she
grew up in a family of blind people, she learned to read Braille to help them
and then went onto teach herself to do other things with her hands. In 1962
her physician took her to Moscow, where she was examined by the Soviet
Academy of Science, and emerged a celebrity, certified as genuine. The
neurologist Shaefer made an intensive study with her and found that, securely
blindfolded with only her hands stuck through a screen, she could differentiate
among three primary colours. To test the possibility that the cards reflected
heat differently, he heated some and cooled others without affecting her
response to them, He also found that she could read newsprint and sheet music
under glass, so texture was giving her no clues. Tested by the psychologist
Novomeisky, she was able to identify the colour and shape of patches of light
projected on her palm or on to a screen. In rigidly controlled tests, with a
blindfold and a screen and a piece of card around her neck so wide that she
could not see round it, Rosa read the small print in a newspaper with her
elbow. And, in the most convincing demonstration of all, she repeated these
things with someone standing behind her pressing hard on her eyeballs.
Nobody can cheat under this pressure ; it is even difficult to see clearly for
minutes after it is released.
(a) Complete the following statements choosing from one of the given
alternatives. (4 × 1 = 4)
(i) The first white men to visit Samoa found men who
(1) were not entirely blind
(2) described things by touching them
(3) could see with their hands
(4) could see when they held hands
(ii) What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
(1) Very few people have the sensitivity of the blind
(2) Blind people can manage to see things, but only vaguely
(3) The eyes are not the only way of seeing
(4) It is possible to localise photosensitive areas of the body.
(iii) Why did Shaefer put the paper under glass?
(1) To make things as difficult as possible
(2) To stop the reflection of hear
(3) To prevent Rosa from feeling the print
(4) To stop her from cheating.
(iv) What was the most difficult test of her ability?
(1) To read through glass, blindfolded
(2) To identify the colour and shape of light on a screen while
securely blindfolded
(3) To carry out tasks with someone pressing on her eyeballs
(4) To work from behind a screen, blindfolded and with a card
round her neck.
(b) State whether the following statements are true or false. (8 × 1 = 8)
(i) The men in Samoa were not quite blind.
(ii) Jules Romain found a lot of blind people who could see with their
noses and ears.
(iii) The Italian girl enjoyed it when the light was shone on her ear.
(iv) A girl called Virginia could read newsprint even when she was
blindfolded.
(v) Rosa Kuleshova lives on a mountain peak.
(vi) Her family taught her everything about seeing with her fingers.
(vii) Shaefer found that temperature did not affect her ability to
differentiate between colours.
(viii) Her ability to read with her fingers did not depend on the feel of the
print.
(c) Choose the option that best represents the meaning of the word as used
in the passage. (4 × 1 = 4)
(i) distinguish
(1) differentiate
(2) discriminate
(3) revere
(4) standout
(ii) celebrity
(1) rejoice
(2) famous person
(3) commemorate
(4) criminal
(iii) convincing
(1) accepting
(2) disagreeing
(3) persuasive
(4) aggressive
(iv) phenomenon
(1) occurrence
(2) surprise
(3) theory
(4) practice
12. Rewrite the jumbled sentences in sequential order so that they follow one
another in a logical and coherent manner. Choose either set (a) or set (b). (16)
(a) (i) Between 1482 and 1499, he was employed in the service of the
Duke of Milan
(ii) His artistic bent obviously appeared at an early age for when he
was 15 he was apprenticed to the painter Verocchio.
(iii) Leonardo returned to Florence in 1499, where he painted that most
famous painting ‘The Mona Lisa’.
(iv) In 1472 he was accepted in the Painters’ Guild in Florence where he
remained until 1481.
(v) Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in Vinci, a small village in
Tuscany.
(vi) His artistic achievements in Milan reached their peak with the
mural ‘The Last Supper’ completed in 1497.
(vii) He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine lawyer and property
owner.
(viii) After a few years again in Milan and then in Rome he settled in
France in 1516, at Cloux near Amboise where he died three years
later.
Or
(b) (i) Yet the difficulties of working in this extremely cold region will be
great, and the costs may be so high that no company will undertake
the work.
(ii) There are four main areas of the world where deposits of oil appear.
(iii) If progress in using atomic power to drive machines is fast enough,
it is possible that oil-driven engines may give place to the new kind
of engine.
(iv) Another is the area between North and South America, and the
third, between Asia and Australia, includes the islands of Sumatra,
Borneo and Java.
(v) In that case, the demand for oil will fall, the oil flelds will gradually
disappear and the deposits at the North Pole may rest where they
are forever.
(vi) The first is that of the Middle East, and includes the regions near
the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf
(vii) When all the present oil-fields are exhausted, it is possible that this
cold region may become the scene of oil activity.
(viii) The fourth area is the part near the North Pole.
13. (a) Write a set of eight recommendations for students to make optimal use of
the library facilities in the college. (16)
Or
(b) Write a set of eight recommendations for the maintenance of the
electrical equipment in your department. (16)
14. (a) Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper about the miseries caused by
the recent power cuts in your area. (16)
Or
(b) As the President of the Students’ Union, write a letter to the Principal of
your college inviting him to the inauguration of the Enviro Club. Give
details of the activities of the club and of the timing and venue of the
function organized. (16)
15. Write two paragraphs of 150 words each (total 300 words) on any one of the
following topics. (16)
(a) The evolution of Communication technology from ancient to modem
times.
Or
(b) The ways to conserve and optimize the use of available fossil fuels.
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