Q1 · UPPSC 2024 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Answer the questions based on the following passage.When socialisation takes place properly, members of society behave in conformity with social rules; if socialisation goes wrong, deviant behaviour increases. Therefore, the persons who are responsible for socialisation also bear a great responsibility for social control. According to Bottomore, education is the firmest basis of a child's primary socialisation. By clarifying moral ideas and developing the intellect of the individual, the educational system contributes to social norms. The purpose of education is to acquaint the individual with the various units of society. Education possesses not only scientific importance but also practical utility. Whereas other means of social control compel the individual to obey social rules through punitive methods, education inspires him to follow them voluntarily through self-analysis. Education teaches the individual self-restraint; because the individual is the unit of society, control at the individual level automatically contributes to social control.(a) State the meaning of the passage in your own words. (5 marks)(b) Why is education different from other means of social control for socialisation? (5 marks)(c) Explain the underlined lines of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q2 · UPPSC 2024 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the passage and answer the questions based on it.Life exists only through cooperation; ultimately, competition leads to ruin and death. We should take others along with us and help those who fall behind. Cooperation protects life and encourages development, whereas selfish competition produces conflict and destruction. The First and Second World Wars resulted in widespread devastation. Thus cooperation among individuals and nations is essential for safeguarding human civilisation.(a) Give an appropriate title to the passage. (5 marks)(b) Explain the difference between competition and cooperation. (5 marks)(c) Write a précis of the passage in about one-third of its length. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q1 · UPPSC 2021 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.किसी परिमित वर्ग के कल्याण से सम्बन्ध रखने वाले धर्म की अपेक्षा विस्तृत जनसमूह के कल्याण से सम्बन्ध रखने वाला धर्म उच्च कोटि का है। धर्म की उच्चता उसके लक्ष्य के व्यापकत्व के अनुसार समझी जाती है। गृहधर्म या कुलधर्म से समाज श्रेष्ठ है, समाज-धर्म से लोकधर्म, लोकधर्म से विश्वधर्म, जिसमें धर्म अपने शुद्ध और पूर्ण स्वरूप में दिखाई पड़ता है। यह पूर्ण धर्म अंगी है और शेष धर्म अंग। पूर्ण धर्म, जिसका सम्बन्ध अखिल विश्व की स्थिति-रक्षा से है, वस्तुतः पूर्ण पुरुष या पुरुषोत्तम में ही रहता है, जिसकी मार्मिक अनुभूति सच्चे भक्तों को हुआ करती है; इसी अनुभूति के अनुरूप उनके आचरण का भी उत्तरोत्तर विकास हो जाता है। गृहधर्म पर दृष्टि रखने वाला लोक या समस्त या किसी परिवार की रक्षा देखकर, वर्गधर्म पर दृष्टि रखने वाला किसी वर्ग या समाज की रक्षा देखकर और लोकधर्म पर दृष्टि रखने वाला लोक या समस्त मनुष्य-जाति की रक्षा देखकर आनंद का अनुभव करता है। पूर्ण या शुद्ध धर्म का स्वरूप सच्चे भक्त ही अपने और दूसरों के सामने लाया करते हैं, जिनके भगवान पूर्ण धर्म स्वरूप हैं; अतः ये कीट-पतंग से लेकर मनुष्य तक सब प्राणियों की रक्षा देखकर आनंद प्राप्त करते हैं। विषय की व्यापकता के अनुसार उनका आनंद भी उच्च कोटि का होता है। उच्च से उच्च भूमि के धर्म का आचरण अत्यन्त साधारण कोटि का हो सकता है। इसी प्रकार निम्न भूमि के धर्म का आचरण उच्च से उच्च कोटि का हो सकता है। गरीबों का गला काटने वाले चींटियों के बिलों पर आटा फैलाते देखे जाते हैं; अकाल-पीड़ितों की सहायता में एक पैसा चन्दा न देने वाले अपने डूबते मित्र को बचाने के लिए प्राण-संकट में पड़ते देखे जाते हैं।(a) Write the purport/gist of the passage in your own words. (5 marks)(b) How does religion work for the welfare of society? Explain on the basis of the passage. (5 marks)(c) Explain the underlined lines of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q2 · UPPSC 2021 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.Greedy people may control their senses and endure insult or hardship when they expect material gain. They do not hesitate to demand from others, nor do they show compassion when money is involved. They do not waste even a coin on anything that does not benefit them. They regard anger, compassion, shame and other humane feelings as useless when these bring no material gain. Thus greed can produce self-restraint in some narrow matters while simultaneously creating cruelty, shamelessness, lack of discrimination and injustice. The passage uses this apparent contradiction to expose the moral distortion caused by greed.(a) Give an appropriate title to the passage. (5 marks)(b) Based on the passage, describe the characteristics of greedy people. (5 marks)(c) Write a precis of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q1 · UPPSC 2020 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.India is the largest theatre-land of nature in the world. All seasons exist together in some part of the country. Rivers, mountains, forests and the grain-giving earth have always been deeply linked with Indian literature, because it has recognised its affinity and coexistence with nature. India's first poetry itself arose against violence to animals. Poets have felt even the slightest pulse and vibration of nature. The adi-kavi Valmiki knows how water-birds steady themselves in biting cold and fearfully dip their feet in icy water; Kalidasa knows that a gentle favourable breeze is a good omen for travel. Premchand's oxen tell their tale of suffering into our ears. Prasad's nature warns us against excess. The creator is both the symbol and guardian of human sensibility; his companionship and dialogue with nature symbolise man's dialogue and companionship with nature. Thus inner and outer nature constantly refine simplicity and sincerity. Today, by becoming violent and discordant towards nature, what have we gained—bodily and mental diseases, a narrow distorted conscience, a callous self-centred world, and pollution all around that will ultimately destroy us? Psychologists say that merely seeing mountains and the sea expands the human heart; if they dwell in our mind, how vast and noble we could become. Nature is not man's opposite; she is his companion. Mysteries were preserved so that human creativity is not wasted and courage does not turn into inferiority.(a) Write the purport/gist of the passage in your own words. (10 marks)(b) Explain the mutual relationship on the basis of the passage. (10 marks)(c) Explain the underlined lines of the passage. (10 marks) Open solution →
Q2 · UPPSC 2020 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage and answer as directed.Scholars believe that politics has corrupted language: words have been stripped of their true meanings and dressed in false ones. Words such as parliament, constitution, law, public welfare, justice, rights, evidence and inquiry have lost their real meaning and become distorted. When a word loses its true meaning—whether it expresses good or bad—it becomes ugly. The corruption of language is ultimately the corruption of social human values. If what one person says to another is not what language conveys, or if repeated experience leads the listener to search for harm or other meanings, what follows is loss of faith in fellow humans—the first and last stage of social disintegration. Language was forged for dialogue and correct communication; eventually human action too takes the distorted form of language rather than its original meaning. Carrying false meanings, language ultimately turns our actions false too. Are we not seeing the consequence of corrupting language in the extreme decline of political and social life?(a) Give an appropriate title to the passage. (5 marks)(b) Throw light on the role of language on the basis of the passage. (5 marks)(c) Write a precis of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q1 · UPPSC 2019 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.Just as literature, religion and science must enter the broad life of the people, art is equally necessary for the culture of life and the condition of society. If art remains merely luxury or curiosity for a few lovers of beauty, the people will suffer great loss. Art is truly the canopy of the subtle and beautiful layer of life; under it the whole people, satisfying their festive and cultivating impulses, can experience the peace and harmony of the higher mind. Man wishes for his final welfare that the gross material world around him be shaped into beautiful form. The mental and spiritual world above the gross is made highly attractive and beautiful through character and knowledge. Between this twofold beauty life becomes fully worth living. When life's character and moods spread around us, filling the atmosphere with their waves and delighting and inspiring our inner world, it becomes essential that the crude forms of material objects surrounding us also melt under art's influence so that beauty and grace spring from them. Every example of art, like a glowing lamp, keeps sending rays of light all around.(a) Write the purport/gist of the passage in your own words. (5 marks)(b) जीवन किस स्थिति में रहने योग्य बनता है? गद्यांश के आधार पर स्पष्ट कीजिए। (5 marks)(c) Explain the underlined lines of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q2 · UPPSC 2019 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage and answer as directed.Thinking of life in its totality and thinking of life with a specific intent are two different kinds of preparation; whenever literature uses language one-sidedly or monotonously like politics, it limits or cripples its original power. In the idiom of politics we speak the language of a class for which language is not the main thing—it is a second- or third-rate use of language, merely a means to reach a fixed goal. It is not as interested in the capacity, authenticity or truth of language as literature is. Its language may be propaganda-led, rhetorical and artificial because for politics language is a practical expedient, whereas for the writer language is the living part of the truth of life which he seeks to establish or restore in its original dignity and power, saving it from political, commercial, practical or selfish violence, breakage and pollution. Literature's task is not to lose its identity in the language of politics but to make itself almost a stranger to that false language and stand alone—so that politics must repeatedly seek language from literature for authenticity and truth, rather than literature becoming political language and losing its identity.(a) Give an appropriate title to the passage. (5 marks)(b) What is the main difference between the language of literature and politics? Explain. (5 marks)(c) Write a precis of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q1 · UPPSC 2018 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.I favour viewing literature from the human standpoint. I hesitate to call something literature if its word-web cannot save man from downfall, inferiority and dependence; if it cannot make his soul radiant; if it cannot make his heart compassionate and sensitive. I feel we are passing through a difficult time. Today manifold narrow interests have blinded man so that thinking of human welfare beyond caste, religion and sect has become impossible. It seems that at the sign of some grave misfortune, factional self-love has crushed humanity. The world has split into many groups on the basis of small narrow interests. A man outside one's group is viewed with suspicion; even his grief and song are charged with bad intent; his penance and truthfulness are mocked.(a) Write the purport/gist of the passage in your own words. (5 marks)(b) Reflect on the aim of literature on the basis of the passage. (5 marks)(c) Explain the underlined lines of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →
Q2 · UPPSC 2018 · UPHIN · 30 marks · Solution Read the following passage and answer as directed.We cannot escape change; avoiding change invites stagnation and downfall. Though stability offers some security, progress without risk is impossible. We must find a balanced path between the stability of rules in science and the dynamic vitality of inspired life in literature. Among life's balances, the equilibrium of new and old is especially important. We too must be dynamic with the world's dynamism—but with open eyes. For the new, let the door of our mind remain open; work without prejudice; weigh its arguments for and against on the scales of justice. Within limits, give new experiments room, but do not be satisfied with novelty's certificate alone. Apply the same ruthless reason we use to uproot ancient customs to testing the new as well, yet do not make the new a source of fear like a ghost.(a) Give an appropriate title to the passage. (5 marks)(b) Why is balance between the ancient and the modern necessary? Reflect. (5 marks)(c) Write a precis of the passage. (20 marks) Open solution →