1) Read the passage given below and answer questions which follow:
India is coming into its dividend as strangely young country in strangely ageing market- a young, fresh-faced nation in graying world. Globally, more people than ever before are entering retirement. In fact, even by 1980s, heads of European countries had started to worry out loud about Europe’s falling population. ‘Europe is vanishing…our countries would be empty.’ Former French President Jacques Chirac had said continent was becoming the place of ‘old people, living in old house, ruminating about old ideas’.
This trend of the ageing, shrinking population now visible across much of developed world, is coinciding with India’s experience of a demographic dividend that would last until 2050. This opens up interesting new opportunities for country, as challenge of maintaining wealth in ageing societies means which developed markets would have to increasingly outsource their labour requirements. In 2020 India is projected to have the extra forty-seven million workers, almost equal to total world shortfall. Average Indian would be only twenty-nine years old, compared with average age of thirty-seven in China and United States, forty-five in Western Europe and forty-eight in Japan.
Early sign of immense potential of our human capital has been growth of India’s IT sector and rise of ‘transformational outsourcing’ by multinational firms across industries. Country has seen its global profile rise quickly on strength of its human capital its entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and management graduates.
India already has second largest reservoir of skilled labour in world. It produces two million English-speaking graduates, 15,000 law graduates and about 9000 PhDs every year. And existing pool of 2.1 million engineering graduates increases by nearly 300,000 every year.
Talented pool of workers, along with abundant capital and investment, presents us with vast opportunities for creativity and innovation, that could in turn lead to rapid gains in productivity growth and GDP.
a) Answer following questions:
i) Write the advantage which India would soon enjoy compared to the western world?
ii) What were two things which were worrying the former French President?
iii) Why do you think age is such an significant factor for economic health of a nation?
Iv) What has been early visible sign of India’s economic potential?
v) Give appropriate title to the passage and say why you select it?
b)Choose words from passage that mean the same as the following:
i) An additional benefit which you do not expect to get
ii) Thinking about something very carefully
iii) Becoming smaller
iv) Pertaining to study of population
v) A person who organizes and operates a business
c) Find the opposites/antonyms of the following words from the passage:
i) Decreases
ii) Local
iii) Fall
iv) Slowly
v) Restricted
2) You have been asked to write the report on flexible working hours for your company. You might write for or against this concept. First paragraph of the report is given.
The report concerns feasibility of allowing members of staff to start and stop work at the times which suit them best; the obvious proviso is, of course, which everyone must still work a total of 40 hours per week, as we do now. The suggestion of flexible working hours was put forward to the directors by certain members of staff, particularly those who have young children at school.
3) Fill the gaps within, on or at.
i) There’s a ticket machine…………..the entrance to the metro station.
ii) Chandni Chowk tube station is……….the Yellow Line of Delhi Metro.
iii) Delhi Metro Fares are calculated based ………. the origin and destination stations using a fare chart.
iv) Refundable deposit of 50 must be paid..…the time of purchasing the card.
v) Rahul found a Norwegian flag……………the South Pole.
vi) There is snow……………….Kilimanjaro throughout the year.
vii) The mosquitoes that spread dengue usually bite ……….dusk and dawn.
viii) According to WHO dengue fever is now endemic ……… more than 100 countries.
ix) He was born ……….a small village…………Uttar Pradesh.
4) You are a group of 6 friends, interested in visiting Thailand. You have seen an advertisement of Excellent Travels on the web. Write the email to them to ask about one week trip to Thailand. Ask about the following:
• Place you must visit
• Accommodation
• Organization of sightseeing
• Total cost per head
5) Fill in the blanks with correct form of verb given in brackets.
i) The cars …………parked on the street ahead. (is/are)
ii) The carpet ………………a lot of stains. (has/have)
iii) The Trade Union Members’ Meeting ………….being held in the Conference Room. (is/are)
iv) Fifteen years………….a very long time! (is/are)
v) Neither her father nor her mother ………………very tall. (is/are)
vi) Either this woman or that man…………….stolen the watch. (has/have)
vii) At the party, everyone……………well dressed. (was/were)
viii) Baked beans and toast…………..my favourite dish for breakfast. (is/are)
ix) Many children ………..injured in the accident. (was/were)
x) Something………………amiss in this room. (seem/seems)
6) Write letter introducing your company to the prospective customer. It should Include:
• The services/products your company offers.
• Suggest that you can make presentation about your company at date and time convenient to thecustomer.
7) You are Divya/Vishwas. You have just completed your Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. You have seen the advertisement for post of Trainee (Marketing) at Express Technologies. Write application to the company and also include the CV.
8) You are R. M Tickoo, G.M. ‘Advanced Computing’. Write memo to all Heads of Department (Design, Public Relations, Sales, Production and Finance) for meeting to explain issue of reaching new targets in year 2010-2011. Heads have to come prepared with suggestions regarding higher visibility, new designs and aggressive marketing as per their field of work.