STI Main 2012- Paper 1

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions.
         It is said with truth that the function of a University is to prepare the youth to take their place in human society. It must provide its members with the knowledge and skill necessary to make them efficient citizens. But is the whole duty of man exhausted by the acquisition of knowledge and professional training? Is a university only an institution for higher learning, a factory which churns out clerks and technicians able to run the machinery of the state ? Mere knowledge which gratifies curiosity is different from culture which refines personality. Culture is not remembering a mass of serious details about the dates of birth of the great heroes of the world or the interesting names of the fastest ships which cross the Atlantic or entertaining odds and ends gathered from the latest who's who. A well-known institution of this country has for its motto Sa Vidya Ya Vimuchyate : that is knowledge which is designed for salvation, for the development of the soul, is the best. Such an idea is not merely an Indian idiosyncrasy. Plato said long ago that the culture of soul is "the first and fairest thing that the best of men can ever have.” According to Goethe, the object of education is to form tastes and not simply to communicate knowledge. A man's culture is not to be judged by the amount of tabulated information which he has at his command, but by the quality of mind which he brings to bear on the facts of life. Education is not cramming the mind with a host of technical details, putting sight, as it were, into blind eyes. The eye of the soul is never blind, only its gaze may be turned to the false and fleeting. Too often the vision may be dragged downwards by the "leaden weights" of pride and prejudice, of passion and desire. The function of the teacher is not to add to the 'leaden weights' but remove them and liberate the soul from the encumbrance so that it may follow its native impulse to soar upwards.

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it in the context of the passage.
            This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth ; first, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust to administer in the manner which, in his judgement, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community-the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.
            Those who would administer wisely must, indeed be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy. Of every thousand dollars spent in so - called charity today, it is probable that $ 950 is unwisely spent ; so spent, indeed, as to produce the very evils which it proposes to mitigate or cure.
             A well - known writer of philosophic books admitted the other day that he had given a quarter of a dollar to a man who approached him as he was coming to visit the house of his friend. He knew nothing of the habits of this beggar; knew not how it would be spent improperly. This man professed to be a disciple of Herbert Spencer; yet the quarter - dollar given that night will probably work more injury than, all the money which its thoughtless donor will ever be able to give in true charity will do good. He only gratified his own feelings, saved himself from annoyance-and this was probably one of the most selfish and very worst actions of his life, for in all respects he is most worthy.
            In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to rise the aids by which they may rise; to assist, but rarely or never to do all. Neither the individual nor the race is improved by alms - giving. Those worthy of assistance, except in rare cases, seldom require assistance. The really valuable men of the race never do, except in cases of accident or sudden change. Everyone has, of course, cases of individuals brought to his own knowledge where temporary assistance can do genuine good, and these he will not overlook.
 

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it in the context of the passage.
               Erosion in Nature is a beneficent process without which the world would have died long ago. The same process, accelerated by human mismanagement, has become one of the most vicious and destructive forces that has ever been released by man. What is usually known as 'geological erosion' or 'denudation' is a universal phenomenon which through thousands of years has carved the earth into its present shape. Denudation is an early and important process in soil formation, whereby the original rock material is continuously broken down and sorted out by wind and water until it becomes suitable for colonisation by plants. Plants, by the binding effects of their roots, by the protection they afford against rain and wind and by the fertility they impart to the soil, bring denudation almost to a standstill. Everybody must have compared the rugged and irregular shape of bare mountain peaks where denudation is still active with the smooth and harmonious curves of slopes that have long been protected by a mantle of vegetation. Nevertheless, some slight denudation is always occurring. As each superficial film of plant - covered soil becomes exhausted it is removed by rain or wind, to be deposited mainly in the rivers and sea, and a corresponding thin layer of new soil forms by slow weathering of the underlying rock. The earth is continuously discarding its old, worn-out skin and renewing its living sheath of soil from the dead rock beneath. In this way an equilibrium is reached between denudation and soil formation so that, unless the equilibrium is disturbed, a mature soil preserves a more or less constant depth and character indefinitely. The depth is sometimes only a few inches, occasionally several feet, but within it lies the whole capacity of the earth to produce life. Below that thin layer comprising the delicate organism known as soil is a planet as lifeless as the moon.
               The equilibrium between denudation and soil formation is easily disturbed by the activities of man. Cultivation, deforestation or the destruction of natural vegetation by grazing or other means, unless carried out according to certain immutable conditions imposed by each region, may so accelerate denudation that the soil, which would normally be washed or blown away in a century, disappears within a year or even within a day. But no human ingenuity can accelerate the soil - renewing process from lifeless rock to an extent at all comparable to the acceleration of denudation.
               This man-accelerated denudation is what is now known as soil erosion. It is the almost inevitable result of reducing below a certain limit the natural fertility of the soil-of man betraying his most sacred trust when he assumed dominion over the land ... That the ultimate consequence of unchecked soil erosion, when it sweeps over whole countries as it is doing today, must be national extinction is obvious, for whatever other essential raw material a nation may dispense with, it cannot exist without fertile soil.