IES ISS 2024 General English Question Paper PDF | UPSC

Q1. Write an essay on any one of the following topics in about 800 words :

(a) Investing in women accelerates progress

(b) Sustainable development is a contradiction in terms

(c) Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going

(d) Leisure is an industry today

(e) Home is a state of mind

Q2. Write a précis of the following passage in your own words in about one-third of the original length :

(passage) The concern about the relationship between people and food supply is not new. Agriculture is the most important production practice of the world. Despite the fact that during last five decades world food production has increased almost threefold, population has increased at such a rate in less developed countries that it overtripped the food production. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about 840 million people remain chronically hungry, nearly 800 million of them living in developing countries. Every year hunger kills 12 million children worldwide. Although the number of people suffering from hunger has been decreasing, 2.5 million per year over the last decade, but the World Food Summit's 1996 target of cutting half the number of world's chronically hungry and undernourished people by 2015, will be met 100 years late if the present trend of increase in population coupled with poverty continues. There is enough food in the world to provide at least 2 kg per person, including 1 kg of grains or its substitute per day and other eatables to make people fit, but the problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food. The global problem of food insufficiency is causing undernourishment and malnutrition. Undernourishment refers to the lack of sufficient calories in available diet, so that one has little or no ability to move or work. The reason being, the body begins to break down its own stored fats and proteins. Undernourishment is more common in poor countries. People receiving less than 90 percent of their minimum dietary intake, on a long-term basis, are considered as undernourished. While not starving to death, such people do not have enough energy for an active and productive life. These people are more susceptible to diseases and deficiency diseases like beriberi and anaemia due to lack of nutrients. Such people are weak and cannot work because of poor diet. On account of inadequate income they cannot afford good food. Since they cannot work, they cannot buy food for their dependent children. Thus, their children fail to grow properly and are likely to face impoverishment in their adulthood. Those receiving less than 75 percent of their minimum daily caloric intake requirements are considered seriously undernourished. The undernourished