Technical English II – Part B Question Bank

Anna University

Technical English II – Part B Question Bank

Semester : IInd Sem

Year : Ist yr

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INSTRUCTION

1. Write a set of eight instructions that are to be followed by the studends in college library.
2. Write a set of eight important instructions that you would like to give a foreigner who wants to visit Chennai. Give your instructions related to food, stay, and travel. Etc.,
3. Write a set of eight important instructions that are to be followed by the lab assistants while handling sophisticated equipment.
4. Write a set of eight important instructions that are to be followed while constructing a shamiana.
5. Write a set of eight important instructions that you will give to a friend who is traveling at night.
6. Write a set of eight important instructions to ensure safety in nuclear plant.
7. Write a set of eight important instructions to prevent our environment.
8. Write a set of eight important safety instructions to be followed in the chemistry laboratory while doing experiments.
9. Write a set of eight important instructions that can be followed by the public to preserve the environment and keep it free from pollution. (air, water and land).
10. Write a set of eight instructions that people could follow to keep the College Campus clean.
11. Write a set of eight important instructions that will help to control noise pollution in cities.
12. Write a set of eight important instructions to be followed in a Chlorine plant.
13. Write a set of eight important instructions to protect the ozone layer.
14. Write a set of eight important instructions for maintaining houses in good condition.
15. Write instructions to impose strict punishment on poachers and illicit users of forest wealth.

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16. Give eight important instructions on how to ride a two wheeler.

RECOMENDATIONS:

1. Write a set of eight important recommendations to a group of students from Europe who has come to spend their one month’s vacation in India. The suggestions may be on the lines of food, travel, transport, climatic conditions etc. to make their stay comfortable and enjoyable.
2. Write a set of eight important recommendations to keep the city of Chennai clean and green.
3. Write a set of eight important recommendations to maintain your computer in good working condition.
4. Write a set of eight important recommendations to preserve underground water resources.
5. Write a set of eight important recommendations to be adopted for maintaining your two-wheeler in perfect condition.
6. Write a set of eight important recommendations for improving health services in Government hospitals.
7. Write a set of ten recommendations to your fellow mates not to indulge in ragging
8. Write a set of Eight recommendations to overcome the ENERGY CRISIS in India

Letter Writing

1. You happen to live in an area where political meetings are held frequently. Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper highlighting the problems experienced on account of noise pollution and suggest steps that must be taken to solve the problem.
2. Read the following advertisement published in “The Hindu” dated 29.3.2004 and write a letter of application.

Hyundai a 50 crorre plus company, the leader in the automobile industry requires the following personnel:

Deputy Manager, Design and Development

Requirements: B. E/ B. Tech. graduates with 10 to 12 years of experience in industry

Apply to:

Human Resources Department

‘HYUNDAI’ Auto Limited

14, West Bank Street

M.M. Nagar

Chengalpattu District.

1. Your father has bought a personal computer but he is not sure how useful it would be for him at home. Write a letter to him telling him how best and useful it can be in his daily life.
2. Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper explaining the need for providing bright street lamps in your street where there is no adequate lighting for most part of the street.

5. Assume that you bought a laptop from a reputable in your town. Within a week of its purchase, you find that it gives you trouble. Write a letter of complaint to the company asking for replacement of the laptop.

1. Imagine that you have paid your semester fees to your college. To your surprise you find that your name has been omitted from the roll. Write a letter to your principal explaining the problem and giving the details of your payment to the college.
2. Write a letter to the HRD Manager of Karur Vysya Bank, Anna Salai, Chennai-600 017, applying for the post of system Manager. Add a separate resume to your covering letter.
3. Write a letter to the editor of a leading English newspaper about the sufferings of office goers and school children who use the public transport.

9. Imagine you have got the supply of furniture items. But there are some defective items in the supply. Write a letter of complaint stating the defects and seeking replacement of the items.

1. Write a report to the General Manager of your company on the fire accident that took place the previous week. Invent necessary details.

10. Read the following advertisement. Write a job application letter with a resume. Assume suitable address and qualifications.

PMR Software Technology Pvt., Ltd.,

Anna Nagar,

Chennai- 600 040

Phone : 4350042\458998

Career Opportunities for Engineers/ Software Engineers

We are a fast growing company in the field of Software. We require qualified Engineers / Software Engineers in the following areas:-

• System Administration
• Web Server Administration
• C++,VC++, VB, CAD
• JAVA services, JAVA Swing etc.,

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Required Qualifications:-

§ B.E/B. Tech with at least 70% marks

§ 3 years real time work experience preferred

§ Excellent Communication Skills

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CHECK LIST

1. Your family is about to leave for Ooty on a two-week holiday. Your father has asked you to prepare a checklist of things to be done before you leave the house. Prepare an eight- item checklist to give to your father. Remember to give a title to your checklist.
2. Imagine that you have to go New Delhi to appear for an interview. Make an eight- item checklist with a proper title for your reference.
3. Prepare a checklist that consists of ten items to be checked before you leave your house for a long tour.
4. Prepare a checklist before appearing for the University Examinations.
5. Prepare a checklist for applying education loan.
6. Prepare a checklist for applying for a passport.
7. Prepare a checklist for going abroad for higher education.

Paragraphs

1. Write two paragraphs comparing the newspaper and the television as media of mass communication. Each of the paragraphs should not exceed 200 words.
2. Write two paragraphs, one describing the benefits of technology the other describing the drawbacks of technology. Each paragraph should not exceed 200 words.
3. Imagine yourself to be in the year 2050 and you are in your early 70’s. The fuel position is very bad. Describe how life was fifty years ago when fuel was easily available. Write this in about 170-200 words.
4. Describe in about 170-200 words the utility, function with advantages and disadvantages of a washing machine.
5. Imagine yourself to be living in the year 2050 and you are in your early 70’s. The fuel position is very bad. Describe how life was fifty years ago when fuel was easily available. Write this for about 170- 200 words.
6. Write two paragraphs, one describing the advantages and disadvantages of Mass media.
7. Write a paragraph on Population explosion.
8. Write a paragraph on Information Technology in India.

Essay

1. Technology and science.
2. Engineers in Nation Building
3. Unemployment in India.
4. India in 2020.
5. Nuclear power.
6. Alternate Sources of energy.
7. Are computer better than human Brain.
8. Global warming.
9. English in Todays world.
10. Rainwater Harvesting.

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COMPREHENSION:

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:

1.

Man has won his dominant position on this planet by his command of technology. Other animals have to take nature as they find her ; they must fit into the environment that she provides as best they can. Man alone changes the shape of this world. He moves things about; he alters them in a constant effort to create an environment more hospitable than that, which nature has thurst him into. Technology is the sum total of all different techniques by which man changes his environment.

Technology is characteristic of all human societies, and it exits even among leas developed tribes and communities. Even the Eskimo uses a number of techniques to make life more comfortable for him. He makes clothes: he builds an igloo and a boat: he uses needles and knives: he gets food by means of fishing lines and harpoons. All these are techniques for changing his wild habitat into an environment that suits him better.

More advanced civilizations have more complex technologies, but the basic pattern is always the same. There must be means to get food; so the hunter invents the spear , or the bow and arrow, or the boomerang; and the farmer invents the hoe or the plough. There must be means to move things about, so the community domesticates the ox or the horse and invents the boat or the wheel. There must be means to ward off the weather, so the community makes clothes and huts and invents the tools that are needed to make them. These and other tools need to be strong and durable, so civilizations gradually move on from stone to bronze, from bronze to iron, and so on. And when we think of our present age as the age of light metals, we see ourselves in the tradition of progress that began with stone, bronze, and iron.

Our own technological progress, then, has been a natural continuation of earlier trends. When today we breed new stains of corn, we are following the same aims as the first farmers. And when we send a rocket above the atmosphere, we are following the line begun by the invention of the wheel.

However, there is one respect in which our technology is markedly different. We have transformed the simple tools of the past into complex machines. For example, man has used such a tool as the hammer since long before historical records began. But it was only in historical times that he discovered that the hammer could be made into a trip hammer that is, could be made to deliver its blow again and again automatically, When a tool is made to repeat the same mechanical action, it becomes a machine. Modern civilization is built on the use of machines in this way. However clever they may appear, all machines at bottom are as the water wheel they do nothing but save us from carrying out ourselves a fixed and repeated sequence of actions.

(i)Answer in a sentence or two:

1) What is technology?

2) What is the common feature between the technologies developed by advanced and less advanced civilizations?

3) In what respect is the modern technology different from that of the past?

4) What are the techniques used by the Eskimoes to better their life?

(ii) Say whether the following statement s are true or false:

1) Technology is typical of only a few societies.

2) Humans have used simple tools since time immemorial.

3) Other animals can modify their environment.

4) Eskimoes represents less developed society.

(iii) Complete the following appropriately:

1) Human beings have achieved a powerful position on earth because of their _________.

2) The spear or the bow and arrow are ____________.

3) In this passage, the present age is referred to as the ___________.

4) A tool becomes a machine ________.

(iv) Give the meanings of the following words:

1) Hospitable-

2) Dominant-

3) Durable-

4) Breed-

2. What is so common among highly successful people and organizations? It is their vision, the power to look beyond the present and to visualize the possibilities of the future. It is not only their vision, but their determination to transform their dreams into realities that have made them great. Thinking ahead is the privilege given to man alone. Man learns from the past experience, analyses the present and plans for the future. Management is defined as the art of getting things done through and with the people. Therefore, to be successful, a manager needs to do a lot of planning not only for himself but also for his people. Planning is an important management function.

The planning process takes into account the following factors:

1. PEOPLE: who are going to carry out the plan? How many people do we need? What are the kinds of people required and how to involve them?
2. PRODUCTS: What are the products necessary for achieving the goal?
3. DEADLINE: What is the time-grace needed for achieving the gold?

Planning also takes into account the strengths, which are to be made use of an weaknesses which are to be avoided during the execution of any task. It considers how to capitalize on the available opportunities and how to safeguard against competitive developments and the changing scenario.

Planning is of different kinds depending on the planner and his objectives. For example, companies have ‘Corporate Visions which stem from individual vision. To achieve these, they make short-term and long-term plans. A long term plan is derived from a long range vision of the organization’s destiny.

It is involved in setting broad objectives and the procedures for achieving them. This is essential for the survival and future growth of any business. Senior Managers are involved in long-term planning, thinking of new products and services, and of new ways of obtaining resources. Short- term plans are drawn up to realize more immediate goals and take care of the step by step activities needed for achieving the over-all objectives of a long- term.

It is necessary that planning should be realistic. While planning, one must accept the reality and set objectives which can be accomplished. Whenever one develops a plan, it is important to devise back up actions and alternative plans, just in case something goes wrong. Flexibility is vital to any good business plan. After planning, clear communication to all concerned is the key to success. Then implementation within a time frame must follow Planning and monitoring must go together, because, planning cannot be really effective without regular monitoring and good control.

The prime advantage with planning is that it leads to systematic and methodical work. It ensures proper coordination; helps proper control and provides an overall picture of the operations. It brings about optimum input utilization, minimizes wastage and helps periodic evaluation and replanning it necessary. Due to lack of planning many projects have failed. So success in life requires both merely thinking big , but also planning in advance.

(i)Choose the response which best reflects the meaning of the text.

1. The vision of highly successful people has enabled them to

a) see far beyond and foretell what might happen in time to come

b) predict the future events that might affect humanity in one way or the other

c) send warning signals to the people regarding the future

d) dream about the happily life, they will lead in the future

2. Planning is

a) thinking ahead

b) examining the past

c) the art of achieving one’s objective

d) devising a method following which the objective can be achieved

3. Good planning is

a) realistic having set objectives

b) fixed not permitting any change

c) supported by back-up actions

d) a failure when a mistake occurs in implementation

4. Successful planning

a) helps management settle amicably labour unrest.

b) takes to task those who waste raw material

c) punishes those who are not systematic in their work

d) ensures maximum input utilization, continuous monitoring and periodic evaluation.

ii) Decide whether the following statements are ‘true’ or ‘false’ :

1. The future growth of any business depends only on the procurement of resources by senior managers.
2. The success of planning depends on how well it is implemented with regular monitoring, within the time limit, securing the support of all concerned.
3. Short-term plans help not only to realize immediate goals, but also to monitor the step- by- step activities in achieving the over- all objectives of a long term plan.
4. Success in life depends on thinking big alone.

iii) Choose the most accurate definitions of the terms taken from the text:

1. Privilege

(a) Special right or advantage

(b) Special choice

(c) Special prize

(d) Special respect

2. Safeguard

(a) to improve or better something

(b) to violate something

(c) to protect or guard something

(d) to despise something

3. to accomplish

(a) to master something

(b) to complete successfully something

(c) to help another to do something illegal

(d) to fail to achieve something

4. Implementation

(a) Division of labour

(b) A tool or instrument

(c) Involvement

(d)Carrying out effectively.

3. It is everyone who agrees a difficult task that the child performs when he learns to speak, and the fact that he does so, in so short a period of time challenges explanation.

Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will obey spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word ‘obey’ is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.

Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their repertoire. This self-imitation leads to deliberate imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.

It is a problem we need not get our teeth into. The meaning of word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation; and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at say seven months of ‘mama’ as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes.

Playful and apparently meaningless imitation of what other people say continuous after the child has begun to speak to itself. I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents cash in on this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.

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I. Choose the response which best reflects the meaning of the text:-

1. Children who start speaking late

a) May have problems with their hearing.

b) Probably do not hear enough language spoken around them.

c) Usually pay close attention to what they hear.

d) Often takes a long time in learning to listen properly.

1. A baby’s first noises are

a) a reflection of his models and feelings.

b) an early form of language.

c) a sign that he means to tell you something.

d) an imitation of the speech of adults.

1. The problem of deciding at what point a baby’s imitations can be considered as speech

a) is important because words have different meanings for different people.

b) is not especially important because the change over takes place gradually.

c) is one that can never be properly understood because the meanings of words change with age.

d) is one that should be completely ignored because children’s use of words is often meaningless.

1. The writer implies that

a) Parents can never hope to teach their children new sounds.

b) Children no longer imitate people they begin to speak.

c) Children who are good at imitating learn new sounds more quickly.

d) Even after they learn to speak, children still enjoy imitating.

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II. Write whether the following statements are ‘True’ or ‘False’:-

a) Before they begin to speak most children do about the same amount of listening.

b) Children can ask questions by making noises.

c) Children first imitate adults, and then themselves.

d) Children’s first words are usually meaningless because they can apply to many different things.

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III. Choose the most accurate definition of the terms taken from the text:

1) Vary

a) Worry b) differ c) develop d) change

2) Sort themselves out

a) Become evident b) are learnt c) are discovered d) take the place of others

3) It is agreed

a) it has been proved b) it is generally accepted c) it is obvious d) it is most likely

4) Cash in on

(d) a) Ignore b) exploit c) discourage d) praise

Jumbled Sentences:

1.

(i) Every kind of services is provided to clients hoping to find their life partner

(ii) Computers and romances

(iii)Computer dating agencies and matrimonial websites are catching on in a big way to help make that match on earth.

(iv) Even the matching of horoscopes is done using principles of astrology and numerology

(v) However, they have invaded every other one can think of- why not match making?

(vi) Surely that is an unlikely combination?

2.

(i) This is because, in the west this amounts to only 800 dollars and they have little motivation to bring down the cost any further.

(ii) Why is the cost of installing a telephone in India as high as Rs. 30,000?

(iii) the emphasis instead in on adding features while keeping the cost constant.

(iv) At such levels it would be immediately affordable to over 15 percent of Indian populations

(v) It is here that scientists in India have to take the initiative.

(vi) They must aim to reduce the cost of telephone and internet access to a much lower value, say Rs. 10,000.

3.

(i) A great deal of the information we now know about sleep and the physiological changes it causes can de traced back to the invention of the electroencephalogram in the 1950s.

(ii) Brain – wave function could be examined and Scientists could observe sleep from moment to moment.

(iii) According to current scientific thought, the human body is pre-programmed to sleep.

(iv) This machine allowed Scientist to record the feeble electric currents generated on the brain without opening the skull.

(v) At nightfall, cells in the retina send a sleep signal to a cluster of nerve cells in the brain.

(vi) In the 1970s, it became possible for scientists to make assumptions about the role breathing plays during sleep.

(vii) It was here that science really began to understand the nature of sleep and the role it plays in people’s lives.

(viii) These nerve cells are concentrated in a part of the brain called hypothalamus.

Note Making

Problems in defining the syllable

After studying individual sounds or phonemes of English, we will consider how these sounds are combined in speech to form larger units. In speech the unit that is larger than the phoneme is the syllable. The syllable is a unit of sound and is more difficult to define and identify than the word, which is more familiar to us . The words we know are made up of more syllables. Generally we can decide quite easily how many syllables a word has. For example, we know that words like bill, come, sit, take, good and fool have one syllable each, whereas words like become, comfort, design, perform and summer have two syllables. Computer, director, national, cinema, and medicine have three syllables, and democracy, application, intelligent; economics and mechanical have four syllables. Roughly speaking, we decide the number of syllables in a word by counting the number of vowels in it. But it is much more difficult to decide where a syllable begins and ends in a word that has more than one syllable. We should also bear in mind that the syllable is a unit of sound, and, therefore, we should look at the phonetic transcription of words and not their spellings(orthographic representations), when we are trying to divide a word into constituent syllables or to decide how many syllables there are in a word and how they are structured. For example, in a word like exact, the spelling does not help in deciding how we should divide the word into its constituent syllables, because the letter “x” is actually pronounced as/gz/ and the two syllables in the word are /ig/ and /zaekt/. The crucial question, therefore, is “What is syllable?”

The syllable, being a unit of sound, can be defined phonetically as well as phonologically. The phonetic definition will be in terms of how we produce a syllable, ie., in terms of what type of sounds make up a syllable.

2. Meanings of words:

We know the meanings of thousands of words well enough to understand them when others use them and also to use them ourselves in speech and writing. But if we are asked what the meaning of word is, we find it difficult to answer the question. Generally, the meaning of a word is said to consist of two parts: what the word refers to in the world and the meaning relationships the word has with other words in the language. The first is called Reference and the second Sense. The relation between a word and the enity in the world that we want to talk about is called Reference or Denotation. For example the word dog refers to a particular kind of animal and the word book refers to a particular kind of object. The relationship between a word and what it refers to cannot be explained in terms of any logical principle. Sence the second part of the meaning of a word, consist of the semantic or meaning relationships that the word has with other words in the language. It is place that a word has in the system of semantic relationship that hold between the words of the language. There are three important semantic relationships identified between words in a language. These are Synonymy, Antonym, Hyponymy. Words that have the same meaning are said to be synonymous and the relationship between such words is called synonymy. Antonymy means oppositeness of meaning between words. Hyponymy is the relationship between specific and general terms, as in rose and flower.

3. The internet

The internet is a very vast computer network that stretches right around the world, made up of hundreds of millions of computers. Data can travel from any computer on the network to any other computer. The Internet began in the 1960s when research agencies in the USA built their own communications network. Other organizations, such as universities, gradually joined. As home computers become cheaper and more popular in the 1990s, the Internet began expanding rapidly, with anybody being able to use it via a telephone line. Internet use falls into two main areas- e- mail and the World Wide Web. With e-mail, it is possible to send a text message (with other data files, such as photographs, attached if needed) almost instantly to any other Internet user at their e- mail address. The World Wide Web (The ‘Web’) is huge information – gathering system. It allows one computer connected to the Internet to ask for and copy files from another computer. The files are stored in standard form so that any computer can read them.

4. Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication occurs when there is transfer of information between persons without the use of words. 80% of the meaning we derive comes from nonverbal, not from verbal. Nonverbal message are generally involuntary, instinctive and less controlled by us than language is. The exceptions are actors/actresses, politicians, salespersons who make deliberate use of nonverbal to create favorable impressions or effects. Even we sometimes take care to see our nonverbal match words we utter because we want to create a particular effect- negative or positive-in the listener(s). Normally, nonverbal are believed more easily than language. Nonverbal communication takes place by means of body language, silence, objects in context, speech aspect and others. Body language refers to the messages we communicate as part of initiating or responding acts. It confirms, contradicts, complements, substitutes for verbal messages. Silence can send differing messages. Annoyance, shock, anger, surprise, terror are some. Objects also convey meanings. If you had a paperweight in your hand and you were speaking angrily, you couldn’t blame the listener if he moved away from you. Tone of voice is also used to give messages. When we say”no” with a falling tone we are responding to a question; when we say it with a rising tone we are asking a question. “Come here” with a falling tone is a command; with a rising tone it is an encouraging invitation. Nonverbal are thus key instrument for communicating. They generally leave a lasting impression which is difficult to erase or improve. So we need to be careful, especially with strangers, foreigners, superiors and elders.

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Dialogue Writing:

1. Write a dialogue between the Sun and the Moon.

2. Write a dialogue between Salesperson and Customer.

3. Write a dialogue between a Bank Manager and a Loan Customer.

4. A dialogue between the Principal and a Student.

5. A dialogue between the Managing Director of Hundai Company and a Candidate appearing for interview.

6. A dialogue between the ticket collector and a passenger.

Prepositions:

Write using at/on/in:

7. Good bye! See you __ Friday.

8. Where were you ____ 28 February?

9. I got up ____ 8 o, clock this morning.

10. I like getting up early ___the morning.

11. My sister got married ___May.

12. Diane and I first met___ 1979.

13. Did you go out ____ Tuesday?

14. Did you go out ____ Tuesday evening?

15. Do you often go out ____the evening?

16. Let’s meet ____ 7.30 tomorrow evening.

17. I often go away ____ the weekend.

18. I’m starting my new job ____ 3 July.

19. We often go to the beach___ summer.

20. George isn’t here____ the moment.

21. Julia’s birthday is _____ January.

22. Do you work ____ Saturdays?

23. The company started ____ 1969.

24. I like to look at the stars ____ night.

25. I’ll send you the money ___ the end of the month.

26. The garden is lovely__ spring.

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