University of Mumbai 2006-2nd Year B.E 1 sem Comnication Skills - Question Paper

b) Identify the barriers :( 8)

(i) Director in his cabin calling the manager to inform the factory inmates (Language barrier/
physical barrier / status* barrier / cross cultural barrier).
(ii) Construction activity near a college building (Linguistic barrier / psychological barrier / social barrier /
noise barrier)
(iii) A learner forgetting his identity card for the exam centre (Environmental barrier / social
barrier / psychological barrier / linguistic barrier)
(iv) Inability of school students to grasp a lecture on health care by a medical practitioner (Linguistic barrier /
status barrier / physical barrier / personal barrier).
(c) What do you understand by Warning and Caution. provide illustrations to support your ans.( 4)

6. learn the subsequent passage and ans the ques. provided beneath :-

Most educated Indians do not learn books. Books have become expensive and most literate Indians
live and work in abysmal conditions, which sap their will and energy. The struggle for survival is too
tough to permit them the luxury of studying books and reflecting on serious subjects. They need an
escape from the harsh realities of their own lives and of the life around them. Therefore they can
afford it, they either go and see films or learn a work of low-brow fiction. This search for titration
and escape into fantasy explains the steady increase in the number of gossip and film magazines
and the popularity of comic strips and cheap fiction from the West. But -it is not only the lower
middle-class Indian - his life blighted by want, cares and awful residing and working conditions - who
goes in for.vulgar movies and pulp literature. Members of the jet set, too, revel in these. This way
at lowest we are moving towards the ideal of classless society. There are intelligent men and women
who are doing well in their business and professions-lawyers, doctors, engineers and teachers. But the
approach of most of them to studying is functional. They learn either to inform themselves to matters of
immediate and direct interest to them or for entertainment and that too of a very frivolous nature.
General education is not for a majority of them. But then neither do journalists, or for that matter
many academicians, learn classics or serious books any more. Ask any bookseller in Mumbai,
Chennai, New Delhi or Calcutta, how many titles of scholarly he sells.
The ans will be revealing.
Eminent Scholaras and authors point out that ours in an oral tradition and that before the arrival
of the british in the 16th century we did not learn books. They feel that our old ways stick to us
despite the spread of literacy. It is difficult to fault the observation. Once can only point out the
perils of this state of affairs. Intellectual life is inconceivable without the help of the written word.
Oral discussion and statements are by definition imprecise, insubstantial and shallo. They lack
both discipline and depth. It is easy enough to recognize that most of our politicians are
products and practitioners of the oral tradition. But the rest of us including the journalists and
academicians are much better. Out more successful men of letters are more often than not
entertainers and not thinkers and teachers. This cannot serve us well in the age of knowledge
explosion. Whatever be our past we cannot claim that we are people seized by the thirst of
knowledge. Most of us today are not even curious. For example, we know precious little about
our flora and fauna. There is hardly an outstanding travelogue in any Indian language. We do
not even bother to learn about ourselves and about people around us.
In the past we have obtained escape in the belief that our interest are more profound, more
philosophical. Today we cannot sustain that pretense. We are as crudely materialistic as anyone
in the west. We have to recognize the reality that we are intellectually lazy. This may be the
outcome of our own climate, our oral culture and our pre occupation with the immediate issues.
Men of ideas and learning are a minority everywhere But in our case the minority is too small for
comfort and it loks as if it is shrinking. We are perhaps better off than any other 3rd world
country. But that is not good enough for us.

(01 mark each: Q.nos one o 4)

1). The lower middle class Indian lives a (carefree life/luxury life/life of struggle /all of the above)



2). Professionals get involved in (serious rading/ in depth reading/ spiritual reading/ none of the
above)

3). People today are (inquisitive/ active / knowledge thirsty/ philosophers/ none of the above)

4). In th e la st sen te n ce of pa ra on e , th e use of th e te rm „cla ssle ss so cie ty? indicates that the writer
is (Humorous/ annoyed/sarcastic/neutral).

(02 marks each: Q.nos five to 8)

5). The 2 reasons for bad habit of Indians are _________________________

6). “B u t the a pp roa ch of m o st of th e m to rea d ing is fun ctio na l”. F u n ctio na l he re m ea n s
____________.

7). Why is the written word emphasized by the author? provide 2 reasons.

8). Why according to the writer the Indians lack curiosity? provide 2 reasons.


(08 marks: Q.no 9)

9). Summarize the above passage in your own words.

7.(A) You are incharge of the maintenance of a commercial complex. Frame a set of instructions for
cementing and repairing a broken staircase. Make use of improper language and draft not less than
twelve instructions for the purpose.( 8)

B) Write brief answers explaining the use and importance of any 3 of the subsequent and provide
examples of every (12)

i) Methods of inserting reference number or file number in a letter.
ii) Identification Initial enclosures and carbon copy notation as a block.
ii) Inside address and salutations in a letter and its relation to the complementary close.
iv) Signature block and signatures for various purposes.

Earning:   Approval pending.