Section IV of Tier II Paper I is a qualifying typing test: a passage of about 2,000 key depressions in 15 minutes, held in Session II. Type the passage below exactly as shown. Copy and paste is turned off.
15:00For many families in rural India, the village post office has long been more than a place to send letters. It is a small bank, a source of government forms, a place to buy stamps for official papers and, on many days, a meeting point where people exchange news. The postmaster often knows every household by name and remembers who is waiting for a money order from a son working in a distant city. In earlier decades, the arrival of the postman was an event. Children ran behind his bicycle, and elders asked him to read out letters for those who could not read. Today the work has changed, but the trust that people place in the post office has not. Savings accounts, recurring deposits and small insurance policies are opened at the same counter where parcels are weighed. Pensions reach elderly people who live far from any bank branch, and the postman now carries a hand held device that records each delivery and payment. A well run post office depends on careful record keeping. Every article that comes in must be entered, every payment must match the cash in hand, and every complaint must be noted with the date and the name of the person who made it. A single wrong entry can delay a pension or send a parcel to the wrong village, so the staff check their registers at the close of each day. Accuracy matters more than speed, although both are expected. Young people who join the postal service are trained to type quickly and correctly, because most records are now kept on computers. They learn to enter names, addresses and amounts without looking at the keyboard, and to read their work again before they save it. The same habits help anyone preparing for a typing test. Keep your eyes on the text, keep a steady rhythm, and do not stop to correct every small slip if it breaks your pace. In the end, the village post office reminds us that public service is built on small tasks done well, day after day, for people who rely on it.
