अपठित गद्यांश - Unseen Prose Comprehension
अपठित गद्यांश
The unseen-prose question gives you a short Sanskrit passage - usually a story fragment or a simple descriptive paragraph - followed by five or six short questions. It tests reading speed, case-awareness and the discipline of answering in Sanskrit, not literary knowledge. Nothing from the textbook is required, so this is the most reliably scorable part of the paper.
Question types you will meet
- एकपदेन उत्तरम् - one word only, in the case the question demands.
- पूर्णवाक्येन उत्तरम् - full sentence; the verb must agree with the subject in person, number and tense.
- शब्दार्थ / पर्याय / विलोम - take the word from the passage; do not import outside vocabulary.
- संधि-विच्छेद / प्रकृति-प्रत्यय - split correctly, and name the sandhi if asked.
- शीर्षक / सारांश - one short phrase in the nominative.
Working method
- Read once for the story-line: who acts, where, and why.
- Mark the क्रियापद - स्म signals past, -ति present, -ष्यति future.
- Tag each noun by ending: -म् object, -ेन instrument, -ाय recipient, -ात् source, -े location, -स्य possessor.
- Answer exactly what is asked, in exactly the length asked.
Worked example
Passage: कस्मिंश्चित् वने एकः सिंहः वसति स्म। सः प्रतिदिनम् एकं मृगम् अखादत्। Question: सिंहः कुत्र वसति स्म? Answer: वने। Reasoning: कुत्र asks for location, so the reply needs the सप्तमी (अधिकरण) - वने, not वनम्. Since the instruction says एकपदेन, a full sentence would lose the mark.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering वनम् or वनस्य to a कुत्र question.
- Copying the whole sentence when a single word is demanded.
- Shifting number: the passage has मृगम् (singular) but the answer offers मृगान्.
- Giving the संधि-विच्छेद but omitting the sandhi name the question asked for.
- Missing स्म and rendering a past event in the present tense.