2012
Time Allowed: 3 Hours
(Part I, MCQs) 30 Minutes - Maximum Marks: 20
(Part II) 2 Hours & 30 Minutes: Maximum Marks: 80
Note: (i) Candidate must write Q. No. in the Answer Book in accordance with Q. No. in the Question Paper.
(ii) Overwriting/cutting of the options/answers will not be given credit.
Note: (i) Part II is to be attempted on separate Answer Book.
(ii) Attempt all questions from Part II
(iii) Extra attempt of any question or any part of the attempted question will not be considered.
Q.2. Make a precise of the following passage and suggest a suitable heading. (20)
One of the most ominous and discreditable symptoms of the want of candour in present-day sociology is the deliberate neglect of the population question. It is or should be transparently clear that if the State is resolved, on humanitarian grounds, to inhibit the operation of natural selection, some rational regulation of population, both as regards quantity and quality, is
imperatively necessary. There is no self-acting adjustment, apart from starvation, of numbers to the means of subsistence. If all natural checks are removed, a population in advance of the optimum number will be produced, and maintained at the cost of a reduction in the standard of living. When this pressure begins to be felt, that section of the population which is capable of reflection, and which has a standard of living which may be lost, will voluntarily restrict its numbers, even to the point of failing to replace deaths by an equivalent number of new births; while the underworld, which always exists in every civilised society the failures and misfits and derelicts, moral and physical will exercise no restraint, and will be a constantly increasing drain upon the national resources. The population will thus be recruited, in a very undue proportion, by those strata of society which do not possess the qualities of useful citizens.
The importance of the problem would seem to be sufficiently obvious. But politicians know that the subject is unpopular. The unborn have no votes. Employers like a surplus of labour, which can be drawn upon when trade is good. Militarists want as much food for powder as they can get. Revolutionists instinctively oppose any real remedy for social evils; they know that every unwanted child is a potential insurgent. All three can appeal to a quasi-religious prejudice, resting apparently on the ancient theory of natural rights, which were supposed to include the right of unlimited procreation. This objection is now chiefly urged by celibate or childless priests; but it is held with such fanatical vehemence that the fear of losing the votes which they control is a welcome excuse for the baser sort of politician to shelve the subject as inopportune. The Socialist calculation is probably erroneous; for experience has shown that it is aspiration, not desperation, that makes revolutions.
Q.3. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Use your own language. (20)
Human beings are afraid of death just as children feel afraid of darkness. The fear of darkness of kids increased by the stories of the heard ghosts and thieves. In the same way, the fear of human being is increased by the stories which they heard about the agony of dying man. If a human being regards death as a kind of punishment for his sins he has committed and if he looks upon death as a means of making an entry into another world, he is certainly taking a religious and sacred view of death. But if a human being looks upon death as a law of nature and then feels afraid of it, his attitude is of cowardice. However, even in religious meditations about death there is sometimes a mixture of folly and superstition. Monks have written books in which they have described the painful experiences which they underwent by inflicting physical tortures upon themselves as a form of self purification. Thus, one may think that the pains of death must be indescribably agonizing. Such books and such thoughts increase a man's fear of death.
Seneca, the Roman Philosopher is of the view that the circumstances and ceremonies of death frighten people more than death itself would do. A dyeing man is heard uttering groans; his body is seen undergoing convulsions; his face appears to be absolutely bloodless and pale; at his death his friends begin to weep and his relations put on mourning clothes; various rituals are performed. All such facts make death appear more horrible than it would be otherwise.
Q.4 Write a comprehensive note (250 - 300) on any ONE of the following:
Q.5 Use ONLY FIVE of the following in sentences which illustrate their meaning. Extra attempt shall not be considered.
Q.6 (a) Correct ONLY FIVE of the following: Extra attempt shall not be considered.
(b) Change the narration from direct to indirect or indirect to direct speech (DO ONLY FIVE). Extra attempt shall not be considered.
TIME ALLOWED:
(PART-I) 10 MINUTES .................. MAX. MARKS:10
(PART-II) 2 HOURS & 50 MINUTES...MAX.MARKS:90
NOTE:
(i) First attempt PART-I (MCQ) on seperate Answer Sheet which shall be taken back after 10 minutes.
(ii) Overwriting/cutting of the options/answers will not be given credit.
Q.1. (a) Choose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters. (Do only FIVE). Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered. (5)
(i) OBSCURE
(a) Unclear (b) Doubtful
(ii) AMIABLE
(a) Obnoxious (b) Affable
(iii) HOODWINK
(a) Delude (b) Avoid
(iv) GUILEFUL
(a) Honorable (b) Disingenuous
(v) OBSESSION
(a) Fixed ideas (b) Delusion
(vi) RADICAL
(a) Innate (b) Moderate
(vii) PRESUMPTIVE
(a) Credible (b) Timid
(b) Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word: (5)
(viii) PRESENTABLE
(a) Unable (b) Scruffy (c) Suitable (d) Personable
(ix) SALVATION
(a) Escape (b) Starvation (c) Doom (d) Rescue
(x) PLAIN
(a) Clean (b) Distinct (c) Ambiguous (d) Frugal
(xi) ODIOUS
(a) Porus (b) Charming (c) Horrid (d) Offensive
(xii) INFLAME
(a) Calm (b) Anger (c) Excite (d) Kindle
NOTE:
(i) PART-II is to be attempted on the separate Answer Book.
(ii) Attempt ALL questions from PART-II.
Q.2. Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading. (20+5)
From Plato to Tolstoi art has been accused of exciting our emotions and thus of disturbing the order and harmony of our moral life.” Poetical imagination, according to Plato, waters our experience of lust and anger, of desire and pain, and makes them grow when they ought to starve with drought. “Tolstoi sees in art a source of infection. “Not only in infection,” he says, “a sign of art , but the degree of infectiousness is also the sole measure of excellence in art.” But the flaw in this theory is obvious. Tolstoi suppresses a fundamental moment of art, the moment of form. The aesthetic experience – the experience of contemplation- is a different state of mind from the coolness of our theoretical and the sobriety of our moral judgment. It is filled with the liveliest energies of passion, but passion itself is here transformed both in its nature and in its meaning. Wordsworth defines poetry as “ emotion recollected in tranquility’. But the tranquility we feel in great poetry is not that of recollection. The emotions aroused by the poet do not belong to a remote past. They are “ here”- alive and immediate. We are aware of their full strength, but this strength tends in a new direction. It is rather seen than immediately felt. Our passions are no longer dark and impenetrable powers; they become, as it were, transparent. Shakespeare never gives us an aesthetic theory. He does not speculate about the nature of art. Yet in the only passage in which he speaks of the character and functions of dramatic art the whole stress is laid upon this point. “ The purpose of playing,” as Hamlet explains, “ both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as, twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.” But the image of the passion is not the passion itself. The poet who represents a passion doest not infected us with this passion. At a Shakespeare play we are not infected with the ambition of Macbeth, with the cruelty of Richard III or with the jealously of Othello. We are not at the mercy of these emotions; we look through them; we seem to penetrate into their very nature and essence. In this respect Shakespeare’s theory of dramatic art, if he had such a theory, is in complete agreement with the conception of the fine arts of the great painters and sculptors.
Q.3. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. (20)
It is very nature of helicopter that is great versatility is found. To begin with, the helicopter is the fulfillment of tone of man’s earliest and most fantastic dreams. The dream of flying – not just like a bird – but of flying as nothing else flies or has ever flown. To be able to fly straight up and straight down – to fly forward or back or sidewise, or to hover over and spot till the fuel supply is exhausted.
To see how the helicopter can do things that are not possible for the conventional fixed-wing plane, let us first examine how a conventional plane “works”. It works by its shape – by the shape of its wing, which deflects air when the plane is in motion. That is possible because air has density and resistance. It reacts to force. The wing is curved and set at an angle to catch the air and push it down; the air, resisting, pushes against the under surface of the wing, giving it some f its lift. At the same time the curved upper surface of the wing exerts suction, tending to create a lack of air at the top of the wing. The air, again resisting, sucks back, and this give the wing about twice as much lift as the air pressure below the wing. This is what takes place when the wing is pulled forward by propellers or pushed forward by jet blasts. Without the motion the wing has no lift.
Questions:
(i) Where is the great versatility of the helicopter found?
(ii) What is the dream of flying?
(iii) What does the wing of the conventional aircraft do?
(iv) What does the curved upper surface of the wing do?
(v) What gives the wing twice as much lift?
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note (250—300 words) on any ONE of the following: (20)
(i) The importance of industrialization.
(ii) Do we live better than our forefathers?
(iii) Protecting freedom of expression not lies.
(iv) Adopting unchecked Western life styles.
(v) Variety is the spice of life.
Q.5. (a) Change the narration from direct to indirect or indirect to direct speech. (Do only FIVE). (5)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) He said to him, “why do you waste your time?”
(ii) He ordered his servant not to stand there doing nothing.
(iii) He exclaimed with joy that he had won the match.
(iv) The traveler said, “What a dark night?”
(v) He said, “Let it rain even so hard, I will start today.”
(vi) My mother said, “May you live happily and prosper in your life.”
(vii) He said, “How foolish have I been?”
(b) Correct ONLY FIVE of the following: (5)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) He swore from God.
(ii) Is your dress different than mine?
(iii) He inquired whether I live in Karachi.
(iv) He spoke these words upon his face.
(v) The ran direct to their college.
(vi) I shall not come here unless you will not call me.
(vii) They have been building a wall since three days.
(viii) He does not have some devotion to his studies.
Q.6. (a) Use ONLY FIVE of the following in sentences with illustrate their meaning: (5)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) Leave in the lurch.
(ii) Hard and fast.
(iii) Weather the storm.
(iv) Bear the brunt.
(v) Meet halfway.
(vi) Turncoat.
(vii) Where the shoe pinches.
(b) Use ONLY FIVE of the following pair of words in sentence which illustrate their meaning: (10)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) Persecute, Prosecute
(ii) Luxuriant, Luxurious
(iii) Mean, Mien
(iv) Observation, Observance
(v) Naughty, Knotty
(vi) Ghostly, Ghastly
(vii) Hew, Hue
TIME ALLOWED: 3 HOURS…………………..Maximum Marks: 100
Q.1. Write a précis of the following passage in about 100 words and suggest the title: (20+5)
Objectives pursued by, organizations should be directed to the satisfaction of demands resulting from the wants of mankind. Therefore, the determination of appropriate objectives for organized activity must be preceded by an effort to determine precisely what their wants are. Industrial organizations conduct market studies to learn what consumer goods should be produced. City Commissions make surveys to ascertain what civic projects would be of most benefit. Highway Commissions conduct traffic counts to learn what constructive programmes should be undertaken. Organizations come into being as a means for creating and exchanging utility. Their success is dependent upon the appropriateness of the series of acts contributed to the system. The majority of these acts is purposeful, that is, they are directed to the accomplishment of some objectives. These acts are physical in nature and find purposeful employment in the alteration of the physical environment. As a result utility is created, which, through the process of distribution, makes it possible for the cooperative system to endure.
Before the Industrial Revolution most cooperative activity was accomplished in small owner managed enterprises, usually with a single decision maker and simple organizational objectives. Increased technology and the growth of industrial organization made necessary the establishment of a hierarchy of objectives. This is turn, required a division of the management function until today a hierarchy of decision makers exists in most organizations.
The effective pursuit of appropriate objectives contributes directly to organizational efficiency. As used here, efficiency is a measure of the want satisfying power of the cooperative system as a whole. Thus efficiency is the summation of utilities received from the organization divided by the utilities given to the organization, as subjectively evaluated by each contributor.
The functions of the management process is the delineation of organizational objectives and the coordination of activity towards the accomplishment of these objectives. The system of coordinated activities must be maintained so that each contributor, including the manager, gains more than he contributes.
Q.2. Read the following passage carefully and answer all the questions given at the end.
These phenomena, however, are merely premonitions of a coming storm, which is likely to sweep over the whole of India and the rest of Asia. This is the inevitable outcome of a wholly political civilization, which has looked upon man as a thing to be exploited and not as a personality to be developed and enlarged by purely cultural forces. The people of Asia are bound to rise against the acquisitive economy which the West have developed and imposed on the nations of the East. Asia cannot comprehend modern Western capitalism with its undisciplined individualism. The faith, which you represent, recognizes the worth of the individual, and disciplines him to give away all to the service of God and man. Its possibilities are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of man is not determined by his caste or colour or the amount of dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives, where the poor tax the rich, where human society is founded not on the equality of stomachs but on the equality of spirits, where an untouchable can marry the daughter of the king, where private ownership is a trust and where capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate that real producer of wealth. This superb idealism of your faith, however, needs emancipation from the medieval fancies of theologians and logists? Spiritually, we are living in a prison house of thoughts and emotions, which during the course of centuries we have woven round ourselves. And be it further said to the shame of us—men of older generation—that we have failed to equip the younger generation for the economic, political and even religious crisis that the present age is likely to bring. The while community needs a complete overhauling of its present mentality in order that it may again become capable of feeling the urge of fresh desires and ideals. The Indian Muslim has long ceased to explore the depths of his own inner life. The result is that he has ceased to live in the full glow and colour of life, and is consequently in danger of an unmanly compromise with force, which he is made to think he cannot vanquish in open conflict. He who desires to change an unfavourable environment must undergo a complete transformation of his inner being. God changes not the condition of a people until they themselves take the initiative to change their condition by constantly illuminating the zone of their daily activity in the light of a definite ideal. Nothing can be achieved without a firm faith in the independence of one’s own inner life. This faith alone keeps a people’s eye fixed on their goal and save them from perpetual vacillation. The lesson that past experiences has brought to you must be taken to heart. Expect nothing form any side. Concentrate your whole ego on yourself alone and ripen your clay into real manhood if you wish to see your aspiration realized.
Questions:
i. What is the chief characteristic of the modern political civilization? (4)
ii. What are possibilities of our Faith, which can be of advantage to the world? (4)
iii. What is the chief danger confronting the superb idealism of our Faith? (4)
iv. Why is the Indian Muslim in danger of coming to an unmanly compromise with the Forces opposing him? (4)
v. What is necessary for an achievement? (2)
vi. Explain the expression as highlighted/under lined in the passage. (5)
vii. Suggest an appropriate title to the passage. (2)
Q.3. Write a comprehensive note (250—300 words) on any one of the following: (20)
a. To rob Peter to pay Paul
b. The child is father of the man.
c. Art lies in concealing art
d. Life without a philosophy is like a ship without rudder
e. A contented mind is a blessing kind.
Q.4. a. Use any FIVE of the following idioms in sentences to make their meaning clear: (5)
i. Blow one’s top
ii. A cock and bull story
iii. Find one’s feet
iv. Call it a night
v. The tip of the iceberg
vi. Below par
vii. From pillar to post
viii. Hang up
ix. Turn some one in
x. By and by
b. Use any FIVE of the following pairs of words in your own sentences to bring out their meanings: (5)
i. Mitigate, Alleviate
ii. Persecute, Prosecute
iii. Popular, Populace
iv. Compliment, Complement
v. Excite, Incite
vi. Voracity, Veracity
vii. Virtual, Virtuous
viii. Exceptional, Exceptionable
Q.5. a. Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word. Do any FIVE. (5)
i. MORATORIUM..a. Large tomb……..….b. Waiting period..c. Security for debt…..d. Funeral house
ii. PROLIFIC………a. Skilful……………...b. Fruitful………..c. Wordy…………..…d. Spread out
iii. BI-PARTISAN….a. Narrow minded…….b. Progressive…...c. Representing two parties….d. Divided
iv. UNEQUIVOCAL.a. Careless…………….b. Unmistakable…c. Variable………...d. Incomparable
v. COVENANT…….a. Prayer…………...…b. Debate………...c. Garden…………..d. Agreement
vi. TENTATIVE…….a. Expedient…………..b. Nominal………c. Provisional……...d. Alternative
vii. DEMOGRAPHIC..a. Relating to the ……..b. Demons……….c. Communications..d. Population
…………………………….study of Government
viii. SONAR…………..a. Apparatus to Detect ..b. Locate objects...c. Measure rain…….d. Anticipate Earthquake
…………………………….something in the air...….under water
b. Indicate the meaning of any FIVE of the following: (5)
i. Brag
ii. Antiquarian
iii. Input
iv. Prodigal
v. Bibliophile
vi. Nostalgia
vii. Burn one’s boats
viii. Feedback
ix. Agrarian
Q.6. a. Correct the following sentences. Do any FIVE. (5)
i. Please tell me where is your brother?
ii. Sajjad as well as Saleem were late.
iii. He is the most cleverest boy in the class.
iv. I have met him last month.
v. Your writing is inferior than him.
vi. Nothing but novels please him.
vii. The teacher gave the boy an advice which he refused.
viii. He brought the articles to the market which he wanted to sell.
b. Change the narration from Direct to Indirect or Indirect to Direct speech. (5)
i. He said to his friend, “Let me go home now”
ii. I will say “Mother, I will always obey you”
iii. “Splendid”: said father as he read my report,
iv. He said, “Good morning, can you help me”
v. She said “Brother, why do you tease me”
vi. The King said to the Queen, “If I die, take care of my people”
vii. “By God”, he said” I do not know his name”
viii. You exclaimed with sorrow that you lost your pen.
Q#1 Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading.
The author of a work of imagination is trying to effect us wholly, as human beings, whether he knows it or not; and we are affected by it, as human beings, whether we intend to be or not. I suppose that everything we eat has some effect upon us than merely the pleasure of taste and mastication; it affects us during the process of assimilation and digestion; and I believe that exactly the same is true of any thing we read.
The fact that what we read does not concern merely something called our literary taste, but that it affects directly, though only amongst many other influences , the whole of what we are, is best elicited , I think, by a conscientious examination of the history of our individual literary education. Consider the adolescent reading of any person with some literary sensibility. Everyone, I believe, who is at all sensible to the seductions of poetry, can remember some moment in youth when he or she was completely carried away by the work of one poet. Very likely he was carried away by several poets, one after the other. The reason for this passing infatuation is not merely that our sensibility to poetry is keener in adolescence than in maturity. What happens is a kind of inundation, or invasion of the undeveloped personality, the empty (swept and garnished) room, by the stronger personality of the poet. The same thing may happen at a later age to persons who have not done much reading. One author takes complete possession of us for a time; then another, and finally they begin to affect each other in our mind. We weigh one against another; we see that each has qualities absent from others, and qualities incompatible with the qualities of others: we begin to be, in fact, critical: and it is our growing critical power which protects us from excessive possession by anyone literary personality. The good critic- and we should all try to critics, and not leave criticism to the fellows who write reviews in the papers- is the man who, to a keen and abiding sensibility, joins wide and increasingly discriminating. Wide reading is not valuable as a kind of hoarding, and the accumulation of knowledge or what sometimes is meant by the term ‘a well-stocked mind.’ It is valuable because in the process of being affected by one powerful personality after another, we cease to be dominated by anyone, or by any small number. The very different views of life, cohabiting in our minds, affect each other, and our own personality asserts itself and gives each a place in some arrangement peculiar to our self.
Q.2 Read the following passage and answere the questions that follow:
Strong section of industrials who still imagine that men can be mere machines and are at their best as machines if they are mere machines are already menacing what they call “useless” education. They deride the classics, and they are mildly contemptiois of history, philosophy, and English. They want our educational institutions, from the oldest universities to the youngest elementary schools, to concentrate on business or the things that are patently useful in business. Technical instruction is to be provided for adolescent artisans; book keeping and shorthand for prospective clerks; and the cleverest we are to set to “business methods”, to modern languages (which can be used in correspondence with foreign firms), and to science (which can be applied to industry). French and German are the languages, not of Montaigne and Gorthe, but of Schmidt Brothers, of Elberfeld and Dupont et Cie., of Lyons. Chemistry and Physics are not explorations into the physical constitution of the universe, but sources of new dyes, new electric light filaments, new means of making things which can be sold cheap and fast to the Nigerian and the Chinese. For Latin there is a Limited field so long as the druggists insist on retaining it in their prescriptions. Greek has no apparent use at all, unless it be as a source of syllables for the hybrid names of patent medicines and metal polishes. The soul of man, the spiritual basis of civilization- what gibberish is that?
Questions
a) What kind of education does the writer deal with? (2)
b) What kind of education does the writer favour? How do you know? (3)
c) Where does the writer express most bitterly his feelings about the neglect of the classics? (3)
d) Explain as carefully as you can the full significance of the last sentence. (4)
e) Explain the underlined words and phrases in the passage (8)
Q-3 Note (250-300 words) on any one of the following
1- Honesty is the best policy but advertising also helps.
2- It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
3- A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
4- Spontaneity and creativity as symbols of freedom.
5- Means justify ends.
Q-4 Choose synonyms (only five)
1- LACUNAE
a-tiny marine life
b-shallow water
c-local dialect
d-missing parts
2-PAROXYSM
a-moral lesson
b-sudden outburst
c-contradiction
d-pallid imitation
3-GROTTO
a-statue
b-cavern
c-neighbourhood
d-type of moth
4-FETTER
a-rot
b-to restrain
c-make better
d-enable to fly
5-STOICISM
a-indifference
b-boldness
c-deep affection
d-patient endurance
6-SUCCULENT
a-edible
b-parched
c-generous
d-mature
7-MALEDICTION
a-compliment
b-summary
c-perfume
d-awkwardness
(B) Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized words.
1-TWINE
a-straighten
b-continue
c-unravel
d-detach
2-FRUGAL
a-prodigal
b-intemperate
c-extravagant
d-profuse
3-GAWKY
a-neat
b-handy
c-graceful
d-handsome
4-CAPRICIOUS
a-firm
b-decided
c-inflexible
d-constant
5-CONGEAL
a-liquify
b-molify
c-harden
d-solidify
Time Allowed: Three Hours Maximum Marks: 100
1. Make a precis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading:
We're dealing with a very dramatic and very fundamental paradigm shift here. You may try" to lubricate your' social interactions with personality techniques and skills, but in the process, you may truncate the vital character base. You can't have the fruits without the roots. It's the principle of sequencing: Private victory precedes Public Victory. Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationship with others. Some people say that you have to like yourself before you can like others. I think' that idea has merit but if you don't know yourself, if you don't control yourself, if you don't have mastery over yourself, it's very hard to like yourself, except in some short-term, psych-up, superficial way. Real self-respect comes from dominion over*self from true independence. Independence is an achievement. Inter dependence is a choice only independent people can make. Unless we are willing to achieve real independence, it's foolish to try to develop human relations skills. We might try. We might even have some degree of success when the sun is shining. But when the difficult times come - and they will - We won't have the foundation to keep things together. The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary" for effective interdependence. The techniques and skills that really make a difference in human interaction are the ones that almost naturally flow from a truly independent character. So the place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, inside our Circle of Influence, our own character. As we become independent - Proactive, centered in correct principles, value driven and able to organize and execute around the priorities in our life with integrity - we then can choose to become interdependent - capable of building rich, enduring, highly productive relationships with other people.
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end, in YOUR OWN WORDS. (20)
We look before and after, wrote Shelley, and pine for what is not. It is said that this is what distinguishes us from the animals and that they, unlike us, live always for and in the movement and have neither hopes nor regrets. Whether it is so or not I do not know yet it is undoubtedly one of our distinguishing mental attributes: we are actually conscious of our life in time and not merely of our life at the moment of experiencing it. And as a result we find many grounds for melancholy and foreboding. Some of us prostrate ourselves on the road way in Trafalgar Square or in front of the American Embassy because we are fearful that our lives, or more disinterestedly those of our descendants will be cut short by nuclear war. If only as" squirrels or butterflies are supposed to do, we could let the future look after itself and be content to enjoy the pleasures of the morning breakfast, the brisk walk to the office through autumnal mist or winter fog, the mid-day sunshine that sometimes floods through windows, tne warm, peaceful winter evenings by the fireside at home. Yet all occasions for contentment are so often spoiled for us, to a greater or lesser degree by our individual temperaments, by this strange human capacity for foreboding and regret - regret for things which we cannot undo and foreboding for things which may never happen at all. Indeed were it not for the fact that over breaking through our human obsessions with the tragedy of time, so enabling us to enjoy at any rate some fleeting moments untroubled by vain yearning or apprehension, our life would not be intolerable at all. As it is, we contrive, everyone of us, to spoil it to a remarkable degree.
3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on ONE of the following: (20)
4. (a) Choose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters. * (5)
(1) ARCHIPELAGO:
(2) PIAZZA:
(3) BAKLAVA:
(4) IONIC:
(5) CICERONE:
(b) Pick the one most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word: * (5)
(1) DESICCATE:
(2) APOTHEOSIS:
(3) SPUNK:
(4) CAVIL:
(5) RAUCOUS:
5. (a) Change the Voice of any FIVE of the following sentences: (5)
(b) Correct any FIVE of the following sentences: (5)
6. (a) Use any FIVE of the following in your own sentences to bring out their meaning: (5)
Use FIVE of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings: * (10)
1.Make a precise of the following passage in about one third of its length and suggest a suitable heading. (20)
It was not from want of perceiving the beauty of external nature but from the different way of perceiving it, that the early Greeks did not turn their genius to portray, either in colour or in poetry, the outlines, the hues, and contrasts of all fair valley, and hold cliffs, and golden moons, and rosy lawns which their beautiful country affords in lavish abundance.
Primitive people never so far as I know, enjoy when is called the picturesque in nature, wild forests, beetling cliffs, reaches of Alpine snow are with them great hindrances to human intercourse, and difficulties in the way of agriculture. They are furthermore the homes of the enemies of mankind, of the eagle, the wolf, or the tiger, and are most dangerous in times of earthquake or tempest. Hence the grand and striking features of nature are at first looked upon with fear and dislike.
I do not suppose that Greeks different in the respect from other people, except that the frequent occurrence of mountains and forests made agriculture peculiarly difficult and intercourse scanty, thus increasing their dislike for the apparently reckless waste in nature. We have even in Homer a similar feeling as regards the sea, --- the sea that proved the source of all their wealth and the condition of most of their greatness. Before they had learned all this, they called it “the unvintagable sea” and looked upon its shore as merely so much waste land. We can, therefore, easily understand, how in the first beginning of Greek art, the representation of wild landscape would find no place, whereas, fruitful fields did not suggest themselves as more than the ordinary background. Art in those days was struggling with material nature to which it felt a certain antagonism.
There was nothing in the social circumstances of the Greeks to produce any revolution in this attitude during their greatest days. The Greek republics were small towns where the pressure of the city life was not felt. But as soon as the days of the Greeks republics were over, the men began to congregate for imperial purposes into Antioch, or Alexandria, or lastly into Rome, than we seek the effect of noise and dust and smoke and turmoil breaking out into the natural longing for rural rest and retirement so that from Alexander’s day …… We find all kinds of authors --- epic poets, lyricist, novelists and preachers --- agreeing in the precise of nature, its rich colours, and its varied sounds. Mohaffy: Rambles in Greece
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)
Poetry is the language of imagination and the passions. It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to human min. it comes home to the bosoms and business of men: for nothing but what comes home to them in the most general and intelligible shape can be a subject of poetry. Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry cannot have much respect for himself or for anything else. Whatever there is a sense of beauty, or power, or harmony, as in the motion of the waves of the sea, in the growth of a flower, there is a poetry in its birth. If history is a grave study, poetry may be said to be graver, its materials lie deeper, and are spread wider. History treats, for the most part, cumbersome and unwieldy masses of things, the empty cases in which the affairs of the world are packed, under the heads of intrigue or war, in different states, and from century to century but there is no thought or feeling that can have entered into the mind of man which he would be eager to communicate to others, or they would listen to with delight, that is not a fit subject for poetry. It is not a branch of authorship: it is “the stuff of which our life is made”. The rest is mere oblivision, a dead letter, for all that is worth remembering gin life is the poetry of it. Fear is Poetry, hope is poetry, love is poetry; hatred is poetry. Poetry is that fine particle within us that expands, refines, raises our whole being; without “man’s life is poor as beasts”. In fact, man is a poetical animal. The child Is a poet when he first plays hide and seek, or repeats the story of Jack the Giant Killer, the shepherd – boy is a poet when he first crowns his mistress with a garland of flowers; the countryman when he stops he stops to look at the rainbow; the miser when he hugs his gold; the courtier when he builds his hope upon a smile; the vain, the ambitious the proud, the choleric man, the hero and the coward, the beggar and the king, all live in a world of their own making; and the poet does no more than describe what all others think and act. Hazlitt
(a) In what sense is poetry the language of the imagination and the passion?
(b) How is poetry the Universal Language of the heart?
(c) What is the difference between history and poetry?
(d) Explain the phrase: “Man is a poetical animal”.
(e) What are some of the actions which Hazlitt calls poetry and its doers poet?
(f) Explain the followings underlined expression in the passage.
(i) It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to human heart
(ii) A sense of beauty, or power, or harmony.
(iii) Cumbersome and unwieldy masses of things.
(iv) It is the stuff of which our life is made.
(v) The poet does no more than describe what all others think and act.
3. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300) on ONE of the following subjects. (20)
(a) Modern history registers so primary and rapid changes that it cannot repeat itself.
(b) “The golden rule is that there is no golden rule”. G. B. Shaw
(c) Crisis tests the true mettle of man
(d) It is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannical to use it like a giant.
4. Correct the following sentences. (10)
(a) His wisdom consisted of his handling the dangerous situation successfully
(b) Many a girls were appearing in the examination.
(c) The vehicles run fastly on the Motorway.
(d) Smoking is injurious for health.
(e) He availed of this situation very intelligently.
(f) The black vermin is an odious creature.
(g) What to speak of meat, even, vegetables were not available now.
(h) No sooner we left our home when it started raining.
(i) Little money I had I spent on the way.
(j) The criminal was sent on the goal.
5. Use FIVE of the following in sentences to make their meaning clear. (10)
(i) The teaming meanings
(ii) To kick the bucket
(iii) To push to the walls
(iv) To read between the lines
(v) To be at daggers drawn
(vi) To throw down the gauntlet
(vii) To be a Greek
(viii) To stand on ceremony
(ix) From the horse’s mouth
(x) To carry the cross
6. Use FIVE of the following pairs of words in sentences. (10)
- I am sorry, Nadeem. I cannot do that. The examination is drawing near and I want to urilize every minute for its preparation.
- To hell with exam ___________________
- Well, health is good but failure is bad. Therefore, one should take books and study them for the University exam.
- Suppose you grow into a bookworm and as a result fall ill. ___________________ Again, many boys work hard and get degrees. Do you think they get jobs. Our society is flooded with graduates but ___________________? They are roaming about with degrees in their hands. They are ________________.
- Well. Degree is an ornament in itself, job or no job. Besides, there is no need to be hopeless. I am sure when I get a degree with a good grade, I am sure to get a job in a Government office or in a private firm. You know that ___________________.
- Well, how should I explain to you the blessing of a good health. If you continue treading on this path, ___________________. Please come into the fresh air take exercise and play some game and ___________________ Don’t grow old prematurely.
- Please listen, I want to be a graduate this year, now or never. I have made up my mind for this and ___________________.
- Well, if this is your aim, then ___________________.
Precís & Composition Paper 2012
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN B.P.S. – 17
UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2012.
ENGLISH (PRECISE AND COMPOSITION)
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN B.P.S. – 17
UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2012.
ENGLISH (PRECISE AND COMPOSITION)
Time Allowed: 3 Hours
(Part I, MCQs) 30 Minutes - Maximum Marks: 20
(Part II) 2 Hours & 30 Minutes: Maximum Marks: 80
Note: (i) Candidate must write Q. No. in the Answer Book in accordance with Q. No. in the Question Paper.
(ii) Overwriting/cutting of the options/answers will not be given credit.
PART-II
Note: (i) Part II is to be attempted on separate Answer Book.
(ii) Attempt all questions from Part II
(iii) Extra attempt of any question or any part of the attempted question will not be considered.
Q.2. Make a precise of the following passage and suggest a suitable heading. (20)
One of the most ominous and discreditable symptoms of the want of candour in present-day sociology is the deliberate neglect of the population question. It is or should be transparently clear that if the State is resolved, on humanitarian grounds, to inhibit the operation of natural selection, some rational regulation of population, both as regards quantity and quality, is
imperatively necessary. There is no self-acting adjustment, apart from starvation, of numbers to the means of subsistence. If all natural checks are removed, a population in advance of the optimum number will be produced, and maintained at the cost of a reduction in the standard of living. When this pressure begins to be felt, that section of the population which is capable of reflection, and which has a standard of living which may be lost, will voluntarily restrict its numbers, even to the point of failing to replace deaths by an equivalent number of new births; while the underworld, which always exists in every civilised society the failures and misfits and derelicts, moral and physical will exercise no restraint, and will be a constantly increasing drain upon the national resources. The population will thus be recruited, in a very undue proportion, by those strata of society which do not possess the qualities of useful citizens.
The importance of the problem would seem to be sufficiently obvious. But politicians know that the subject is unpopular. The unborn have no votes. Employers like a surplus of labour, which can be drawn upon when trade is good. Militarists want as much food for powder as they can get. Revolutionists instinctively oppose any real remedy for social evils; they know that every unwanted child is a potential insurgent. All three can appeal to a quasi-religious prejudice, resting apparently on the ancient theory of natural rights, which were supposed to include the right of unlimited procreation. This objection is now chiefly urged by celibate or childless priests; but it is held with such fanatical vehemence that the fear of losing the votes which they control is a welcome excuse for the baser sort of politician to shelve the subject as inopportune. The Socialist calculation is probably erroneous; for experience has shown that it is aspiration, not desperation, that makes revolutions.
Q.3. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Use your own language. (20)
Human beings are afraid of death just as children feel afraid of darkness. The fear of darkness of kids increased by the stories of the heard ghosts and thieves. In the same way, the fear of human being is increased by the stories which they heard about the agony of dying man. If a human being regards death as a kind of punishment for his sins he has committed and if he looks upon death as a means of making an entry into another world, he is certainly taking a religious and sacred view of death. But if a human being looks upon death as a law of nature and then feels afraid of it, his attitude is of cowardice. However, even in religious meditations about death there is sometimes a mixture of folly and superstition. Monks have written books in which they have described the painful experiences which they underwent by inflicting physical tortures upon themselves as a form of self purification. Thus, one may think that the pains of death must be indescribably agonizing. Such books and such thoughts increase a man's fear of death.
Seneca, the Roman Philosopher is of the view that the circumstances and ceremonies of death frighten people more than death itself would do. A dyeing man is heard uttering groans; his body is seen undergoing convulsions; his face appears to be absolutely bloodless and pale; at his death his friends begin to weep and his relations put on mourning clothes; various rituals are performed. All such facts make death appear more horrible than it would be otherwise.
- What is the difference between human beings' fear of death and children's fear of darkness?
- What is a religious and sacred view of death?
- What are the painful experiences described by the Monks in their books?
- What are the views of Seneca about death?
- What are the facts that make death appear more horrible than it would be otherwise?
Q.4 Write a comprehensive note (250 - 300) on any ONE of the following:
- Self done is Well done
- The Bough that bears most bend most
- Nearer the Church, farther from God
- Rich men have no fault
- Cut your coat according to your cloth
Q.5 Use ONLY FIVE of the following in sentences which illustrate their meaning. Extra attempt shall not be considered.
- Wool gathering
- Under the harrow
- Cold comfort
- A gold digger
- Walk with God
- On the thin ice
- A queer fish
- Unearthly hour
Q.6 (a) Correct ONLY FIVE of the following: Extra attempt shall not be considered.
- A ten feet long snake made people run here and there
- We are going to the concert, and so they are.
- Enclosed with this letter was a signed Affidavit and a carbon copy of his request to our main office.
- Fear from God.
- Pakistan has and will support the Kashmiris.
- He has come yesterday.
- Arshad's down fall was due to nothing else than pride.
- Do not avoid to consult a doctor.
(b) Change the narration from direct to indirect or indirect to direct speech (DO ONLY FIVE). Extra attempt shall not be considered.
- He said to us, "You cannot do this problem alone".
- The beggar asked the rich lady if she could not pity the sufferings of an old and miserable man and help him with a rupee or two.
- The Commander said to the soldiers, "March on".
- He entreated his master respectfully to pardon him as it was his first fault.
- "Do you really come from America? How do you feel in Pakistan?" Said I the stranger.
- The officer threatened the peon to come in time otherwise he would be turned out.
- People wished that the Quaid e Azam had been alive those days to their fate.
- They said, "Brave! Imran, what a shot".
**********************
2011
2010
Precis & Composition Paper 2010
Q1: Pick the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the capitalized word.
1) Acrimonous
a) Bitter b) Provocative c) Cheap d) Volatile
2) Calligraphy
a) Computers b) Handwriting c) Blood Pressure d) Brain waves
3) Unequivocal
a) Variable b) Plain c) Unmistakable d) Negligent
4) Demise
a) Conclude b) End c) Affection d) Death
5) Incendiary
a) Happy b) Sneer c) Causing fire d) Jolly
6) Touchstone
a) Remind b) A hall c) at rest d) Criterion
7) Void
a) Emptiness b) Lea c) Anger d) Trick
8) Essay
a) Direct b) Copose c) Attempt d) Suppose
b) Indicate the most nearly opposite in meaning
1) Ignoble
a) Lowly b) Vile c) Good d) Noble
2) Melancholy
a) Sorrowful b) Happy c) Forbidden d) Brisk
3) Obliterate
a) Preserve b) Destroy c) Ravage d) Design
4) Ally
a) Alloy b) Foe c) Partner d) Accessory
5) Vulgar
a) Coarse b) Gross c) Exquisite d) Obscene
6) Pretend
a) Sham b) Substantiate c) Feign d) Fabricate
7) Liberty
a) Permission b) License c) Serfdom d) Bound
8) Consceintious
a) Uncorrupt b) Honorable c) Principled d) Profligate
Q2: Precise
Of all the characteristics of ordinary human nature envy is the most unfortunate; not only does the envious person wish to inflict misfortune and do so whenever he can with impunity, but he is also himself rendered unhappy by envy. instead of deriving pleausre from what he has, he derives pain from what others have. if he can, he deprives others of their advantages, which to him is as desirable as as it would be to secure the same advantages himself. if this passion is allowed to run riot it becomes fatal to all excellence,and even the most useful exercise of exceptional skill. why should a medical man go to see his patients in a car when the labourer has to walk to his work? why should the scientifc investigator be allowed to spend his time in a warm room when others have to face the inclemency of the elements? why should a man who possesses some rare talent of great importance to the world be saved fromt he drudgery of his own housework? to such questions envy finds no answer. fortunately, however, there is in human nature a compensating passion, namely that of admiration. whosoever wishes to increase human happiness must wish to increase admiration and to diminish envy. what cure is there for envy? for the saint there is the cure of selflessness, though even in the case of saints envy of other saints is by no means impossible. but, leaving saints out of account, the only cure of envy in the case of ordinary men and women is happiness, and the difficulty is that envy is itself a terrible obstacle to happiness. but the envious man may say: 'what is the good of telling me that the cure of envy is happiness? i cannot find happiness while i continue to feel envy, and you tell me that i cannot cease to be envious until i find happiness.' but real life is never so logical as this. mereley to realize the cause of one's own envious feeling is to take a long step towards curing them.
Question 3: Comprehension
And still it moves. the words of Galileo, murmured when the tortures of the Inquisition had driven him to recant the Truth he knew, apply in a new way to our world today. sometimes, in the knowledge of all that has been discovered, all that has been done to make life on the planet happier and more worthy, we may be tempted to settle down to enjoy our heritage. that would, indeed, be the betrayal of our trust.
These men and women of the past have given everything---comfort, time, treasure, peace of mind and body, life itself---that we might live as we do. the challenege to each one of us is to carry on their work for the sake of future generations.
The adventurous human mind must not falter. still must we question the old truths and work for the new ones. still must we risk scorn, cynicism, neglect, loneliness, poverty, persecution, if need be. we must shut our ears to easy voice which tells us that human nature will never alter as an exucse for doing nothing to make life more worthy.
Thus will the course of the history of mankind go onward, and the world we know move into a new splendour for those who are yet to be.
Questions:
1) What made Galileo recant the Truth he knew?
2) What is the heritage being alluded to in the first paragraph?
3)what does the 'betrayal of our trust' imply
4) Why do we need to question the old truths and work for the new ones?
Explain the words or expressions as highlighted/underlined in the passage.
Question 4: Write a comprehensive note on any one of the following
1) When flatterrers get together, the devil goes to dinner.
2) The impossible is often the untried.
3) A Civil servant is a public servant
4)Internet---a blessing or a bane
5) Hope is the buoy of life.
Question 5: Use Only Five of the following in sentences which illustrate their meaning:
1) Make for
2) Yeoman's service
3) Discretion is the better part of valour.
4) Out of the wood
5) A casting vote
6) Look down upon
7) Iconoclast
8) A swan song
b) Five pairs of words in sentences:
1) Adverse, Averse
2) Maize, Maze
3) Medal, Meddle
4) Imperious, Imperial
5) Veracity, Voracity
6) Allusion, Illusion
7) Ordinance, Ordnance
8) willing, Wilful
Question 6:
a) Correct the following sentences
1) This house is built of brick and stone.
2) the climate of Pakistan is better than England?
3) He swore by God.
4) You ought to have regarded him your benefactor.
5) My friend is very ill, i hope he will soon die.
6) he is waiting for better and promising opportunity.
7) When I shall see her I will deliver her your gift.
8) Many a sleepless nights she spent.
b) Change the narration from Indirect to Direct or Direct to Indirect
1) On Monday he said, "My son is coming today."
2) they wanted to know where he was going the following week.
3) he said, "Did she go yesterday?"
4) 'By God', he said, "I do not know her nickname."
5) he says that we are to meet him at the station.
6) He said, "I don't know the way. ask the old man sitting on the gate."
7) My father prayed that i would recover from my illness
8) He said, "How will you manage it?"
1) Acrimonous
a) Bitter b) Provocative c) Cheap d) Volatile
2) Calligraphy
a) Computers b) Handwriting c) Blood Pressure d) Brain waves
3) Unequivocal
a) Variable b) Plain c) Unmistakable d) Negligent
4) Demise
a) Conclude b) End c) Affection d) Death
5) Incendiary
a) Happy b) Sneer c) Causing fire d) Jolly
6) Touchstone
a) Remind b) A hall c) at rest d) Criterion
7) Void
a) Emptiness b) Lea c) Anger d) Trick
8) Essay
a) Direct b) Copose c) Attempt d) Suppose
b) Indicate the most nearly opposite in meaning
1) Ignoble
a) Lowly b) Vile c) Good d) Noble
2) Melancholy
a) Sorrowful b) Happy c) Forbidden d) Brisk
3) Obliterate
a) Preserve b) Destroy c) Ravage d) Design
4) Ally
a) Alloy b) Foe c) Partner d) Accessory
5) Vulgar
a) Coarse b) Gross c) Exquisite d) Obscene
6) Pretend
a) Sham b) Substantiate c) Feign d) Fabricate
7) Liberty
a) Permission b) License c) Serfdom d) Bound
8) Consceintious
a) Uncorrupt b) Honorable c) Principled d) Profligate
Q2: Precise
Of all the characteristics of ordinary human nature envy is the most unfortunate; not only does the envious person wish to inflict misfortune and do so whenever he can with impunity, but he is also himself rendered unhappy by envy. instead of deriving pleausre from what he has, he derives pain from what others have. if he can, he deprives others of their advantages, which to him is as desirable as as it would be to secure the same advantages himself. if this passion is allowed to run riot it becomes fatal to all excellence,and even the most useful exercise of exceptional skill. why should a medical man go to see his patients in a car when the labourer has to walk to his work? why should the scientifc investigator be allowed to spend his time in a warm room when others have to face the inclemency of the elements? why should a man who possesses some rare talent of great importance to the world be saved fromt he drudgery of his own housework? to such questions envy finds no answer. fortunately, however, there is in human nature a compensating passion, namely that of admiration. whosoever wishes to increase human happiness must wish to increase admiration and to diminish envy. what cure is there for envy? for the saint there is the cure of selflessness, though even in the case of saints envy of other saints is by no means impossible. but, leaving saints out of account, the only cure of envy in the case of ordinary men and women is happiness, and the difficulty is that envy is itself a terrible obstacle to happiness. but the envious man may say: 'what is the good of telling me that the cure of envy is happiness? i cannot find happiness while i continue to feel envy, and you tell me that i cannot cease to be envious until i find happiness.' but real life is never so logical as this. mereley to realize the cause of one's own envious feeling is to take a long step towards curing them.
Question 3: Comprehension
And still it moves. the words of Galileo, murmured when the tortures of the Inquisition had driven him to recant the Truth he knew, apply in a new way to our world today. sometimes, in the knowledge of all that has been discovered, all that has been done to make life on the planet happier and more worthy, we may be tempted to settle down to enjoy our heritage. that would, indeed, be the betrayal of our trust.
These men and women of the past have given everything---comfort, time, treasure, peace of mind and body, life itself---that we might live as we do. the challenege to each one of us is to carry on their work for the sake of future generations.
The adventurous human mind must not falter. still must we question the old truths and work for the new ones. still must we risk scorn, cynicism, neglect, loneliness, poverty, persecution, if need be. we must shut our ears to easy voice which tells us that human nature will never alter as an exucse for doing nothing to make life more worthy.
Thus will the course of the history of mankind go onward, and the world we know move into a new splendour for those who are yet to be.
Questions:
1) What made Galileo recant the Truth he knew?
2) What is the heritage being alluded to in the first paragraph?
3)what does the 'betrayal of our trust' imply
4) Why do we need to question the old truths and work for the new ones?
Explain the words or expressions as highlighted/underlined in the passage.
Question 4: Write a comprehensive note on any one of the following
1) When flatterrers get together, the devil goes to dinner.
2) The impossible is often the untried.
3) A Civil servant is a public servant
4)Internet---a blessing or a bane
5) Hope is the buoy of life.
Question 5: Use Only Five of the following in sentences which illustrate their meaning:
1) Make for
2) Yeoman's service
3) Discretion is the better part of valour.
4) Out of the wood
5) A casting vote
6) Look down upon
7) Iconoclast
8) A swan song
b) Five pairs of words in sentences:
1) Adverse, Averse
2) Maize, Maze
3) Medal, Meddle
4) Imperious, Imperial
5) Veracity, Voracity
6) Allusion, Illusion
7) Ordinance, Ordnance
8) willing, Wilful
Question 6:
a) Correct the following sentences
1) This house is built of brick and stone.
2) the climate of Pakistan is better than England?
3) He swore by God.
4) You ought to have regarded him your benefactor.
5) My friend is very ill, i hope he will soon die.
6) he is waiting for better and promising opportunity.
7) When I shall see her I will deliver her your gift.
8) Many a sleepless nights she spent.
b) Change the narration from Indirect to Direct or Direct to Indirect
1) On Monday he said, "My son is coming today."
2) they wanted to know where he was going the following week.
3) he said, "Did she go yesterday?"
4) 'By God', he said, "I do not know her nickname."
5) he says that we are to meet him at the station.
6) He said, "I don't know the way. ask the old man sitting on the gate."
7) My father prayed that i would recover from my illness
8) He said, "How will you manage it?"
****************************************************************
2009
English Précis and Composition 2009
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2009
ENTLISH (Précis and Composition)
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2009
ENTLISH (Précis and Composition)
TIME ALLOWED:
(PART-I) 10 MINUTES .................. MAX. MARKS:10
(PART-II) 2 HOURS & 50 MINUTES...MAX.MARKS:90
NOTE:
(i) First attempt PART-I (MCQ) on seperate Answer Sheet which shall be taken back after 10 minutes.
(ii) Overwriting/cutting of the options/answers will not be given credit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART-I (MCQs)
Q.1. (a) Choose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters. (Do only FIVE). Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered. (5)
(i) OBSCURE
(a) Unclear (b) Doubtful
(ii) AMIABLE
(a) Obnoxious (b) Affable
(iii) HOODWINK
(a) Delude (b) Avoid
(iv) GUILEFUL
(a) Honorable (b) Disingenuous
(v) OBSESSION
(a) Fixed ideas (b) Delusion
(vi) RADICAL
(a) Innate (b) Moderate
(vii) PRESUMPTIVE
(a) Credible (b) Timid
(b) Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word: (5)
(viii) PRESENTABLE
(a) Unable (b) Scruffy (c) Suitable (d) Personable
(ix) SALVATION
(a) Escape (b) Starvation (c) Doom (d) Rescue
(x) PLAIN
(a) Clean (b) Distinct (c) Ambiguous (d) Frugal
(xi) ODIOUS
(a) Porus (b) Charming (c) Horrid (d) Offensive
(xii) INFLAME
(a) Calm (b) Anger (c) Excite (d) Kindle
PART-II
NOTE:
(i) PART-II is to be attempted on the separate Answer Book.
(ii) Attempt ALL questions from PART-II.
Q.2. Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading. (20+5)
From Plato to Tolstoi art has been accused of exciting our emotions and thus of disturbing the order and harmony of our moral life.” Poetical imagination, according to Plato, waters our experience of lust and anger, of desire and pain, and makes them grow when they ought to starve with drought. “Tolstoi sees in art a source of infection. “Not only in infection,” he says, “a sign of art , but the degree of infectiousness is also the sole measure of excellence in art.” But the flaw in this theory is obvious. Tolstoi suppresses a fundamental moment of art, the moment of form. The aesthetic experience – the experience of contemplation- is a different state of mind from the coolness of our theoretical and the sobriety of our moral judgment. It is filled with the liveliest energies of passion, but passion itself is here transformed both in its nature and in its meaning. Wordsworth defines poetry as “ emotion recollected in tranquility’. But the tranquility we feel in great poetry is not that of recollection. The emotions aroused by the poet do not belong to a remote past. They are “ here”- alive and immediate. We are aware of their full strength, but this strength tends in a new direction. It is rather seen than immediately felt. Our passions are no longer dark and impenetrable powers; they become, as it were, transparent. Shakespeare never gives us an aesthetic theory. He does not speculate about the nature of art. Yet in the only passage in which he speaks of the character and functions of dramatic art the whole stress is laid upon this point. “ The purpose of playing,” as Hamlet explains, “ both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as, twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.” But the image of the passion is not the passion itself. The poet who represents a passion doest not infected us with this passion. At a Shakespeare play we are not infected with the ambition of Macbeth, with the cruelty of Richard III or with the jealously of Othello. We are not at the mercy of these emotions; we look through them; we seem to penetrate into their very nature and essence. In this respect Shakespeare’s theory of dramatic art, if he had such a theory, is in complete agreement with the conception of the fine arts of the great painters and sculptors.
Q.3. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. (20)
It is very nature of helicopter that is great versatility is found. To begin with, the helicopter is the fulfillment of tone of man’s earliest and most fantastic dreams. The dream of flying – not just like a bird – but of flying as nothing else flies or has ever flown. To be able to fly straight up and straight down – to fly forward or back or sidewise, or to hover over and spot till the fuel supply is exhausted.
To see how the helicopter can do things that are not possible for the conventional fixed-wing plane, let us first examine how a conventional plane “works”. It works by its shape – by the shape of its wing, which deflects air when the plane is in motion. That is possible because air has density and resistance. It reacts to force. The wing is curved and set at an angle to catch the air and push it down; the air, resisting, pushes against the under surface of the wing, giving it some f its lift. At the same time the curved upper surface of the wing exerts suction, tending to create a lack of air at the top of the wing. The air, again resisting, sucks back, and this give the wing about twice as much lift as the air pressure below the wing. This is what takes place when the wing is pulled forward by propellers or pushed forward by jet blasts. Without the motion the wing has no lift.
Questions:
(i) Where is the great versatility of the helicopter found?
(ii) What is the dream of flying?
(iii) What does the wing of the conventional aircraft do?
(iv) What does the curved upper surface of the wing do?
(v) What gives the wing twice as much lift?
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note (250—300 words) on any ONE of the following: (20)
(i) The importance of industrialization.
(ii) Do we live better than our forefathers?
(iii) Protecting freedom of expression not lies.
(iv) Adopting unchecked Western life styles.
(v) Variety is the spice of life.
Q.5. (a) Change the narration from direct to indirect or indirect to direct speech. (Do only FIVE). (5)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) He said to him, “why do you waste your time?”
(ii) He ordered his servant not to stand there doing nothing.
(iii) He exclaimed with joy that he had won the match.
(iv) The traveler said, “What a dark night?”
(v) He said, “Let it rain even so hard, I will start today.”
(vi) My mother said, “May you live happily and prosper in your life.”
(vii) He said, “How foolish have I been?”
(b) Correct ONLY FIVE of the following: (5)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) He swore from God.
(ii) Is your dress different than mine?
(iii) He inquired whether I live in Karachi.
(iv) He spoke these words upon his face.
(v) The ran direct to their college.
(vi) I shall not come here unless you will not call me.
(vii) They have been building a wall since three days.
(viii) He does not have some devotion to his studies.
Q.6. (a) Use ONLY FIVE of the following in sentences with illustrate their meaning: (5)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) Leave in the lurch.
(ii) Hard and fast.
(iii) Weather the storm.
(iv) Bear the brunt.
(v) Meet halfway.
(vi) Turncoat.
(vii) Where the shoe pinches.
(b) Use ONLY FIVE of the following pair of words in sentence which illustrate their meaning: (10)
Extra attempt of any Part of the question will not be considered.
(i) Persecute, Prosecute
(ii) Luxuriant, Luxurious
(iii) Mean, Mien
(iv) Observation, Observance
(v) Naughty, Knotty
(vi) Ghostly, Ghastly
(vii) Hew, Hue
***********************************
2008
English (Précis & Composition) Paper 2008
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2008
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2008
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
TIME ALLOWED: 3 HOURS…………………..Maximum Marks: 100
Q.1. Write a précis of the following passage in about 100 words and suggest the title: (20+5)
Objectives pursued by, organizations should be directed to the satisfaction of demands resulting from the wants of mankind. Therefore, the determination of appropriate objectives for organized activity must be preceded by an effort to determine precisely what their wants are. Industrial organizations conduct market studies to learn what consumer goods should be produced. City Commissions make surveys to ascertain what civic projects would be of most benefit. Highway Commissions conduct traffic counts to learn what constructive programmes should be undertaken. Organizations come into being as a means for creating and exchanging utility. Their success is dependent upon the appropriateness of the series of acts contributed to the system. The majority of these acts is purposeful, that is, they are directed to the accomplishment of some objectives. These acts are physical in nature and find purposeful employment in the alteration of the physical environment. As a result utility is created, which, through the process of distribution, makes it possible for the cooperative system to endure.
Before the Industrial Revolution most cooperative activity was accomplished in small owner managed enterprises, usually with a single decision maker and simple organizational objectives. Increased technology and the growth of industrial organization made necessary the establishment of a hierarchy of objectives. This is turn, required a division of the management function until today a hierarchy of decision makers exists in most organizations.
The effective pursuit of appropriate objectives contributes directly to organizational efficiency. As used here, efficiency is a measure of the want satisfying power of the cooperative system as a whole. Thus efficiency is the summation of utilities received from the organization divided by the utilities given to the organization, as subjectively evaluated by each contributor.
The functions of the management process is the delineation of organizational objectives and the coordination of activity towards the accomplishment of these objectives. The system of coordinated activities must be maintained so that each contributor, including the manager, gains more than he contributes.
Q.2. Read the following passage carefully and answer all the questions given at the end.
These phenomena, however, are merely premonitions of a coming storm, which is likely to sweep over the whole of India and the rest of Asia. This is the inevitable outcome of a wholly political civilization, which has looked upon man as a thing to be exploited and not as a personality to be developed and enlarged by purely cultural forces. The people of Asia are bound to rise against the acquisitive economy which the West have developed and imposed on the nations of the East. Asia cannot comprehend modern Western capitalism with its undisciplined individualism. The faith, which you represent, recognizes the worth of the individual, and disciplines him to give away all to the service of God and man. Its possibilities are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of man is not determined by his caste or colour or the amount of dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives, where the poor tax the rich, where human society is founded not on the equality of stomachs but on the equality of spirits, where an untouchable can marry the daughter of the king, where private ownership is a trust and where capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate that real producer of wealth. This superb idealism of your faith, however, needs emancipation from the medieval fancies of theologians and logists? Spiritually, we are living in a prison house of thoughts and emotions, which during the course of centuries we have woven round ourselves. And be it further said to the shame of us—men of older generation—that we have failed to equip the younger generation for the economic, political and even religious crisis that the present age is likely to bring. The while community needs a complete overhauling of its present mentality in order that it may again become capable of feeling the urge of fresh desires and ideals. The Indian Muslim has long ceased to explore the depths of his own inner life. The result is that he has ceased to live in the full glow and colour of life, and is consequently in danger of an unmanly compromise with force, which he is made to think he cannot vanquish in open conflict. He who desires to change an unfavourable environment must undergo a complete transformation of his inner being. God changes not the condition of a people until they themselves take the initiative to change their condition by constantly illuminating the zone of their daily activity in the light of a definite ideal. Nothing can be achieved without a firm faith in the independence of one’s own inner life. This faith alone keeps a people’s eye fixed on their goal and save them from perpetual vacillation. The lesson that past experiences has brought to you must be taken to heart. Expect nothing form any side. Concentrate your whole ego on yourself alone and ripen your clay into real manhood if you wish to see your aspiration realized.
Questions:
i. What is the chief characteristic of the modern political civilization? (4)
ii. What are possibilities of our Faith, which can be of advantage to the world? (4)
iii. What is the chief danger confronting the superb idealism of our Faith? (4)
iv. Why is the Indian Muslim in danger of coming to an unmanly compromise with the Forces opposing him? (4)
v. What is necessary for an achievement? (2)
vi. Explain the expression as highlighted/under lined in the passage. (5)
vii. Suggest an appropriate title to the passage. (2)
Q.3. Write a comprehensive note (250—300 words) on any one of the following: (20)
a. To rob Peter to pay Paul
b. The child is father of the man.
c. Art lies in concealing art
d. Life without a philosophy is like a ship without rudder
e. A contented mind is a blessing kind.
Q.4. a. Use any FIVE of the following idioms in sentences to make their meaning clear: (5)
i. Blow one’s top
ii. A cock and bull story
iii. Find one’s feet
iv. Call it a night
v. The tip of the iceberg
vi. Below par
vii. From pillar to post
viii. Hang up
ix. Turn some one in
x. By and by
b. Use any FIVE of the following pairs of words in your own sentences to bring out their meanings: (5)
i. Mitigate, Alleviate
ii. Persecute, Prosecute
iii. Popular, Populace
iv. Compliment, Complement
v. Excite, Incite
vi. Voracity, Veracity
vii. Virtual, Virtuous
viii. Exceptional, Exceptionable
Q.5. a. Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word. Do any FIVE. (5)
i. MORATORIUM..a. Large tomb……..….b. Waiting period..c. Security for debt…..d. Funeral house
ii. PROLIFIC………a. Skilful……………...b. Fruitful………..c. Wordy…………..…d. Spread out
iii. BI-PARTISAN….a. Narrow minded…….b. Progressive…...c. Representing two parties….d. Divided
iv. UNEQUIVOCAL.a. Careless…………….b. Unmistakable…c. Variable………...d. Incomparable
v. COVENANT…….a. Prayer…………...…b. Debate………...c. Garden…………..d. Agreement
vi. TENTATIVE…….a. Expedient…………..b. Nominal………c. Provisional……...d. Alternative
vii. DEMOGRAPHIC..a. Relating to the ……..b. Demons……….c. Communications..d. Population
…………………………….study of Government
viii. SONAR…………..a. Apparatus to Detect ..b. Locate objects...c. Measure rain…….d. Anticipate Earthquake
…………………………….something in the air...….under water
b. Indicate the meaning of any FIVE of the following: (5)
i. Brag
ii. Antiquarian
iii. Input
iv. Prodigal
v. Bibliophile
vi. Nostalgia
vii. Burn one’s boats
viii. Feedback
ix. Agrarian
Q.6. a. Correct the following sentences. Do any FIVE. (5)
i. Please tell me where is your brother?
ii. Sajjad as well as Saleem were late.
iii. He is the most cleverest boy in the class.
iv. I have met him last month.
v. Your writing is inferior than him.
vi. Nothing but novels please him.
vii. The teacher gave the boy an advice which he refused.
viii. He brought the articles to the market which he wanted to sell.
b. Change the narration from Direct to Indirect or Indirect to Direct speech. (5)
i. He said to his friend, “Let me go home now”
ii. I will say “Mother, I will always obey you”
iii. “Splendid”: said father as he read my report,
iv. He said, “Good morning, can you help me”
v. She said “Brother, why do you tease me”
vi. The King said to the Queen, “If I die, take care of my people”
vii. “By God”, he said” I do not know his name”
viii. You exclaimed with sorrow that you lost your pen.
**********************************
2007
Precis & Composition Paper 2007
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMISSION
COMPETATIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUMENT TO POSTS
IN BPS – 17, UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2007
ENGLISH (PRECIS AND ACOMPOSITION)
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS :100
COMPETATIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUMENT TO POSTS
IN BPS – 17, UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2007
ENGLISH (PRECIS AND ACOMPOSITION)
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS :100
Q#1 Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading.
The author of a work of imagination is trying to effect us wholly, as human beings, whether he knows it or not; and we are affected by it, as human beings, whether we intend to be or not. I suppose that everything we eat has some effect upon us than merely the pleasure of taste and mastication; it affects us during the process of assimilation and digestion; and I believe that exactly the same is true of any thing we read.
The fact that what we read does not concern merely something called our literary taste, but that it affects directly, though only amongst many other influences , the whole of what we are, is best elicited , I think, by a conscientious examination of the history of our individual literary education. Consider the adolescent reading of any person with some literary sensibility. Everyone, I believe, who is at all sensible to the seductions of poetry, can remember some moment in youth when he or she was completely carried away by the work of one poet. Very likely he was carried away by several poets, one after the other. The reason for this passing infatuation is not merely that our sensibility to poetry is keener in adolescence than in maturity. What happens is a kind of inundation, or invasion of the undeveloped personality, the empty (swept and garnished) room, by the stronger personality of the poet. The same thing may happen at a later age to persons who have not done much reading. One author takes complete possession of us for a time; then another, and finally they begin to affect each other in our mind. We weigh one against another; we see that each has qualities absent from others, and qualities incompatible with the qualities of others: we begin to be, in fact, critical: and it is our growing critical power which protects us from excessive possession by anyone literary personality. The good critic- and we should all try to critics, and not leave criticism to the fellows who write reviews in the papers- is the man who, to a keen and abiding sensibility, joins wide and increasingly discriminating. Wide reading is not valuable as a kind of hoarding, and the accumulation of knowledge or what sometimes is meant by the term ‘a well-stocked mind.’ It is valuable because in the process of being affected by one powerful personality after another, we cease to be dominated by anyone, or by any small number. The very different views of life, cohabiting in our minds, affect each other, and our own personality asserts itself and gives each a place in some arrangement peculiar to our self.
Q.2 Read the following passage and answere the questions that follow:
Strong section of industrials who still imagine that men can be mere machines and are at their best as machines if they are mere machines are already menacing what they call “useless” education. They deride the classics, and they are mildly contemptiois of history, philosophy, and English. They want our educational institutions, from the oldest universities to the youngest elementary schools, to concentrate on business or the things that are patently useful in business. Technical instruction is to be provided for adolescent artisans; book keeping and shorthand for prospective clerks; and the cleverest we are to set to “business methods”, to modern languages (which can be used in correspondence with foreign firms), and to science (which can be applied to industry). French and German are the languages, not of Montaigne and Gorthe, but of Schmidt Brothers, of Elberfeld and Dupont et Cie., of Lyons. Chemistry and Physics are not explorations into the physical constitution of the universe, but sources of new dyes, new electric light filaments, new means of making things which can be sold cheap and fast to the Nigerian and the Chinese. For Latin there is a Limited field so long as the druggists insist on retaining it in their prescriptions. Greek has no apparent use at all, unless it be as a source of syllables for the hybrid names of patent medicines and metal polishes. The soul of man, the spiritual basis of civilization- what gibberish is that?
Questions
a) What kind of education does the writer deal with? (2)
b) What kind of education does the writer favour? How do you know? (3)
c) Where does the writer express most bitterly his feelings about the neglect of the classics? (3)
d) Explain as carefully as you can the full significance of the last sentence. (4)
e) Explain the underlined words and phrases in the passage (8)
Q-3 Note (250-300 words) on any one of the following
1- Honesty is the best policy but advertising also helps.
2- It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
3- A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
4- Spontaneity and creativity as symbols of freedom.
5- Means justify ends.
Q-4 Choose synonyms (only five)
1- LACUNAE
a-tiny marine life
b-shallow water
c-local dialect
d-missing parts
2-PAROXYSM
a-moral lesson
b-sudden outburst
c-contradiction
d-pallid imitation
3-GROTTO
a-statue
b-cavern
c-neighbourhood
d-type of moth
4-FETTER
a-rot
b-to restrain
c-make better
d-enable to fly
5-STOICISM
a-indifference
b-boldness
c-deep affection
d-patient endurance
6-SUCCULENT
a-edible
b-parched
c-generous
d-mature
7-MALEDICTION
a-compliment
b-summary
c-perfume
d-awkwardness
(B) Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized words.
1-TWINE
a-straighten
b-continue
c-unravel
d-detach
2-FRUGAL
a-prodigal
b-intemperate
c-extravagant
d-profuse
3-GAWKY
a-neat
b-handy
c-graceful
d-handsome
4-CAPRICIOUS
a-firm
b-decided
c-inflexible
d-constant
5-CONGEAL
a-liquify
b-molify
c-harden
d-solidify
*****************************************************
2006
English Precis And Composition
Q # 1... Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading: (20 + 5)
It was not so in Greece, where philosophers professed less, and undertook more. Parmenides pondered nebulously over the mystery of knowledge; but the pre-Socratics kept their eyes with fair consistency upon the firm earth, and sought to ferret out its secrets by observation and experience, rather than to create it by exuding dialectic; there were not many introverts among the Greeks. Picture Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher; would he not be perilous company for the dessicated scholastics who have made the disputes about the reality of the external world take the place of medieval discourses on the number of angles that could sit on the point of a pin? Picture Thales, who met the challenge that philosophers were numskulls by “cornering the market” and making a fortune in a year. Picture Anaxagoras, who did the work of Darwin for the Greeks and turned Pericles form a wire-pulling politician into a thinker and a statesman, Picture old Socrates, unafraid of the sun or the stars, gaily corrupting young men and overturning governments; what would he have done to these bespectacled seedless philosophasters who now litter the court of the once great Queen? To Plato, as to these virile predecessors, epistemology was but the vestibule of philosophy, akin to the preliminaries of love; it was pleasant enough for a while, but it was far from the creative consummation that drew wisdom’s lover on. Here and there in the shorter dialogues, the Master dallied amorously with the problems of perception, thought, and knowledge; but in his more spacious moments he spread his vision over larger fields, built himself ideal states and brooded over the nature and destiny of man. And finally in Aristotle philosophy was honoured in all her boundless scope and majesty; all her mansions were explored and made beautiful with order; here every problem found a place and every science brought its toll to wisdom. These men knew that the function of philosophy was not to bury herself in the obscure retreats of epistemology, but to come forth bravely into every realm of inquiry, and gather up all knowledge for the coordination and illumination of human character and human life.
(………..still in your senses after reading it????
) You surely deserve an applause 
Q # 2… Read the passage and answer the questions that follow: (20 Marks)
“Elegant economy!” How naturally one fold back into the phraseology of Cranford! There economy was always “elegant”, and money-spending always “Vulgar and Ostentatoin;” a sort of sour grapeism which made up very peaceful and satisfied I shall never forget the dismay felt when certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke of his being poor __ not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house. The ladies of Cranford were already moving over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation on a neighbouring rail-road, which had been vehemently petitioned against by the little town; and if in addition to his masculine gender, and his connection with the obnoxious railroad, he was so brazen as to talk of his being poor __ why, then indeed, he must be sent to Coventry. Death was as true and as common as poverty; yet people never spoke about that loud on the streets. It was a word not to be mentioned to ears polite. We had tacitly agreed to ignore that any with whom we associated on terms of visiting equality could ever be prevented by poverty from doing anything they wished. If we walked to or from a party, it was because the weather was so fine, or the air so refreshing, not because sedan chairs were expensive. If we wore prints instead of summer silks, it was because we preferred a washing material; and so on, till we blinded ourselves to the vulgar fact that we were, all of us, people of very moderate means.
(a) Give in thirty of your own words what we learn from this passage of Captain Brown. ( 4 marks )
(b) Why did the ladies of Cranford dislike the Captain. ( 2 marks )
(c) What reasons were given by the ladies of Cranford for “not doing anything that they wished”? ( 2 marks )
(d) “Ears Polite”. How do you justify this construction? ( 2 marks )
(e) What is the meaning and implication of the phrases? ( 2 marks each )
(1) Sour-grapeism
(2) The invasion of their territories
(3) Sent to Coventry
(4) Tacitly agreed
(5) Elegant economy
This one is quite simple and easy. THANKS ALMIGHTLY.
Q # 3... Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on any ONE of the following: ( 20 marks )
(a) Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise.
(b) A pen becomes a clarion.
(c) Charms strike the sight but merit wins the soul
(d) What fools these mortals be!
(e) Stolen glances, sweeter for the theft.
Q # 4 (A)… Chose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters. (1 mark each)
(1) FINICKY:
(a) unstable
(b) troubled
(c) fussy
(d) unpleasant
(2) SAMIZDAT:
(a) underground press
(b) secret police
(c) twirling jig
(d) large metal tea urn
(3) VELD:
(a) arctic wasteland
(b) European plains
(c) South African grassland
(d) Deep valley
(4) CAJUN:
(a) French-Canadian descendant
(b) American Indian
(c) Native of the Everglades
(d) Early inhabitant of the Bahama Islands
(5) LOGGIA:
(a) pathway
(b) Marsh
(c) gallery
(d) carriage
(B) Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word:
(1 mark each)
(1) CAPTIOUS:
(a) Tolerant (b) capable (c) Winning (d) Recollected
(2) PENCHANT:
(a) Dislike (b) Attitude (c) Imminence (d) Distance
(3) PUTATIVE:
(a) Powerful (b) Colonial (c) Undisputed (d) Unremarkable
(4) FACSIMILE:
(a) imitation (b) model (c) mutation (d) pattern
(5) LARCENY:
(a) appropriation (b) peculation (c) purloining (d) indemnification
Q # 5… (A) Change the narration from direct to indirect and from indirect to direct speech (only five)
(1) He said, “let it rain ever so hard I shall go out”.
(2) The mother said to the young girl, “Do you know where salim is”?
(3) The officer said, “Hand it all! Can you not do it more neatly”.
(4) Invoking our help with a loud voice she asked us whether we would come to her aid.
(5) He exclaimed with an oath that no one could have expected such a turn of events.
(6) The teacher said to his students, “Why did you come so late”?
(7) They applauded him saying that he had done well.
(8) “You say,” said the judge, “the bag you lost contained one hundred and ten pounds”?
(B) Correct ONLY FIVE of the following:
(1) Playing a game regularly is better than to read books always.
(2) A good reader must be hardworking and possess intelligence.
(3) I noticed Akbar was carrying a bag in his hand.
(4) Having entered his house, the door was shut at one.
(5) He thinks that his writing is better than his friend.
(6) He is such a man who is liked by everyone.
(7) I sent a verbal message to my friend.
(8) He has visited as many historical places as one has or can visit.
Q # 6… (A) Use ONLY FIVE of the following in sentences to bring out their meaning:
(1) Twiddle with
(2) Vamp up
(3) Whittle away
(4) Winkle out
(5) Give someone the bum’s rush
(6) Loom large
(7) Besetting sin
(8) To hang fire
(B) Use ONLY FIVE pair of words in sentences:
(1) Veracity, Voracity
(2) Persecute, Prosecute
(3) Moat, Mote
(4) Loath, Loathe
(5) Ingenious, Ingenuous
(6) Fair, Feign
(7) Emigrant, Immigrant
(8) Wreak, Wreck.
It was not so in Greece, where philosophers professed less, and undertook more. Parmenides pondered nebulously over the mystery of knowledge; but the pre-Socratics kept their eyes with fair consistency upon the firm earth, and sought to ferret out its secrets by observation and experience, rather than to create it by exuding dialectic; there were not many introverts among the Greeks. Picture Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher; would he not be perilous company for the dessicated scholastics who have made the disputes about the reality of the external world take the place of medieval discourses on the number of angles that could sit on the point of a pin? Picture Thales, who met the challenge that philosophers were numskulls by “cornering the market” and making a fortune in a year. Picture Anaxagoras, who did the work of Darwin for the Greeks and turned Pericles form a wire-pulling politician into a thinker and a statesman, Picture old Socrates, unafraid of the sun or the stars, gaily corrupting young men and overturning governments; what would he have done to these bespectacled seedless philosophasters who now litter the court of the once great Queen? To Plato, as to these virile predecessors, epistemology was but the vestibule of philosophy, akin to the preliminaries of love; it was pleasant enough for a while, but it was far from the creative consummation that drew wisdom’s lover on. Here and there in the shorter dialogues, the Master dallied amorously with the problems of perception, thought, and knowledge; but in his more spacious moments he spread his vision over larger fields, built himself ideal states and brooded over the nature and destiny of man. And finally in Aristotle philosophy was honoured in all her boundless scope and majesty; all her mansions were explored and made beautiful with order; here every problem found a place and every science brought its toll to wisdom. These men knew that the function of philosophy was not to bury herself in the obscure retreats of epistemology, but to come forth bravely into every realm of inquiry, and gather up all knowledge for the coordination and illumination of human character and human life.
(………..still in your senses after reading it????
) You surely deserve an applause Q # 2… Read the passage and answer the questions that follow: (20 Marks)
“Elegant economy!” How naturally one fold back into the phraseology of Cranford! There economy was always “elegant”, and money-spending always “Vulgar and Ostentatoin;” a sort of sour grapeism which made up very peaceful and satisfied I shall never forget the dismay felt when certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke of his being poor __ not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house. The ladies of Cranford were already moving over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation on a neighbouring rail-road, which had been vehemently petitioned against by the little town; and if in addition to his masculine gender, and his connection with the obnoxious railroad, he was so brazen as to talk of his being poor __ why, then indeed, he must be sent to Coventry. Death was as true and as common as poverty; yet people never spoke about that loud on the streets. It was a word not to be mentioned to ears polite. We had tacitly agreed to ignore that any with whom we associated on terms of visiting equality could ever be prevented by poverty from doing anything they wished. If we walked to or from a party, it was because the weather was so fine, or the air so refreshing, not because sedan chairs were expensive. If we wore prints instead of summer silks, it was because we preferred a washing material; and so on, till we blinded ourselves to the vulgar fact that we were, all of us, people of very moderate means.
(a) Give in thirty of your own words what we learn from this passage of Captain Brown. ( 4 marks )
(b) Why did the ladies of Cranford dislike the Captain. ( 2 marks )
(c) What reasons were given by the ladies of Cranford for “not doing anything that they wished”? ( 2 marks )
(d) “Ears Polite”. How do you justify this construction? ( 2 marks )
(e) What is the meaning and implication of the phrases? ( 2 marks each )
(1) Sour-grapeism
(2) The invasion of their territories
(3) Sent to Coventry
(4) Tacitly agreed
(5) Elegant economy
This one is quite simple and easy. THANKS ALMIGHTLY.
Q # 3... Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on any ONE of the following: ( 20 marks )
(a) Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise.
(b) A pen becomes a clarion.
(c) Charms strike the sight but merit wins the soul
(d) What fools these mortals be!
(e) Stolen glances, sweeter for the theft.
Q # 4 (A)… Chose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters. (1 mark each)
(1) FINICKY:
(a) unstable
(b) troubled
(c) fussy
(d) unpleasant
(2) SAMIZDAT:
(a) underground press
(b) secret police
(c) twirling jig
(d) large metal tea urn
(3) VELD:
(a) arctic wasteland
(b) European plains
(c) South African grassland
(d) Deep valley
(4) CAJUN:
(a) French-Canadian descendant
(b) American Indian
(c) Native of the Everglades
(d) Early inhabitant of the Bahama Islands
(5) LOGGIA:
(a) pathway
(b) Marsh
(c) gallery
(d) carriage
(B) Pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word:
(1 mark each)
(1) CAPTIOUS:
(a) Tolerant (b) capable (c) Winning (d) Recollected
(2) PENCHANT:
(a) Dislike (b) Attitude (c) Imminence (d) Distance
(3) PUTATIVE:
(a) Powerful (b) Colonial (c) Undisputed (d) Unremarkable
(4) FACSIMILE:
(a) imitation (b) model (c) mutation (d) pattern
(5) LARCENY:
(a) appropriation (b) peculation (c) purloining (d) indemnification
Q # 5… (A) Change the narration from direct to indirect and from indirect to direct speech (only five)
(1) He said, “let it rain ever so hard I shall go out”.
(2) The mother said to the young girl, “Do you know where salim is”?
(3) The officer said, “Hand it all! Can you not do it more neatly”.
(4) Invoking our help with a loud voice she asked us whether we would come to her aid.
(5) He exclaimed with an oath that no one could have expected such a turn of events.
(6) The teacher said to his students, “Why did you come so late”?
(7) They applauded him saying that he had done well.
(8) “You say,” said the judge, “the bag you lost contained one hundred and ten pounds”?
(B) Correct ONLY FIVE of the following:
(1) Playing a game regularly is better than to read books always.
(2) A good reader must be hardworking and possess intelligence.
(3) I noticed Akbar was carrying a bag in his hand.
(4) Having entered his house, the door was shut at one.
(5) He thinks that his writing is better than his friend.
(6) He is such a man who is liked by everyone.
(7) I sent a verbal message to my friend.
(8) He has visited as many historical places as one has or can visit.
Q # 6… (A) Use ONLY FIVE of the following in sentences to bring out their meaning:
(1) Twiddle with
(2) Vamp up
(3) Whittle away
(4) Winkle out
(5) Give someone the bum’s rush
(6) Loom large
(7) Besetting sin
(8) To hang fire
(B) Use ONLY FIVE pair of words in sentences:
(1) Veracity, Voracity
(2) Persecute, Prosecute
(3) Moat, Mote
(4) Loath, Loathe
(5) Ingenious, Ingenuous
(6) Fair, Feign
(7) Emigrant, Immigrant
(8) Wreak, Wreck.
***************************************************
2005
English (Précis and Composition)
English (Précis and Composition)
1. Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading (20 +5)
Basically, psychoses and neuroses represent man’s inability to maintain a balanced or equated polarity in conducting his life. The ego becomes exclusively or decidedly one sided. In psychoses there is a complete collapse of the ego back into the inner recesses of the personal and collective unconsciouses. When he is repressed toward fulfilling some life goal and where he is further unable to sublimate himself toward another goal, man regresses into goal structures not actually acceptable to himself or to the society. Strong emotional sickness of the psychotic type is like having the shadow run wild. The entire psyche regresses to archaic, animal forms of behaviors. In less severe forms of emotional sickness there may be an accentuated and overpowering use of one of the four mental functions at the expense of the other three. Either thinking, feeling, intuiting or seeing may assume such a superior role as to render the other three inoperative. The persona may become so dominant as to create a totally one-sided ego, as in some forms of neurotic behavior. All in all, whatever the type of severity of the emotional disorder, it can be taken as a failure of the psyche to maintain a proper balance between the polarities of life. Essentially, psychoses and neuroses are an alienation of the self from its true goal of self actualization. In this sense the culture is of no consequence. Emotional disorder is not a question of being out of tune with one’s culture so much as it is of being out of tune with one’s self. Consequently, neurosis is more than bizarre behavior, especially as it may be interpreted by contemporaries in the culture. This interpretation avoids the sociological question of what is a mental disorder, since form of behavior which is acceptable in one culture may be considered neurotic in other culture. To Jung, the deviation from cultural norms is not the point. The inability to balance out personal polarities is.
2. Here is an excerpt from the autobiography of a short story writer. Read it carefully and answer the questions that follow.
My father loved all instruments that would instruct and fascinate. His place to keep things was the drawer in the ‘library table’ where lying on top of his folder map was a telescope with brass extensions, to find the moon and the Big Dripper after supper in our front yard, and to keep appointments with eclipses. In the back of the drawer you could find a magnifying glass, a kaleidoscope and a gyroscope kept in black buckram box, which he would set dancing for us on a string pulled tight. He had also supplied himself with an assortment of puzzles composed of metal rings and intersecting links and keys chained together, impossible for the rest of us, however, patiently shown, to take apart, he had an almost childlike love of the ingenious. In time, a barometer was added to our dining room wall, but we didn’t really need it. My father had the country boy’s accurate knowledge of the weather and its skies. He went out and stood on our front steps first thing in the morning an took a good look at it and a sniff. He was a pretty good weather prophet. He told us children what to do if we were lost in a strange country. ‘Look for where the sky is brightest along the horizon,’ he said. ‘That reflects the nearest river. Strike out for a rive and you will find habitation’. Eventualities were much on his mind. In his care for us children he cautioned us to take measures against such things as being struck by lightening. He drew us all away from the windows during the severe electrical storms that are common where we live. My mother stood apart, scoffing at caution as a character failing. So I developed a strong meteorological sensibility. In years ahead when I wrote stories, atmosphere took its influential role from the start. Commotion in the weather and the inner feelings aroused by such a hovering disturbance emerged connected in dramatic form.
a. why did the writer’s father spend time studying the skies ? (3)
b. why the writer thinks that there was no need of a barometer? (3)
c. what does the bright horizon meant for the writer’s father ? (3)
d. How did her father influence the writer in her later years ? (3)
e. explain the underlined words and phrases in the passage. (8)
3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300) words ) on any one of the following . (20)
a. each man is the architect of his own destiny
b. ignorance is bliss, knowledge worry
c. democracy fosters mediocrity
d. unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talent and our expectations
e. they know enough who know how to learn.
4. (A) choose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters
1). ANATHEMA a) curse b) cure c) anemia d) asthma
2). TORPOR a) fever b) lethargy c) taciturn d) torrid
3). TOUCHSTONE a) criterion b) gold c) character d) characteristics
4). SEQUESTER a) eliminate b) finalize c) sedate d) isolate
5). DENOUEMENT a) denunciation b) dormancy c) termination d) explanation
4. (B) pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized letters
1). DELETERIOUS a) nourishing b) injurious c) vital d) fatal
2). VALEDICTORY a) farewell b) final c) hopeful d) parting
3). SEDENTARY a) afraid b) loyal c) active d) torpid
4). TURBID a) muddy b) clear c) invariable d) improbable
5). PHLEGMATIC a) dull b) active c) lymphatic d) frigid
5. (A) change the narration from direct to indirect or indirect to direct speech (do any five)
1). Our sociology professor said , ‘I expect you to be in class every day. Unexcused absences may affect your grades.’
2). My father often told me , ‘every obstacle is a steppingstone to success. You should view problems in your life as opportunities to prove yourself.’
3). When tom asked Jack why he could’nt go to the game, Jack said he didn’t have enough money for a ticket.
4). When I asked the ticked seller if the concert was going to be rescheduled, she told me that she didn’t know and said that she just worked there.
5). Ali said, ‘I must go to Lahore next week to visit my ailing mother.’
6). The policeman told the pedestrian, ‘you mustn’t cross the road against the red light’
7). Ahmed asked if what I said was really true.
8). Sarah wanted to know where they would be tomorrow around three O’clock
5 (B) Make corrections in any five of the following where necessary ?
1). What does a patient tell a doctor it is confidential ?
2). It is a fact that I almost drowned makes me very careful about water safety whenever I go swimming
3). Did they not consider this as quiet convincing
4). St Peter’s at Rome is the largest of all other churches
5). The amount they receive in wages is greater than twenty years ago
6). They succeeded with hardly making any effort
7). Whatever have you done !
8). The officers were given places according to their respective ranks
6 (A) use any five of the following in your own sentences to bring out their meaning
1). Keep ones nose to the grindstone
2). Throw someone for a loop
3). Letter perfect
4). Off the wall
5). Out to lunch
6). Salt something away
7). Take someone to the cleaners
8). Wear the pants in the family
6 (B) use five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings
1). Council, counsel
2). Distinct, distinctive
3). Apposite, opposite
4). Deprecate, depreciate
5). Punctual, punctilious
6). Judicial, judicious
7). Salutary, salubrious
8). Canvas, canvass
1. Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading (20 +5)
Basically, psychoses and neuroses represent man’s inability to maintain a balanced or equated polarity in conducting his life. The ego becomes exclusively or decidedly one sided. In psychoses there is a complete collapse of the ego back into the inner recesses of the personal and collective unconsciouses. When he is repressed toward fulfilling some life goal and where he is further unable to sublimate himself toward another goal, man regresses into goal structures not actually acceptable to himself or to the society. Strong emotional sickness of the psychotic type is like having the shadow run wild. The entire psyche regresses to archaic, animal forms of behaviors. In less severe forms of emotional sickness there may be an accentuated and overpowering use of one of the four mental functions at the expense of the other three. Either thinking, feeling, intuiting or seeing may assume such a superior role as to render the other three inoperative. The persona may become so dominant as to create a totally one-sided ego, as in some forms of neurotic behavior. All in all, whatever the type of severity of the emotional disorder, it can be taken as a failure of the psyche to maintain a proper balance between the polarities of life. Essentially, psychoses and neuroses are an alienation of the self from its true goal of self actualization. In this sense the culture is of no consequence. Emotional disorder is not a question of being out of tune with one’s culture so much as it is of being out of tune with one’s self. Consequently, neurosis is more than bizarre behavior, especially as it may be interpreted by contemporaries in the culture. This interpretation avoids the sociological question of what is a mental disorder, since form of behavior which is acceptable in one culture may be considered neurotic in other culture. To Jung, the deviation from cultural norms is not the point. The inability to balance out personal polarities is.
2. Here is an excerpt from the autobiography of a short story writer. Read it carefully and answer the questions that follow.
My father loved all instruments that would instruct and fascinate. His place to keep things was the drawer in the ‘library table’ where lying on top of his folder map was a telescope with brass extensions, to find the moon and the Big Dripper after supper in our front yard, and to keep appointments with eclipses. In the back of the drawer you could find a magnifying glass, a kaleidoscope and a gyroscope kept in black buckram box, which he would set dancing for us on a string pulled tight. He had also supplied himself with an assortment of puzzles composed of metal rings and intersecting links and keys chained together, impossible for the rest of us, however, patiently shown, to take apart, he had an almost childlike love of the ingenious. In time, a barometer was added to our dining room wall, but we didn’t really need it. My father had the country boy’s accurate knowledge of the weather and its skies. He went out and stood on our front steps first thing in the morning an took a good look at it and a sniff. He was a pretty good weather prophet. He told us children what to do if we were lost in a strange country. ‘Look for where the sky is brightest along the horizon,’ he said. ‘That reflects the nearest river. Strike out for a rive and you will find habitation’. Eventualities were much on his mind. In his care for us children he cautioned us to take measures against such things as being struck by lightening. He drew us all away from the windows during the severe electrical storms that are common where we live. My mother stood apart, scoffing at caution as a character failing. So I developed a strong meteorological sensibility. In years ahead when I wrote stories, atmosphere took its influential role from the start. Commotion in the weather and the inner feelings aroused by such a hovering disturbance emerged connected in dramatic form.
a. why did the writer’s father spend time studying the skies ? (3)
b. why the writer thinks that there was no need of a barometer? (3)
c. what does the bright horizon meant for the writer’s father ? (3)
d. How did her father influence the writer in her later years ? (3)
e. explain the underlined words and phrases in the passage. (8)
3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300) words ) on any one of the following . (20)
a. each man is the architect of his own destiny
b. ignorance is bliss, knowledge worry
c. democracy fosters mediocrity
d. unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talent and our expectations
e. they know enough who know how to learn.
4. (A) choose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters
1). ANATHEMA a) curse b) cure c) anemia d) asthma
2). TORPOR a) fever b) lethargy c) taciturn d) torrid
3). TOUCHSTONE a) criterion b) gold c) character d) characteristics
4). SEQUESTER a) eliminate b) finalize c) sedate d) isolate
5). DENOUEMENT a) denunciation b) dormancy c) termination d) explanation
4. (B) pick the most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized letters
1). DELETERIOUS a) nourishing b) injurious c) vital d) fatal
2). VALEDICTORY a) farewell b) final c) hopeful d) parting
3). SEDENTARY a) afraid b) loyal c) active d) torpid
4). TURBID a) muddy b) clear c) invariable d) improbable
5). PHLEGMATIC a) dull b) active c) lymphatic d) frigid
5. (A) change the narration from direct to indirect or indirect to direct speech (do any five)
1). Our sociology professor said , ‘I expect you to be in class every day. Unexcused absences may affect your grades.’
2). My father often told me , ‘every obstacle is a steppingstone to success. You should view problems in your life as opportunities to prove yourself.’
3). When tom asked Jack why he could’nt go to the game, Jack said he didn’t have enough money for a ticket.
4). When I asked the ticked seller if the concert was going to be rescheduled, she told me that she didn’t know and said that she just worked there.
5). Ali said, ‘I must go to Lahore next week to visit my ailing mother.’
6). The policeman told the pedestrian, ‘you mustn’t cross the road against the red light’
7). Ahmed asked if what I said was really true.
8). Sarah wanted to know where they would be tomorrow around three O’clock
5 (B) Make corrections in any five of the following where necessary ?
1). What does a patient tell a doctor it is confidential ?
2). It is a fact that I almost drowned makes me very careful about water safety whenever I go swimming
3). Did they not consider this as quiet convincing
4). St Peter’s at Rome is the largest of all other churches
5). The amount they receive in wages is greater than twenty years ago
6). They succeeded with hardly making any effort
7). Whatever have you done !
8). The officers were given places according to their respective ranks
6 (A) use any five of the following in your own sentences to bring out their meaning
1). Keep ones nose to the grindstone
2). Throw someone for a loop
3). Letter perfect
4). Off the wall
5). Out to lunch
6). Salt something away
7). Take someone to the cleaners
8). Wear the pants in the family
6 (B) use five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings
1). Council, counsel
2). Distinct, distinctive
3). Apposite, opposite
4). Deprecate, depreciate
5). Punctual, punctilious
6). Judicial, judicious
7). Salutary, salubrious
8). Canvas, canvass
**************************************************
2004
2004 ENGLISH (PRECIS & COMPOSITION)
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17,
UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2004
ENGLISH (PRECIS & COMPOSITION)
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17,
UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2004
ENGLISH (PRECIS & COMPOSITION)
Time Allowed: Three Hours Maximum Marks: 100
1. Make a precis of the given passage and suggest a suitable heading:
We're dealing with a very dramatic and very fundamental paradigm shift here. You may try" to lubricate your' social interactions with personality techniques and skills, but in the process, you may truncate the vital character base. You can't have the fruits without the roots. It's the principle of sequencing: Private victory precedes Public Victory. Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationship with others. Some people say that you have to like yourself before you can like others. I think' that idea has merit but if you don't know yourself, if you don't control yourself, if you don't have mastery over yourself, it's very hard to like yourself, except in some short-term, psych-up, superficial way. Real self-respect comes from dominion over*self from true independence. Independence is an achievement. Inter dependence is a choice only independent people can make. Unless we are willing to achieve real independence, it's foolish to try to develop human relations skills. We might try. We might even have some degree of success when the sun is shining. But when the difficult times come - and they will - We won't have the foundation to keep things together. The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary" for effective interdependence. The techniques and skills that really make a difference in human interaction are the ones that almost naturally flow from a truly independent character. So the place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, inside our Circle of Influence, our own character. As we become independent - Proactive, centered in correct principles, value driven and able to organize and execute around the priorities in our life with integrity - we then can choose to become interdependent - capable of building rich, enduring, highly productive relationships with other people.
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end, in YOUR OWN WORDS. (20)
We look before and after, wrote Shelley, and pine for what is not. It is said that this is what distinguishes us from the animals and that they, unlike us, live always for and in the movement and have neither hopes nor regrets. Whether it is so or not I do not know yet it is undoubtedly one of our distinguishing mental attributes: we are actually conscious of our life in time and not merely of our life at the moment of experiencing it. And as a result we find many grounds for melancholy and foreboding. Some of us prostrate ourselves on the road way in Trafalgar Square or in front of the American Embassy because we are fearful that our lives, or more disinterestedly those of our descendants will be cut short by nuclear war. If only as" squirrels or butterflies are supposed to do, we could let the future look after itself and be content to enjoy the pleasures of the morning breakfast, the brisk walk to the office through autumnal mist or winter fog, the mid-day sunshine that sometimes floods through windows, tne warm, peaceful winter evenings by the fireside at home. Yet all occasions for contentment are so often spoiled for us, to a greater or lesser degree by our individual temperaments, by this strange human capacity for foreboding and regret - regret for things which we cannot undo and foreboding for things which may never happen at all. Indeed were it not for the fact that over breaking through our human obsessions with the tragedy of time, so enabling us to enjoy at any rate some fleeting moments untroubled by vain yearning or apprehension, our life would not be intolerable at all. As it is, we contrive, everyone of us, to spoil it to a remarkable degree.
- What is the difference between our life and the life of an animal? (3)
- What is the result of human anxiety? (3)
- How does the writer compare man to the butterflies and squirrels? (3)
- How does anxiety about future disturb our daily life? (3)
- How can we make our life tolerable? (3)
- Explain the underlined words/phrases in the passage. (5 )
3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on ONE of the following: (20)
- One may smile and smile, and be a villain.
- Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
- No sensible man ever made an apology.
- Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
4. (a) Choose the word that is nearly similar in meaning to the word in capital letters. * (5)
(1) ARCHIPELAGO:
- Reef
- Glacier
- Cluster of islands
- Lagoon
(2) PIAZZA:
- Cheese dish
- Veranda
- Public Square
- Style or dash
(3) BAKLAVA:
- Stringed instrument
- Dessert
- Whining dance
- Gratuity
(4) IONIC:
- Indian stone monument
- Greek architecture
- Roman Sculpture
- Mediterranean Sea
(5) CICERONE:
- Teacher
- Literary classic
- Chaperone
- Guide
(b) Pick the one most nearly opposite in meaning to the capitalized word: * (5)
(1) DESICCATE:
- Lengthen
- Hallow
- Exonerate
- Saturate
- Anesthetize
(2) APOTHEOSIS:
- Departure from tradition
- Impatience with stupidity
- Demotion from glory
- Surrender to impulse
- Cause for grief
(3) SPUNK:
- Success
- Timidity
- Growing awareness
- Loss of prestige
- Lack of intelligence
(4) CAVIL:
- Discern
- Disclose
- Introduce
- Flatter
- Commend
(5) RAUCOUS:
- Orderly
- Absorbent,
- Buoyant
- Mellifluous
- Contentious
5. (a) Change the Voice of any FIVE of the following sentences: (5)
- International Humanitarian Law forbids actions leading to unnecessary death and suffering.
- Why should I antagonize you?
- Let Manchoo be told about the jokes of Mulla Nasiruddin.
- Whv have the roads not been constructed by the government in this part of the country?
- Do not kill your ability by roaming in the streets.
- Your cousin is drawing a large sum of money from his account.
- The arrangements of holding the Art Exhibition could not be completed on time.
- Build your house when cement is cheap;
(b) Correct any FIVE of the following sentences: (5)
- Passing through ten different cities, Karachi is the most active.
- He was laid up for six weeks with two broken ribs.
- Someone showed the visitors in the room.
- Until you remain idle you will make no progress.
- It is very wrong to be devoted to lying and cheating.
- He told me that he is waiting for me since a long time.
- The .house stood up in the dull street because of its red door.
- He brought the articles to the market which he wanted to sell.
6. (a) Use any FIVE of the following in your own sentences to bring out their meaning: (5)
- To bring grist to the mill.
- Set one s cap at.
- To draw the long bow.
- To send a person to Coventry .
- Beer and skittles.
- The acid test.
- A skeleton in the cupboard.
- To discover a mare's nest.
Use FIVE of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings: * (10)
- Auger, Augur
- Fain, Feign
- Emigrate, Immigrate
- Envy, Jealousy
- Invade, Attack
- Trifling, Trivial
- Simulation, Dissimulation
- Venal, Venial
2003
English (precis & Comp) 2003
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN
PBS-17, UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2003
ENGLISH (PRECIS & COMPOSITION)
TIME ALLOWED : THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS: 100
1. Make a precis of the given passage and give a suitable heading:(20) If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of a society. Its ah is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, not creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works indeed of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotle or Newtons of Napoleons or Washingtons of Raphaels or Shakespearcs though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts. Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, through such too it includes within its scope. But a University training is the great ordinary means to a great ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular aspirations. It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them, ft teaches him to sec things as they arc, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophistical and to - discard what is irrelevant. It prepares him to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility. (John H. Ncwman)
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end, in YOUR OWN WORDS. 20 My father was back in work within days of his return home. He had a spell in the shipyard, where the last of the great Belfast liners, the CANBERRA, was under construction, and then moved to an electronics firm in the east of the city. (These were the days when computers were the size of small houses and were built by sheet metal workers). A short time after he started in this job, one of his colleagues was sacked for taking off time to get married. The workforce went on strike to get the colleague reinstated. The dispute, dubbed the Honeymoon Strike, made the Belfast papers. My mother told me not long ago that she and my father, with four young sons, were hit so hard by that strike, that for years afterwards they were financially speaking, running to stand still. I don't know how the strike ended, but whether or not the colleague got his old job back, he was soon in another, better one. I remember visiting.him and his wife when I was still quite young, in their new bungalow in Belfast northern suburbs. I believe they left Belfast soon after the Troubles began.
My father then was thirty-seven, the age I am today. My Hither and I are father and son, which is to say we are close without knowing very much about one another. We talk about events, rather than emotions. We keep from each other certain of our hopes and fears and doubts. I have never for instance asked my father whether he has dwelt on (he direction his life might have taken if at certain moments he had made certain other choices. Whatever, he found himself, with a million and a half of his fellows, living in what was in all but name a civil war.As a grown up 1 try often to imagine what it must be like to be faced with such a situation. What, in the previous course of your life, prepares your for arriving, as my father did, at the scene of a bomb blast close to your brother's place of work and seeing what you suppose, from the colour of the hair, to be your brother lying in the road, only to find that you arc cradling the remains of a woman?
(Glciin Patterson)
(a) From your reading of (he passage what do you infer about the nature of (he 'Troubles" (he writer mentions.
(b) What according to the writer were (he working conditions in the Electronics firm where his father worked?
(c) Why was his father's colleague sacked?
(d) How docs the writer show that as father and son they do not know much about each other?
(e) Explain the underlined words/phrases in the passage:
Made the Belfast papers, had a spell, dubbed, was sacked, hit hard.
3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300) words on ONE of the following: (20)
(1) Lots of people confuse bad management with destiny.
(2) If a window of opportunity appears don't pull down the shade.
(3) We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals: others by their act.
(4) Goodwill is earned by many acts: it can be lost by one.
4. Change the voice of the verb in the following sentences:(10)
(1) The assassins shot the leader in broad daylight.
(2) The President inaugurated the Motorway recently.
(3) Will you negotiate the matter with the opposition?
(4) Why should I be suspected by you?
(5) The establishment is pleased with your performance.
(6) The Parliament members gave a hard time to the Prime • Minister.
(7) The Prisoners in Cuba arc being treated cruelly, by the so-called Human Rights custodians.
(8) The present Government is serving the people honestly! .
(9) Who did this?
(10) The Palestinians are avenging the death of their leaders.
5. Change the following to reported speech: (10)
(1) "This is your house, isn't it?" asked Jcmmic.
(2) "Where do you want to be dropped?" said the taxi driver.
(3) "Call (he first witness," said the judge.
(4) "Don't blame him for the accident," the boy's mother said.
(5) He said, "I baiigcd on Cliffs door but he did not answer".
(6) "Where is the boat? Hurry up we are being chased", she cried.
(7) "I have lost my way. Can you direct me to the Post Office please?" said the old lady.
(8) He said to me, "what a pity you missed such an important meeting.
(9) "How wonderful! Why didn't you suggest this plan earlier".
(10) He said, "Let's wait till the road gets cleared".
6. Correct the following sentences:
(1) The hostel provides boarding and lodging to students.
(2) My cousin-brother will come to meet me.
(3) He lives backside of my house.
(4) You have read it. Isn't it?
(5) We discussed about this question.
(6) I am studying in an University for an year.
(7) Neither he nor I arc at fault.
(S) The committee have issued a notice.
(9) One must boast of his great qualities.
(10) . It is one of the best speeches that has ever been made in the General Assembly.
7. Use the following in your own sentences to bring out their meaning: (10)
(1) Kick the bucket
(2) Bolt from the blue
(3) Put your foot down
(4) Worth your salt
(5) Down the drain
(6) All cars
(7) Swan song
(8) Cheek by Jowl
(9) in a nutshell
(10) Give me five
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN
PBS-17, UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2003
ENGLISH (PRECIS & COMPOSITION)
TIME ALLOWED : THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS: 100
1. Make a precis of the given passage and give a suitable heading:(20) If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of a society. Its ah is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, not creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works indeed of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotle or Newtons of Napoleons or Washingtons of Raphaels or Shakespearcs though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts. Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, through such too it includes within its scope. But a University training is the great ordinary means to a great ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular aspirations. It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them, ft teaches him to sec things as they arc, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophistical and to - discard what is irrelevant. It prepares him to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility. (John H. Ncwman)
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end, in YOUR OWN WORDS. 20 My father was back in work within days of his return home. He had a spell in the shipyard, where the last of the great Belfast liners, the CANBERRA, was under construction, and then moved to an electronics firm in the east of the city. (These were the days when computers were the size of small houses and were built by sheet metal workers). A short time after he started in this job, one of his colleagues was sacked for taking off time to get married. The workforce went on strike to get the colleague reinstated. The dispute, dubbed the Honeymoon Strike, made the Belfast papers. My mother told me not long ago that she and my father, with four young sons, were hit so hard by that strike, that for years afterwards they were financially speaking, running to stand still. I don't know how the strike ended, but whether or not the colleague got his old job back, he was soon in another, better one. I remember visiting.him and his wife when I was still quite young, in their new bungalow in Belfast northern suburbs. I believe they left Belfast soon after the Troubles began.
My father then was thirty-seven, the age I am today. My Hither and I are father and son, which is to say we are close without knowing very much about one another. We talk about events, rather than emotions. We keep from each other certain of our hopes and fears and doubts. I have never for instance asked my father whether he has dwelt on (he direction his life might have taken if at certain moments he had made certain other choices. Whatever, he found himself, with a million and a half of his fellows, living in what was in all but name a civil war.As a grown up 1 try often to imagine what it must be like to be faced with such a situation. What, in the previous course of your life, prepares your for arriving, as my father did, at the scene of a bomb blast close to your brother's place of work and seeing what you suppose, from the colour of the hair, to be your brother lying in the road, only to find that you arc cradling the remains of a woman?
(Glciin Patterson)
(a) From your reading of (he passage what do you infer about the nature of (he 'Troubles" (he writer mentions.
(b) What according to the writer were (he working conditions in the Electronics firm where his father worked?
(c) Why was his father's colleague sacked?
(d) How docs the writer show that as father and son they do not know much about each other?
(e) Explain the underlined words/phrases in the passage:
Made the Belfast papers, had a spell, dubbed, was sacked, hit hard.
3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300) words on ONE of the following: (20)
(1) Lots of people confuse bad management with destiny.
(2) If a window of opportunity appears don't pull down the shade.
(3) We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals: others by their act.
(4) Goodwill is earned by many acts: it can be lost by one.
4. Change the voice of the verb in the following sentences:(10)
(1) The assassins shot the leader in broad daylight.
(2) The President inaugurated the Motorway recently.
(3) Will you negotiate the matter with the opposition?
(4) Why should I be suspected by you?
(5) The establishment is pleased with your performance.
(6) The Parliament members gave a hard time to the Prime • Minister.
(7) The Prisoners in Cuba arc being treated cruelly, by the so-called Human Rights custodians.
(8) The present Government is serving the people honestly! .
(9) Who did this?
(10) The Palestinians are avenging the death of their leaders.
5. Change the following to reported speech: (10)
(1) "This is your house, isn't it?" asked Jcmmic.
(2) "Where do you want to be dropped?" said the taxi driver.
(3) "Call (he first witness," said the judge.
(4) "Don't blame him for the accident," the boy's mother said.
(5) He said, "I baiigcd on Cliffs door but he did not answer".
(6) "Where is the boat? Hurry up we are being chased", she cried.
(7) "I have lost my way. Can you direct me to the Post Office please?" said the old lady.
(8) He said to me, "what a pity you missed such an important meeting.
(9) "How wonderful! Why didn't you suggest this plan earlier".
(10) He said, "Let's wait till the road gets cleared".
6. Correct the following sentences:
(1) The hostel provides boarding and lodging to students.
(2) My cousin-brother will come to meet me.
(3) He lives backside of my house.
(4) You have read it. Isn't it?
(5) We discussed about this question.
(6) I am studying in an University for an year.
(7) Neither he nor I arc at fault.
(S) The committee have issued a notice.
(9) One must boast of his great qualities.
(10) . It is one of the best speeches that has ever been made in the General Assembly.
7. Use the following in your own sentences to bring out their meaning: (10)
(1) Kick the bucket
(2) Bolt from the blue
(3) Put your foot down
(4) Worth your salt
(5) Down the drain
(6) All cars
(7) Swan song
(8) Cheek by Jowl
(9) in a nutshell
(10) Give me five
**********************************************
2002
English (precis & Comp) 2002
ENGLISH (Precis & Composition)__________
Time Allowed : 3 Hours___________ Maximum Marks : 100
I. Make a precis of the given passage, also give a suitable heading" (20) 'The official name of our species is homo sapiens; but there are many anthropologists who prefer to think of man as homo Fabcr-thc smith, the maker of tools It would be possible. I think, to reconcile these two definitions in a third. If man is a knower and an efficient doer, it is only because he is also a talker In order to be Faber and Sapiens, Homo must first be loquax, the loquacious one. Without language we should merely be hairless chimpanzees. Indeed \vc should be some thing much worse. Possessed of a high IQ but no language, we should be like the Yahoos of Gulliver's Travels- Creatures too clever to be guided by instinct, too Self-centered to live in a state of animal grace, and therefore condemned forever, frustrated and malignant, between contented apehood and aspiring'humanity. It was language that made possible the accumulation of knowledge and the broadcasting of information. It was language that permitted the expression of religious insight, the formulation of ethical ideals, the codification to laws, It was language, in a word, that turned us into human beings and gave birth to civilization.
2. Read the given passage, then give brief answers, to the questions placed at the end, in your own words: - (20) There is indeed, something inexpressibly pleasing in the annual renovation of the world and the new display of the treasures of nature. The darkness and cold of winter with the naked deformity of every object, on which we turn our eyes, make us rejoice at the succeeding season, as well for what we have escaped, as for what we may enjoy. Every budding Flower, whLch a warm situation brings early to our view, is considered by us a messenger to notify the approach of more joyous days.
The spring affords to a mind free from the disturbance of cares or passions almost everything that our present state makes us capable of enjoying. The Variegated Verdure of the fields and woods, the succession of grateful Odours, the Voice of pleasure pouring out its notes on every side, with the gladness apparently conceived by every animal from the growth of liis food and the clemency of the weather, throw over the whole.earth an air of gaiety, significantly expressed by Smile of nature.
(Samuel John Son)
Questions:
(a) Give meanings of the under lines expressions in the passage in your own words. (10)
(b) Say howr an early budding flower becomes a messenger of happy days? (3)
(c) Who, according to the writer can make the best of the spring season? (3)
(d) Why are all animals glad at the approach of spring9 (3)
(e) Suggest a title for the passage. (I)
3. Write a Comprehensive note (250-300 words) on ONE of the following subjects (20)
(a) The winds are always on the side of the ablest
navigator. ENGLISH (PRECIS AND COMPOSITION)
(b) Keep your face to the Sunshine and you cannot see the Shade.
(c) In strategy it is important to see distant things close, and take a distant view of close things.
(d) You \vill find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you.
4. Change the Voice of the verb following sentences (10)
1. The production of Cash Crops directly affects the economy of an agricultural country.
2. The accelerated car sped past the traffic signal and crashed into a van and killed two men.
3. The students were asked to submit the assignment
before to end of day. 4 The new budget was being discussed.
5. The Manager has announced a bonus for all the workers.
6. The police chased the dacoit and finally arrested : . him
7. It was difficult to finish the work on time.
8. At last the Speech ended and prizes were distributed.
9. She manages her duties, without any help, despite her blindness.
10. I appreciate your efforts and hope you will continue in the same fashion.
5. Change the following sentences from direct speech to Indirect Speech:
1. "Hurrah''! Said the captain of the team, "we won the match".
2. "Please Sir, take pity on a poor beggar woman'', the wretched old woman asked for alms
3. They say. "Is this the right time to arrive9 Aren't you forgetting something"?
4. He often says, "I am always willing to help the needy, if I am assured they arc really in need''.
5. The master said, "How long will you take in warming my
(10)
6 The boy said. "Alas' I could not pass my examination"
7. "Come hare quickly and work out this problem on the blackboard" said the teacher.
8. "What a lovely evening!" Said Irum.
9. "What is the name of this beautiful building?" asked the visitor.
10. He said "Sit down over here and don't move until I
allow you".
6-Correct the following sentences: (10)
1. I shall not come here unless you will not call me.
2. He does not have some devotion for the project you
have given him. 3 I went to either of the Four hill stations.
4. Who did you meet on your way to school?
5. You must remember that you are junior than Hamid.
6. Aslam, as well as, his Four friends were planning to visit the museum..
7. Where you went in the vacation?
8. This is the youngest and most intelligent of my two sons.
9. He is one of those who always succeed.
10. I congratulate you for your success.
7-Make sentences with the given
Idiomatic phrases so that their meaning become clear: (10)
(1) take aback (2) take after (3) take for (4) take ill (5) take off (6) take over (7) take to (8) take to task (9) take to One's heels (10) take with a grain or
pinch of salt.
Time Allowed : 3 Hours___________ Maximum Marks : 100
I. Make a precis of the given passage, also give a suitable heading" (20) 'The official name of our species is homo sapiens; but there are many anthropologists who prefer to think of man as homo Fabcr-thc smith, the maker of tools It would be possible. I think, to reconcile these two definitions in a third. If man is a knower and an efficient doer, it is only because he is also a talker In order to be Faber and Sapiens, Homo must first be loquax, the loquacious one. Without language we should merely be hairless chimpanzees. Indeed \vc should be some thing much worse. Possessed of a high IQ but no language, we should be like the Yahoos of Gulliver's Travels- Creatures too clever to be guided by instinct, too Self-centered to live in a state of animal grace, and therefore condemned forever, frustrated and malignant, between contented apehood and aspiring'humanity. It was language that made possible the accumulation of knowledge and the broadcasting of information. It was language that permitted the expression of religious insight, the formulation of ethical ideals, the codification to laws, It was language, in a word, that turned us into human beings and gave birth to civilization.
2. Read the given passage, then give brief answers, to the questions placed at the end, in your own words: - (20) There is indeed, something inexpressibly pleasing in the annual renovation of the world and the new display of the treasures of nature. The darkness and cold of winter with the naked deformity of every object, on which we turn our eyes, make us rejoice at the succeeding season, as well for what we have escaped, as for what we may enjoy. Every budding Flower, whLch a warm situation brings early to our view, is considered by us a messenger to notify the approach of more joyous days.
The spring affords to a mind free from the disturbance of cares or passions almost everything that our present state makes us capable of enjoying. The Variegated Verdure of the fields and woods, the succession of grateful Odours, the Voice of pleasure pouring out its notes on every side, with the gladness apparently conceived by every animal from the growth of liis food and the clemency of the weather, throw over the whole.earth an air of gaiety, significantly expressed by Smile of nature.
(Samuel John Son)
Questions:
(a) Give meanings of the under lines expressions in the passage in your own words. (10)
(b) Say howr an early budding flower becomes a messenger of happy days? (3)
(c) Who, according to the writer can make the best of the spring season? (3)
(d) Why are all animals glad at the approach of spring9 (3)
(e) Suggest a title for the passage. (I)
3. Write a Comprehensive note (250-300 words) on ONE of the following subjects (20)
(a) The winds are always on the side of the ablest
navigator. ENGLISH (PRECIS AND COMPOSITION)
(b) Keep your face to the Sunshine and you cannot see the Shade.
(c) In strategy it is important to see distant things close, and take a distant view of close things.
(d) You \vill find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you.
4. Change the Voice of the verb following sentences (10)
1. The production of Cash Crops directly affects the economy of an agricultural country.
2. The accelerated car sped past the traffic signal and crashed into a van and killed two men.
3. The students were asked to submit the assignment
before to end of day. 4 The new budget was being discussed.
5. The Manager has announced a bonus for all the workers.
6. The police chased the dacoit and finally arrested : . him
7. It was difficult to finish the work on time.
8. At last the Speech ended and prizes were distributed.
9. She manages her duties, without any help, despite her blindness.
10. I appreciate your efforts and hope you will continue in the same fashion.
5. Change the following sentences from direct speech to Indirect Speech:
1. "Hurrah''! Said the captain of the team, "we won the match".
2. "Please Sir, take pity on a poor beggar woman'', the wretched old woman asked for alms
3. They say. "Is this the right time to arrive9 Aren't you forgetting something"?
4. He often says, "I am always willing to help the needy, if I am assured they arc really in need''.
5. The master said, "How long will you take in warming my
(10)
6 The boy said. "Alas' I could not pass my examination"
7. "Come hare quickly and work out this problem on the blackboard" said the teacher.
8. "What a lovely evening!" Said Irum.
9. "What is the name of this beautiful building?" asked the visitor.
10. He said "Sit down over here and don't move until I
allow you".
6-Correct the following sentences: (10)
1. I shall not come here unless you will not call me.
2. He does not have some devotion for the project you
have given him. 3 I went to either of the Four hill stations.
4. Who did you meet on your way to school?
5. You must remember that you are junior than Hamid.
6. Aslam, as well as, his Four friends were planning to visit the museum..
7. Where you went in the vacation?
8. This is the youngest and most intelligent of my two sons.
9. He is one of those who always succeed.
10. I congratulate you for your success.
7-Make sentences with the given
Idiomatic phrases so that their meaning become clear: (10)
(1) take aback (2) take after (3) take for (4) take ill (5) take off (6) take over (7) take to (8) take to task (9) take to One's heels (10) take with a grain or
pinch of salt.
*********************************************************************
2001
English (precise & composition) Paper 2001
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION COMPETITIVE
EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN B.P.S. – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT, 2001.
(PRECISE AND COMPOSITION)
1.Make a precise of the following passage in about one third of its length and suggest a suitable heading. (20)
It was not from want of perceiving the beauty of external nature but from the different way of perceiving it, that the early Greeks did not turn their genius to portray, either in colour or in poetry, the outlines, the hues, and contrasts of all fair valley, and hold cliffs, and golden moons, and rosy lawns which their beautiful country affords in lavish abundance.
Primitive people never so far as I know, enjoy when is called the picturesque in nature, wild forests, beetling cliffs, reaches of Alpine snow are with them great hindrances to human intercourse, and difficulties in the way of agriculture. They are furthermore the homes of the enemies of mankind, of the eagle, the wolf, or the tiger, and are most dangerous in times of earthquake or tempest. Hence the grand and striking features of nature are at first looked upon with fear and dislike.
I do not suppose that Greeks different in the respect from other people, except that the frequent occurrence of mountains and forests made agriculture peculiarly difficult and intercourse scanty, thus increasing their dislike for the apparently reckless waste in nature. We have even in Homer a similar feeling as regards the sea, --- the sea that proved the source of all their wealth and the condition of most of their greatness. Before they had learned all this, they called it “the unvintagable sea” and looked upon its shore as merely so much waste land. We can, therefore, easily understand, how in the first beginning of Greek art, the representation of wild landscape would find no place, whereas, fruitful fields did not suggest themselves as more than the ordinary background. Art in those days was struggling with material nature to which it felt a certain antagonism.
There was nothing in the social circumstances of the Greeks to produce any revolution in this attitude during their greatest days. The Greek republics were small towns where the pressure of the city life was not felt. But as soon as the days of the Greeks republics were over, the men began to congregate for imperial purposes into Antioch, or Alexandria, or lastly into Rome, than we seek the effect of noise and dust and smoke and turmoil breaking out into the natural longing for rural rest and retirement so that from Alexander’s day …… We find all kinds of authors --- epic poets, lyricist, novelists and preachers --- agreeing in the precise of nature, its rich colours, and its varied sounds. Mohaffy: Rambles in Greece
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)
Poetry is the language of imagination and the passions. It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to human min. it comes home to the bosoms and business of men: for nothing but what comes home to them in the most general and intelligible shape can be a subject of poetry. Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry cannot have much respect for himself or for anything else. Whatever there is a sense of beauty, or power, or harmony, as in the motion of the waves of the sea, in the growth of a flower, there is a poetry in its birth. If history is a grave study, poetry may be said to be graver, its materials lie deeper, and are spread wider. History treats, for the most part, cumbersome and unwieldy masses of things, the empty cases in which the affairs of the world are packed, under the heads of intrigue or war, in different states, and from century to century but there is no thought or feeling that can have entered into the mind of man which he would be eager to communicate to others, or they would listen to with delight, that is not a fit subject for poetry. It is not a branch of authorship: it is “the stuff of which our life is made”. The rest is mere oblivision, a dead letter, for all that is worth remembering gin life is the poetry of it. Fear is Poetry, hope is poetry, love is poetry; hatred is poetry. Poetry is that fine particle within us that expands, refines, raises our whole being; without “man’s life is poor as beasts”. In fact, man is a poetical animal. The child Is a poet when he first plays hide and seek, or repeats the story of Jack the Giant Killer, the shepherd – boy is a poet when he first crowns his mistress with a garland of flowers; the countryman when he stops he stops to look at the rainbow; the miser when he hugs his gold; the courtier when he builds his hope upon a smile; the vain, the ambitious the proud, the choleric man, the hero and the coward, the beggar and the king, all live in a world of their own making; and the poet does no more than describe what all others think and act. Hazlitt
(a) In what sense is poetry the language of the imagination and the passion?
(b) How is poetry the Universal Language of the heart?
(c) What is the difference between history and poetry?
(d) Explain the phrase: “Man is a poetical animal”.
(e) What are some of the actions which Hazlitt calls poetry and its doers poet?
(f) Explain the followings underlined expression in the passage.
(i) It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to human heart
(ii) A sense of beauty, or power, or harmony.
(iii) Cumbersome and unwieldy masses of things.
(iv) It is the stuff of which our life is made.
(v) The poet does no more than describe what all others think and act.
3. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300) on ONE of the following subjects. (20)
(a) Modern history registers so primary and rapid changes that it cannot repeat itself.
(b) “The golden rule is that there is no golden rule”. G. B. Shaw
(c) Crisis tests the true mettle of man
(d) It is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannical to use it like a giant.
4. Correct the following sentences. (10)
(a) His wisdom consisted of his handling the dangerous situation successfully
(b) Many a girls were appearing in the examination.
(c) The vehicles run fastly on the Motorway.
(d) Smoking is injurious for health.
(e) He availed of this situation very intelligently.
(f) The black vermin is an odious creature.
(g) What to speak of meat, even, vegetables were not available now.
(h) No sooner we left our home when it started raining.
(i) Little money I had I spent on the way.
(j) The criminal was sent on the goal.
5. Use FIVE of the following in sentences to make their meaning clear. (10)
(i) The teaming meanings
(ii) To kick the bucket
(iii) To push to the walls
(iv) To read between the lines
(v) To be at daggers drawn
(vi) To throw down the gauntlet
(vii) To be a Greek
(viii) To stand on ceremony
(ix) From the horse’s mouth
(x) To carry the cross
6. Use FIVE of the following pairs of words in sentences. (10)
- Brooch, broad
- Collusion, collision
- Fain, feign
- Hoard, horde
- Illusion, delusion
- Persecute, prosecute
- Prescribe, proscribe
- Respectfully, respectively
- Complacent, complaisant
- Sweating away as usual
- Health first, exam second
- Can you study while confined to bed.
- Has anyone be marketed anywhere?
- An unwanted commodity
- As long as there is life, there is hope.
- You will become a thin, gaunt, half-blind weakling with sunken cheeks and haggard looks.
- Once again grow into a rose-cheeked young man.
- There is no deviation form it.
- The paring of ways.
- I am sorry, Nadeem. I cannot do that. The examination is drawing near and I want to urilize every minute for its preparation.
- To hell with exam ___________________
- Well, health is good but failure is bad. Therefore, one should take books and study them for the University exam.
- Suppose you grow into a bookworm and as a result fall ill. ___________________ Again, many boys work hard and get degrees. Do you think they get jobs. Our society is flooded with graduates but ___________________? They are roaming about with degrees in their hands. They are ________________.
- Well. Degree is an ornament in itself, job or no job. Besides, there is no need to be hopeless. I am sure when I get a degree with a good grade, I am sure to get a job in a Government office or in a private firm. You know that ___________________.
- Well, how should I explain to you the blessing of a good health. If you continue treading on this path, ___________________. Please come into the fresh air take exercise and play some game and ___________________ Don’t grow old prematurely.
- Please listen, I want to be a graduate this year, now or never. I have made up my mind for this and ___________________.
- Well, if this is your aim, then ___________________.
***************************************************************
2000
English 2000
English (precis & Composition)
TIME ALLOWED: 3 HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS: 100
TIME ALLOWED: 3 HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS: 100
1. MAKE A PRÉCIS OF THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE IN ABOUT ONE THIRD OF ITS LENGTH. Suggest a suitable title also. (20)
Besant describing the middle class of the 9th century wrote " In the first place it was for more a class apart. "In no sense did it belong to society. Men in professions of any kind (except in the Army and Navy) could only belong to society by right of birth and family connections; men in trade—bankers were still accounted tradesmen—could not possibly belong to society. That is to say, if they went to live in the country they were not called upon by the county families and in the town they were not admitted by the men into their clubs, or by ladies into their houses… The middle class knew its own place, respected itself, made its own society for itself, and cheerfully accorded to rank the deference due."
Since then, however, the life of the middle classes had undergone great changes as their numbers had swelled and their influence had increased.
Their already well –developed consciousness of their own importance had deepened. More critical than they had been in the past of certain aspects of aristocratic life, they wee also more concerned with the plight of the poor and the importance of their own values of society, thrift, hand work, piety and respectability thrift, hand work, piety and respectability as examples of ideal behavior for the guidance of the lower orders. Above all they were respectable. There were divergences of opinion as to what exactly was respectable and what was not. There were, nevertheless, certain conventions, which were universally recognized: wild and drunker behaviors were certainly not respectable, nor were godlessness or avert promiscuity, not an ill-ordered home life, unconventional manners, self-indulgence or flamboyant clothes and personal adornments.
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)
The vitality of any teaching, or historical movement, depends upon what it affirms rather than upon what it affirms rather than upon what it denies, and its survival and continued power will often mean that its positives are insufficiently regarded by opposing schools. The grand positives of Bentham were benevolence and veracity: the passion for the relief of man’s estate, and the passion for truth. Bent ham’s multifarious activities, pursued without abatement to the end of a long life, wee inspired by a "dominant and all-comprehensive desire for the amelioration of human life"; they wee inspired, too, by the belief that he had found the key to all moral truth. This institution, this custom, this code, this system of legislation-- does it promotes human happiness? Then it is sound. This theory, this creed, this moral teaching – does it rightly explain why virtue is admirable, or why duty is obligatory? The limitation of Bentham can be gauged by his dismissal of all poetry (and most religion) as "misrepresentation’; this is his negative side. But benevolence and veracity are Supreme Values, and if it falls to one of the deniers to be their special advocate, the believers must have long been drowsed. Bentham believes the Church teaches children insincerity by making them affirm what they cannot possibly understand or mean. They promise, for example, to fulfill the undertaking of their god---parents, that they will "renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world" etc. ‘The Devil" Bentham comments: " who or what is he, and how is it that he is renounced?" Has the child happened to have any dealings with him? Let the Archbishop of Canterbury tell us, and let him further explain how his own "works" are distinguished from the aforesaid "Pomps and Vanity". What king, what Lords Temporal or Spiritual, have ever renounced them? (Basil Willey)
(a) What does the writer mean by the following expressions:
Multifarious activities, amelioration of human Life, it is sound, be their special advocate, Renounce the devil, drowsed, gauged, aforesaid.
(a) On what grounds does Bentham believe that the Church
(b) What is Bentham’s philosophy based upon?
(c) What according to the writer is Bentham’s limitation?
Teaches children insincerity?
(d) In what context has the Archbishop of Canterbury been quoted i.e. is he praised or condemned?
3. Write a comprehensive note (250 –300 words) on ONE of the following subjects:
(20)
(a) Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness (Thomas Pain).
(b) We learn from history that we do not learn from history. (Hegel)
(c) Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches. (Will Rogers)
(d) Politics is strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. (Ambrose Pierce)
4. Correct the following sentences:
(a) The lake free zed rapidly.
(b) The firm was unwilling to forego its usual commission.
(c) We watched the lambs gamble on the green.
(d) He belonged to the gild of carpenters.
(e) He hadn’t ought to have spoken.
(f) Is this his half – brother?
(g) Hay! Watch out for the car!
(h) This is the historical spot where he was shot dead.
(i) We bought a Japanee print.
(j) Fresh flowers smell sweetly.
5. Use any FIVE of the following idioms in sentences to make their meaning clear:
(i) Blow one’s top,
(ii) A cock-and-bull story,
(iii) Find one’s feet,
(iv) Call it a night,
(v) The tip of the iceberg,
(vi) Below par,
(vii) From pillar to post,
(viii) Hang up,
(ix) Turn some one in,
(x) By and by.
6. Use FIVE of the following pairs of words in sentences of your own to bring out the difference: (10)
Knead, need; Queue, cue; quarts, quartz; choral, coral; discrete, discreet; epoch, epic; Libel, liable; male, mail; banned, band; barred, bard;
7. Complete the conversation with the correct idiom in the correct form: (10)
Keep regular hours, an unearthly hour, the small hours, a night owl, have a night out, at any moment, have one’s moments, have a minute to all one’s own, a night on the town, on the spur of the moment:
"morning, Paul! You look tired". "Yes I am. I had a late night last night. I’m not usually------------------but I ----------------------- ------ with some friends yesterday. I have been so busy all week that I’ve hardly---------------------------------- , so I really enjoyed -------------------------------------------- . I start work early, so I usually -------------- ------- ------ -- but yesterday was an exception. I didn’t think. I got into bed and must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew my landlady was shaking me, saying she was sorry to wake me at such----------------------------------- , but she thought there was a burglar in the kitchen".
"Well where was her husband?"
"Mr. Dick’s working on the night-shift, and I was the only man in the house. I am usually a coward, but I do-----------------------------------, so I grabbed my tennis racket, which was the only thing I could think of -----------------------------, and crept downstairs".
"And then?"
" I saw a dark figure in the kitchen with a knife in his hand, ready to strike------------------------------ . I was just about to hit him with the racket, when a voice shouted out, " "Hey! It’s me! It was Mr. Dick. He had forgotten his sandwiches".
Besant describing the middle class of the 9th century wrote " In the first place it was for more a class apart. "In no sense did it belong to society. Men in professions of any kind (except in the Army and Navy) could only belong to society by right of birth and family connections; men in trade—bankers were still accounted tradesmen—could not possibly belong to society. That is to say, if they went to live in the country they were not called upon by the county families and in the town they were not admitted by the men into their clubs, or by ladies into their houses… The middle class knew its own place, respected itself, made its own society for itself, and cheerfully accorded to rank the deference due."
Since then, however, the life of the middle classes had undergone great changes as their numbers had swelled and their influence had increased.
Their already well –developed consciousness of their own importance had deepened. More critical than they had been in the past of certain aspects of aristocratic life, they wee also more concerned with the plight of the poor and the importance of their own values of society, thrift, hand work, piety and respectability thrift, hand work, piety and respectability as examples of ideal behavior for the guidance of the lower orders. Above all they were respectable. There were divergences of opinion as to what exactly was respectable and what was not. There were, nevertheless, certain conventions, which were universally recognized: wild and drunker behaviors were certainly not respectable, nor were godlessness or avert promiscuity, not an ill-ordered home life, unconventional manners, self-indulgence or flamboyant clothes and personal adornments.
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)
The vitality of any teaching, or historical movement, depends upon what it affirms rather than upon what it affirms rather than upon what it denies, and its survival and continued power will often mean that its positives are insufficiently regarded by opposing schools. The grand positives of Bentham were benevolence and veracity: the passion for the relief of man’s estate, and the passion for truth. Bent ham’s multifarious activities, pursued without abatement to the end of a long life, wee inspired by a "dominant and all-comprehensive desire for the amelioration of human life"; they wee inspired, too, by the belief that he had found the key to all moral truth. This institution, this custom, this code, this system of legislation-- does it promotes human happiness? Then it is sound. This theory, this creed, this moral teaching – does it rightly explain why virtue is admirable, or why duty is obligatory? The limitation of Bentham can be gauged by his dismissal of all poetry (and most religion) as "misrepresentation’; this is his negative side. But benevolence and veracity are Supreme Values, and if it falls to one of the deniers to be their special advocate, the believers must have long been drowsed. Bentham believes the Church teaches children insincerity by making them affirm what they cannot possibly understand or mean. They promise, for example, to fulfill the undertaking of their god---parents, that they will "renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world" etc. ‘The Devil" Bentham comments: " who or what is he, and how is it that he is renounced?" Has the child happened to have any dealings with him? Let the Archbishop of Canterbury tell us, and let him further explain how his own "works" are distinguished from the aforesaid "Pomps and Vanity". What king, what Lords Temporal or Spiritual, have ever renounced them? (Basil Willey)
(a) What does the writer mean by the following expressions:
Multifarious activities, amelioration of human Life, it is sound, be their special advocate, Renounce the devil, drowsed, gauged, aforesaid.
(a) On what grounds does Bentham believe that the Church
(b) What is Bentham’s philosophy based upon?
(c) What according to the writer is Bentham’s limitation?
Teaches children insincerity?
(d) In what context has the Archbishop of Canterbury been quoted i.e. is he praised or condemned?
3. Write a comprehensive note (250 –300 words) on ONE of the following subjects:
(20)
(a) Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness (Thomas Pain).
(b) We learn from history that we do not learn from history. (Hegel)
(c) Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches. (Will Rogers)
(d) Politics is strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. (Ambrose Pierce)
4. Correct the following sentences:
(a) The lake free zed rapidly.
(b) The firm was unwilling to forego its usual commission.
(c) We watched the lambs gamble on the green.
(d) He belonged to the gild of carpenters.
(e) He hadn’t ought to have spoken.
(f) Is this his half – brother?
(g) Hay! Watch out for the car!
(h) This is the historical spot where he was shot dead.
(i) We bought a Japanee print.
(j) Fresh flowers smell sweetly.
5. Use any FIVE of the following idioms in sentences to make their meaning clear:
(i) Blow one’s top,
(ii) A cock-and-bull story,
(iii) Find one’s feet,
(iv) Call it a night,
(v) The tip of the iceberg,
(vi) Below par,
(vii) From pillar to post,
(viii) Hang up,
(ix) Turn some one in,
(x) By and by.
6. Use FIVE of the following pairs of words in sentences of your own to bring out the difference: (10)
Knead, need; Queue, cue; quarts, quartz; choral, coral; discrete, discreet; epoch, epic; Libel, liable; male, mail; banned, band; barred, bard;
7. Complete the conversation with the correct idiom in the correct form: (10)
Keep regular hours, an unearthly hour, the small hours, a night owl, have a night out, at any moment, have one’s moments, have a minute to all one’s own, a night on the town, on the spur of the moment:
"morning, Paul! You look tired". "Yes I am. I had a late night last night. I’m not usually------------------but I ----------------------- ------ with some friends yesterday. I have been so busy all week that I’ve hardly---------------------------------- , so I really enjoyed -------------------------------------------- . I start work early, so I usually -------------- ------- ------ -- but yesterday was an exception. I didn’t think. I got into bed and must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew my landlady was shaking me, saying she was sorry to wake me at such----------------------------------- , but she thought there was a burglar in the kitchen".
"Well where was her husband?"
"Mr. Dick’s working on the night-shift, and I was the only man in the house. I am usually a coward, but I do-----------------------------------, so I grabbed my tennis racket, which was the only thing I could think of -----------------------------, and crept downstairs".
"And then?"
" I saw a dark figure in the kitchen with a knife in his hand, ready to strike------------------------------ . I was just about to hit him with the racket, when a voice shouted out, " "Hey! It’s me! It was Mr. Dick. He had forgotten his sandwiches".
***************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment