EXAMINATION 1991
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum mark: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25 Generally, European
trains still stop at borders to change locomotives and staff. This is
often necessary. The German and French voltage systems are incompatible. Spain — though not
Portugal — has a broad guage track. English bridges are lower than elsewhere, and passengers
on German trains would need a ladder to reach French platforms, twice as high as their own. But
those physical constraints pale in comparison to an even more formidable barrier — national
chauvinism. While officials in Brussels strive for an integrated and efficiently run rail network to
relieve the Continent’s gorged roads and airways, and cut down on pollution, three member
countries —France, Germany and Italy—are working feverishly to develop their own expensive
and mutually incompatible high-speed trains.
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end as briefly as possible
into 2 lines each):
“Heads of Government attending the London economic summit will have no excuses if they
fail to curb the level of arms exports. A new definitive study by the International Monetary Fund,
not generally known for its liberal views, makes it plain that high levels of arms spending in
some developing countries have retarded social programmes, economic development projects
and the private sector, the latter being an issue with which the seven richest market economies
can identify.
The IMF, however, picks out 10, consistent offenders among developing countries which
spend more than 15 percent of their ODP on the military. They are: Israel, Angola, Oman,
Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya. Employing some unusually forceful
language the Fund says, High levels of military expenditure certainly led to low growth and
domestic economic hardship in some countries by diverting fund from social programmes,
economic development projects and the private- sector”.
The study poses a couple of other serious problems for the summitteers. It shows for
instance, that military expenditure is very sensitive to financial constraints. Thus if countries are
deprived of resources then they are forced to cut back on armaments:
a)- What are the heads of Government doing at the summit?
b) What are the findings of the new study?
c) How does military expenditure affect domestic economy of a country and inwhat ways?
d) What is the relationship between military spending and economic growth?
e) How is military expenditure related to resources?
3. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences demonstrating
difference in their meaning:
a) Access, Excess, b) Ascent, Accent,
c) Resources, Recourse, d) Whether, Weather,
e) Premier, Premiere, f) Ingenious. Ingenuous,
g) Felicitate, Facilitate, h) Conscious, Conscientious,
i) Disease, Decease.
4. For each of the phrases at the left, write in your answer book the word closest in meaning to
the phrase from the four words given on the right: 10
i) Clear away a) Clean b) empty c) removed) finish,
ii) Break down - a) collapse b) enter c) Cut off d) begin,
iii) Keep up a) restrain b) control c) continue d) maintain,
iv) Turn out a) refuse b) start c) produced) arrive,
v) See over a) examine b) repair C) discovered) Enquire.
5. Make sentences for any five of the following to illustrate their meaning: 10
i) Damocles’ sword, ii) Every inch,
iii) Spade a spade, iv) On the sky,
v) Palm off, vi) Lip service,
vii) A turn coat, viii) A wild goose chase.
6. Write a note of about 150 words on any one of the following ideas: 20 i) What ca't be cured
must be endured,
ii) A bee in one’s bonnet,
iii) Make a virtue of necessity, -
iv) A red rag to a bull.
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EXAMINATION 1992
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum mark: 100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25 Throughout the
ages of human development men have been subject to miseries of two kinds: those imposed by
external nature, and, those that human beings misguidedly inflicted upon each other. At first, by
far the worst evils were those that were due to the environment. Man was a rare species, whose
survival was precarious. Without the agility of the monkey, without any coating of fur, he has
difficulty in escaping from wild beasts, and in most parts of the world could not endure the
winter’s cold. He had only two biological advantages: the upright posture freed his hands, and
intelligence enabled him to transmit experience.
Gradually these two advantages gave him supremacy. The numbers of the human species
increased beyond those of any other large mammals. But nature could still assert her power by
means of flood and famine an pestilence and by exacting from the great majority of mankind
incessant toil in the securing of daily bread.
In our own day our bondage to external nature is fast diminishing, as a result of the growth of
scientific intelligence. Famines and pestilence still occur, but we know-better, year by year, what
should be done to prevent them. Hard work is still necessary, but only because we are unwise:
given peace and co-operation, we could subsist on a very moderate amount of toil. With existing
technique, we can, whenever we choose to exercise wisdom, be free of many ancient- forms -of
bondage to external nature.
But the evils that men inflict upon each other have not diminished in the same degree.
There are still wars, oppressions, and hideous cruelties, and greedy men still snatch wealth from
those who are less skilful or less ruthless than themselves. Love of power still leads to vast
tyrannies, or to mere obstruction when its grosser forms are impossible. And fear-deep -
scarcely conscious fear — is still the dominant motive in very many lives. -
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end:
“Moral self-control, and external prohibition of harmful acts, are not adequate methods of
dealing with our anarchic instincts. The reason they are inadequate is that these instincts are
capable of many disguises as the Devil in medieval legend, and some of these disguises deceive
even the elect. The only adequate method is to discover what are the needs of our instinctive
nature, and then to search for the least harmful way of satisfying them. Since spontaneity is what
is most thwarted by machines, the only thing that can be provided is opportunity, the use made of
opportunity must be left to the initiative of the individual. No doubt, considerable expense would
be involved but it would not be comparable to the expense of war. Understanding of human
nature must be the basis of any real improvement in human life. Science has done wonders in
mastering the laws of the physical world, but our own nature is much less understood, as yet,
than the nature of stars and electrons. When science learns to understand human nature, it will be
able to bring happiness into our lives which machines and the Physical Science have failed to
create.”
a) Why are moral self-control, and external prohibition inadequate to deal with our anarchic
instincts?
b) What is the adequate method of anarchic instincts?
c) What should be the basis of any real improvement in human life? d)- How can science
help humanity to achieve happiness?
3. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out the
difference in their meaning:
1) Assent, Ascent ii) Ballot, Ballet
iii) Corps, Corpse iv) Due, Dew
v) Diary, Dairy vi) Momentary, momentous
vii) Route, Rout viii) Veil, Vale.
4. Frame sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following:
i) Between the devil and ii) A wild goose chase, the deep sea, iii) Over head and ears,
iv) Time and tide, v) To live from hand to mouth,
vi) To beat about the bush, vii) To fish in troubled waters, viii) A bird’s eye-view.
5. Given below are a number of key words: Select any five and indicate the word, you believe
is nearest in meaning to the key word:
i) Perturb: a) to upset b) to cause doubt c) to burden d) to test.
ii) Wry: a) twisted b) sad c) witty d) suffering.
iii) Ferret: a) to search b) to trap c) to hide d) to flee.
iv) Pallid: a) weak b) pale c) dull d) scared.
v) Intrepid: a) fearless b) cowardly c) dull d)fool hardy.
vi) Reprisal: a) surprise b) award c) revision d) retaliation.
vii) Viable: a) wavering b) divided C) capable of living d) fading.
viii) Resurgent: a) revolutionary b) fertile c) rising again d) fading. -
6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in about 200 words:
i) “Uneasy lies the head, that wears a crown”
ii) “If winter comes, can spring be far behind”
iii) “Mankind is an abstraction, man is a reality”
iv) “The Press and the Nation rise and fall together”
v) Environmental pollution — a global problem
vi) Population explosion.
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EXAMINATION 1993
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum mark: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage, and suggest a suitable title: 25 The best aid to give is
intellectual aid, a gift of useful knowledge. A gift of knowledge
is infinitely preferable to a gift of material things. There are many reasons for this. Nothing
becomes truly one’s own except on the basis of some genuine effort or sacrifice. A gift of
material goods can be appropriated by the recipient without effort or sacrifice; it therefore rarely
becomes his own and is all too frequently and easily treated as a mere windfall. A gift of
intellectual goods, a gift of knowledge, is a very different matter. Without a genuine effort of
appropriation on the part of the recipient there is no gift. To appropriate the gift and to make it
one’s own is the same thing, and ‘neither moth nor rust doth corrupt’. The gift of material goods
makes people dependent, but the gift of knowledge makes them free. The gift of knowledge also
has far more lasting effects and is far more closely relevant to the concept of ‘development.’
Give a man a fish, as the saying goes, and you are helping him a little bit for a very short time,
teach him the act of fishing, and he can help himself all his life. further, if you teach him to make
his own fishing net, you have helped him to become not only self-supporting, but also self-reliant
and independent, man and businessman.
This, then should become the ever-increasing preoccupation of aid-programmes to make men
self-reliant and independent by the generous supply of the appropriate intellectual gifts, gifts of
relevant knowledge on the methods of self-help. This approach, incidentally, has also the
advantage of being relatively cheap, of making money go a long way. For POUNDS 100/
- you may be able to equip one man with certain means of production, hut for the same money
you may well be able to teach and hundred men to equip themselves. Perhaps a little ‘pumppriming’
by way of material goods will in some cases, be helpful to speed the process of
development.
(E. F. Schumacher)
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end in your own words
without lifting sentences from the given text 20
Recently the mass media, formerly subservient to the medical profession, have become
increasingly, restive, and occasionally hostile. In Germany, in particular, the newspapers and
television have given a great deal of time and space to the complaints against the medical
profession. In Britain on BBC radio and television, the medical practices have come under sharp
and aggressive criticism.
Is this antagonism to the profession justified? And if so, why? I have tried to answer that
question by looking at the way it deals with some of the diseases of our civilisation, including the
most lethal, heart-attacks and cancer. If what emerges is an indictment of the profession, then I
would rebut the charge that I am anti-doctor. Montaigne said: ‘I honour physicians not for their
services but for themselves.’ That goes for me too. (Brian Inglis)
a) What do you understand by the mass media?
b) What is Brian Inglis stance, towards the medical profession?
c) What is a lethal disease? -
d) Is there a radical change in the presentation of the art of healing by the mass media?
3. Use any five of the following pairs of words so as to bring out the difference in their
meanings: 10
a) Queue: cue, b) Differ: defer,
c) Conscious: conscience, d) Confidant: confidante,
e) Atheist: agnostic, f) Loose: Lose,
g) Briefing: debriefing, h) Dual: duel,
i) - Complement: compliment
4. Indicate the meaning of any five of the following: 10
a) Brag, B) Antiquarian,
c) Input, d) Prodigal,
e) Bibliophile, f) Nostalgia,
g) Output, h) Feedback,
i) Agrarian.
5. Use any five of the following in your sentences to bring out their exact meanings: 10
a) Play truant, b) Play down,
c) Turn turtle, d) Turn the corner,
e) A fair weather friend, f) Under a cloud,
g) Burn one’s boats, h) Horse-trading.
6. Comment on any one of the following about 200 words: 20
a) To err is human, to forgive divine,
b) The child is father of the man,
c) God helps those who help themselves,
d) Beggars are no choosers,
e) - Handsome is one who handsome does,
f) The impossible is often the untried,
g) Man has his will and woman her way.
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EXAMINATION 1994
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage in about 125 words and suggest a suitable title:
25 marks.
“Education does not develop autonomously: it tends to be a mirror of society and is seldom
at the cutting edge of social change. It is retrospective, even conservative, since it teaches the
young what others have experienced and discovered-about the world. The future of education
will be shaped not by educators, but by changes in demography, technology and the family. Its
ends - to prepare students to live and work in their society - are likely to remain stable, but its
means are likely to change dramatically”.
“Schools, colleges and universities will be redefined in fundamental ways: who is educated,
how they are educated, where they are educated - all are due for upheaval. B Ut their primary
responsibility will be much the same as it is now: to teach knowledge of languages, science,
history, government, economics, geography, mathematics and the arts, as well as the skills
necessary to understand today’s problems and to use its technologies. In the decades ahead, there
will be a solid consensus that, as Horace Mann, an American educator, wrote in 1846,
“Intelligence is a primary ingredient in the wealth of nations”. In recognition of the power of this
idea, education will be directed purposefully to develop intelligence as a vital national resource”.
“Even as nations recognize the value of education in creating human capital, the institutions
that provide education will come under increasing strain. State systems of education may not
survive demographic and technological change. Political upheavals in unstable regions and the
case of international travel will ensure a steady flow of immigrants, legal and illegal, from poor
nations to rich ones. As tides of immigration sweep across the rich world, the receiving nations
have a choice: they can assimilate the newcomers to the home culture, or they can expect a
proliferation of cultures within their borders. Early this century, state systems assimilated
newcomers and taught them how to fit in. Today social science frowns on assimilation, seeing it
as a form of cultural coercion, so state systems of education are likely to eschew cultural
imposition. In effect, the state schools may encourage trends that raise doubts about the purpose
or necessity of a state system of education”. (Diane Ravieh).
2. Read the following passage and answer the question given at the end in your own words.
20 marks.
“Piecing together the story of human evolution is no easy task. The anthropologist Richard
Leakey has identified four key steps in our evolution from the earliest hominid to modern
humans. First, the occurrence of binedilism between 10 and 4 million years ago. Then the
evolution of Homo, with its large brain and capacity to make stone tools — the earliest examples
of which are 2.5 million years old. Next, the evolution of Hemo erects almost 2 million years
ago, followed by its migration out of Africa into Eurasia. And finally the appearance of modern
human less than 150000 years ago”.
“Through the 10 million years of human evolution, the Earth’s climate has changed
considerably. During the period that Michael Sarrnthies of Kie has called the “Golden era”
— up to 3 million years ago — the world was much warmer than it is now. Then conditions
started to deteriorate, and there was a gradual build-up of ice at the poles. Around 2.6 million
years ago the climate became cyclical: ice ages characterized by huge ice sheets covering much
of North America and northern Europe were followed by interglacial, when conditions were
comparable to those we see today. Elizabeth Vrba of Yale University, one of the most vigorous
proponents of the idea of punctuated equilibrium, has shown that this change in the world’s
climate 2.6 million years ago had sudden and dramatic effects in Africa. A predominantly warm
and moist climate was transformed into one which was colder and more
arid”. (Mark Maslim)
a. Give dictionary meanings of the underlined words.
b. How did the climate become cyclical?
c. Define the term “Golden era”.
d. Describe the various stages in the development of the human species.
3. Expand the idea embodied in One of the following in about 200 words. 20
a. The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government.
b. Art is long and time is fleeting.
c. The better part of valour is discretion.
d. Conscience is God’s presence in man. -
e. Capital is only the fruit of labour, and could never have existed if labour had not first existed.
4. Complete any five of the -following sentences supplying the missing word in each:
10
a. From this happy ______ he is awakened by his child asking him to read ______ an
incredibly long and boring story about wolves.
b. The this is that, when we do travel, we never seem to these people.
c. The _______ objects were not changes, but the ______ things had altered beyond
recognition.
d. More than ten days ______ before I again had any ______ with Mrs. Reed.
e. His ______ has fallen off, revealing a ______ of dirt on his bald head.
f. No, we must accept the ______ with what grace we can and leave the weather to its own
g. Take all you need but leave your______ behind is sound- - for the holidaymaker.
h. Modern advertisements often ______ the human race in a __________ light.
5. Use any Five of the following pairs of words your own sentences to bring out the
difference in their meaning:- 10
i. All Awl; (ii) Boy, Buoy; (iii) Fallow, Fellow: (iv) Jewry, Jury; (v) Functional,
Disfunctional; (vi) Yew, Eue; (vii) Allusive, Elusive; (viii) Ladylike, Ladyship.
6. Frame sentences to illustrate the meaning of any five of the following: 15
Between Scylla and Charybidis; (ii) Hobson’s choice; (iii) Sting in the tail; (iv) With open arms;
(v) Wash one’s hand of (To): (vi) Count one’s chickens (To); (vii) Burn midnight oil (To).
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EXAMINATION 1995
ENGLISH (Précis & Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
When you see a cockroach or a bed-hug your first reaction is one of disgust and that is
immediately, followed by a desire to exterminate the offensive creature. Later, in the garden, you
see a butterfly or a dragonfly, and you are filled with admiration at its beauty and grace.
Man’s feelings towards insects are ambivalent. He realizes that some of them for example, -
flies and cockroaches arc threats to health. Mosquitoes and tsetse flies have in the past sapped
the vitality of entire tribes or nations. Other insects are destructive and cause enormous losses.
Such arc locusts, which can wipe out whole areas of crops in minutes; and termites, whose often
insidious ravages, unless checked at an early stage, can end in the destructing of entire rows –of
houses.
Yet men’s ways of living may undergo radical changes if certain species of insects were to
become extinct. Bees, for example, pollinate the flowers of many plants which are food sources.
In the past, honey was the only sweetening agent known to man in some remote parts of the
world. Ants, although they bite and contaminate man’s food are useful scavengers which
consume waste material that would otherwise pollute the environment.
Entomologists who have studied insect fossils believe them to have inhabited the earth for
nearly 400 million years. Insects live in large numbers almost everywhere in the world, from the
hottest deserts and the deepest caves to the peaks of-high mountains and even the snows of the
polar caps.
Some insect communities are complex in organizations, prompting men to believe that they
possess an ordered intelligence. But such organized behaviour is clearly not due to
- developed brains. If we have to compare them to humans, bee and ant groups behave like
extreme totalitarian societies. Each bee or ant seems to have a determined role to play
instinctively and does so without deviation.
The word “instinct” is often applied to insect behaviour. But some insect behaviour appears
so clear that one tends to think that some sort of intelligenceis at work. For example, the worker
bee, upon relating to the hive after having found a new source of nectar, communicates his
discovery by a kind of dance which tells other bees the direction and distance away of the nectar.
2. Read the passage and answer the questions that follow it. Use your own English as much as
possible -otherwise you will not score high marks:
A political community may be viewed as a group of people living together under a common
regime, with a common set of authorities to make important decisions for the group as a whole.
To the extent that the regime is “legitimate” we would further specify that the people have
internalized a common set of rules. Given the predominantly achievement-oriented norms which
seem to be a necessary concomitant of industrial society, these rules must apply equally to the
entire population or Precisely those criteria (e.g. language) which are a basis for blocking
individual social mobility, can become the basis for cleavage which threatens the disintegration
of the political community. -
Among post-tribal multilingual populations where the masses are illiterate, generally
unaware of national events, and have low expectations of social and economic mobility, the
problems is largely irrelevant even if such populations have a linguistically distinct elite group.
In contrast, when the general population of a society is going through the early stages of social
mobilization, language group conflicts seem particularly likely to occur; they may develop
animosities which take on a life of their own and persist beyond the situation which gave rise to
them. The degree to which this happens may be significantly affected by the type of policy
which the government adopts during -the transitional period.
The likelihood that linguistic division will lead to political conflict is particularly great when
the language cleavages are linked with the presence of dominant group which blocks the social
mobility of members of a subordinate group, partly, at least, on the basis of language factors.
Where a dominant group holds the positions of power at the head of the major bureaucracies in a
modern society, and gives preference in recruitment to those who speak the dominant language,
any submerged group has the options of assimilations, non-mobility or group-resistance. If an
individual is overwhelmed numerically or psychologically by the dominant language, if his
group is proportionately too small to maintain a self contained community within the society,
assimilation usually occurs. In contrast, if one is part of a numerous or geographically
concentrated minority group, assimilation is more difficult and is more likely to seem
unreasonable. If the group is numerous and mobilized, political resistance is likely.
a. A political community is identified as a group of people who have three things in common;
What are they?
b. Why are the rules important7
c. Give an other word or paraphrase for
i. cleavage; ii, disintegration.
d. In the second paragraph the authors distinguish between two types of society: What are they?
e. What problem is irrelevant to the first type?
f. What is likely to happen to the second?
g. -When will language create political conflict?
h. What is assimilation and when does it occur?
i. When does group resistance occur?
j. Give the opposite of the term “dominant group” used in the text.
3. Using about 250 words, comment on One of the following subjects: 25
a. Conscience is the basis of justice.
b. The Industrial Society has reached its logical end.
c. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth, has gone on too long in the world.
d. In freedom lies the happiness of the individual.
e. Children have no childhood in Pakistan.
f. To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
4. A woman is talking to her next-door neighbour about an elderly married couple she
knows, and about their personalities. Using only Adjectives, complete the blanks according
to the explanations she gives either before or afterwards. Vague words like “good”, etc. will
not-be acceptable. Write out the passage in your answer books underlying the words you have
filled in: 20
“Well, yesterday I met old Mrs. Ahmad. Lovely old lady she is, always cheerful and helpful
and ever so__ which is more than I can say about that husband of her’s. He is so_____, arguing
and shouting and complaining all the time. And I thought my husband was ______ until I saw
the way he holds on to his money! Not that she worries or complains. I have never known any
one so____ But he is really' ,I mean he never thinks about her or what she wants. He’s got no
feelings at all, the ______ old devil! They are just so different: If you tell her about your
problems, she listens and tries to understand and gives you advice, you now, very_____. And it’s
only because of her that children have turned so polite and charming, such ______ young people.
He just gave them discipline, told them what they couldn’t do like some _____ school master.
Still, Mrs. Ahmad keeps smiling and happy. I don’t think I’d be that _____, married to him!”
5. Finish each of the following sentences in such a way that it means exactly the same as the
sentence printed before it: 10
a. One of the local development authority’s responsibilities is town planning. The local
development authority
b. Pop tars are corrupted by the adulation of their fans. It’s the way their _____
c. There was little contact-between these small groups. These small groups
d. I find funny clothes the most irritating about the modem Youth, What ______
e. He sounds as if he spent all his life abroad. He gives
f. Apart from Muhammad Ali, every one else at the meeting was a party member. With
g. He was driving very fast because he didn’t know the road was icy. If______
h. Whenever you are on a bus, you hear someone talking about politics. You can’t go
i. How long is it since they went to Gilgit? When _____
j. Most of the theories use the methods of experimental science without first paying attention
to play’s aesthetic quality Most of theories do not take -
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EXAMINATION- 1996
ENGLISH (PRةCIS & COMPOSITION)
Time Allowed: 3 Hours Maximum marks: 100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title.
(25)
Along with the new revelations of science and psychology there have also occurred distortions of
what is being discovered. -Most of the scientists and psychologists have accepted Darwin’s
theory of evolution and his observations on “survival of the fittest” as a final word. While
enunciating his-postulate on the concept of the fittest, Darwin primarily projected physical force
as the main criterion, and remained unmindful of the culture of mind, The psychologist, on the
other hand, in his exclusive involvement with the psyche, has overlooked the potential of man’s
physical-self and the world outside him. No synthesis has been attempted between the two with
the obvious result of the one being sacrificed at the altar of the other. This has given birth to a
civilisation which is wholly based on economic considerations, transforming man into a mere
“economic being” and limiting, his pleasures and sorrows to sensuous cravings.
With the force of his craft and guns, this man of the modern world gave birth to two cannibalistic
philosophies, the cunning capitalism and the callous communism. They joined hands to block the
evolution of man as a cultural entity, denuding him of the feelings of love, sympathy, and
humanness. Technologically, man is immensely powerful; culturally, he is the creature ‘of stoneage,
as lustful as ever, and equally ignorant of his destiny. The two world wars and the resultant
attitudes display harrowing distortion of the purposes of life and power. In this agonizing
situation the Scientist is harnessing forces of nature, placing them at the feet of his country’s
leaders, to be used against people in other parts of the world. This state of his servility makes the
functions of the scientist appear merely to push humanity to a state of perpetual fear, and lead
man to the inevitable destruction as a species with his own inventions and achievements. This
irrational situation raises many questions. They concern the role of a scientist, the function of
religion, the conduct of politician who is directing the course 5f history, and the future role of
man as a species. There is an obvious mutilation of the purpose of creation, and the relationship
.between Cosmos, Life, and Man is hidden from eyes; they have not been viewed collectively.
2. Read the following passages and answer the questions given at the end in your own words.
(20)
"In countless other places, companies locating overseas are causing environmental harm. Japan
has come in for heavy criticism from environmentalists in Southeast Asia for allegedly locating
extremely harmful processes abroad because they no longer can pass environmental muster at
home. A Malaysian subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Kasei Corp. was forced by court order to close
after years of Protests by local residents that the plant’s dumping of radioactive thorium was to
blame for unusually high leukemia rates in the region. Several multinational corporations
operating in South Africa, including local subsidiaries of the Bayer Pharmaceuticals concern and
a Duracell battery plant, have been implicated by local environ mentalists in toxic catastrophes
that they believe have-caused cancer and other severe health problems among workers.
Despite the threats, international markets also help diffuse many environmentally helpful
products around the world. Trade in pollution control technologies is on the rise, particularly as
environmental laws are strengthened in developing countries. International trade also can put
pressure on companies to match the environmental immolations of their international
competitors, as in the U.S. Car industry’s response to Japan’s advances in fuel efficiency. -
Meanwhile, there are indications that, contrary to some people's expectations, being open to
foreign investment can help prevent the caution of pollution havens rather than cause them.
Research by Nancy Birds all and David Wheeler of the World Bank found that dirty industries
developed faster in Latin American economies relatively in hospitable to foreign investment than
in open ones. Another World Bank study looked at the rates at which 60 different countries its
way to nations open to foreign investment far more rapidly than those closed toll The authors of
these studies suggests several possible explanations for such trends. For one, closed economies
protect capital __________ Intensive, pollution-intensive industries in situations where low-cost
labour otherwise would have been a draw to less polluting industries, Second, companies trying to
sell their goods in industrial countries need to please the growing number of “green consumers”
there. Finally the equipment used by multinational tends on balance to be newer and cleaner than
that employed by national industries.
(a) Why is Japan under heavy criticism?
(b) What did the court decree in Malaysia? and why?
(c) How does a certain industry cause cancer to the local resident?
(d) What could be the role of international markets in controlling pollution?
(e) What is a “pollution-haven”?
(f) What does the research by Nancy Birds all and David Wheeler say?
(g) What does “the other study” by World Bank reveal?
(h) Who is a “green consumer"?
(i) How do you explain capital-intensive” and “pollution-intensive”?
(j) How can we save the local residents from the pollution hazards?
3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following
subjects: (25)
(a) Religion is the greatest benefactor of human race;
(b) The devotional believers coin baseless stories about their gurus;
(c) And when I love thee not chaos 13 come again;
(d) Every system of government emerges from its economic system;
(e) Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
4. - Correct the following sentences: (10)
(a) When public transport is better developed, there will no longer be so many cars
driving people to work.
(b) The subject of my paper-is about-air pollution;
(c) The princess's father was-a good man and who was kind;
(d) A morality play is where the characters represents virtue and vices;
(e) A-square is when all four sides are the same length;
(f) Evil and suffering has always troubled man;
(g) Why does such disturbing things exist?’
(h) Neither her cousins nor her aunt were at home;
(i) Neither Tariq nor Khalid are worthy of her;
(j) The first fleet of cars were made of copper;
(k) To be honest lies must never be told
5. Explain FIVE of the following idioms by using them into sentences: (10)
Bear out Back out Carry over Come off
Fall back, Figure out; Live with Set in; Cover up; Iron out.- -
6. Use FIVE of the following pairs of words or phrases into- sentences so, that the difference in
the meaning of each pair is made clear:- (10)
(1) altogether, all together(ii) ambiguous, ambivalent;
(iii) apprise, appraise; (iv) bad, badly;
(v) compare, contrast; (vi) deduce, imply;
(vii) differ from; differ with; (viii)) farther, further.
*********************************************************************************
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25
Exploration in the Arctic Circle still offers countless opportunities for fresh discoveries, but it is an adventure which is not to be undertaken lightly. As an occupation it is more lonely and remote than anything else in the world and at any moment the traveller must be prepared to encounter hazard and difficulty which call for all his skill and enterprise. Nevertheless such exploration will be carried as long as there are investigated areas to attract the daring and as long as the quest for knowledge inspires mankind.
Investigations have shown that the Arctic zone is rich in mineral deposits, but even if these deposits were themselves of little value, the economic importance of the Arctic would not be appreciably lessened. For it is generally agreed that «weather is made in the North», and as the success or failure of the harvests all over the world is largely determined by the weather, it follows that agriculture and all those industrial and commercial activities dependent upon it must be considerably affected by the accuracy of the daily weather reports. Modern meteorologists regard the conditions prevailing in the Arctic as of first-rate importance in helping them to arrive at accurate results in their forecasts.
Yet quite apart from any economic or other practical considerations, there is a strange fascination about this vast unconquered region of stern northern beauty. Those who have once entered the vast polar regions like to speak of their inexpressible beauty, the charm of the yellow sun and dazzling ice packs, the everlasting snows and unmapped land where one never knows what lies ahead; it may be a gigantic glacier, which reflects a beam of sunlight over its frozen expanse or some wonderful fantastically shaped cliff which makes an unfading impression on the memory. It may even be an iceberg stately and terrifying, moving on its relentless way, for the Arctic; is the birthplace of the great icebergs which threaten navigation.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any four questions given at the end as briefly as possible. 10
Do we realize the extent to which the modern world relies for its opinions on public utterances and the Press? Do we realize how completely we are all in the power of report? Any little lie or exaggerated sentiment uttered by one with a bee in his bonnet, with a principle, or an end to serve, can, if cleverly expressed and distributed, distort the views of thousands, sometimes of millions. Any willful suppression of truth for Party or personal ends can so falsify our vision of things as to plunge us into endless cruelties and follies. Honesty of thought and speech and written word is a jewel, and they who curb prejudice and seek honourably to know and speak the truth are the only true builders of a better life. But what a dull world if we can't chatter and write irresponsibly, can't slop over with hatred, or pursue our own ends without scruple! To be tied to the apron-strings of truth, or coiffed with the nightcap of silence; who in this age of cheap ink and oratory will submit to such a fate?
Report, I would almost say, now rules the world and holds the fate of man on the sayings of its many tongues. If the good sense of mankind cannot somehow restrain utterance and cleanse report, Democracy, so highly vaunted, will not save us; and all the glib words of promise spoken might as well have lain unuttered in the throats of orators. We are always in peril under Democracy of taking the line of least resistance and immediate material profit. The gentleman, for instance, whoever he was, who first discovered that he could sell his papers better by undercutting the standard of his rivals, and, appealing to the lower tastes of the Public under the flag of that convenient expression "what the Public wants," made a most evil discovery. The Press is for the most part in the hands of men who know what is good and right. It can be a great agency for levelling up. But whether on the whole it is so or not, one continually hears doubted. There ought to be no room for doubt in any of our minds that the Press is on the side of the angels.
a) Suggest an appropriate title for the passage.
b) Chose FIVE of the following words, and give for each another word, or phrase, of similar meaning which might be used to replace the word in the passage:
3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)
(a) The Problem of Noise in the modern world.
(b) The motorway age
(c) "A contented mind is a blessing kind."
(d) A competitive society brings out the best in every individual
(e) The Supernatural man (or woman)
4. - Correct the following sentences: (10)(a) The idea of me flying is too silly to even contemplate.
(b) He reads better than any boy in the class.
(c) Every citizen should use their role.
(d) I do not remember him giving me a present.
(e) Whom would you say is likely to win the fight?
(f) Neither him nor his friend were hurt.
(g) Passing by the damage house, a brick fell on my shoulder.
(h) My cousin always has and always will be interested in the threatre.
(i) The vast extent of the steppes of Central Asia is enormous.
(j) Nobody didn't ought to lose their way so easy in a small town.
5. Rearrange the following in pairs of synonyms. (10)
garrulous, selfish, near, talkative, obstruct, egoistic, wealthy, impede, affluent, filch, imminent, assess, tempting, ponder, augment, enticing, meditate, increase, estimate, steal.
6. Explain FIVE of the following Idioms by using them into sentences. (10)
1. Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (25)
Lying is indeed an accursed vice. We are men, and we have relations with one another only by speech. If we recognized the horror and gravity of an untruth, we should more justifiably punish it with fire than any other crime. I commonly find people taking the most ill-advised pains to correct their children for their harmless faults, and worrying them about heedless acts which leave no trace and have no consequences. Lying - and in a lesser degree obstinacy - are, in my opinion, the only faults whose birth and progress we should consistently oppose. They grow with a child's growth, and once the tongue has got the knack of lying, it is difficult to imagine how impossible it is to correct it. Whence it happens that we find some otherwise excellent men subject to this fault and enslaved by it. I have a decent lad as my tailor, whom I have never heard to utter a single truth, even when it would have been to his advantage.
How rapid and sublime would be the advances of intellect, if all men were admitted into the field of knowledge! At present ninety-nine persons in an hundred are no more excited to any regular exertions of general and curious thought, than the brutes themselves. What would be the state of public mind in a nation, where all were wise, all had laid aside the shackles of prejudice and implicit faith, all adopted with fearless confidence the suggestions of truth, and the lethargy of the soul was dismissed for ever ? It is to be presumed that the inequality of mind would in a certain degree be permanent; but it is reasonable to believe that the geniuses of such an age would far surpass the grandest exertions of intellect that are at present known. Genius would not be depressed with false wants and niggardly patronage.(a) Suggest an appropriate title for the passage.
(b) What does the writer mean by the following expressions?
(d) Does the writer favour charity for the poor? Support your answer with the writer's argument.
(e) How does the writer compare the present day man with brutes?
(f) The writer does not state why there will always be an inequality of mind among men. suggest a reason from your own knowledge of human psychology.
(g) In the passage the writer leaves his statement about the rich neighbour incomplete. Draw briefly the contrast the writer had in mind.
(h) What according to the writer would promote intellectual improvement?
(i) Give another word with similar meaning for : callous, sinews, inclemencies, ostentatious, benumbed, salubrious.
3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)(a) The two main reasons for reading imaginative literature are pleasure and insight.
(b) Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
(c) Democracy if it is stupid and unjust, is as evil as, stupid and cruel tyranny. (Socrates)
(d) The so-called custodians of human rights are guilty of violating the rights of the backward nations.
4. Correct the following sentences.(a) This is all the father you can go.
(b) He seemed to be an industrious person but this was only an allusion.
(c) His avocation is dentistry.
(d) The antiquarian bade one million dollars fo the old painting.
(e) The ferry collided against the tug-boat.
(f) Poetry is more sensual than prose.
(g) Both Naeem and Shahid is tired, they should go back.
(h) He was seeking political asylm but was not permitted to emigrate to USA.
(i) I wouldn't be in your boots for the all the wealth in the world.
(j) Are you trying to infer taht i would be something dishonest?
5. Complete the conversation by choosing the correct idioms. (10)
The tricks of the trade; the blessing in disguise; his own man; the gift of the gab; a pillar of society; another cup of tea; a mug's game; a piece of cake; a feather in his cap; the rank and file.
Have you heard about Adam? He says that losing his job was probably ____________ because he was tired of being just one of a thousand wage-earners at the firm, just one of ____________. He thinks working for someone else is really ____________when you can work for yourself. So she is going to open up his own computer shop.
"Really! well it will be a ____________if he makes a success of it."
"He is taking Jan into partnership with him."
"Jan, eh? Now he's ____________I dont like him at all."
"Well he may not be what one could call ____________but he is the right sort of man to get a business going. He's a good talker."
"Oh yes Jan has certainly got ____________and it won't take him long to learn ____________ .
"I told Adam that having his own business certainly won't be ____________."
"Its's hard work Bu he is determined to be ____________ at last, so I wish him goodluck."
6. Use five of the following pairs of words so as to bring out the difference in their meanings: 10
7. Explain FIVE of the following idioms by using them into sentences: (10)
1. Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (25)
To have faith in the dignity and worth of the individual man as an end in himself, to believe that it is better to be governed by persuasion than by coercion, to believe that fraternal goodwill is more worthy than a selfish and contentions spirit, to believe that in the long run all values are inseparable from the love of truth and the disinterested search for it, to believe that knowledge and the power it confers should be used to promote the welfare and happiness of all men, rather than to serve the interests of those individual and classes whom fortune and intelligence endow with temporary advantage – these are the values which are affirmed by the traditional democratic ideology. The case of democracy is that it accepts the rational and humane values as ends and proposes as the means of realizing them the minimum of coercion and the maximum of voluntary assent. We may well abandon the cosmological temple in which the democratic ideology originally enshrined these values, without renouncing the faith it was designed to celebrate. The essence of that faith is belief in the capacity of man, as a rational and humane creature to achieve the good life by rational and humane means. The Chief virtue of democracy and the sole reason for cherishing it is that with all its faults it still provides the most favourable conditions for achieving that end by those means.
2. Read the following passages and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)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 hirn 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 the 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 ¡deals. 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 forces 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 ofone'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 from any side. Concentrate your whole ego on yourself alone and ripen your clay into real manhood if you wish to see your aspiration realized.1. What is the chief characteristic of the modern political civilization?2. What are possibilities of our Faith which can be of advantage to the world?3. What is the chief danger confronting the superb idealism of our Faith?4. Why is the Indian Muslim in danger of coming to an unmanly compromise with the forces opposing him?5. What is necessary for any achievement?6. Explain the following expressions as used in the passage.(a) acquisitive economy
(b) undisciplined individualism
(c) superb idealism
(d) unmanly compromise
(e) perpetual vacillation
7. Suggest an appropriate title for the passage.3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)
(a) The Hand that Rocks the cradle Rules the World.
(b) Charm strikes the sight but Merit wins the soul.
(c) Lord, What Fools these Mortals be!
(d) Is Democracy possible in the Third World?
4. Re-write the following passage after correcting its grammatical errors.
The world is poised on a dangerous and instable balance of terror, unlike the wars of the past, future war threatened to do away the human race. Future of mankind depends on peace. Without it, countless millions would be wiped of the face of earth. This fear had manifested itself in a persistent demand of disarmament – total and universal. It is, indeed, a sad reflection on human nature that while he sings praise about the virtue of peace, they continued march on a suicidal course of war. In spite of forty years of negotiation the giants did not even scraped the tips of the icebergs.
5. Fill in the blanks of the passage given below.An ideal college should subscribe to an ideal scheme of education for the one is inseparable from the other. The chief ___________ of education, it is said, is the total end ___________ development of the individual. Any ___________ system of education must provide the student firstly, with the ___________ for logical and objective thinking. Without ___________ skill it’s difficult to conceive of any one’s ___________ and continually expanding the knowledge which is ___________ indispensable to an educated man ___________ education which is in practice bookish and ___________ from life is lopsided and serves no ___________ purpose. Secondly, it must contribute to the ___________ of morality, or right conduct or good ___________, in its widest sense. No academy ___________ its name can afford or be ___________ to this aspect, for its importance for ___________ the syllabic domain. It must help ___________ student to discover a meaningful act of ___________ and a personal philosophy of life ___________ it must pay adequate attention to ___________ health and work on the premise that a healthy mind is ___________ without a healthy body.
6. Make sentences of any FIVE of the following idioms. (15)
(a) A jaundiced eye
(b) A left-handed compliment
(c) The ruling passion
(d) Tower of strength
(e) Steal a march on someone
(f) In one's bones
(g) Hang in the balance
(h) Fly in the ointment
(i) Close-fisted
FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS
IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1997.
ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100
1. Write a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title: 25
Exploration in the Arctic Circle still offers countless opportunities for fresh discoveries, but it is an adventure which is not to be undertaken lightly. As an occupation it is more lonely and remote than anything else in the world and at any moment the traveller must be prepared to encounter hazard and difficulty which call for all his skill and enterprise. Nevertheless such exploration will be carried as long as there are investigated areas to attract the daring and as long as the quest for knowledge inspires mankind.
Investigations have shown that the Arctic zone is rich in mineral deposits, but even if these deposits were themselves of little value, the economic importance of the Arctic would not be appreciably lessened. For it is generally agreed that «weather is made in the North», and as the success or failure of the harvests all over the world is largely determined by the weather, it follows that agriculture and all those industrial and commercial activities dependent upon it must be considerably affected by the accuracy of the daily weather reports. Modern meteorologists regard the conditions prevailing in the Arctic as of first-rate importance in helping them to arrive at accurate results in their forecasts.
Yet quite apart from any economic or other practical considerations, there is a strange fascination about this vast unconquered region of stern northern beauty. Those who have once entered the vast polar regions like to speak of their inexpressible beauty, the charm of the yellow sun and dazzling ice packs, the everlasting snows and unmapped land where one never knows what lies ahead; it may be a gigantic glacier, which reflects a beam of sunlight over its frozen expanse or some wonderful fantastically shaped cliff which makes an unfading impression on the memory. It may even be an iceberg stately and terrifying, moving on its relentless way, for the Arctic; is the birthplace of the great icebergs which threaten navigation.
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer any four questions given at the end as briefly as possible. 10
Do we realize the extent to which the modern world relies for its opinions on public utterances and the Press? Do we realize how completely we are all in the power of report? Any little lie or exaggerated sentiment uttered by one with a bee in his bonnet, with a principle, or an end to serve, can, if cleverly expressed and distributed, distort the views of thousands, sometimes of millions. Any willful suppression of truth for Party or personal ends can so falsify our vision of things as to plunge us into endless cruelties and follies. Honesty of thought and speech and written word is a jewel, and they who curb prejudice and seek honourably to know and speak the truth are the only true builders of a better life. But what a dull world if we can't chatter and write irresponsibly, can't slop over with hatred, or pursue our own ends without scruple! To be tied to the apron-strings of truth, or coiffed with the nightcap of silence; who in this age of cheap ink and oratory will submit to such a fate?
Report, I would almost say, now rules the world and holds the fate of man on the sayings of its many tongues. If the good sense of mankind cannot somehow restrain utterance and cleanse report, Democracy, so highly vaunted, will not save us; and all the glib words of promise spoken might as well have lain unuttered in the throats of orators. We are always in peril under Democracy of taking the line of least resistance and immediate material profit. The gentleman, for instance, whoever he was, who first discovered that he could sell his papers better by undercutting the standard of his rivals, and, appealing to the lower tastes of the Public under the flag of that convenient expression "what the Public wants," made a most evil discovery. The Press is for the most part in the hands of men who know what is good and right. It can be a great agency for levelling up. But whether on the whole it is so or not, one continually hears doubted. There ought to be no room for doubt in any of our minds that the Press is on the side of the angels.
a) Suggest an appropriate title for the passage.
b) Chose FIVE of the following words, and give for each another word, or phrase, of similar meaning which might be used to replace the word in the passage:
- Sentiment
- Distort
- Willful
- Curb
- Vaunted
- Glib
- Material
- Agency
- With a principle of an end to serve.
- This age of cheap ink and oratory.
- Undercutting the standard
- On the side of the angels.
3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)
(a) The Problem of Noise in the modern world.
(b) The motorway age
(c) "A contented mind is a blessing kind."
(d) A competitive society brings out the best in every individual
(e) The Supernatural man (or woman)
4. - Correct the following sentences: (10)(a) The idea of me flying is too silly to even contemplate.
(b) He reads better than any boy in the class.
(c) Every citizen should use their role.
(d) I do not remember him giving me a present.
(e) Whom would you say is likely to win the fight?
(f) Neither him nor his friend were hurt.
(g) Passing by the damage house, a brick fell on my shoulder.
(h) My cousin always has and always will be interested in the threatre.
(i) The vast extent of the steppes of Central Asia is enormous.
(j) Nobody didn't ought to lose their way so easy in a small town.
5. Rearrange the following in pairs of synonyms. (10)
garrulous, selfish, near, talkative, obstruct, egoistic, wealthy, impede, affluent, filch, imminent, assess, tempting, ponder, augment, enticing, meditate, increase, estimate, steal.
6. Explain FIVE of the following Idioms by using them into sentences. (10)
- To beat the air
- To beggar description
- To bring to mind,
- To call in question
- To cap it all
- To clip one's wings
- To cross the Rubicon
- To feel the pulse
- To fly in the face of
- To rise like a phoenix from its ashes
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FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS
IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1998.
ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (25)
Lying is indeed an accursed vice. We are men, and we have relations with one another only by speech. If we recognized the horror and gravity of an untruth, we should more justifiably punish it with fire than any other crime. I commonly find people taking the most ill-advised pains to correct their children for their harmless faults, and worrying them about heedless acts which leave no trace and have no consequences. Lying - and in a lesser degree obstinacy - are, in my opinion, the only faults whose birth and progress we should consistently oppose. They grow with a child's growth, and once the tongue has got the knack of lying, it is difficult to imagine how impossible it is to correct it. Whence it happens that we find some otherwise excellent men subject to this fault and enslaved by it. I have a decent lad as my tailor, whom I have never heard to utter a single truth, even when it would have been to his advantage.
If, like the truth, falsehood had only one face, we should know better where we are, for we should then take the opposite of what a liar said to be the truth. But the opposite of a truth has a hundred thousand shapes and a limitless field.
The Pythagoreans regard good as certain and finite, and evil as boundless and uncertain. There are a thousand ways of missing the bull's eye, only one of hitting it. I am by no means sure that I could induce myself to tell a brazen and deliberate lie even to protect myself from the most obvious and extreme danger. St Augustine said that we are better off in the company of a dog we know than in that of a man whose language we do not understand. Therefore,those of different nations do not regard one another as men and how much less friendly is false speech than silence.
2. Read the following passages and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)
Accumulated property treads the powers of thought in the dust, extinguishes the sparks of genius, and reduces the great mass of mankind to be immersed in sordid cares ; beside depriving the rich, as we have already said, of the most salubrious and effectual motives to activity. If superfluity were banished, the necessity for the greater part of the manual industry of mankind would be superseded ; and the rest, being amicably shared among all the active and vigorous members of the community, would be burdensome to none. Every man would have a frugal, yet wholesome diet ; every man would go forth to that moderate exercise of his corporal functions that would give hilarity to the spirits ; none would be made torpid with fatigue, but all would have leisure to cultivate the kindly and philanthropical affections of the soul, and to let loose his faculties in the search of intellectual improvement. What a contrast does this scene present us with the present state of human society, where the peasant and the labourer work till their understandings are benumbed with toil, their sinews contracted and made callous by being for ever on the stretch, and their bodies invaded with infirmities and surrendered to an untimely grave ? What is the fruit of this disproportioned and unceasing toil ? At evening they return to a family, famished with hunger, exposed half naked to the inclemencies of the sky, hardly sheltered, and denied the slenderest instruction, unless in a few instances, where it is dispensed by the hands of ostentatious charity, and the first lesson communicated is unprincipled servility. All this while their rich neighbour …….. 2. Read the following passages and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)
How rapid and sublime would be the advances of intellect, if all men were admitted into the field of knowledge! At present ninety-nine persons in an hundred are no more excited to any regular exertions of general and curious thought, than the brutes themselves. What would be the state of public mind in a nation, where all were wise, all had laid aside the shackles of prejudice and implicit faith, all adopted with fearless confidence the suggestions of truth, and the lethargy of the soul was dismissed for ever ? It is to be presumed that the inequality of mind would in a certain degree be permanent; but it is reasonable to believe that the geniuses of such an age would far surpass the grandest exertions of intellect that are at present known. Genius would not be depressed with false wants and niggardly patronage.(a) Suggest an appropriate title for the passage.
(b) What does the writer mean by the following expressions?
- hilarity of spirit,
- corporal functions,
- torpid with fatigue,
- let loose faculties
(d) Does the writer favour charity for the poor? Support your answer with the writer's argument.
(e) How does the writer compare the present day man with brutes?
(f) The writer does not state why there will always be an inequality of mind among men. suggest a reason from your own knowledge of human psychology.
(g) In the passage the writer leaves his statement about the rich neighbour incomplete. Draw briefly the contrast the writer had in mind.
(h) What according to the writer would promote intellectual improvement?
(i) Give another word with similar meaning for : callous, sinews, inclemencies, ostentatious, benumbed, salubrious.
3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)(a) The two main reasons for reading imaginative literature are pleasure and insight.
(b) Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
(c) Democracy if it is stupid and unjust, is as evil as, stupid and cruel tyranny. (Socrates)
(d) The so-called custodians of human rights are guilty of violating the rights of the backward nations.
4. Correct the following sentences.(a) This is all the father you can go.
(b) He seemed to be an industrious person but this was only an allusion.
(c) His avocation is dentistry.
(d) The antiquarian bade one million dollars fo the old painting.
(e) The ferry collided against the tug-boat.
(f) Poetry is more sensual than prose.
(g) Both Naeem and Shahid is tired, they should go back.
(h) He was seeking political asylm but was not permitted to emigrate to USA.
(i) I wouldn't be in your boots for the all the wealth in the world.
(j) Are you trying to infer taht i would be something dishonest?
5. Complete the conversation by choosing the correct idioms. (10)
The tricks of the trade; the blessing in disguise; his own man; the gift of the gab; a pillar of society; another cup of tea; a mug's game; a piece of cake; a feather in his cap; the rank and file.
Have you heard about Adam? He says that losing his job was probably ____________ because he was tired of being just one of a thousand wage-earners at the firm, just one of ____________. He thinks working for someone else is really ____________when you can work for yourself. So she is going to open up his own computer shop.
"Really! well it will be a ____________if he makes a success of it."
"He is taking Jan into partnership with him."
"Jan, eh? Now he's ____________I dont like him at all."
"Well he may not be what one could call ____________but he is the right sort of man to get a business going. He's a good talker."
"Oh yes Jan has certainly got ____________and it won't take him long to learn ____________ .
"I told Adam that having his own business certainly won't be ____________."
"Its's hard work Bu he is determined to be ____________ at last, so I wish him goodluck."
6. Use five of the following pairs of words so as to bring out the difference in their meanings: 10
- occlude, occult
- practical, practicable
- raze , raise
- cannon, canon
- avenge, revenge
- caret, carat
- revel, reveal
- aviary, apiary
- demeane, demean
7. Explain FIVE of the following idioms by using them into sentences: (10)
- The last ditch
- A square meal
- Go public
- Run riot
- The backroom boys
- Foot the bill
- Set the pace
- At times
- Steal the show
- Grey matter
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FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS
IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1999.
ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100
1. Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (25)
To have faith in the dignity and worth of the individual man as an end in himself, to believe that it is better to be governed by persuasion than by coercion, to believe that fraternal goodwill is more worthy than a selfish and contentions spirit, to believe that in the long run all values are inseparable from the love of truth and the disinterested search for it, to believe that knowledge and the power it confers should be used to promote the welfare and happiness of all men, rather than to serve the interests of those individual and classes whom fortune and intelligence endow with temporary advantage – these are the values which are affirmed by the traditional democratic ideology. The case of democracy is that it accepts the rational and humane values as ends and proposes as the means of realizing them the minimum of coercion and the maximum of voluntary assent. We may well abandon the cosmological temple in which the democratic ideology originally enshrined these values, without renouncing the faith it was designed to celebrate. The essence of that faith is belief in the capacity of man, as a rational and humane creature to achieve the good life by rational and humane means. The Chief virtue of democracy and the sole reason for cherishing it is that with all its faults it still provides the most favourable conditions for achieving that end by those means.
2. Read the following passages and answer the questions given at the end in your own words. (20)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 hirn 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 the 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 ¡deals. 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 forces 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 ofone'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 from any side. Concentrate your whole ego on yourself alone and ripen your clay into real manhood if you wish to see your aspiration realized.1. What is the chief characteristic of the modern political civilization?2. What are possibilities of our Faith which can be of advantage to the world?3. What is the chief danger confronting the superb idealism of our Faith?4. Why is the Indian Muslim in danger of coming to an unmanly compromise with the forces opposing him?5. What is necessary for any achievement?6. Explain the following expressions as used in the passage.(a) acquisitive economy
(b) undisciplined individualism
(c) superb idealism
(d) unmanly compromise
(e) perpetual vacillation
7. Suggest an appropriate title for the passage.3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)
(a) The Hand that Rocks the cradle Rules the World.
(b) Charm strikes the sight but Merit wins the soul.
(c) Lord, What Fools these Mortals be!
(d) Is Democracy possible in the Third World?
4. Re-write the following passage after correcting its grammatical errors.
The world is poised on a dangerous and instable balance of terror, unlike the wars of the past, future war threatened to do away the human race. Future of mankind depends on peace. Without it, countless millions would be wiped of the face of earth. This fear had manifested itself in a persistent demand of disarmament – total and universal. It is, indeed, a sad reflection on human nature that while he sings praise about the virtue of peace, they continued march on a suicidal course of war. In spite of forty years of negotiation the giants did not even scraped the tips of the icebergs.
5. Fill in the blanks of the passage given below.An ideal college should subscribe to an ideal scheme of education for the one is inseparable from the other. The chief ___________ of education, it is said, is the total end ___________ development of the individual. Any ___________ system of education must provide the student firstly, with the ___________ for logical and objective thinking. Without ___________ skill it’s difficult to conceive of any one’s ___________ and continually expanding the knowledge which is ___________ indispensable to an educated man ___________ education which is in practice bookish and ___________ from life is lopsided and serves no ___________ purpose. Secondly, it must contribute to the ___________ of morality, or right conduct or good ___________, in its widest sense. No academy ___________ its name can afford or be ___________ to this aspect, for its importance for ___________ the syllabic domain. It must help ___________ student to discover a meaningful act of ___________ and a personal philosophy of life ___________ it must pay adequate attention to ___________ health and work on the premise that a healthy mind is ___________ without a healthy body.
6. Make sentences of any FIVE of the following idioms. (15)
(a) A jaundiced eye
(b) A left-handed compliment
(c) The ruling passion
(d) Tower of strength
(e) Steal a march on someone
(f) In one's bones
(g) Hang in the balance
(h) Fly in the ointment
(i) Close-fisted
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