Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
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 gauge 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.
Precis:
European trains frequently stop at borders to swap engines and personnel. This is because some countries have outdated voltage systems and vast-gauge tracks. But rather than constructing a cohesive network, some nations are attempting to create their own, incompatible high-speed trains, which will only make this disparity worse.

Title: Disparities in European Train Networks

Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
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.

Precis:
Men have experienced two different kinds of misery throughout human history: one is natural, and the other is anthropological. By utilizing his ability of bipedalism and intelligence, he maneuvered through the natural miseries and proliferated his species unlike any other living mammal. Still nature can wreak havoc on men through natural disasters like floods and famine. However, men know how to outmaneuver them and ensure the survival of his species. On the other hand, the miseries that men inflict on each other have not lessened. Lust for power, injustices and cruelties are still prevalent today. Fear is the ultimate guiding force in the lives of many people.

Title: Miseries in Anthropological History

Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
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, but for the same money you may well be able to teach and hundred men to equip themselves. Perhaps a little ‘pump-priming’ by way of material goods will in some cases, be helpful to speed the process of development.

Precis:
The best assistance to provide is intellectual assistance, or a gift of practical knowledge. It is unimaginably better than any gift of tangible goods. This is because nothing can be fully regarded as one's own without making a sincere effort. A material gift can rarely become one’s own because it is acquired without some serious sacrifice. While, on the other hand, intellectual gift cannot be acquired without some serious struggle. Once acquired it makes man productive and independent. Unlike material goods, it cannot be corrupted or taken away. Imparting intellectual and productive knowledge should be the utmost priority of every aid donating program. Perhaps sometimes material assistance is required to bring a real development.

Title: Self-reliance: The Goal of Aid-Donation

Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
“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. But 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”.

Precis:
Education does not advance on its own. It tends to reflect society and is rarely at the forefront of social development. It is retroactive because it teaches about the experiences of others. Societal change – material or non-material – will dictate its future by keeping its ends constant. Educational institutes will be transformed fundamentally, but their primary duty will remain the same: teaching the same courses and developing the essential skills needed for modern problem solving. A nation’s wealth depends upon intelligent human capital. Due to the inflow of immigrants, education will have a difficult time assimilating or fostering new cultures due to a fear of cultural repression, and institutions will come under increasing pressure. These changes will cast doubt on the efficacy of the public education system.

Title: Future of Public Education System

Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title:
When you see a cockroach or a bed-bug 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 are 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 are 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 intelligence is 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.

Precis:
Insects arouse conflict emotions in man. Some insects fascinate him while other generates feelings of contempt. These parasites are vital for the survival of man. Some play their part in producing food sources through pollination and some mitigate pollution by decomposing the waste materials while others wreak havoc by acting as the cause of destruction and diseases throughout human history. Scientists claim that they are old inhabitants of this world, could live everywhere and capable of surviving in extreme temperatures. They live in complex organized communities. However, their organization is not due to some intelligence but due to their rigid structured lifestyle where each insect plays its part to perfection. These flawless organized behaviours led men to believe in the fallacious notion that they possess some sort of intelligence.

Title: Insects and their relationship with men

Make a Précis of the following passage about one-third of its length and suggest a suitable title.
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 civilization 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 of 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.

Precis:
As science and psychology progress, the purpose of discoveries is being forgotten. The growing acceptance of the principle of survival of the fittest has reduced men to just a product of physical forces. Contrarily, psychologists confined men to the cognitive realm. No effort was made to unify both divergent fields. This resulted in the creation of a species that is just economically driven and devoid of any human emotions. Scientists are in the driving seat to produce a generation that is scientifically advanced yet morally declined. They are exploiting the natural forces to create weapons of mass destruction and leaving them at the will of their leaders. Leading mankind to a state of constant dread and at the mercy of political policymakers.

Title: Distortions of Scientific and Psychological Discoveries

Make a Précis of the following passage about one-third of its length and suggest a suitable title.
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.

Precis:
From aesthetics to economics, the Arctic Area has tremendous potential to attract visitors. Earnest vigilance is required when it comes to the exploration of Arctic because an explorer can encounter an unprecedented danger at any time due to his remoteness. Apart from the curiosity for knowledge and investigation, the Arctic holds many natural resources which appreciate its financial value. As it is known that the weather of the whole world is mainly resulted by the Northern winds, thus the meteorological forecasts are highly dependent on accurate Arctic readings. Additionally, the admiration of Arctic is also due to its unparalleled pulchritude. Lastly, as being the provenance of icebergs, it endangers maritime travel.

Title: The Challenges and Fascination of Arctic Exploration

Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title.
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.

Precis:
People can communicate and build relationships with each other through familiar speech. The action of lying can sabotage the built trust and by realizing its earnest nature it can be treated with harsh punishment. Children should be educated about the ills of lying in their formative years. The evil of lying should be nipped in the bud otherwise it would be too late to control the impulse. Truth is simple and straightforward whereas untruth has endless faces. This multiplicity of falsehood makes the task of evaluating truth akin to finding the needle in a haystack. People who speak differently – whether resorting to lying or incomprehensible language – cannot sympathize with each other.

Title: The Vice of Lying

Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title.
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.

Precis:
Democracy instils in an individual the belief in the sanctity of human life. Their ideals infuse the qualities of selflessness, veracity, and philanthropy. These characteristics are the end objective of any democracy. The democratic test examines the levels of compulsion and participation of individuals. Humans may reject the source through which these ideals originated but they can never ignore the democratic ideology which is based on pragmatism and humanitarianism – the only appropriate mode for living a happy life.

Title: Essentials for Good Life: Democratic Ideals

Make a Précis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title.
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 were 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.

Precis:
Middle class, in the 19th century, regardless of their profession did not belong to any specific society. They were their own class. Aristocrats did not invite them to their social gatherings. The middle class became complacent with their status. After gaining traction in their numbers, their power grew drastically. After fully developing compos mentis, they recognized their merit and their attitudes towards aristocratic life and the poor had changed. All and all, they were considered honorable. Nonetheless, disputes may arise about the definition of honorable. However, they were impervious to those qualities which were considered sordid and seedy.

Title: The Changing Perception of the Middle Class in the 19th century