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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.

Lying: the worst form of evil
Lying is such a crime that if people realize its side effects, they will surely punish liars more than other culprits. People tend to correct harmless errors of their kids while overlooking the long-lasting habit like lying. Therefore, this habit should be nipped in the bud in the early childhood. Unlike truth, there are various ways of uttering false speech, making the lie difficult to be identified. It is an old saying that a dog we know is better than a friend we don't trust. So, it is better to remain silent instead of lying.