English (1971-1999)

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Attached Files r the Past Paspers of English (Précis & Composition) from 1971-1980, from 1981-1990 and from 1991-1996......Download attachment
Regards,
Adnan

[Last Island]

EDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1971.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of following passage in about 250 words:

The essence of poetry is that it deals with events which concern a large number of people and can be grasped not as immediate personal experience but as matter known largely from heresy and presented in simplified and often abstract forms. it is thus the antithesis of all poetry which deals with the special, individual activity of the self and tries to present this as specially and as individually as it can. The poet who deals with public themes may himself be affected, even deeply, by contemporary events at some point in his own being, but to see them in their breadth and depth he must rely largely on what he hears from other men and from mass instruments of communication. From the start his impulse to write about them is different from any impulse to write about his own affairs. It may be just as strong and just as compelling, but it is not of the same kind. He has to give his own version of something which millions of others may share with him, and however individual he may wish to be, he cannot avoid relying to a large extent on much that he knows only from second hand.
Fundamentally this may not matter, for after all what else did Shakespeare do: but the political poet does not construct an imaginary past, he attempts to grasp and interpret a vast present. Between him and his subject there is a gap which he can never completely cross, and all his attempts to make events part of himself must be to some extent hampered by recalcitrant elements in them, which he does not understand or cannot assimilate or find irrelevant to his creative task. in such poetry selection which is indispensable to all art, has to be made from an unusually large field of possibilities and guided by an exacting sense of what really matters and what does not. On one side he may try to include too much and lose himself in issues where be is not imaginatively at home, on the other side he may see some huge event merely from a private angle which teed not mean much to others. Political poetry oscillates between these extremes, and its history in our time has been largely attempts to make the best of one or the other of them or to see what compromises can be made between them.

2. Rewrite the following poem in simple prose and then comment on the different between the poetic achievement in the poem and the literal rendering in prose made by you:

War is not a life, it is a situation,
One which may neither be ignored or accepted
A problem to be met with ambush and stratagem,
Enveloped or scattered
The enduring is not a substitute for the transient
Neither one for the other. But the abstract conception
Of private experience as its greatest intensity
Becoming universal, which we call “poetry”
May be affirmed in verse.

3. a) Use the following words in at least two senses, either as a verb or as a noun or as an adjective or as both:

1. Clear,
2. Face,
3. Energy,
4. Value,
5. Build.

b) Use the following idiomatic expressions in illustrative sentences:

1. Carry out,
2. Taken over,
3. Bring about,
4. Beat out,
5. Bear with.

4. “The unity of a country depends on the historical consciousness of its people of a common past, but it depends more on the acceptance by people of common value-system on which their culture is based.” Discuss.
OR
Suggest ways and means of removing bitterness and improving good relationship between East and West Pakistan.

5. Analyse the causes of Youth Rebellion in the world today and suggest ways and means of removing those causes.
OR
‘West is West and East is East
And Never the twain shall meet?
(Kipling)

Write an imaginary conversation between Kipling and a highly modernized Pakistani who has seen how modem technologically oriented Western Civilization completely changing the altitude of a modern man.

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1972.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of the following passage in about 250 words:

Up to a point the Second German War resembled the first. Each began with a German bid for power which almost succeeded in spite of the opposition of France and Great Britain. In each the United States came to the rescue after year of neutrality. Each ended with a German defeat. But the differences were easier to see than the resemblances. The powers were differently grouped: Italy and Japan were on the German side, Russia was neutral until the Germans attacked across what had been, to begin with, Poland and Baltic States. The second war lasted even longer than the other. It pressed harder on the civilian population. After a period of restraint, perhaps, intended to conciliate American opinion, both sides dropped bombs from the air, without respect for the nature of the targets, wherever the officers concerned expected to cause the greatest effect. In Great Britain 60,000 civilians were killed. Though the Island was not invaded, the population was more directly involved than it was in any former war. Children and others were evacuated from towns into the country. Food supplies ran so short that, at the worst, even potatoes were rationed. Of all the states opposed to Germany, Great Britain was the only one which fought throughout the war. The resources of the nation were concentrated in the war effort more completely than those of any other nation on either side. Labour for women as well as men, became compulsory. Nevertheless, once the war reached its full severity in the west, eight months after it was declared, there was less disunion between classes and interests than in any other five years within living memory. Fighting spread all over the world. The Pacific was as vital a theatre as Europe. Scientists, especially Physicists, made revolutionary discoveries during the war, not only in the fields of weapons and defence against them, but in supply, transport, and control in action. Strange to say the fight services suffered fewer casualties than in 1914-18: 300,000 of the armed forces and 35,000 of the navy were killed. There was nothing like the trench warfare of former war, though there was almost every other sort of warfare, from mechanized war of movement in the North African desert to hand to hand jungle fighting in Burma. Both sides experimented and built up stocks for gas warfare and biological warfare, but neither side used them. (George Clark: English History: a survey)



2. Rewrite the following poem in simple prose and then comment on the difference between the poetic achievement in the poem and the literal rendering in prose made by you:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age. that blasts the roots of trees.
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose.
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks.
Drives my red blood, that drives the mouthing streams,
Turns mine to max.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins.
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
The hand that whirls the water in the pool.
Stirs the quicksand, that ropes the blowing wind,
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man,
How of my clay is make the hangman’s lime.
The lips of time leech to the fountain head.
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood,
Small calm her sores.
And! am dumb to tell a weather’s wind,
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
And lam dumb to tell the lover’s tomb,
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
(Dylan Thomas)



3. a) Distinguish between the meaning of the words in the following pairs, and use them in illustrative sentences:

1. Consciousness, conscientiousness:
2. Ingenious, ingenuous,
3. Fantastic, fanatical,
4. Honourable, honorary,
5. Politician, statesman.

b) Use the following expressions in sentences to bring out their meanings:

1. To fall back on something,
2. To fall through,
3. On right earnest,
4. Vested interests,
5. Meaningful dialogue.

4. Write a dialogue between a CSP officer and a young man aspiring to become one on how to improve civil administration in Pakistan.
OR
a) Religion is the only force that can keep our people together.
b) But it seems to have failed to do so in our country. Continue the discussion.

5. List, with brief amplification, what you regard as the five most serious problems before the Government of Pakistan.
OR
“In the opinion of this house Regionalism is greatest hindrance in the way of our national progress.”
Write a speech for or against the above mentioned.

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1973.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of the following passage in about 250 words:

As a kind of foot-note I should comment that there are those who doubt whether it is within the power of science to ensure over a prolonged period freedom from destitution and famine for mankind. The argument -is the old one of Maithus, that in the race between increasing population and increasing production, population must eventually win. Those of us who decline to accept this pessimistic view recognize the difficulty of the practical problem of meeting the needs of an ever-expanding population. We have, however, greater faith in human resourcefulness. We note that it is not only in the technology of production and medicine that the present generation differs so greatly from the one before. A similar rapid change is likewise occurring the thinking of masses of people. This change is brought about partly by experience with technology by more widespread education. Here lies a new realm in which dramatic advance is being made. The hope for the longer future lies in a growing understanding of the conditions for the good life of man in a world of science and technology, and the acceptance of a morality that is consistent with these conditions. With the widespread thought now being given to such problems by persons whose thinking is schooled to rely on reason and tested fact. It is evident that advance from this angle will also appear. Youth may, for example, consider the sere marks as an effort to see in inure perspective the type of ideals that are appropriate to the age of science. Many are those who are now sharing to this exploration of human values. The great question is whether such understanding of human goals and the corresponding development of morals can be achieved before the forces seen by Maithus, and emphasized so forcefully by recent writers, overwhelm the efforts of the pioneers in this new and critical field. I do not believe that this is inevitable. Jam confident of man’s ability to meet and solve this ethical problem that is so vital to the success of his effort to achieve physical and spiritual freedom. It is relevant that as I analyze the reasons for my faith in man’s eventual ability to meet this critical problem. I find that prominent in my mind is the confidence that God who made us holds for us an increasing density, to be achieved through our own efforts in the world setting that he supplies. This observation is significant in the present setting because it is my strong impression that most of those who have the firm faith in man’s advancement likewise have a religious basis for their faith. If this impression is valid its consequence is clear. It means that it is men and women of religious faith on whom we must primarily rely to work strongly toward achieving a favourable world society. It means also that those of religious faith because of their faith have a better chance of survival, a fact that has a bearing on the attitude that may be expected in the society of the future.

2. Render the following poem in simple prose and comment on the difference in the effective use of language between the poem and its prose version by you.

TO DAFFODILS
Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon,
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song,
And having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring,
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything,
We die,
As your hours do, and dry
Away —
Like to summer’s rain
Or as the pearls of morning dew, Ne'er to be found again.
(Robert Hemck)


3. a) Each of the following words has more than one meaning. Choose any five of them and by using them in at least two sentences each indicates what these different meanings are:

1. Report,
2. Ruler,
3. Point,
4. Wear,
5. Glasses,
6. Vessel,
7. Stage,
8. Spirit

b) Use any five of the following idiomatic expressions in your own sentences to illustrate their meaning:

1. Turn to account:
2. To beat the air,
3. To break a lance with,
4. To foul of,
5. To keep open house,
6. To put out of countenance,
7. Got up to kill,
8. To have a finger in the pie.

4. "It is my invincible belief that science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war, that notions will eventually unite not destroy but build, and that the future will belong to those who will have done most for suffering humanity.” (Louis Pasteur)
Expand this in a paragraph of about 120 words giving examples and arguments in support of Pasteur’s belief.


OR


Suggest what the people of this country can do themselves to remedy social evils.

5. “Asghar is now twenty-two,” she tells her husband, “It’s time you thought of his marriage lest the boy starts keeping bad company.” Mir Nihat clears his throat and says:
“Yes, I was going to speak to you about him myself. Has he gone to sleep?” No. He went out after dinner and has no come back yet (Ahmad All: Twilight in Delhi)
Develop this conversation between Mir Nihal and Begum Nihal about their son Asghar and his marriage in order to give an impression of the customs and manners of Muslims in Indo-Pak sub-continent.

OR

Write a critical review of the marriage customs of your region or tribe or family, etc.

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1974.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of the following passage in about 200 words:

Man is pie-eminently an animal good as gadgets. However, there is reason for doubting his good judgment in their utilization. Perhaps the first chemical process which man employed for his own service was combustion. First utilized to warm naked and chilled bodies, it was then discovered to be effective for scaring off nocturnal beasts of prey and an admirable agent for the preparation and preservation of food. Much later came the discovery that fire could be used in extracting and working metals and last of all that it could be employed to generate power. En ancient times man began to use fire as a weapon, beginning with incendiary torches and arrow and proceeding to explosives, which have been developed principally for the destruction of human beings and their works. In the control and utilization of gases, the achievements of our species have not been commendable. One might begin with air, which man breathes in common with other terrestrial vertebrates. He differs from other animals in that he seems incapable of selecting the right kind of air for breathing. Man is for ever doing things which foul the air and poisoning himself by his own stupidity. He pens himself up in a limited air space and suffocates, he manufactures noxious gases which accidentally or intentionally displace the air and remove him from the ranks of the living, he has been completely unable to filter the air of the disease germs, which he breathes to his detriment, he and all his works are powerless to prevent a hurricane or to withstand its force. Man has indeed been able to utilize the power of moving air currents to a limited extent and to imitate the flight of birds, with the certainty of eventually breaking his neck if he tries it. Man uses water much in the same way as other animals, ho has to drink it constantly, washes in it frequently, and drowns it occasionally — probably oftener than other terrestrial vertebrates. Without water, he dies as miserably as any other beast and with too much of it, as in floods, he is equally unable to cope. However, he excels other animals in that he has learned to utilize water power.
But it is rather man’s lack of judgment in the exercise of control of natural resources which would disgust critics of higher intelligence, although it would not surprise the apes. Man observes that the wood of trees is serviceable for constructing habitation and other buildings. He straightaway and recklessly denudes the earth of forests. in so far as he is able. He finds that the meat and skins of the bison are valuable and immediately goes to work to exterminate the bison. He allows his grazing animals to strip the turf from the soil so that it is blown away and fertile places become deserts. He clears for cultivation and exhausts the rich land by stupid planting. He goes into wholesale production of food, cereals, fruits and livestock and allows the fruits of his labour to rot or to starve because he has not provided any adequate method of distributing them or because no one can pay for them. He invents machines which do the work of many men, and is perplexed by the many men who are out of work. It would be hard to convince judges of human conduct that man is not an economic fool.


2. Write a prose versions of the following poem in simple English and then comment on the difference in the language of both the poem and its prose version:

Without that once clear aim, the path of flight -
To follow for a life-time through white air,
This century chokes me under roots of might,
I suffer like history in Dark Ages, where
Truth lies in dungeons, from which drifts on whisper,
We hear of towers long broken off from sight
And tortures and war, in dark and smoky rumour,
But on man’s buried lives there falls no light.
Watch me who walks through coiling streets where rain
And fog down every cry and corners of day
Road drills explore new areas of pain,
Nor summer nor light may reach down here to play.
The city builds its horror in my brain,
This writing is my only wings away..


3. a) Distinguish between the meaning of the words in the following pairs, and use them in sentences to illustrate:

1. Grateful, gratified,
2. Imaginary, imaginative,
3. Negligent, negligible,
4. placable, placeable,
5. Restive, restless.

b) Use any five of the following idioms in your own sentences to illustrate their meaning:

1. When all is said and done,
2. An axe to grind,
3. Turn anew leaf,
4. Burn the candle at both ends,
5. Leave in the lurca,
6. Goes without saying,
7. Like a red rag to a bull,
8. Not a leg to stand on,
9. Under the thumb of,
10. The writing on the wall.

4. Develop the following quotation into a paragraph of about 120 words:
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that’s the essence of humanity.” (GB. Shaw in The Devil’s Disciple. Act II)

OR

Give a brief but complete statement of your ideals and dreams of life in simple English.


5. List, with some amplification the steps that the Government of Pakistan should take in order to check inflation and rising prices in the country.

OR

Compose a short speech for a Forum on international understanding and goodwill

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1975.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of the following passage in about 200 words: -What virtues must we require of a man to whom we entrust directing of our affairs?

Above all, a sense of what is possible. In politics it is useless to formulate great and noble projects if, due to the existing state of the country, they cannot be accomplished. The impulses of a free people are at all times a parallelogram of forces. The great statesman realizes precisely what these forces are and says to himself without ever being seriously mistaken: "I can go just so far and no farther.” He does not allow himself to favour one class, foreseeing the inevitable reactions of the neglected groups. A prudent doctor does not cure his patient of a passing complaint with a remedy that produces a permanent disease of the liver, and a judicious statesman neither appeases the working class at the risk of angering the bourgeoisie, nor does he indulge the bourgeoisie at the expense of the working class. He endeavours to regard the nation as a great living body whose organs are interdependent. He takes the temperature of public opinion every day, and if the fever increases he sees to it that the country rests. Though he may fully appreciate the power of public opinion, a forceful and clever statesman realizes that he can influence it fairly easily. He has calculated the people’s power to remain indifferent to his efforts, they have their moment of violence, and their angry protests are legitimate if the Government brings poverty on them, takes away their traditional liberty, or seriously interferes with their home life. But they will allow themselves to be led by a man who knows where he is going and who shows them clearly that he has the nation’s interest at heart and that they may have confidence in him. The sense of what is possible is not only the ability to recognize that certain things are impossible — a negative virtue — but also to know that, a- courageous man, things which appear to be very difficult are in fact possible. A great statesman does not say to himself: “This nation is weak”, but “This nation is asleep: I shall wake it up. Laws and institutions are of the people’s making, if necessary, I shall -change them.” But above all, the determination to do something must be followed by acts, not merely words. Mediocre politicians spend most of their time devising schemes and preaching doctrines. They talk of structural reforms, they invent faultless social systems and formulate plans for perpetual peace. In his public speeches the true statesman knows how, if necessary, to make polite bows to new theories and to pronounce ritualistic phrases for the benefit of those who guard temple gates, but he actually occupies himself by taking care of the real needs of the nation. He endeavours to accomplish definite and precise objectives in ways that seem best to him. If he finds obstacles in his path, he makes detours. Vanity, intellectual pride, and a feeling for system are serious handicaps to the politician. Some party leaders are ready to sacrifice the country for a theory or a set of principles. The true leader says: “Lettheprinciples go but I must save the nation.”

2. Render the following poem in simple prose and comment on the difference in the effective use of language between the poem and its prose version by you:

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea.
: But sad morality o’er-sways their power,
How with this range shall beauty hold a plea.
O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O, fearful meditation, where, alack
Shall tithe’s best Jewel from me’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my Love may still shine bright.

3. a) Distinguish between the meaning of the words in the following pairs and use them in sentences to indicate what these different meanings are:

1. Amiable, amicable,
2. Considerable, considerate,
3. Ingenuous, ingenious,
4. Momentary, momentous,
5. Virtuous, virtual.

b) Use any five of the following idioms in your own sentences to illustrate their meaning:

1. To sow one’s wild oats,
2. Storm in a tea cup,
3. To keep late hours
4. To throw cold water on,
5. A cock and bull story,
6. To bear the brunt of,
7. Tied to apron-strings of,
8. To move heaven and earth,
9. To blow one’s own trumpet,
10. To rest on one’s laurels.

4. Develop the following quotation into a paragraph of about 120 words:
“At critical moments in their history it is Islam that has saved Muslims and not vice versa.”
OR
Write a complete character-sketch of the man or the woman who has impressed you the most in your life.

5. Pakistan has yet to produce a scientist of international caliber. Pinpoint the factors which, in your opinion, are responsible for this poor showing of ours in the field of science and suggest concrete measures which the Government and our Universities should take to help Pakistani scientists make solid contributions in their respective fields.
OR
Discuss in depth and entail what conditions are conducive to the growth of regionalism and provincialism — the two great menaces to national solidarity — and how they can best be eliminated.

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1976.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of the following extracts: (20 marks)

The present-day industrial establishment is a great distance removed from that of the - last century or even of twenty-five years ago. This improvement has been the result of a variety of forces-government standards and factory inspection: general technological and architectural advance by substituting machine power for heavy or repetitive manual, labour, the need to compete for a labour force: and union intervention to improve working conditions in addition to wages and hours. However, except where the improvement contributed to increased productivity, the effort to make work more pleasant has had to support a large burden of proof. It was permissible to seek the elimination of hazardous, unsanitary, unhealthful, or otherwise objectionable conditions of work. The speedup might be resisted-to a point. But the test was not what was agreeable but what was unhealthful or, at a minimum, excessively fatiguing. The trend toward increased leisure is not reprehensible, but we resist vigorously the notion that a man should work less hard on the job. Here older attitudes are involved. We are gravely suspicious of any tendency to expand less than the maximum effort, for this has long been a prime economic virtue. In strict logic there is as much to be said for making work pleasant agreeable as for shortening hours. On the whole it is probably as important for a wage-earner to have pleasant working conditions as a pleasant home. To a degree, he can escape the latter but not the former — though no doubt the line between an agreeable tempo and what is flagrant feather-bedding is difficult to draw. Moreover it is a commonplace of the industrial scene that the dreariest and most burdensome tasks, requiring as they do a minimum of thought and skill frequently have the largest number of takers. The solution to this problem lies, as we shall see presently, in driving up the supply of crude manpower at the bottom of the ladder. Nonetheless the basic point remains, the case for more leisure is not stronger on purely prima facie grounds than the case for making labour-time itself more agreeable. The test, it is worth repeating, is not the effect on productivity. it is not seriously argued that the shorter work week increases productivity that men produce more in fewer hours than they would in more. Rather it is whether fewer hours are always to be preferred to more but pleasant ones.

2. a) Write a comment on-the major idea of the following poem in about 50 words: (10 marks)

b) Also write a short note on the language the poet has used in the poem. (10 marks)

If we could get the hang of it entirely –
It would take too long,
All we know is the splash of words in passing
And falling twigs of song,
And when we try to on ves drop on the great
Presences it is rarely
That by a stroke of luck we are appropriate
Even a phrase entirely.
If we could find our happiness entirely
In somebody else’s arms
We should not fear the spears of the spring nor the city’s
Yammering fire alarms
But, as it is, the spears each year go through
Our flesh and almost hourly
Bell or siren banishes the blue
Eyes of love entirely.
And if the world were black or white entirely.
And all the charts were plain
Instead of a mad weir of tigerish waters,
A prism of delight and pain,
We might be surer where we wished to go
Or again we might be merely
Bored but in brute reality there is no
Road that is right entirely.


3. a) Use live of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out the difference in their meaning: (10 marks)

1. Par, at a par,
2. Compliment, complement,
3. Complacent, complaisant,
4. State, government,
5. Eminent, prominent,
6. Below, beneath,
7. Portly, comely,
8. Setup, set upon,
9. Shall, will,
10. Sink, drown.

b) Use the following words, expressions and idioms in your own sentences so as to bring out their meaning: (10 marks)

1. Trudge along,
2. Point-blank,
3. In the doldrums,
4. Dole out,
5. At cross purposes,
6. Check by jowl,
7. Succinctly,
8. Hilarious
9. Detract from
10. Plain sailing.

4. Bring out in about 200 words the achievements of a great scientist or writer of the twentieth century.
OR
Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper commenting on the achievements of apolitical hero of the modern times.
(20 marks)


5. Briefly discuss the role that Pakistan is playing vis-à-vis the Third World today.
OR
Write about 200-300 words on the value of sports and game in an educational system, with particular reference to Pakistan.

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1977.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Write a Précis of the following passage:

Those who regard the decay of civilization as something quite normal and natural console themselves with the thought that it is not civilization, but a civilization, which is falling a prey to dissolution, that there will be a new age and a new race in which there will blossom a new civilization. But that is a mistake. The earth no longer has in reverse, as it had once, gifted peoples as yet unused, who can relieve us and take our place in some distant future as the leaders of our spiritual life. We already know all those that the earth has to dispose of. There is not one among them which is not already taking such a part in our civilization that its spiritual fate is determined by our own. All of them, the gifted and the un-gifted, the distant and the near, have felt the influence of those forces of barbarism which are yet working among us. All of them are, like ourselves, diseased, and only as we--recover can they recover. It is not the civilization of a race, but that of mankind, present and future alike, that we must give up as lost, if belief in the rebirth of our civilization is a vain thing. But it need not be so given up. If the ethical is the essential element in civilization, decadence changes into renaissance as on as ethical activities are set to work again in our convictions and in the ideas which we undertake to stamp upon reality. The attempt to bring this about is well worth making, and it should be world wide. It is true that the difficulties that have to be reckoned with in this undertaking are so great that only the strongest faith in the power of the ethical spirit will let us venture on it. Again the renewal of civilization is hindered by the fact that it is so exclusively the individual personality which must be looked to as the agent in the new movement. The renewal of civilization has nothing to do with movements which bear the character of the experiences of the crowd, these are never anything but reactions to external happenings. But civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it, a tone of mind which gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. It is only an ethical movement which can rescue us from the slough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals. The final decision as to what the future of a society shall be depends not only how near its organization is to perfection, but on the degrees of worthiness in its individual members. The most important, and yet the least easily determinable, element in history is the series of unobtrusive general changes which take place in the individual dispositions, and that is why it is so difficult to understand thoroughly the men and events of past times. The character and worth of individuals among the mass and the way they work themselves into membership of the whole body, receiving influences from its and giving others back, we can even today only partially and uncertainly understand. One thing, however, is clear. Were the collective body works more strongly on the individual than the latter does upon it, the result is deterioration because the noble element on which everything depends, namely the spiritual and moral worthiness of the individual is thereby necessarily constricted and hampered. Decay of the spiritual and moral life then sets in which renders society incapable of understanding and solving the problems which it has to face. Therefore sooner or later, it is involved in catastrophe, and that is why it is the duty of individuals to a higher conception of their capabilities and undertake the function which only the
individual can perform, that of producing new spiritual-ethical ideas. If this does not come about many times over nothing can save us. (20 marks)


2. a) Read the following poem carefully and paraphrase it in modem English prose: (10 marks)

b) Write a brief criticism of the poem.

Mortality, behold and fear,
What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within these heaps of stones,
Here they lie, had realms and lands,
Who now want strength to stir their hands.
Wherefrom their pulpits seal'd with dust
They preach, ‘In greatness is no trust’.
Here’s an acre sown indeed
With the richest royallest seed
That the earth did e’er suck in
Since the first-man died for sin.
Here the bones of birth have cried
Though gods they were, as men they died!’
Here are sands, ignoble things,
Dropt from the ruin’d sides of Kings:
Here’s a world of pomp and state
Buried in dust, once dead by fate.

3. a) Use any five of the following pairs of words in sentences to bring out clearly their difference in meaning: (10 marks)

1. Altar, alter,
2. Apposite, opposite,
3. Bear, bare,
4. Complacent, complaisant,
5. Confident, confidant,
6. Disease, decease,
7. Gate, gait,
8. Judicial, judicious,
9. Ingenious, ingenuous,
10. Yoke, yolk.

b) Use any five of the following expressions in your own sentences to illustrate their meaning: (10 marks)

1. To bear the brunt of,
2. To call a spade a spade,
3. To fight shy of,
4. To cry over the spilt milk,
5. To burn the candle at both ends,
6. To rob peter to pay Paul,
7. To take the bull by the horns,
8. Playing to the gallery,
9. Holding out the olive branch,
10. To make out.

4. Write a letter to your local newspaper, complaining of some local nuisance and making some positive recommendations. (Please make sure that Name, Roll No. etc. is not given in the letter)
OR
Write a description (of about 200 words) of a rural or urban scene with which you are familiar. (20 marks)


5. Briefly discuss “The Role of the University in Economic Development.”
OR
Discuss in about 250 words. One of the following topics:
a) How free is the Press?
b) The lure of fashion. - (20 marks)

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1978.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

1. Make a Précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title; - 20

"I was a firm believer in democracy, whereas he (D. H. Lawrence) had developed the whole philosophy of Fascism before the politicians had thought of it. “I don’t believe,-”he wrote, “in democratic control. I think the working man is fit to elect governors or overseers for his immediate circumstances, but for no more. You must utterly revise the electorate: The working man shall elect superiors for the things that concern him immediately, no more. From the other classes, as they rise, shall be elected the higher governors. The thing must culminate in one real head, as every organic thing must-no foolish republics with no foolish presidents, but an elected king, something like Julius Caesar,” He, of a course, in his imagination, supposed that when a dictatorship was established he would be the Julius Caesar. This was the part of the dream-like quality of all his thinking. He never let himself bump into reality. He would go into long tirades about how one must proclaim “the truth” to the multitude, and he seemed to have no doubt that multitude would listen. Would he put his political philosophy into a book? No in our corrupt society the written word is always a lie. Would he go in Hyde Park-and proclaim “the Truth” from a soap box? No: That would be far too dangerous (odd streaks of prudence emerged in him from time to time). Well, I said, what would you do? At this point he would change the subject Gradually I discovered that he had no real wish to make the world better, but only to indulge in eloquent Soliloquy about how had it was. If anybody heard the soliloquies so much the better, but they were designed at most to produce a little faithful band of disciples who could sit in the deserts of New Mexico and feel holy. All this was conveyed to me in the language of a Fascist dictator as what I must preach, the “must” having thirteen underlining.”(Lord Russell)


2."I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin built there, of clay and wattles made,
Nine beam rows will I have there, a hive of the honey bee,
And live alone in bee loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace conies
dropping slow.
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the crickets sing,
There midnight’s all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And even in full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore, -
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”

i) Using about 50 words, bring out he reason why the poet wants to go Innisfree and what he intends to do there. 10
ii) Critically comment on the main idea and language of the poem. 10


3. a) Use five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meaning:

1. Affection, affectation,
2. Urban, urbane,
3. Official, officious,
4. Beside, besides,
5. Casual, causal,
6. Pour, pore.
7. Humiliation, humility,
8. Wreck, reak,
9. Bare, bear,
10. Temporal, temporary,

b) Use the following expressions and idioms in your own sentences so as to bring out their meaning:

1. The acid test,
2. A bad hat,
3. In a blue funk,
4. Set one’s cap Down at heel,
5. To die in harness, -
6. Dead as doornail,
7. To raise coin,
8. To strike one’s colours
9. To carry the day.

4. Write a short story of about 200 words illustrating the moral, “A fool may learn a wise man wit”.
OR
Write a letter to a foreign pen-friend giving him a few reasons why Muslims demanded Pakistan. (20 marks)


5. Discuss the statement that the vacuum of values which we are experiencing today has come about because those who should have protected the values have surrendered without a struggle.
OR
Write a note on the deteriorating standards of Education in our country. Suggest some remedies. (20 marks)

[Last Island]

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS

IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1979.

ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS MAXIMUM MARKS:100

I. Write a Précis of the following passage and assign a suitable heading to it:

Probably the only protection for contemporary man is to discover how to use his intelligence in the service of love and kindness. The training of human intelligence must include the simultaneous development of the empathic capacity. Only in this way can intelligence be made an instrument of social morality and responsibility — and thereby increase the chances of survival.
The need to produce human beings with trained morally sensitive intelligence is essentially a challenge to educators and educational institutions. Traditionally, the realm of social morality was left to religion and the churches as guardians or custodians. But their failure to fulfill this responsibility and their yielding to the seductive lures of the men of wealth and! pomp and power and documented by the history of the last two thousand years and have now resulted in the irrelevant “God Is Dead” theological rhetoric The more pragmatic men of power have had no time or inclination to deal with the fundamental problems of social morality. For them simplistic Machiavellianism must remain the guiding principle of their decisions-power is morality, morality is power. This oversimplification increases the chances of nuclear devastation. We must therefore hope that educators and educational institutions have the capacity, the commitment and the time to instill moral sensitivity as an integral part of the complex pattern of function human intelligence. Some way must be found in the training of human beings to give them the assurance to love, the security to be kind. and the integrity required for a functional empathy.

2. Paraphrase the following poem and critically examine its theme:

The quality of mercy is not strained:
It droppeth as the gentle rain from the Heaven
Upon the place beneath, it is twice blest,
It blesscth him that gives and him that takes,
This mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown,
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of Kings,
But mercy is above the sceptred sway,
it is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God Himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice.

3. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings:

1. Cession, Session
2. Canon, Cannon
3. Barbarism, Barbarity
4. Artist, Artisan
5. Antic, Antique
   Illusion, Allusion
6. Aspire, Expire
7. Collision, Collusion
8. Counsel, Council
9. Expedient, Expeditious.

b) Use any five of the following expressions and idioms in your own sentences so as to bring out their meanings:

1. Taken down at peg,
2. To monkey with,
3. In hot water,
4. Petticoat Government,
5. To pull oneself together,
6. To rise from the ranks,
7. To rub shoulders.

4. Would you rather have the kind of society where students were so indifferent that they lacked interest in politics or the society in which they show independence to differ with the Administration?
OR
Life is tragedy to those who feel and comedy to those who think. Comment.


5. In reviving stale philosophies of the East and romanticizing it’s past, the West is helping to perpetuate Eastern backwardness. Comment on this statement.
OR
“I am his Majesty’s dog at Kew.
Pray tell me, whose dog are you?” (Alexander Pope)
Comment on the psychological implications of this query.