8/3/2019 Precis & Composition 1987

1/2

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONCOMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR

RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN B.P.S-17 UNDER THEFEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1987

ENGLISH (PRCIS & COMPOSITION)Time allowed: 3 Hours Maximum

Marks 100------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Write a Prcis of the following passage, suggesting a suitable title:

25

The incomparable gift of brain, with its truly amazing powers of abstraction, hasrendered obsolete the slow and sometimes clumsy mechanisms utilized byevolution so far Thanks to the brain alone, man, in the course of three generationsonly, has conquered the realm of air, while it took hundreds of thousands of yearsfor animals to achieve the same result through the processes of evolution. Thanksto the brain alone, the range of our sensory organs has been increased a millionfold, far beyond the wildest dreams; we have brought the moon within thirty milesof us we see the infinitely small ad see the infinitely remote; we hear the inaudiblewe have dwarfed distance and killed physical time. We have succeeded inunderstanding them thoroughly. We have put to shame the tedious and timesconsuming methods of trail and error used by Nature, because Nature has finallysucceeded in producing its masterpieces in the shape of the human brain. But thegreat laws of evolution are still active, even though adaptation has lost itsimportance as far as we are concerned. We are now responsible for the progress ofevolution. We are free to destroy ourselves if we misunderstand the meaning andthe purpose of our victories. And we are free to forge ahead, to prolong evolution, tocooperate with God if we perceive the meaning of it all, if we realize that it can onlybe achieved through a whole-hearted effort toward moral and spiritualdevelopment. Our freedom, of which we may be justly proud, affords us the proofthat we represent the spearhead of evolution: but it is up to us to demonstrate, bythe way in which we use it, whether we are ready yet to assume the tremendousresponsibility which has befallen us almost suddenly.

2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end:20

There is a sense in which the aim of education must be the same in all societies.Two hundred years from now there will be no one alive in the world who is alivetoday. Yet the sum total of human skill and knowledge will probable not be less thanit is today. It will almost certainly be greater. And that this is so is due in large partto the educational process by which we pass on to one generation what has beenlearned and achieved by previous generations. The continuity and growth of societyis obviously dependent in this way upon education, both formal and informal. Ifeach generation had to learn for itself what had been learned by its predecessor, nosort of intellectual or social development would be possible and the present sate ofsociety would be little different form the society of the Old Stone Age. But this basicaim of education is so general and so fundamental that is hardly given consciousrecognition as an educational purpose. It is rather to be classed as the mostimportant social function of education and is a mater of interest to the sociologist

8/3/2019 Precis & Composition 1987

2/2

rather than to the educational theorist. Education does this job in any society andthe specific way in which it does it will vary from one society to another. When wespeak in the ordinary way about the aims of education, we are interested rather inthe specific goals set by the nature of society and the purposes of its members.

The educational system of any society is a more or less elaborate social

mechanism designed to bring about in the persons submitted to it certain skills andattitudes that are judged to be useful and desirable in the society.a) How is the continuity and growth of society dependent upon education?b) In what way the aims of education are related with a society and its members?c) What important does the writer give to the education system of a society?

3. Use any five of the following pairs of words in your own sentences so as tobring out the difference in meaning clearly.

Disclosure, exposure; rigorous, vigorous; custom, habit; peculiar, particular;prescribe, proscribe; accident, incident; choice, preference; ascent, assent;emigrant, immigrant; continuous, continual.

4. Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any Five of the following:

To back out; to keep out of; bang into; to smell a rat; to burn ones fingers; null andvoid to catch up with; to stand up for; to skim through; to narrow down

5. Complete any five of the following sentences supplying the missing word orphrase in each:

a) He wondered ___________________ he had lost his money.b) Her father knew that she ______________disobey him.c) When Ahmed saw me coming he ______________d) Dont imagine you can get away ______________e) He puts up ___________ almost anythingf) I have applied ________ a new job.g) Her parents strongly object ___________ her travelling alone.h) As soon as the plane had refueled ______________i) _______________ you take this medicine, you will feel better.

j) A car with a good engine can go ______________

6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in about 150 words:

a) Learn to walk before you runb) Marriage is a lotteryc) Success has many fiends