CSS English Precis & Composition Past Paper 2001 PDF
Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) Competitive Examination for Recruitment to BPS-17 Posts under the Federal Government
ENGLISH (Precis & Composition)
Time Allowed: 3 Hours
Subjective Marks:100
Q.1 Make a précis of the given passage and suggest a suitable title also.(20)
It was not from want of perceiving the beauty of external nature but from the different way of perceiving it, that the early Greeks did not turn their genius to portray, either in colour or in poetry, the outlines, the hues, and contrasts of all fair valley, and hold cliffs, and golden moons, and rosy lawns which their beautiful country affords in lavish abundance. Primitive people never so far as I know, enjoy when is called the picturesque in nature, wild forests, beetling cliffs, reaches of Alpine snow are with them great hindrances to human intercourse, and difficulties in the way of agriculture. They are furthermore the homes of the enemies of mankind, of the eagle, the wolf, or the tiger, and are most dangerous in times of earthquake or tempest. Hence the grand and striking features of nature are at first looked upon with fear and dislike. I do not suppose that Greeks different in the respect from other people, except that the frequent occurrence of mountains and forests made agriculture peculiarly difficult and intercourse scanty, thus increasing their dislike for the apparently reckless waste in nature. We have even in Homer a similar feeling as regards the sea, — the sea that proved the source of all their wealth and the condition of most of their greatness. Before they had learned all this, they called it “the unvintagable sea” and looked upon its shore as merely so much waste land. We can, therefore, easily understand, how in the first beginning of Greek art, the representation of wild landscape would find no place, whereas, fruitful fields did not suggest themselves as more than the ordinary background. Art in those days was struggling with material nature to which it felt a certain antagonism. There was nothing in the social circumstances of the Greeks to produce any revolution in this attitude during their greatest days. The Greek republics were small towns where the pressure of the city life was not felt. But as soon as the days of the Greeks republics were over, the men began to congregate for imperial purposes into Antioch, or Alexandria, or lastly into Rome, than we seek the effect of noise and dust and smoke and turmoil breaking out into the natural longing for rural rest and retirement so that
Q.2 Read the following passage and answer the questions given at the end: (5 x 4 = 20)
Poetry is the language of imagination and the passions. It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to the human mind. It comes home to the bosoms and business of men: for nothing but what comes home to them in the most general and intelligible shape can be a subject of poetry. Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself.
He who has a contempt for poetry cannot have much respect for himself or for anything else. Wherever there is a sense of beauty, or power, or harmony, as in the motion of the waves of the sea, in the growth of a flower, there is poetry in its birth.
If history is a grave study, poetry may be said to be graver; its materials lie deeper and are spread wider. History treats, for the most part, cumbersome and unwieldy masses of things—the empty cases in which the affairs of the world are packed, under the heads of intrigue or war, in different states and from century to century. But there is no thought or feeling that can have entered into the mind of man which he would be eager to communicate to others, or they would listen to with delight, that is not a fit subject for poetry.
It is not a branch of authorship; it is “the stuff of which our life is made.” The rest is mere oblivion, a dead letter, for all that is worth remembering in life is the poetry of it. Fear is poetry, hope is poetry, love is poetry, hatred is poetry. Poetry is that fine particle within us that expands, refines, and raises our whole being; without it, man’s life is poor as beasts. In fact, man is a poetical animal.
The child is a poet when he first plays hide and seek or repeats the story of Jack the Giant Killer; the shepherd-boy is a poet when he first crowns his mistress with a garland of flowers; the countryman when he stops to look at the rainbow; the miser when he hugs his gold; the courtier when he builds his hope upon a smile; the vain, the ambitious, the proud, the choleric man, the hero and the coward, the beggar and the king—all live in a world of their own making; and the poet does no more than describe what all others think and act. Hazlitt
Questions:
(a) In what sense is poetry the language of imagination and the passions? (b) How is poetry the universal language of the heart? (c) What is the difference between history and poetry? (d) Explain the phrase: “Man is a poetical animal.” (e) What are some of the actions which Hazlitt calls poetry and its doers poet? (f) Explain the following underlined expressions in the passage: (i) It relates to whatever gives immediate pleasure or pain to the human heart. (ii) A sense of beauty, or power, or harmony. (iii) Cumbersome and unwieldy masses of things. (iv) It is the stuff of which our life is made.
Q 3. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300 words) on any ONE of the following subjects: (20)
Write a comprehensive note (250–300 words) on ONE of the following subjects: (20)
(a) Modern history registers such primary and rapid changes that it cannot repeat itself. (b) “The golden rule is that there is no golden rule.” (G. B. Shaw) (c) Crisis tests the true mettle of man. (d) It is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannical to use it like a giant.
Q 4. Correct the following sentences:
(a) His wisdom consisted in handling the dangerous situation successfully. (b) Many a girls were appearing in the examination. (c) The vehicles run fastly on the Motorway. (d) Smoking is injurious for health. (e) He availed of this situation very intelligently. (f) The black vermin is an odious creature. (g) What to speak of meat, even vegetables were not available now. (h) No sooner we left our home when it started raining. (i) Little money I had I spent on the way. (j) The criminal was sent to the goal.
Q5. Use any Five of the following idioms in sentences to make their meaning clear: (10)
(i) The teeming meanings (ii) To kick the bucket (iii) To push to the walls (iv) To read between the lines (v) To be at daggers drawn (vi) To throw down the gauntlet (vii) To be a Greek (viii) To stand on ceremony (ix) From the horse’s mouth (x) To carry the cross
Q6. Use any Five of the following pairs of words in sentences of your own to bring out the difference: (10)
Brooch, broad
Collusion, collision
Fain, feign
Hoard, horde
Illusion, delusion
Persecute, prosecute
Prescribe, proscribe
Respectfully, respectively
Complacent, complaisant
Q7. Read the following dialogue and place the given words in it at proper places: (10)
Sweating away as usual
Health first, exam second
Can you study while confined to bed?
Has anyone been marketed anywhere?
An unwanted commodity
As long as there is life, there is hope
You will become a thin, gaunt, half-blind weakling with sunken cheeks and haggard looks
Once again grow into a rose-cheeked young man
There is no deviation from it
The parting of ways
Good morning, Waseem __________ and looking pale. Come out in the open.
I am sorry, Nadeem. I cannot do that. The examination is drawing near and I want to utilize every minute for its preparation.
To hell with exam __________
Well, health is good but failure is bad. Therefore, one should take books and study them for the University exam.
Suppose you grow into a bookworm and as a result fall ill. __________ Again, many boys work hard and get degrees. Do you think they get jobs? Our society is flooded with graduates but __________? They are roaming about with degrees in their hands. They are __________.
Well, degree is an ornament in itself, job or no job. Besides, there is no need to be hopeless. I am sure when I get a degree with a good grade, I am sure to get a job in a Government office or in a private firm. You know that __________.
Well, how should I explain to you the blessing of good health? If you continue treading on this path, __________. Please come into the fresh air, take exercise, play some game and __________. Don’t grow old prematurely.
Please listen, I want to be a graduate this year, now or never. I have made up my mind for this and __________.
