Precis Writing Exercise No. 76/80
Checking Fee For This Exercise: $1
Total Marks: 100
Time Allowed: 3:00 Hours
Q.1. Make a precis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (20)
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 psychologists, on the other hand, in his exclusive involvement with the psyche, have 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 live, sympathy, and humanness. Technologically, man is immensely powerful; culturally, he is the creature Stone Age, 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 arises 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.
Q.2. Write a precis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title. (20)
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 with 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 inexpressive beauty, the charm of the yellow sun and dazzling ice pack, the everlasting snows and unmapped land where one never knows what lies ahead; it may be a gigantic glacier, which reflects a bean 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.
Q.3. Make a precis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (20)
Lying is indeed an accursed vice. We are men, and we have relations with one another 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. Laying - 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 don not understand. Therefore, those of different nations do not regard one another as men and how much less friendly is false speech than silence.
Q.4. Make a precis of the following passage about one third of its length and suggest a suitable title. (20)
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.
Q.5. Make a precis of the following passage in about one third of its length. Suggest a suitable title also. (20)
Besant describing the middle class of the 9th century wrote, "In the fist 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 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 country families and in the town they were not admitted by the men into their clubs, or by the 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 wee also more concerned with the plight of the poor and the importance of their own values of society, thrift, hard work, piety and respectability as examples of ideal behaviour 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 behaviours were certainly not respectable, nor were godlessness or avert promiscuity, not in ill-ordered home life, unconventional manners, self-indulgence of flamboyant clothes and personal adornments.
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