Write a précis of the following and suggest a suitable title:

The fear of human beings when faced with the mysteries of life and their weakness
by comparison with the vastness of nature created in them a need to communicate
with the divine, with the superior powers which they believed regulated the
universe and determined their own fates. Knowedge of wishes of the gods was
always a sure guide for human behavior. In ancient Greece, the precise nature of
these wishes was ‘decoded’ by the art of giving oracles, practiced by soothsayers
who had the gift of understanding the signs or signals sent by the gods.
The soothsayers uttered their oraclea by interpreting flashes of lightening, rolls of
thunder or the flights of certain birds of prey (omens), alternatively, they might
observe the direction in which the fire burned when a sacrifice was made, examine
the entrails of animals which had just been sacrificed or base judgments on the
sacrificial beast’s willingness to approach the altar. The interptetation of dreams
was popular too, and so was palmistry. The most notable soothsayers of ancient
Greece were Tiresias, Calchas, Helenus, Amphiaraus and Cassandra.
However, there were abundant instances in which the gods did not manifest
themselves to the faithful in the forms of signs but spoke directly to an intermediate
who for a short time was overcome by a ‘divine mania’ and transcended his own
human essence. Here the prophet- or more usually the prophetess_ entered a state of
ecstasy in which he or she delivered the message from the gods to the suppliants.
These practices for foreseeing the future were the basis on which the ancient Greek
oracles operated. Each oracle was located within a properly-organized sanctuary
and was directly associated with one or other of the gods. Apollo was the archetypal
soothsayer for the Greeks, the god who was responsible for conveying to mortals
the decisions pronounced by Zeus. The most important of all the oracles, that at the
Delphi, delivered the messages with the intervention of Apollo, while the oldest that
or Dodona, functioned with the assistance of Zeus.
write precis of the following passage and also suggest suitable title:
Nizar Hassan was born in 1960 and raised in the village of Mashhad, near Nazareth,
where he has lived with his family. He studied anthropology at Haifa University
and after graduating worked in TV. Starting in 1990, he turned to cinema. In 1994,
he produced Independence, in which he pokes his Palestinian interlocutors about
what they think of the bizarre Israeli notion of their “independence”. They have
stolen another people’s homeland and call the act “independence”! Hassan dwells
on that absurdity.
As the world’s attention was captured by the news of Israel planning to “annex” yet
a bit more of Palestine and add it to what they have already stolen, I received an
email from Nizar Hassan, the pre-eminent Palestinian documentary filmmaker. He
wrote to me about his latest film, My Grandfather’s Path, and included a link to the
director’s cut. It was a blessing. They say choose your enemies carefully for you
would end up like them. The same goes for those opposing Zionist settler
colonialists. If you are too incensed and angered by their daily dose of claptrap, the
vulgarity of their armed robbery of Palestine, you would soon become like them
and forget yourself and what beautiful ideas, ideals, and aspirations once animated
your highest dreams. Never fall into that trap. For decades, aspects of Palestinian
and world cinema, art, poetry, fiction, and drama have done for me precisely that:
saved me from that trap. They have constantly reminded me what all our politics are
about – a moment of poetic salvation from it all.
Nizar Hassan’s new documentary is one such work – in a moment of dejection over
Israel’s encroachment on Palestinian rights and the world’s complicity, it has put
Palestine in perspective. The film is mercifully long, beautifully paced and patient,
a masterfully crafted work of art – a Palestinian’s epic ode to his homeland. A
shorter version of My Grandfather’s Path has been broadcast on Al Jazeera Arabic
in three parts, but it must be seen in its entirety, in one go. It is a pilgrimage that
must not be interrupted
write precis of the following passage and also suggest suitable title:
Manto was a victim of some kind of social ambivalence that converged on self-
righteousness, hypocrisy, and mental obtuseness. His detractors branded him as
vulgar and obscene and implicated him into a long-drawn legal battle questioning
the moral validity of his writings. Without being deterred by their negative tactics,
he remained firm in his commitment to exploring the stark realities of life offensive
to the conservative taste of some self-styled purists. In the line of Freud, he sought
to unravel the mysteries of sex not in a abstract, non-earthly manner but in a
palpable, fleshy permutation signifying his deep concern for the socially disabled
and depressed classes of society, like petty wage-earners, pimps and prostitutes.
For Manto, man is neither an angel nor a devil, but a mix of both. His middle and
lower middle class characters think, feel and act like human beings. Without
feigning virtuosity, he was able to strike a rapport with his readers on some of the
most vital socio-moral issues concerning them. As a realist, he was fully conscious
of the yawning gap between appearance and reality, in fact, nothing vexed him
more than a demonstrable duality in human behaviour at different levels of social
hierarchy. He had an jaundiced view of man’s faults and follies. As a literary artist,
he treated vulgarity discreetly — without ever sounding vulgar in the process. Like
Joyce, Lawrence, and Caldwell, in Manto’s work too, men and women of the age
find their own restlessness accurately mirrored. And like them, Manto was also
‘raised above his own self by his sombre enthusiasm’.
Write a précis of the following passage in about 120 words and also suggest a
suitable title:
It is in the temperate countries of northern Europe that the beneficial effects of cold
arc most manifest A cold climate scents to stimulate energy by acting as an
obstacle. In the face of an insuperable obstacle our energies are numbed by despair;
the total absence of obstacles, on the other hand, leaves no room for the exercise
and training of energy; but a struggle against difficulties that we have a fair hope of
over-coming, calls into active operation all our powers. In like manner, while
intense cold numbs human energies, and a hot climate affords a little motive for
exertion, moderate cold seems to have a bracing effect on the human race. In a
moderately cold climate man is engaged in an arduous, but no hopeless struggles
and with the inclemency of the weather. He has to build strong houses and procure
thick clothes to keep himself warm. To supply fuel for his fires, he must hew down
trees and dig coal out of the earth. In the open air, unless he moves quickly, he will
suffer pain from the biting wind. Finally, in order to replenish the expenditure of
bodily tissue causal by his necessary exertions. he has to procure for himself plenty
of nourishing food.
Quite different is the lot of man in the tropics. In the neighborhood of the equator,
there is little need of clothes or fire, and it is possible with perfect comfort and no
danger to health, to pass the livelong day stretched out on the bare ground beneath
the shade of a tree. A very little fruit or vegetable food is required to sustain life
under such circumstances, and that little can be obtained without much exertion
from the bounteous earth.
We may recognize must the same difference between ourselves at different seasons
of the year, as there is between human nature in the tropics and in temperate climes.
In hot weather we are generally languid and inclined to take life easily; but when
the cold season comes, we find that we are more inclined to a vigorous exertion of
our minds and bodies.
Write a précis of the following passage in about 120 words and also suggest a
suitable title:

All the evils in this world are brought about by the persons who are always up and
doing but do not know when they ought to be up nor what they ought to be doing.
The devil, I take it, is still the busiest creature in the universe, and I can quite
imagine him denouncing laziness and becoming angry at the smallest waste of time.
In his kingdom, I will wager, nobody is allowed to do nothing, not even for a single
afternoon. The world, we all freely admit, is in a muddle but I for one do not think
that it is laziness that has brought it to such a pass. It is not the active virtues that it
lacks but the passive ones; it is capable of anything but kindness and a little steady
thought. There is still plenty of energy in the world (there never were more fussy
people about), but most of it is simply misdirected. If, for example, in July 1914,
when there was some capital idling weather, everybody, emperors, Kings,
archdukes, statesmen, generals, journalists, had been suddenly smitten with an
intense desire to do nothing, just to hang about in the sunshine and consume
tobacco, then we should all have been much better off than we are now. But no, the
doctrine of the strenuous life still went unchallenged; there must be no time wasted;
something must be done. Again, suppose our statesmen, instead of rushing off to
Versailles with a bundle of ill-digested notions and great deal of energy to dissipate
had all taken a fortnight off, away from all correspondence and interviews and
whatnot, and had simply lounged about on some hillside or other apparently doing
nothing for the first time in their energetic lives, then they might have gone to their
so-called peace conference and come away again with their reputations still
unspoiled and the affairs of the world in good trim. Even at the present time, if half
of the politicians in Europe would relinquish the notion that laziness is a crime and
go away and do nothing for a little space, we should certainly gain by it. Other
examples come crowding into mind. Thus, every now and then, certain religious
sects hold conferences; but though there are evils abroad that are mountains high,
though the fate of civilization is still doubtful, the members who attend these
conferences spend their time condemning the length of ladies’ skirts and the
noisiness of dance bands. They would all be better employed lying flat on their
backs somewhere, staring at the sky and recovering their mental health.
Q. 2. Write a précis of the following passage in about 120 words and suggest a
suitable title: (20)
During my vacation last May, I had a hard time choosing a tour. Flights to Japan,
Hong Kong and Australia are just too common. What I wanted was somewhere
exciting and exotic, a place where I could be spared from the holiday tour crowds. I
was so happy when John called up, suggesting a trip to Cherokee, a county in the
state of Oklahoma. I agreed and went off with the preparation immediately. We
took a flight to Cherokee and visited a town called Qualla Boundary surrounded by
magnificent mountain scenery, the town painted a paradise before us. With its
Oconaluftee Indian Village reproducing tribal crafts and lifestyles of the 18th
century and the outdoor historical pageant Unto These Hills playing six times
weekly in the summer nights, Qualla Boundary tries to present a brief image of the
Cherokee past to the tourists. Despite the language barrier, we managed to find our
way to the souvenir shops with the help of the natives. The shops were filled with
rubber tomahawks and colorful traditional war bonnets, made of dyed turkey
feathers. Tepees, cone shaped tents made from animal skin, were also pitched near
the shops. “Welcome! Want to get anything?” We looked up and saw a middle-aged
man smiling at us. We were very surprised by his fluent English. He introduced
himself as George and we ended up chatting till lunch time when he invited us for
lunch at a nearby coffee shop. “Sometimes, I’ve to work from morning to sunset
during the tour season. Anyway, this is still better off than being a woodcutter …”
Remembrance weighed heavy on George’s mind and he went on to tell us that he
used to cut firewood for a living but could hardly make ends meet. We learnt from
him that the Cherokees do not depend solely on trade for survival. During the tour
off-peak period, the tribe would have to try out other means for income. One of the
successful ways is the “Bingo Weekend”. On the Friday afternoons of the Bingo
weekends, a large bingo hall was opened, attracting huge crowds of people to the
various kinds of games like the Super Jackpot and the Warrior Game Special.
According to George, these forms of entertainment fetch them great returns. Our
final stop in Qualla Boundary was at the museum where arts, ranging from the
simple hand-woven oak baskets to wood and stone carvings of wolves, ravens and
other symbols of Cherokee cosmology are displayed. Back at home, I really missed
the place and I would of course look forward to the next trip to another exotic place.
Make a précis of the following text and suggest a suitable title.
In studying the breakdowns of civilizations, the writer has subscribed to the
conclusion – no new discovery! – that war has proved to have been the proximate
cause of the breakdown of every civilization which is known for certain to have
broken down, in so far as it has been possible to analyze the nature of these
breakdowns and to account for their occurrence. Like other evils, war has an
insidious way of appearing not intolerable until it has secured such a stranglehold
upon the lives of its addicts that they no longer have the power to escape from its
grip when its deadliness has become manifest. In the early stages of a civilization’s
growth, the cost of wars in suffering and destruction might seem to be exceeded by
the benefits accruing from the winning of wealth and power and the cultivation of
the “military virtues”; and, in this phase of history, states have often found
themselves able to indulge in war with one another with something like impunity
even for the defeated party.
War does not begin to reveal its malignity till the war-making society has begun to
increase its economic ability to exploit physical nature and its political ability to
organize man- power; but, as soon as this happens, the god of war to which the
growing society has long since been dedicated proves himself a Moloch by
devouring an ever larger share of the increasing fruits of man’s industry and
intelligence in the process of taking an ever larger toll of life and happiness; and,
when the society’s growth in efficiency reaches a point at which it becomes capable
of mobilizing a lethal quantum of its energies and resources for military use, then
war reveals itself as being a cancer which is bound to prove fatal to its victim unless
he can cut it out and cast it from him, since its malignant tissues have now learnt to
grow faster that the healthy tissues on which they feed.
In the past, when this danger-point in the history of the relations between war and
civilization has been reached and recognized, serious efforts have sometimes been
made to get rid of war in time to save society, and these endeavors have been apt to
take one or other of two alternative directions. Salvation cannot, of course, be
sought anywhere except in the working of the consciences of individual human
beings; but individuals have a choice between trying to achieve their aims through
direct action as private citizens and trying to achieve them through indirect action as
citizens of states. A personal refusal to lend himself in any way to any war waged
by his state for any purpose and in any circumstances is a line of attack against the
institution of war that is likely to appeal to an ardent and self-sacrificing nature; by
comparison, the alternative peace strategy of seeking to persuade and accustom
governments to combine in jointly resisting aggression when it comes and in trying
to remove its stimuli beforehand may seem a circuitous and unheroic line of attack
on the problem. Yet experience up to date indicates unmistakably, in the present
writer’s opinion, that the second of these two hard roads is by far the more
promising.
Make a précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable heading.
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 fulfil this responsibility and their yielding to the
seductive lures of the men of wealth and pomp and power are documented by
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 over-simplification increases the chances
of nuclear devastation. We must therefore hope that educators and educational
institutions have the capacity, the commitment and the time to in-still moral
sensitivity as an integral part of the complex pattern of functional 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.
Make the precis of the following passage and suggest a suitable heading.

Culture, in human societies, has two main aspects; an external, formal aspect and an
inner, ideological aspect. The external forms of culture, social or artistic, are merely
an organized expression of its inner ideological aspect, and both are an inherent
component of a given social structure. They are changed or modified when this
structure. They are changed and modified when this structure is changed or
modified and because of this organic link they also help and influence such changes
in their parent organism. Cultural Problems, therefore, cannot be studied or
understood or solved in isolation from social problems, i.e. problems of political
and economic relationships. The cultural problems of the underdeveloped countries,
therefore, have to be understood and solved in the light of larger perspective, in the
context of underlying social problems. Very broadly speaking, these problems are
primarily the problems of arrested growth; they originate primarily from long years
of imperialist-Colonialist domination and the remnants of a backward outmoded
social structure. This should not require much elaboration European Imperialism
caught up with the countries of Asia, Africa or Latin America between the sixteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Some of them were fairly developed feudal societies with
ancient traditions of advanced feudal culture. Others had yet to progress beyond
primitive pastoral tribalism. Social and cultural development of them all was frozen
at the point of their political subjugation and remained frozen until the coming of
political independence. The culture of these ancient feudal societies, in spite of
much technical and intellectual excellence, was restricted to a small privileged class
and rarely intermingled with the parallel unsophisticated folk culture of the general
masses. Primitive tribal culture, in spite of its child like beauty, had little
intellectual content. Both feudal and tribal societies living contagiously in the same
homelands were constantly engaged in tribal, racial and religious or other feuds
with their tribal and feudal rivals. Colonialist – imperialist domination accentuated
this dual fragmentation, the vertical division among different tribal and national
groups, the horizontal division among different classes within the same tribal or
national groups. This is the basic ground structure, social and cultural, bequeathed
to the newly liberated countries by their former over lords.
Make a precise of the following passage and suggest a suitable heading.
One of the most ominous and discreditable symptoms of the want of candour in
present-day sociology is the deliberate neglect of the population question. It is or
should be transparently clear that if the State is resolved, on humanitarian grounds,
to inhibit the operation of natural selection, some rational regulation of population,
both as regards quantity and quality, is imperatively necessary. There is no self-
acting adjustment, apart from starvation, of numbers to the means of subsistence. If
all natural checks are removed, a population in advance of the optimum number
will be produced, and maintained at the cost of a reduction in the standard of living.
When this pressure begins to be felt, that section of the population which is capable
of reflection, and which has a standard of living which may be lost, will voluntarily
restrict its numbers, even to the point of failing to replace deaths by an equivalent
number of new births; while the underworld, which always exists in every civilised
society the failures and misfits and derelicts, moral and physical will exercise no
restraint, and will be a constantly increasing drain upon the national resources. The
population will thus be recruited, in a very undue proportion, by those strata of
society which do not possess the qualities of useful citizens.
The importance of the problem would seem to be sufficiently obvious. But
politicians know that the subject is unpopular. The unborn have no votes.
Employers like a surplus of labour, which can be drawn upon when trade is good.
Militarists want as much food for powder as they can get. Revolutionists
instinctively oppose any real remedy for social evils; they know that every
unwanted child is a potential insurgent. All three can appeal to a quasi-religious
prejudice, resting apparently on the ancient theory of natural rights, which were
supposed to include the right of unlimited procreation. This objection is now chiefly
urged by celibate or childless priests; but it is held with such fanatical vehemence
that the fear of losing the votes which they control is a welcome excuse for the
baser sort of politician to shelve the subject as inopportune. The Socialist
calculation is probably erroneous; for experience has shown that it is the aspiration,
not desperation, that makes revolutions.
Make a précis of the following passage in about 120 words and suggesta
suitable title.
“Teaching, more even than other professions, has been transformed during the last
hundred years from a small, highly skilled profession concerned with a minority of
the population, to a large and important branch of the public service. The profession
has a great and honourable tradition, extending from the dawn of history until
recent times, but any teacher in the modern world who allows himself to be inspired
by the ideals of his predecessors is likely to be made sharply aware that it is not his
function to teach what he thinks, but to instill such beliefs and prejudices as are
thought useful by his employers. In former days a teacher was expected to be a man
of exceptional knowledge or wisdom, to whose words men would do well to attend.
In antiquity, teachers were not an organized profession, and no control was
exercised over what they taught. It is true that they were often punished afterwards
for their subversive doctrines. Socrates was put to death and Plato is said to have
been thrown into prison, but such incidents did not interfere with the spread of their
doctrines. Any man who has the genuine impulse of the teacher will be more
anxious to survive in his books than in the flesh. A feeling of intellectual
independence is essential to the proper fulfillment of the teacher’s function, since it
is his business to instill what he can of knowledge and reasonable into the process
of forming public opinion.
In our more highly organized world we face a new problem. Something called
education is given to everybody, usually by the State. The teacher has thus become,
in the vast majority of cases, a civil servant obliged to carry out the behests of men
who have not his learning, who have no experience of dealing with the young and
whose only attitude towards education is that of the propagandist.”
Make a précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title.
There has existed throughout the history of mankind a strange, albeit, an ironic
relationship between the past and the future. The people who just eulogize their past
without critical analysis and seek to recreate a utopian past almost invariably do not
succeed, while those who view the past realistically, comprehensively and critically
are able to draw on the past in useful, meaningful and lasting ways. They learn
lessons from the history and apply those lessons for better future. Such people have
in their future, and they approach the past with seriousness and critical reverence.
They study the past realistically, try to comprehend the values, aesthetics, and traits
which invested an earlier civilization its grandeur or caused it to decline. They
preserve its remains, and enshrine relevant and enriching images and events of the
past in their memories both collectively and individually. They attempt to adopt the
values and traits which led earlier people rise, and shun the reasons and mistakes
that precipitated their downward journeys. In sharp contrast to them, people and
governments with an uncertain sense of the future manifest deeply skewed and
subjective relationships to their history. They eschew lived history, shut out its
lessons, shun critical inquiries into the past, neglect its remains but, at the same
time, invent at their own imagined and to plan past-always shining, splendid and
glorious. As a matter of fact, they are never able to benefit from their past. They
study history, but learn nothing from history confidence
Make a précis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title.
As we see, what decides the purpose of life is simply the programme of the pleasure
principle. This principle dominates the operation of the mental apparatus from the
start. There can be no doubt about its efficacy, and yet its programme is at
loggerheads with the whole world, the macrocosm as much as with the microcosm.
There is no possibility at all of its being carried through; all the regulations of the
universe run counter to it. One feels indined to say that the intention that man
should be ‘happy’ is not Included in the plan of Creations. What we call happiness
in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which
have been dammed up to high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an
episodic phenomenon. When any situation that is desired by the pleasure principle
is prolonged, it only produces a feeling of mild contentment. We are so made that
we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from a state of
things. Thus our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution.
Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience. We are threaten with suffering
from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and
dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals;
from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and
merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The
suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful to us than any
other. We tend to regard it as a kind of gratuitous addition, although it cannot be
any less fatefully inevitable than the suffering which comes from elsewhere.
Make a precis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title
The History of media in Pakistan shows that Pakistani print media came into
existence with a mission to promulgate the ideology of Pakistan, which was seen as
the best national option for the Muslim minority in British India and as a form of
self-defense against suppression from the Hindu majority. However, over the last
decade, Pakistan’s media has developed into a harsh terrain which has certainly
helped shape Pakistan’s views towards domestic and foreign policy -for better or
for worse. Society and institutions in Pakistan tend to be rule-oriented. Social media
has changed the dynamics of Pakistani society with a strong Influence. Social media
has become a driving force to mobilize people for collective action, social
movements and even protests. When there Is any injustice or incident that demands
public demonstration, social media plays a key role in pushing them forward. Today
one can easily engage people from diverse backgrounds simultaneously for a
common agenda as it ties them up even if they are far across. As elsewhere, social
media has become an Important factor In Pakistan’s domestic politics. Some
believe that social networking technologies, which offer an alternative to Pakistan’s
corrupt and state-controlled media, have the potential to transform Pakistani
politics. In recent years, a growing number of Pakistanis have come to believe In
the revolutionary potential of new media technologies, particularly in the political
context.
Make the Precis of the following passage and suggest a suitable title.
Despite the existence of much poverty and inequality, it would nevertheless be
wrong to portray Pakistan as an unchanging society. Despite major failings of
governance, economic growth during the past decade has resulted in the emergence
of a youthful and dynamic middle class. According to some easements there are
now as many as 35 million people with a per capita income of upto 41,900. There is
no monolithic middle stratum of society; It is differentiated by occupation, income,
family antecedents, language and gender. The middle class contain both modernist
and traditionalist elements and as a result not necessarily more westernized in
outlook and lifestyle than the urbanized younger generation drawn from the feudal
elite. Indeed, one of the most striking developments of the past decade has been
spread of the orthodox thinking among the youth. Perhaps the most unifying
element of the middle class is consumerism as seen in the surge in the sales of cars,
televisions and mobile phones. One in two Pakistanis is mobile phone subscriber,
one of the highest rates in the region. In addition to expenditure on electronics
durables, the middle classes have establishments and privately run polyclinics
which have become a marked feature of the urban landscape. According to one
estimate, around three quarters of all health care is provided by the private sector.