Attempt Past Papers Precise & Compositon

Properly speaking, the cave men were the human beings who lived before the most important
of the early inventions on which a stable civilization can be based: farming or the regular
cultivation of edible plant; the domestication of hoofed animals; pottery ---- and perhaps with it
the revolutionary technique of grinding, polishing, and boring stone tools so as to make them
almost as efficient as the later tools of metal. The cave men did not farm, they were hunters and
fishermen, and their women collected wild fruit, vegetables, and grain. They lived lives rather
like those of the American plains Indians before the introduction of the horse. They did not
domesticate animals – or at best only one animal, our oldest friend dog. They lived largely on
animals; they thought about animals constantly; but they were hunters, so they treated even the
horse as something to be stampeded over a cliff and then eaten. They knew something about
clay and how it hardens in the fire, but so for we have found no real clay dishes or containers
among their remains. We find it difficult to imagine life without the peaceful cornfields, the
quiet cattle, and the dishes from which we eat and drink, yet for most of man’s existence on the
earth these things were unknown and undreamed of. Settled farming began somewhere about
7000 years ago, in the new Stone Age; that seems like a long time ago, but it is only about 200
generations from our own time.
Questions:
i. Make a précis of the passage. 16
ii. Who were the cave men? 03
iii. What are the basic elements of a stable civilization? 03
iv. What did the cave men eat to live? 03

(Second Group) 2003

It is one of life’s choicest blessings to have a few sincere friends. This is not as easy as it may
seem. For to attract friends, one must oneself be attractive. For this, the first thing necessary is
to have trustful nature. Confidence alone begets confidence. One must open one’s heart to a
friend, holding back nothing. Secrecy is the poison that always destroys lasting friendship and
so one must have no secret from a real friend. Secondly, one must be tolerant and forbearing.
No man is all good, and if one is always fault finding, it will produce a feeling of natural
irritation. This leads to estrangement. It is only when friendship is tested by the trials of life
that faults may be pointed without creating ill- will. Thirdly, there can be no true or lasting
friendship between men of unequal status or worth. Real friendship is possible between equals.
There must be no intention on one side or the other to make friendship a matter of gain or
convenience. But real friendship is a very rare thing in the world. There are many people who
seem to be incapable of it. Suspicious natures, and those who are credulous are easily
influenced by reports and whispers can never make good friends.
Questions:
i. Make a précis of the passage. 16
ii. What were conditions of good friendship? 03
iii. What are the causes that destroy friendship? 03
iv. What type of people are incapable of friendship? 03

(First Group) 2004

Fortunately, however, the growth of industrialism has coincided in the West with the growth of
democracy. It is possible now, if the population of the world does not increase too fast, for one
man’s labour to produce much more than is needed to provide a bare subsistence for himself
and his family. Given an intelligent democracy not misled by some dogmatic creed, this
possibility will be used to raise the standard of life. It has been so used, to a limited extent, in
Britain and America and would have been so used more effectively but for war. Its use in
raising the standard of life has depended mainly upon three things: democracy, trade unionism,
and birth control. All three of course, have incurred hostility from the rich. If these three things
can be extended to the rest of the world as it becomes industrialized, and if the dangers of great
wars can be eliminated, poverty can be abolished throughout the whole world, and excessive
hours of labour will no longer be necessary anywhere, but without these three things,
industrialism will create a regime like that in which the Pharaohs built the pyramids. In
particular, if world population continues to increase at the present rate, the abolition of poverty
and excessive work will be totally impossible.
Questions:
i. What connection does the writer show between industrialism and democracy? 02
ii. How can the standard of life be raised? 02
iii. How can poverty be abolished? 02
iv. What will be the impact of increase in population at the present rate? 02
v. Suggest a suitable title for the passage. 02
vi. Make a précis of the passage. 15

(Second Group) 2004

Real beauty is as much an affair of the inner as of shape, of colour, of surface texture. The jar
may be empty or tenanted by spiders, full of honey or stinking slime – it makes no difference
to its beauty or ugliness. But a woman is alive, and her beauty is therefore not skin deep. The
surface of the human vessel is affected by the nature of its spiritual contents. I have seen
women who, by the standards of a connoisseur of porcelain, were ravishingly lovely. Their
shape, their colour, their surface texture were perfect. And yet they were not beautiful. For the
lovely vase was either empty or filled with some corruption. Spiritual emptiness or ugliness shows through. And conversely, there is an interior light that can transfigure forms that the pure
aesthetician would regard as imperfect or downright ugly. There are numerous forms of
psychological ugliness. There is an ugliness of stupidity, for example, of unawareness
(distressingly common among pretty women), an ugliness also of greed, of lasciviousness, of
avarice. All the deadly sins, indeed, have their own peculiar negation of beauty. On the pretty
faces of those especially who are trying to have a continuous good time, one sees very often a
kind of bored sullenness that ruins all their charm.
Questions:
i. What does real beauty signify? 02
ii. Where does the beauty of a porcelain jar lie? 02
iii. Differentiate between inner beauty and outer beauty? 02
iv. Point out some forms of psychological ugliness. 02
v. Suggest a suitable title for the passage. 02

(Second Group) 2006

Great progress has been made by America in the field of mechanization. It is spending lavishly
on labour-saving machines. Efficient organization of highly mechanized system has resulted in
maximum productivity in America. With mass production, the amenities of life are available to
almost every citizen. On the contrary Europe subordinates the use of machines to human
happiness and welfare. It encourages man’s reliance on his own faculties and realizes the
dangers inherent in the American scheme. However great the advantages of mechanization, it
crushes the creative faculty of man and makes a machine out of him. His individual liberty and
personality suffer an irretrievable loss. In his moments of leisure the worker finds it difficult to
turn his hands to creative work because the machine made goods do not inspire him in the
direction of refinement. These goods also lose their fascination because mass production has
given a set back to the individuality of the articles produced. The European, therefore, contend
that it is better to sacrifice a few material comforts than crush the aesthetic and spiritual urge in
the individual which large-scale mechanization is doing in America.
Questions:
i. Suggest a suitable title for the passage. 02
ii. What is the result of progress in the field of mechanization in America? 02
iii. How has it affected the citizens? 02
iv. What is the case in Europe? 02
v. Why do Europeans sacrifice a few material comforts? 02
vi. Make a summary of the passage. 15
vi. Make a précis of the passage. 15

(First Group) 2007

Pakistanies are sometimes treated as suspects as they enter Saudi Arabia. The procedures for
search and investigation are aggressive, and naturally, time-consuming may be a humiliating
experience for a self respecting Pakistani. Lately, another trend is developing which can hurt as
still more as injury is being added to insult. Quite a few Saudis are now unwilling to employ
Pakistanis as they used to do in the seventies. One main reason cited is the incidence of drugtrafficking
(business) through expatriate Pakistanis who, at times, collaborate with drugtraffickers.
Thus, the channel of employment for our labour in Saudi Arabia is drying up, partly
owing to our failing as people.
Pakistan is a victim as drugs produced in Afghanistan pass through our territory. It cannot be
denied that drugs are produced in Pakistan, but the government is trying to curtail their
production. However, with an estimated indigenous (native) population of just over three
million addicts the local production of drugs does not appear enough to meet the home
demand, thus, having started as a producer of heroine in 1979, thanks to the transfer of such
technology by a western adventurer, it is now the major consumer. However, in the western
countries, the treatment meted out to Pakistani nationals is humiliating.
Questions:
i. Why is the treatment humiliating for Pakistanis on entering Saudi Arabia?
02
ii. What is the main reason for the reduction of employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia?
02
iii. How much is Pakistan responsible for drug-trafficking? 02
iv. Who is technologically responsible for the production of heroine in Pakistan? 02
v. Suggest a suitable title for the passage. 02
vi. Make a précis of the passage.