Prof.

NASIR ABBAS JAVAID

M.A (English& Economics)
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Important Passages on Precis

PASSAGE No.1
Tolstoy was born in a forty two room palace, surrounded by wealth, yet in the last part of
his life, he gave away all of his lands, wealth and died without a dollar in a small Russian
station surrounded by peasants.

In his youth, Tolstoy led a life of luxury, yet in his later life, he dressed in the rough clothes
of peasant, made his own bed, swept his own room, and ate a very simple food.

Tolstoy is more famous today than all the kings of Russia. He wrote two great novels,
namely, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He preached peace and love and the abolition
of poverty. He loved and served the poor. (39/116)

Surrounded by wealth ‫دو     ل‬ Luxury ‫آ‬ Abolition of poverty   

QUESTIONS

1. Who was Tolstoy? To which country did he belong?

2. What are the names of his novels?
3. What sort of life did he lead?
4. What did he preach?
5. Suggest the suitable title of the passage.
6. Make a summary of the above passage.

PASSAGE No.2
We commonly speak of good luck and bad luck and talk of people being lucky or unlucky
and of things happening 'by pure chance. Yet science tells us there is no such thing as
chance or luck; According to the law of cause and effect, every happening has a cause. Not a
leaf falls, not a wind blows, and not a flower opens without a reason. But we still use the
word chance to describe happenings the reason of which we do not know. When such
apparently causeless happenings are favourable to us, we say they are lucky; when
unfavourable, we call then unlucky.

Commonly  ‫م  ر‬ Apparently causeless ‫و‬

QUESTIONS

1. What does science tell about luck or chance?

Prof. NASIR ABBAS JAVAID
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2. Does anything happen without reason?
3. What do we mean by chance?
4. What is our notion of lucky and unlucky?
5. Suggest the suitable title of the passage.
6. Write the précis of the passage.

PASSAGE No.3
Quaid-e-Azam received his early education at Bombay and Karachi. His father had
intention of further educating his son. He was eager to put him into business. But Sir
Fredrick Croft, a close friend of Mr. Punja Jinnah, advised him to send his son to England to
study law. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was sent to London at the age of sixteen. He was probably
the first man to become a barrister at the age of twenty. While in England he organized the
Indian students Federation. (84/28)

Intention ‫ارادہ‬ Eager   ‫ا‬

QUESTIONS

1. Where did Qauid-e-Azam receive his early education?

2. What did his father want him to do?
3. What advice Sir Fredrick give to Punja Jinnah?
4. When did Mr. Jinnah go to London?
5. Who organized the Indian Students Federation?
6. Make a précis of the passage given above and suggest a suitable title?

PASSAGE No.4
Old people say that childhood is the best part of life. They look back at their childhood and
remember all its happy days, the jolly games, the long rambles (walks) in the country, the
fun they had-at school, father and mother and little sister and brother, the old homes the
sweets and cakes they used to eat, the children’s parties, the jokes they used to play, and the
presents they got when they were children. They had not to work hard to get something to
eat; their mothers gave them all of the above they wanted. The World to them was a very
beautiful place, and they did not know that man could be cruel and hard. They believed all
that was told them, and they did not know, how false and dishonest people could be. So they
sometimes sigh and wish they could be children again. (144)

Rambles     Sigh  ‫آہ‬

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QUESTIONS

1. What do old people remember about their childhood?

2. How did they get something to eat when they were children?
3. Why was the world to them a beautiful place?
4. What did they not know about the character of people?
5. Why do they sometimes sigh?
6. Suggest the suitable title of the passage.
7. Make a summary of the above passage
PASSAGE No.5
In days when a man was allowed more wives than one, a middle aged bachelor, who could
be called neither young nor old, and whose hair was only just beginning to turn gray, fell in
love with two women and married them both. The one was young and wished her husband
to appear as youthful as herself; the other was somewhat more advanced in age and was as
anxious that her husband should appear a more suitable match for her. So while the young
one seized every opportunity of pulling of the good man’s gray hair, the old one was as
industrious in plucking out every black hair she could find. For a while, the man was highly
pleased by their attention and devotion, till he found one morning that between the one and
the other, he has not a hair left. (142)

Anxious ‫  ار‬ Seize   Industrious Devotion

QUESTIONS

1. Why did the first wife pull out his gray hair?
2. Why did the other strip him of his black hair?
3. What was the first reaction of the man?
4. What was the result of this double devotion?
5. Make a précis and suggest a suitable title of the passage.

PASSAGE No.6
A man had an ass. The man was cruel. He was in the habit of overloading the poor ass. He
used to put heavy loads upon his back. Beneath these loads the ass could hardly move. In
return the ass was beaten. One day the man loaded the ass with heavy bags. The bags
contained salt. The weight of these bags was unbearable. The ass’s back and legs bent
beneath the burden. The ass tried to carry this heavy load. His pace was slow. The master
grew angry. The ass was then crossing a bridge. The master rained blows upon him. The ass
attempted to run. He rolled over the edge and fell into the water. In a short time the load of
salt was spoiled. It dissolved in the water. (131)

QUESTIONS
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1. Why could not the ass move beneath the load?
2. What did the bags contain?
3. What happened after the ass had rolled over the bridge?
4. Write a few sentences on the cruelty of the man.
5. Make a précis and give a suitable title of the passage.

PASSAGE No.7
The question why we marry is interesting and needs to be examined briefly. Marriage has
social sanctity. It makes you respectable in the eyes of others. It is traditional to get
married. Also, the desire to perpetuate your name on the earth through your offspring
exists in all of us. Again, the instinct to possess is strong in human beings. One also marries
because an average celibate life is devoid of comfort and woman. Again most of us cannot
indulge in sex outside marriage without feeling guilty. Then there are certain romantic
illusions which surround marriage. One likes to imagine a beautiful, obedient loving wife
untying one’s shoe-laces in the evening and saying sweet things under her breath. Of
course, in actual life, it is nothing of that sort of the time. As a married man you find that
your personal independence has been curtailed. Your friends are suspect. You find that you
have financial worries. You are supposed to spend money and things you never knew
existed or were used by human beings. You realize that your wife is jealous of you.
Marriage is conspiracy which your friends and relations spring upon you with an
absolutely clear conscience. Alas! One learns the truth but too late. (207)

Sanctity ‫س‬ Perpetuate ‫ار ر‬ Celibate ‫  دى  ہ‬ Illusion ‫د‬

Curtail ‫رو‬ Jealous Conspiracy ‫زش‬ Conscience

QUESTIONS

1. Why do we marry? Give three reasons.

2. What are the romantic illusions about marriage?
3. What truth about marriage do we learn later?
4. How can we call marriage a conspiracy?
5. Make a précis and give a suitable title of the passage.

PASSAGE No.8
Census means a periodical counting of the people of a country. It includes information
under various heads. It is connected with the word censor, which in the time of the Roman
Public meant a magistrate who counted the inhabitants of a place and estimated the value
of their property for taxation. The census in the modern sense was taken in the United
States in 1790. In England, it was taken in 1801. Now it is a rule all over the world to take
Prof. NASIR ABBAS JAVAID
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census every ten years. It gives us important information about the increase or decrease of
the population of the place, literacy and social progress. The data thus collected is used in
planning to solve different social, economical and even political problems. It is an index
showing how a country has fared in the preceding ten years. (139)

Census ‫دم  رى‬ Periodical ‫ ر ر‬/‫ دورى‬Censor ‫ى‬

Inhabitants ‫ے‬ Index Preceding

QUESTIONS

1. What do you understand from the word census?

2. Why did the old Romans take census?
3. Which is the first nation to take census in the present times?
4. What is the usefulness of taking census?
5. After how many years census is taken by the countries all over the world?
6. Make a précis and give a suitable title of the passage.

PASSAGE No.9
Syed Ahmed had gone to England on dual mission—to learn and to teach. His mission of
learning was fulfilled as well as it might be in a year and five months. He had learnt enough
to understand what was there in the character, manners, modes and institutions of the
British which had made them rulers of a vast empire. His teaching mission, however, was
not so successful. The British were not interested in being taught to understand and
respect Islam. What if it was the best religion in the world? They had more important things
to think about, as, for example, the discoveries and inventions of science, the reforms of
society, human progress, freedom of thought, individual liberty. As for religion----well, if it
was necessary or useful to have religion, Christianity was good enough for them, whether as
a mythology, or as a moral code, or as a ritual system. Syed Ahmed, therefore, had to find
other pupils to teach, other congregations to preach to. These he could find only in India.
So he came back home full of ambitious plans to impart to his Muslim countrymen all that
he had learnt in England as well as that he had gone there to teach but had been unable to.
(211)
Dual mission  ‫دو ا‬ Empire Mythology ‫ہ‬  
Congregations ‫ور‬ Ambitious ‫  م‬ Countrymen ‫ و‬

QUESTIONS

1. What was the purpose of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s visit to England?
2. What were the British interested in?
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3. Why were they not interested in Islam?
4. What plans did Syed Ahmed have to accomplish on coming back home?
5. Make a précis and give a suitable title of the passage.

PASSAGE No.10
Men and women are equal rank but they are not identical. They are be peerless pair being
supplementary to one another, each helps the other so that without one the existence of
the other cannot be conceived and, therefore, it follows as necessary corollary from these
facts that anything that will impair the status of either of them will involve the equal ruin of
them both. In framing any scheme of women’s education this cardinal truth must be
constantly kept in mind. Man is supreme in the outward activities of a married air and
therefore it is in the fitness of things that he should have a greater knowledge thereof. On
the other hand, noise life is entirely the sphere of woman and, therefore in domestic affairs,
in the upbringing and education of children, a woman ought to have more knowledge not
that knowledge should be divided into water tight compartments or that so that some
branches of knowledge should be closed to anyone, but unless courses of instruction are
based on discriminating appreciation of these basic principles, the fullest life of man and
woman cannot be developed. Among the manifold misfortunes that may befall humanity,
the loss of health is one of the severest. All the joys which life can give cannot outweigh the
sufferings of the sick. (219)

Rank ‫ در‬Identical   ‫ ا‬Peerless Supplementary ‫ا‬

Conceive ‫ رو‬Impair Cardinal ‫زش‬ Sphere ‫دا ہ‬
Upbringing Discriminating ‫ں‬ Manifold  ‫  ح‬ Outweigh ‫ازن‬

QUESTIONS

1. How are men and women supplementary to each other?

2. What is the sphere of a woman?
3. What are the fields where man is supreme?
4. What is the severest misfortune that befalls humanity?
5. Make a précis of the paragraph and give a suitable title to it.
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PASSAGE No.11
Travel on the sea was not a very difficult problem, since wood, which can be found in most
places near the sea, floats easily on water. But travel through the air was quite a different
matter, since men knew of nothing, which could at the same time float in the air and carry a
man’s weight. For centuries, therefore, flying remained only a dream. It was no until rather
recent times that the great dream became a fact.

First, men made use of the fact that hot air rises to make a light balloon carry people up to
short distance above the ground. Then gases lighter than air were used in place of hot air.
But balloons had the disadvantages of having to go wherever the wind blew them, so that
one never knew where they would come down. It was not until the petrol engine was
invented that this difficulty could be overcome. During the 1914-18 war, early aeroplanes,
made of wood and canvas and armed with an ordinary machine-gun each, were used by
both sides. Great progress was made in knowledge about flying as a result of the needs of
the war, so that the years between 1918 and the beginning of the Second World War in
1939 saw an extraordinary development of aeroplanes, which increased greatly in size,
strength, speed and safety. (75/225)

Recent Fresh Disadvantages Weaknesses Extraordinary Unusual

QUESTIONS

1. Why was it not difficult for men to be able to travel on the Sea?
2. Why was it hard to discover how to travel through the air?
3. What was the disadvantage of flying in a balloon?
4. What were the early planes made of?
5. What was the cause of the extraordinary development of aeroplanes between 1918
and 1939?
6. Suggest the suitable title of the passage.
7. Make a summary of the above passage.

PASSAGE No.12
Very few students have really any clear idea of what science mean. The teaching of science
in schools tends to obscure the meaning of science. When pupils at school work for a pass
in science subject, they regard it their main business to learn a large number of facts and a
smaller number of principles and theories. Now all this is good in its way. A scientist must
have a certain number of facts, principles and theories at his fingertips. But science would
cease to be science if scientists merely work from fixed sets of facts and theories. The
essence of science is the gathering of new facts and the establishment of new theories.
Science has advanced rapidly in recent history because scientists have been greedy for new
knowledge, and because they have been so ready to disbelieve in text books of their youth.
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It is; therefore, most important to give our young students of science an awareness of
skepticism and open-mindedness that is part of the very soul of science. Let them not think
that any branch of science is a subject that one can sit down and learn. Let them realize that
science is essentially a creative activity. (200)

Obscure Unclear Skepticism Disbelief

QUESTIONS

1. When does science cease to be science?

2. What are the two causes of the advancement of science?
3. What should we teach to our students of science?
4. Make a precis of the passage and give a suitable title to it.

PASSAGE No.13
Moral self-control, and external prohibition of harmful acts, is not adequate methods of
dealing with our anarchic instincts. The reason they are inadequate is that these instincts
are capable of many disguises as the Devil in medieval legend, and some of these disguises
deceive even the elect. The only adequate method is to discover what are the needs of our
instinctive nature, and then to search for the least harmful way of satisfying them. Since
spontaneity is what is most thwarted by machine, the only thing that can be provided is
opportunity; the use made of opportunity must be left to the initiative of the individual. No
doubt, considerable expense would be involved but it would not be comparable to the
expense of war. Understanding of human nature must be the basis of any real improvement
in human life. Science has done wonders in mastering the laws of the physical world, but
our own nature is much less understood, as yet than the nature of stars and electrons.
When science learns to understand human nature, it will be able to bring happiness into
our lives which machines and the physical science have failed to create. (195)

Devil Evil spirit Medieval legend Fairytale Instinctive In borne

Spontaneity Naturalness Thwarted Upset

QUESTIONS

1. What is the adequate method of anarchic instincts?

2. What should be the basis of any real improvement in human life?
3. How can science help humanity to achieve happiness?
4. Make a precis of the passage and give a suitable title to it.

PASSAGE No.14
The leadership of country should be honest, diligent and judicious, so that they can create
a welfare state. Unfortunately, the third world and backward countries are facing this tragic
dilemma of immature and corrupt political leaders, who ruin the resources of the country
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in an ugly and base manner. Adding injury to insult, these countries are having poor literacy
rates that is why, the people fail to elect right people of the right job. They are emotionally
aroused by these shrewd and corrupt leaders, who get their way easily. Whereas, an
educated nation has his priorities in order. They make correct decisions in choosing their
leadership. The moment they feel that their leadership is not delivering according to the
popular justified demands. They use the power of the vote and reject them in the next
elections. (136)

Diligent Hardworking Judicious Careful Dilemma Problem

QUESTIONS

1. What type of people make welfare sates?

2. Why are the resources of poor nations ruined?
3. How do the educated nations elect their representatives?
4. Suggest a suitable title and make a precise of the above passage.

PASSAGE No.15
The use of atomic energy has promised vast possibilities for the mankind. In the beginning
of this century Einstein advanced the theory that matter is energy and energy is matter and
each may be converted into each other. He said that the atom contained vast stores of
energy that may be used in a thousand ways.

Today's reactors which obtain energy from the atom are not very efficient machines. They
harness only one percent of the total energy available in the atom. Even this energy which
is actually obtained from the atom is enormous. It is estimated that energy in one-pound
uranium is equivalent to that of three million pounds of coal.

The research in the mysteries of the atom is going on in many countries of the world. It is
hoped that before long better and more efficient reactors will be built. These will be able to
obtain atomic energy at an economical cost. Atoms provide compact form of fuel which
provides a vast amount of energy and it also lasts longer.

Atomic energy can be used in many ways and for many purposes. It can be used to bring
peace and prosperity to the whole of this earth. It can also be used to destroy the world and
its inhabitants. It can perform miracles if we have the power and wisdom to use it for
peaceful purposes. If we do not possess that wisdom, man has not many years to live on this
earth. (246)

Possibilities Options Harness Attain Equivalent Equal

Mysteries Secrecies Inhabitants Population
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QUESTIONS

1. What theory did Einstein present?

2. What sort of reactors are required to obtain a vast amount of energy?
3. What are the uses of atomic energy?
4. Make a precis of the passage and suggest a suitable title to it.

PASSAGE No.16
Travelling is the best means of acquiring sound knowledge. Knowledge thus gained is the
result of firsthand experience. A person who travels to various cities and towns from one
end of Pakistan to the other and stays at different places for sometimes gets a first rate
knowledge of the country, places and its people. He comes to know the geography, the
fauna and flora of the various regions, the people and their ways of life and their customs
and manners. He enjoys the beauties of the countryside, the variety of scenes of the vast
plains, the open valleys and the snowcapped peaks of the mountains. One great advantage
of the knowledge so gained is that it has the warmth of the personal experience and
pulsates with life as opposed to the second hand knowledge gained from books. (137)

Acquiring Obtaining Firsthand Direct Fauna and flora Animal life

Pulsates Beats

QUESTIONS

1. What does the author mean by firsthand knowledge?

2. What is one great advantage of travelling?
3. What things hold attraction for the traveler?
4. Make a precis of the passage and give a suitable title to it.

PASSAGE No.17
Once we have found the habit of looking within, listening to ourselves and responding to
our own impulses and feelings, we shall not let ourselves be so easily the victims of
uncontrollable emotions and effects; the inner life, instead of being either a gaping void or
a ghoulish nightmare, will be open to cultivation and in both personal conduct and in art
will bring us into more fruitful and loving relations which other men, whose hidden depths
will flow through the symbols of arts into our own. At this point we can nourish life again
more intensely from the outside too, opening our minds to every touch and sight and sound,
instead of anesthetizing ourselves continually to much that goes on around us, because it
has become so meaningless, so unrelated to our inner needs. With such self-discipline, we
shall in time, control the tempo and rhythm of our day; control the quantity of stimuli that
impinge on us; control our attention so that the things we do shall reflect our purposes and
values, as human beings not the extraneous purposes and values of the machine. (186)
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Gaping void Wide annulled Ghoulish nightmare Terrible dream Cultivation Refinement
Anesthetizing Deadening Tempo Speed Rhythm Pace
Stimuli Motivations Impinge Invade Extraneous Minor

QUESTIONS

1. How can we control our emotions?

2. How can we cultivate loving relations with other men?
3. What is meant by the phrase "the extraneous purposes and values of the machine"?
4. Make a precis of the passage and suggest a suitable title to it.

PASSAGE No.18
A person who is aware of his duties and rights in his society is a good citizen. He knows that
he is a member of a group with which he is associated by a thousand and one ties. He
realizes that he should live in harmony with others in society. He cannot live alone. He
must live with his fellow human beings. But living in a society means co-operation with
others. When you live in a society, you have to live as others live. You have to accept
conditions and traditions that a society prescribes for its members. These conditions and
standards of behaviour are for the common good and welfare of the society and individuals.
Society gives some rights and some duties. A good citizen does his best to do his duty to the
society. He always keeps in view the interests of his society and state. He lives a clean and
honest life. He keeps away from such activities that may harm the interest of his fellow
citizens. A good citizen is aware of the fact that he is indebted (grateful) to his society in
many ways. He knows that the labour and work of countless persons have enriched his life.
His life, to a very great extent, depends on others. He has received much in material and
spiritual benefits from others. It is only just and right that he should pay his debts. (235)

Associated Linked Harmony Coordination Prescribes Proposes

Indebted Grateful Enriched Improved Great extent To a large scale

QUESTIONS

1. Who is a good citizen?

2. What are the duties of a good citizen?
3. Why is society formed?
4. Make a precis of the passage and give it a suitable title.

PASSAGE No.19
In its wider sense composition means the expression of our writing, so composition is
necessarily of two kinds, oral and written. Both these forms of composition are equally
important and very closely connected. We have to be careful in the choice and use of our
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words in speaking and in writing. If we learn to speak clearly and exactly, we shall be able
to write exactly and clearly. But writing requires of greater clearness and exactness than
speaking does. In speaking what we have to say can be made effective by the tone of our
voice, the expression on our face and by the movement of our hands, but in writing we have
to depend entirely on the sense conveyed by the words we use. Sir Francis Bacon has
rightly said that writing makes an exact man. Writing tends to make a man exact because he
cannot write well about a subject unless he knows the subject well. To write well you have
to be clear in your own mind as to what you are going to say. (178)

Composition Arrangement Expression Manifestation Exactness Precision

QUESTIONS

1. Why should we be careful in the choice and use of words?

2. What did Bacon mean when he said that writing makes an exact man?
3. How can we make our power of writing good?
4. Suggest a suitable title and make a precis of the passage given above.

PASSAGE No.20
It is usual to identity flattery with false praise. But this seems to offer a poor definition of
flattery, for, false recommendation is easily detectable and therefore, incapable of
achieving the result while flattery is that praise which is too fine and artistic to fail in its
effects. Flattery may, therefore, be defined as the art of praising which aims at magnifying
the virtues to the exclusion of vices. But then the person flattered must have some qualities,
in fact or in his fancy, which can be praised and amplified. Thus one who made a fairly good
speech can be flattered by saying that he presented an excellent piece of oratory. But one
who was laughed down by the audience cannot be said to have delivered a good speech to
all if any attempt is made to say that he did so, he will feel ridiculed and the effect of the art,
at once, lost.

Flattery being an art of commendation requires, for its proper understanding, to be

compared with a kindred art, appreciation. Both emanate from the same motive of
pleasing the other’s self-esteem. But the former is largely vitiated by the tinge of falsehood
and often aims at the realization of some self-interest but the latter is based on truth and is
without any motive. (217)

Recommendation Approval Tinge Touch Magnifying Enlarging

Exclusion Rejection Ridiculed Mocked Commendation Approval
Kindred Attractive Emanate Start Vitiated Spoiled

QUESTIONS
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1. Make a précis of the passage.
2. How does the writer define flattery?
3. What are the preconditions for flattery to succeed?
4. How does the writer compare flattery and appreciation?
PASSAGE No.21
As a speaker Muhammad Ali Jinnah has the triple assets of a magnetic presence, an
impressive delivery, and a voice which while lacking volume has an arresting timbre. But
though occasionally he has attained a moment of wholly unconscious and stirring
eloquence, he has the cogent force of a brilliant advocate rather than the glowing fervor of
a brilliant orator. And it is not on a public platform, but at a Round-Table Conference that he
finds full scope for his unusual powers of persuasion, luminous exposition, searching
argument and impeccable judgment. It is an open secret that his was a large and
responsible share in the recent discussions regarding the Muslim University as well as the
joint Congress League Committee that sat at Lucknow last year to formulate a scheme of
Indian reforms elaborated from the Memorandum of Nineteen. (139)
Stirring Inspiring
Magnetic Alluring Arresting timbre Stunning resonance
eloquence fluency
Cogent Convincing Glowing fervor Blooming passion Impeccable Faultless
Scope Possibility Luminous exposition Brilliant description

QUESTIONS

1. What assets did Quaid-i-Azam possess as a speaker?

2. What unusual powers did Quaid-i-Azam exhibit at a Round Table Conference?
3. How did Quaid-i-Azam conduct himself at the deliberations of the joint Congress
League Committee?
4. Suggest the suitable title of the passage.
5. Make a summary of the above
PASSAGE No.22
History has been, called “race-memory” Just as a man's memory links his past life to the
present, so the history of a nation is its memory of its past. How-could we live as individuals
without memory? There have been strange cases of complete 'loss of memory. A man has
suddenly forgotten his name and who he is. His past life has become an absolute blank to
him. In such a case, man has .to begin life all over again. He really loses his identity and has
to learn to be another person. In the same way, if a nation knows ‘nothing of its history, it
has lost its nation memory' and so its identity. It is practically a new nation, with all to
learn. And if we know nothing of the history of our country, we cannot have the true feeling
of nation-hood; for we cannot enter into its traditions, its national feelings and ambitions.
Knowledge of its history gives us the key to the spirit of our nation. (170)

QUESTIONS
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1. Why history is called race-memory?
2. Does a man, who has lost his memory, retain any connection with the past? What is
the nature of such a loss?
3. What does a nation, which is ignorant of its history, lose?
4. What do you understand by the term nation-memory?
5. Write the précis of the passage.
6. Suggest the suitable title of the passage.

PASSAGE No.23
Pakistanis 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 drug-trafficking through expatriate Pakistanis who at times collaborate
with drug-traffickers. Thus the channel of employment for our labour in Saudi Arabia is
drying up partly owing to our failing as a 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 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 heroin in l979, 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. (209)

Drug-trafficking Drug business Expatriate Exile Indigenous Native

Collaborate Cooperate

QUESTIONS

1. Why is the treatment humiliating for Pakistanis on entering Saudi Arabia?

2. What is the main reason for their education of employment opportunities in Saudi
Arabia?
3. How much is Pakistan responsible for drug-trafficking?
4. Who is technologically responsible for the production of heroin in Pakistan?
5. Suggest a suitable title to the passage.
6. Make a précis of the above passage
PASSAGE No.24
One of the main objectives of Imam Khomeini’s foreign and domestic policy was the
propagation of the humanitarian principles of Islam. The Islamic Republic of Iran took a
Prof. NASIR ABBAS JAVAID
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bold stand on the base of this objective. Iran explained this stand 'at every international
forum. The divine commands that have shaped the Iranian polices are perhaps common to
every major religion.

The he reverend Imam tried to associate the masses in his own and other Muslim countries
with his objective. He addressed them directly, had a silent, dialogue of the heart with them
even when he could not meet them personally. The people in almost all the Muslim
countries and even in others whether they were inhabited by Muslims or followers of other
faiths. Listened to his speeches and talks attentively and devotedly, thus instead of
appealing to the unpopular and reactionary governments of the day he established durable
and lasting contacts with the common people and their true representatives.

The great leader demanded the common people's presence through their representatives,
at important meetings and participation in his decision making. In this way he wanted to
ensure the achievement of the aims of the Islamic Revolution. This policy was instantly
successful in winning the support of the Muslim masses even in the countries that were
being ruled over-by the so-called representatives. (220)

Reverend Respected Durable Long-lasting So-called Self-styled

QUESTIONS

1. Explain the main objective of Imam Khomeini.

2. What was his mode of achievement towards his goal ‘?
3. How can you call The Iranian Revolution a “people’s revolution"?
4. Comment on the success of The Iranian Revolution.
5. Suggest at suitable title to the passage.
6. Make a précis of the above passage.
PASSAGE No.25
Recently the mass media, formerly subservient to the medical profession, have become
increasingly restive and occasionally hostile. In Germany, in particular the newspaper and
television have given a great deal of time and space to the complaints against the medical
profession. In Britain on BBC radio and television, the medical practices have-come under
sharp and aggressive, criticism. Is this antagonism to the profession justified? ‘And if so,
why? I have tried to answer that question by looking at the way it "deals with some of the
diseases of our civilization, including the most lethal, heart-attacks and cancer. If what
emerges is “an indictment of the profession, then I would rebut the charge that I am anti-
doctor. What is required in the relationship between the doctor and the patient? The trust
and unshakable trust, I would say. Montaigne said: “l honor physicians not for their services
but for themselves”. That goes for me too. (153)
Subservient Obedient Restive Restless Antagonism Antipathy
Lethal Fatal Indictment Impeachment Rebut Refute

QUESTIONS
Prof. NASIR ABBAS JAVAID
M.A (English& Economics)
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1. What do you understand by the mass media?
2. What is the writer’s stance towards the medical profession?
3. What is the Lethal Disease? Explain.
4. Is there a radical change in the presentation of the art of healing by the mass media?
5. Suggest a suitable title to the passage.
6. Make a précis of the above passage.

PASSAGE No.26
Teaching more even than most 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 honorable 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 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 be well to attend, In antiquity teachers were not an organized
profession and no control was exercised over what they taught. It is true 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. (186)

Predecessors Ancestors Prejudice Bias Subversive Rebellious

Doctrine Creed

QUESTIONS

1. What changes have occurred in the profession of teaching during the last hundred
years?
2. What were teachers supplied to be in golden days?
3. What is the function of a teacher now a day?
4. Write a note on the reward that a teacher gets now a days?
5. Suggest a suitable title for the passage.
6. Make a précis of the above passage.

PASSAGE No.27
Beauty also gives meaning to life. We are surrounded by beauty. There is no way of
knowing whether other forms of life can appreciate the sights or the sounds that our senses
apprehend. Yet, we human beings who have all these ways to find pleasure, and
inspiration, sometimes avert our eyes from the heavens or even walk unseeing among the
manifold phenomena of nature- trees, birds, horizons or people. The beauty that the mind
and heart can know is an even greater source of human exaltation. To appreciate a person
Prof. NASIR ABBAS JAVAID
M.A (English& Economics)
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or an idea or even a mathematical formula is to open up a channel between ourselves and
God’s own plan. Of course, there is much that is sordid and ugly, but here again the task
forces us to convert the unattractive into beauty. When we invest enough of ourselves in
the plain and unadorned, we can add that element which gives it the beauty of holiness.
(157)

Apprehend Catch Phenomena Miracle Exaltation Acclamation

Unadorned Plain Holiness Sanctity

QUESTIONS

1. How do we deal with the beauty present around us?

2. What type of beauty does give us greater pleasure?
3. What should be our duty towards beauty?
4. Make a précis (in about 50 words) and also suggest a suitable title.
PASSAGE No.28
Broken friendship may be repaired but the break will always show. Friendship is a precious
thing - too precious a treasure to be carelessly broken or thrown away. The world handles
the word friend’ lightly; its real, true deeper meaning is forgotten. Your friend is one who
appreciates you - your fault as well as your virtues. He understands and sympathizes with
your defeats and victories, your aims and ideals, your joys and temptations, your hopes and
disappointments, as no one else does and can. It is your friend to whom you turn for
counsel, for comfort, for praise; he may not be as learned as some or as wise as others.
Blessed is the man or woman into whose life has come the beauty and power of such a
friendship. Prize it well. Do all in your power to keep such a friendship unbroken. Avoid the
break, for when it comes it cannot be mended and the jarring note mars the harmony.
(163)

Treasure Wealth Jarring Shaking Mars Ruins

QUESTIONS

1. In what way will you judge your sincere friend?

2. Friendship ought not to be broken, why?
3. How is man or woman considered blessed regarding friendship?
4. Suggest a suitable title and make a précis of the passage given above.

PASSAGE No.29
The great thoroughfares are alive with beggars. You see an ill-clad wretch before you,
walking on, as if work, engagement, a home, a family, a hope and comfort were all in
prospect. The instant you come up to him, he turns round with some form of entreaty) or
complains; and then you see that he is a homeless, friendless. Placeless, outcast, without
aim or hope in existence. Then there are wretched women with children in their arms or
Prof. NASIR ABBAS JAVAID
M.A (English& Economics)
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children at their sides, the lame, the maimed, the diseased young women, little girls and
every class of suffering, except to the best of our observation, the aged. Some affect to sell
pictures books; or flowers, real according to the season, or anything that may disguise their
vocation, or they swarm around you asking for ticket to some benevolent society, the ticket
being as much a pretense as the flowers. The most miserable feature of the case is that
many look as though they had seen better days, other indeed to all appearance have never
been anything better than they are. One sad thought, however, embraces all the class; and
that is how quickly such poor creatures must pass to the grave. (200)

Thoroughfares Streets Prospect Vision Entreaty Appeal

Outcast Reject Disguise Camouflage Embrace Encircle
QUESTIONS

1. How do the beggars approach us on thorough-fares?

2. What are the excuses that beggars offer in order to fleece us?
3. Do such beggars deserve alms? What is your normal behavior with these beggars?
4. Suggest a suitable title and make a précis of the passage given above.
PASSAGE No.30
Real beauty is as much an affair of the inner as of the outer itself. The beauty of the
porcelain jar is a matter of shape, of color, 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 live, 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 standard of a connoisseur of porcelain, were 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 aestheticism 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 board sullenness that ruins all
their charm. (218).
Tenant Inhabitant Conversely Equally Downright Absolute
Avarice Greed for money Lasciviousness Sexual desire Sullenness Resentment

QUESTIONS

1. What does real beauty signify?

2. Differentiate between inner beauty and outer beauty.
3. Point out some forms of psychological ugliness.
4. Suggest a suitable title for the passage.
5. Make a précis of the passage.