FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT
TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 1982
ENGLISH (Précis and Composition)
Time allowed: 3 hours Maximum marks: 100
- Write a precis of the following passage in about 100 words and suggest a title.
Objectives pursued by, organisations should be directed to the satisfaction of demands resulting from the wants of mankind. Therefore, the determination of appropriate objectives for organised activity must be preceded by an effort to determine precisely what their wants are. Industrial organisations conduct market studies to learn what consumers goods should be produced. City Commissions make surveys to ascertain what civic projects would be of most benefit. Highway Commissions conduct traffic counts to learn what constructive programmes should be undertaken. Organisations come into being as a means for creating and exchanging utility. Their success is dependent upon the appropriateness of the series of acts contributed to the system. The majority of these acts is purposeful, that is, they are directed to the accomplishment of some objective. These acts are physical in nature and find purposeful employment in the alteration of the physical environment. As a result utility is created, which through the process of distribution, makes it possible for the cooperative system to endure. Before the Industrial Revolution most cooperative activity was accomplished in small owner-managed enterprises. usually with a single decision maker and simple organisational objectives. Increased technology and the growth of industrial organisations made necessary the establishment of a hierarchy of objectives. This, in turn, required a division of the management, function until today a hierarchy of decision maker exists in most organisations. The effective pursuit of appropriate objectives contributes directly the organisational efficiency. As used here, efficiency is a measure of the want satisfying power of the cooperative system as a whole. Thus efficiency is the summation of utilities received from the organisation divided by the utilities given to the organisation, as subjectively evaluated by each contributor. The function of the management process is the delineation of organisational objectives and the coordination of activity towards the accomplishment of these objectives. The system of coordinated activities must be maintained so that each contributor, including the manager, gains more than he contributes. -
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
After a situation has been carefully analysed and the possible outcomes have been evaluated as accurately as possible, a decision can be made. This decision may include the alternative of not making a decision on the alternatives presented. After all the data that can be brought to bear on a situation has been considered, some areas of uncertainty my be expected to remain. If a decision is to be made, these areas of uncertainty must be bridged by the consideration and evaluation of intangibles. Some call the type of evaluation involved in the consideration of intangibles, intuition, others call it hunch on judgement, whatever it be called, it is inescapable that this type of thinking must always be the final part in arriving at a decision about the future. There is no other way if action is to be taken. There appears to be a marked difference in people’s abilities to come to sound conclusions, when some facts relative to a situation are missing, those who possess sound judgement, are richly rewarded. But as effective as an intuition, hunch on judgment may some times be, this type of thinking should be reserved for those areas where facts on which to base a decision, are missing.
QUESTIONS
(a) How is it possible to come to a sound decision when facts are missing?
(b) What part in your opinion does decision making play in the efficient functioning of an organisation?
OR
Bring out the implication of the following observation.
Traveler, there is no path: paths are made by walking
- Make sentences to illustrate the meaning of any FIVE of the following.
(i) To come to a dead end (ii) To turn a deafer (iii) Every dark cloud has a silver lining (iv) Blowing hot and cold together (v) To let the cat out of the bag (vi) To put the cart before the horse (vii) To sail in the same boat (viii) A Swan Song -
Use any FIVE of the following pair of words in your own sentences to bring out their meanings.
(i) Mitigate, Alleviate (ii) Persecute, Prosecute (iii) Popular, Populace (iv) Compliment, Complement (v) Excite, Incite (vi) Voracity, Veracity (vii) Virtual, Virtuous (viii) Exceptional, Exceptionable -
Write a paragraph of at least 100 words on any ONE of the following topics.
(a) All that glitters is not gold
(b) Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
(c) Problems of developing countries
(d) There is no short cut to success
(e) To err is human, to forgive is divine