English Short Essay – CSS Past Papers
2015
Q. 4. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300 words) on any ONE of the following topics:(20)
(i) Education should be for life, not for livelihood (ii) The art of being tactful (iii) Human nature is seen at its best adversity (iv) Spare the rod and spoil the child
2014
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300 words) on any ONE of the following: (20)
(i) Actions speak louder than words.
(ii) Girls are more intelligent than boys.
(iii) First deserve, then desire.
(iv) Nothing is certain unless it is achieved.
2013
Q4. Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on any ONE of the following: (20)
(i) Revolution versus Evolution (ii) Let us agree to disagree in an agree-able way (iii) Say not, struggle not availth (iv) Beneath every cloud there is always a silver thing (v) Is democracy an ideal form of government?
2012
Q.4 Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300) on any ONE of the following:
(i) Self done is Well done
(ii) The Bough that bears most bend most
(iii) Nearer the Church, farther from God
(iv) Rich men have no fault
(v) Cut your coat according to your cloth
2011
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300 words) on any ONE of the following:
(i) Child is the father of man.
(ii) Life succeeds in that it seems to fail.
(iii) Yellow Journalism.
(iv) The violence of war can be diluted with love.
(v) Love is a beautiful but baleful god.
2010
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300 words) on any ONE of the following: (20)
(i) When flatterers get together, the devil goes to dinner.
(ii) The impossible is often the untried.
(iii) A civil servant is a public servant.
(iv) Internet — a blessing or a bane.
(v) Hope is the buoy of life.
2009
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300 words) on any ONE of the following: (20)
(i) The importance of industrialization.
(ii) Do we live better than our forefathers?
(iii) Protecting freedom of expression not lies.
(iv) Adopting unchecked Western lifestyle.
(v) Variety is the spice of life.
2008
Q.3. Write a comprehensive note (250—300 words) on any one of the following: (20)
a. To rob Peter to pay Paul
b. The child is father of the man.
c. Art lies in concealing art
d. Life without a philosophy is like a ship without rudder
e. A contented mind is a blessing kind.
2007
Q3 Note (250-300 words) on any one of the following
1. Honesty is the best policy but advertising also helps.
2. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
3. A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
4. Spontaneity and creativity as symbols of freedom.
5. Means justify ends.
2006
Q No. 3 Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on any ONE of the following: ( 20 marks )
(a) Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise.
(b) A pen becomes a clarion.
(c ) Charms strike the sight but merit wins the soul
(d) What fools these mortals be!
(e) Stolen glances, sweeter for the theft.
2005
Q3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300) words ) on any one of the following . (20)
a. each man is the architect of his own destiny
b. ignorance is bliss, knowledge worry
c. democracy fosters mediocrity
d. unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talent and our expectations
e. they know enough who know how to learn.
2004
Q3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300 words) on ONE of the following: (20)
1. One may smile and smile, and be a villain.
2. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
3. No sensible man ever made an apology.
4. Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
2003
Q3. Write a comprehensive note (250-300) words on ONE of the following: (20)
(1) Lots of people confuse bad management with destiny.
(2) If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.
(3) We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals: others by their act.
(4) Goodwill is earned by many acts: it can be lost by one.
2002
Q3. Write a Comprehensive note (250-300 words) on ONE of the following subjects (20)
(a) The winds are always on the side of the ablest navigator.
(b) Keep your face to the Sunshine and you cannot see the Shade.
(c ) In strategy it is important to see distant things close, and take a distant view of close things.
(d) You \vill find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you.
2001
Q3. Write a comprehensive note (250 – 300) on ONE of the following subjects. (20)
(a) Modern history registers so primary and rapid changes that it cannot repeat itself. (b) “The golden rule is that there is no golden rule”. G. B. Shaw (c ) Crisis tests the true mettle of man (d) It is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannical to use it like a giant.
2000
Q3. Write a comprehensive note (250 –300 words) on ONE of the following subjects: (20)
(a) Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness (Thomas Pain).
(b) We learn from history that we do not learn from history. (Hegel)
(c ) Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches. (Will Rogers)
(d) Politics is strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. (Ambrose Pierce)
1999
Q3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects.
(i) The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
(ii) Charm strikes the sight but merit wins the soul
(iii) Lord, What Fools These Mortals be!
(iv) Is Democracy possible in the Third World?
1998
Q3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects.
(i) The two main reasons for reading imaginative literature are pleasure and insight
(ii) Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
(iii) Democracy if it is stupid and unjust, is as evil as, stupid and cruel tyranny. (Socrates)
(iv) The so-called custodians of human rights are guilty of violating the rights of the backward nations
1997
Q3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects.
(i) The problem of Noise in the modern world
(ii) The motorway age
(iii) A contented mind is a blessing kind
(iv) A competitive society brings out the best in every individual
(v) The supernatural man (or woman)
1996
Q3. Write a comprehensive note of approximately 250 words on ONE of the following subjects: (25)
(a) Religion is the greatest benefactor of the human race;
(b) The devotional believers coin baseless stories about their gurus;
(c ) And when I love thee not chaos 13 come again;
(d) Every system of government emerges from its economic system;
(e) Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
1995
Q3. Using about 250 words, comment on One of the following subjects: 25
a. Conscience is the basis of justice.
b. The Industrial Society has reached its logical end.
c. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth, has gone on too long in the world.
d. In freedom lies the happiness of the individual.
e. Children have no childhood in Pakistan.
f. To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
1994
Q3. Expand the idea embodied in One of the following in about 200 words. 20
a. The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government.
b. Art is long and time is fleeting.
c. The better part of valour is discretion.
d. Conscience is God’s presence in man. –
e. Capital is only the fruit of labour, and could never have existed if labour had not first existed.
1993
Q6. Comment on any one of the following about 200 words: 20
a) To err is human, to forgive divine,
b) The child is father of the man,
c) God helps those who help themselves,
d) Beggars are no choosers,
e) Handsome is one who handsome does,
f) The impossible is often the untried,
g) Man has his will and woman her way.
1992
Q6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in about 200 words:
i) “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”
ii) “If winter comes, can spring be far behind”
iii) “Mankind is an abstraction, man is a reality”
iv) “The Press and the Nation rise and fall together”
v) Environmental pollution — a global problem
vi) Population Explosion
1991
Q6. Write a note of about 150 words on any one of the following ideas: 20
i) What can’t be cured must be endured
ii) A bee in one’s bonnet
iii) Make a virtue of necessity
iv) A red rag to a bull
1990
Develop the idea contained in any one of the following in about 150 words: 20
a) A thing of beauty is a joy forever
b) Cowards die many times before their death
c) In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place
d) Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter
e) Unity, Faith, Discipline.
1989
Q6. Expand the idea contained in any one of the following in about 150 words: 20
a) “If winter comes, can spring be far behind.”
b) “Slow and steady wins the race”
c) Eternal vigilance is the. Price of Liberty.
d) Man does not live by bread alone.
e) Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air.
f) “Foreign Aid” — Is it a blessing or a curse?
1988
Write an essay about 200 words on any one of the following: 20
a) Competition in Education b) Science and Religion c) My View of Life
1987
6. Expand the idea contained in any ONE of the following in about 150 words.
(a) Learn to walk before you run (b) Marriage is a lottery (c) Success has many friends.
1986
6. Explain briefly any THREE in your own words to illustrate the central idea contained therein in about 50 words each.
(a) Give every man thy ear but few thy voice
(b) To rob Peter to pay Paul
(c) The child is father of the man.
(d) Art lies in concealing art
(e) Life without a philosophy is like a ship without a rudder.
1985
6. Expand the idea contained in any ONE of the following in a passage of about 150 words.
(a) Men are not hanged for stealing horses but that horses may not be stolen
(b) Three may keep a secret if two are dead.
(c) All philosophy is in two words, sustain or abstain.
1984
5. Discuss each of the following situations and determine the validity of the direct testimony involved.
(i) A witness testifies to seeing a holdup and identifies one of the gunmen. It is established that this witness was about two hundred yards from the scene of the crime. Under cross-examination, the attorney for the defence brings out the fact that the witness habitually wears glasses to correct a severe condition of nearsightedness, but that on the day of holdup, his glasses were broken and he had just left them to be repaired.
(b) A series of witness agrees that a particular crime was committed by a man who is bald, walks with a slight lip, is about 5.10 tall, and wears thick glasses. They differ on the matter of the colour of his clothing, the type of shoes he was wearing, and the size of satchel he was carrying.
OR
Explain as clearly as you can any TWO of the following statements.
(a) The political structure of a society is always the power structure of that society.
(b) It is better to be silent and be thought stupid than to speak and prove it’s true.
(c) The only knowledge worth having is that which is applicable to some part of the economic life of the community.
(d) Any “labour-saving” device is the most inhuman aspect of work.
1983
3. Expand the idea contained in one of the following.
(i) Give every man thy ear but few thy voice
(ii) If winter comes, can spring be far behind
(iii) To err is human, to refrain from laughing, humane
(iv) Houses are built to live in and not to look on.
(v) Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
(vi) What is this life if full of care / We have no time to stand and stare
(vii) A Yawn is a Silent Shout.
1982
5. 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
1981
4. Write a paragraph on any one of the following topics.
(a) The authoritarian society
(b) Civilized dissent is necessary for social progress
(c) Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think
(d) Eventually all human action must be judged by its moral content
(e) Those who can, do, those who can’t teach
- Write a paragraph on ONE of the following topics.
(a) What we call progress is largely delusory
(b) Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil
(c) Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s
(d) A man’s personality, morality, intellect and attitudes are all the product of his bodily chemistry.
(e) All the world’s a stage
1980
Write a brief essay on ONE of the following.
(a) “A great part of the mischief of the world arise from words”
(b) Democracy and Human Dignity
(c) The Third World
(d) Freedom of Speech
(e) “The most important thing is not to find, but to add to ourselves what we find.”
OR
Write a short speech for a symposium on the Dilemma of Youth.