English (Précis and Composition)

The examination in this subject is based upon a paper carrying 100 marks, to test the candidate's abilities to handle précis writing, reading comprehension, sentence structuring, translation, grammar and vocabulary.

A carefully selected passage with an orientation of generic understanding and enough flexibility for compression shall be given for précising and suggesting an appropriate title. Of the 20 marks allocated, 15 go to précising the text and 5 to suggesting the title.

A carefully selected passage that is rich in substance but not very technical or discipline-specific shall be given, followed by five questions, each carrying 4 marks.

Correct usage of tense, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, punctuation, phrasal verbs, synonyms and antonyms.

Sentences shall be given, each having a clear structural flaw in terms of grammar or punctuation. Candidates are asked to rewrite them with only the correction really needed, without making unnecessary alterations. No two or more sentences should have exactly the same problem, and 2–3 sentences shall be based on correction of punctuation marks.

A random list of twenty words of moderate standard — neither very easy nor utterly unfamiliar — shall be given, to be grouped by the candidate in pairs of those having similar or opposite meaning, as may be clearly directed in the question.

Ten pairs shall be given of seemingly similar words with different meanings, generally confused in communication, for bringing out the difference in meaning of any five of them by first explaining them in parenthesis and then using them in sentences.

Ten short Urdu/Sindhi sentences involving structural composition, significant terms and figurative or idiomatic expressions shall be given, to be accurately translated into English.