PMS KPK 2010 Solved Precis

• Enervating (Verb)
  • Meaning: Draining someone of energy and strength
  • Contextual Explanation: Climate that saps a worker's strength, leaving little vigour for hard labour
• Desultory (Adjective)
  • Meaning: Jumping from one thing to another without purpose or regularity
  • Contextual Explanation: In the passage, the word refers to work habits that start and stop at random
• Impetus (Noun)
  • Meaning: The driving force or momentum that keeps something moving forward
  • Contextual Explanation: The momentum that daily practice builds and that a worker loses when his routine is broken
• Fitful (Adjective)
  • Meaning: Active in short bursts, starting and stopping irregularly
  • Contextual Explanation: A national character that swings on and off rather than holding steady, the direct result of labour that keeps getting interrupted
• Capricious (Adjective)
  • Meaning: Given to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood or behaviour
  • Contextual Explanation: A people whose behaviour shifts without warning

In this passage, the author aims to show that climate affects a nation's character indirectly, through the regularity of its labour. He then argues that this is a general principle, because it holds even among nations that differ widely in other respects.

Main Idea of the Passage

• Climate's effect on the regularity of labour and, through it, on national character
  • Climate shapes national character by deciding how regularly a people can work: where weather interrupts continuous labour, habits turn desultory, and character becomes fitful, a principle that holds even among otherwise very different nations.

Supporting Ideas Helping the Main Idea

• Climate affecting labour through regularity of habits
  • Beyond affecting the labourer's vigour, climate also influences labour through the regularity of his habits.
• Northern peoples lacking temperate industry
  • No people in very northern latitudes have ever matched the steady, unflinching industry of the people in temperate regions.
• Severe weather and scarce light halting outdoor work
  • The severity of the weather and a deficiency of light make continued outdoor employment impossible for northern peoples.
• Interruption breeding desultory habits and lost momentum
  • Compelled to stop their usual work, the working classes become prone to desultory habits and lose the impetus that uninterrupted practice gives.
• Resulting fitful, capricious national character
  • A people so affected has a national character more fitful and capricious than that of a people whose climate permits regular industry.
• The principle holding even among very different nations
  • The principle is so powerful that it operates even under opposite circumstances: nations that differ in other respects, but where continued agricultural industry is impracticable, all show instability and fickleness of character.

Confused About Main and Supporting Ideas?

If you are still struggling to identify the main idea and supporting ideas of a precis passage, please make sure to revise all Precis Writing lectures that I have already delivered. These lectures were designed to build your understanding from the very basics to the advanced techniques required in CSS and PMS examinations.

• What a precis is and why examiners ask it.
• How to read and analyse a precis passage effectively.
• How to identify the main idea of a passage.
• How to distinguish supporting ideas from examples, illustrations, and minor details.
• What a Precis Map is and how to build it before writing.
• How to coordinate the main idea and supporting ideas logically.
• Etc. 

Moreover, please revise the 20 to 30 solved examples shared in the WhatsApp groups during your English Essay and Precis Course. These examples clearly demonstrate the Dos and Don’ts of Precis Writing and show how the concepts discussed in the lectures are applied in actual passages.

Precis 1

Besides affecting a worker's stamina, climate also shapes labour by deciding how regular his habits can be. Peoples of the far north have never matched the steady, tireless industry of those in moderate regions. Harsh weather and lack of light halt their outdoor work, so workers slip into irregular habits and lose the momentum that constant practice builds. Their nation's character thus turns more instable than that of peoples able to work regularly. Even very different nations show unsteady, shifting characters wherever continuous farming is impossible.

• Precis Passage Word Count: 291
• Precis Word Count: 86
• Title: Climate: A Regulator of Labour and National Character

Precis 2

Climate affects labour in two ways: by sapping or restoring energy, and by determining whether work can fall into a settled pattern. Far northern peoples have always fallen short of the sustained diligence found in milder regions, because harsh weather, along with short days, stops outdoor work. Forced into idleness, they drift into haphazard routines and forfeit the momentum built through continuous practice, so their national temperament becomes more erratic than it is where work can go on without interruption. Even countries that differ widely show the same unsteadiness wherever farming cannot be kept up continuously.

• Precis Passage Word Count: 291
• Precis Word Count: 96
• Title: Climate, Interrupted Labour, and National Character

Precis 3

Besides affecting a worker's stamina, climate also shapes labour by deciding how regular his habits can be. Peoples of the far north have never matched the steady, tireless industry of those in moderate regions. Harsh weather and lack of light halt their outdoor work, so workers slip into irregular habits and lose the momentum that constant practice builds. Their nation's character thus turns more instable than that of peoples able to work regularly. Even very different nations show unsteady, shifting characters wherever continuous farming is impossible.

• Precis Passage Word Count: 291
• Precis Word Count: 86
• Title: Climate: A Regulator of Labour and National Character