Practice Comprehension and Precis

Part 1: Comprehension

Passage (authored)

The Central Armed Police Forces guard the frontiers of the nation and keep order within them, yet their hardest test is rarely the one the public sees. It is not the firefight at the border or the cordon in a restive town, but the quiet daily choice to use no more force than the law allows. A force that wins ground by trampling rights wins only for a season, because the people it polices remember. Legitimacy, unlike territory, cannot be seized; it can only be earned, and it is earned in the unwatched moments when restraint costs more than retaliation. The officer who understands this protects not only the citizen in front of him but the standing of the entire force behind him. Discipline, then, is not the opposite of compassion but its instrument, the habit that lets a trained person act humanely under the pressure that makes most people cruel. The state that forgets this lesson may hold the map and lose the people; the state that remembers it may, in time, hold both.

Questions

1. According to the passage, what is the hardest test faced by the Central Armed Police Forces?
2. Why does the author say legitimacy cannot be seized?
3. What does the author mean by calling discipline "the instrument" of compassion?
4. What is the consequence for a state that forgets the lesson of restraint?
5. Suggest a suitable title for the passage.

Model answers

1. The hardest test is the quiet daily decision to use no more force than the law permits, not the visible firefight or cordon. (Answer in your own words; do not copy the sentence.)
2. Legitimacy cannot be seized because, unlike territory, it must be earned through the trust of the people, especially through restraint shown in unwatched moments; force alone cannot create it.
3. The author means that discipline is the trained habit that allows a person to act humanely under pressure that would push most people toward cruelty; it channels compassion into conduct rather than opposing it.
4. A state that forgets the lesson may keep physical control of the territory (the map) but lose the loyalty and cooperation of the people.
5. A suitable title: "Legitimacy Is Earned, Not Seized" or "Restraint as the Real Test of a Force".

Part 2: Precis

Passage to be summarised (authored, about 150 words)

Inflation is often described as a hidden tax, and the description is apt. When the general level of prices rises in a sustained way, every unit of money buys a little less than it did before, so the burden falls hardest on those who hold cash and earn fixed incomes, while it quietly favours borrowers whose debts shrink in real terms. A modest, predictable inflation can lubricate an economy, encouraging spending and investment rather than hoarding. But once it accelerates and becomes unpredictable, it corrodes trust, distorts the signals that prices are meant to send, and punishes saving. This is why central banks, including the Reserve Bank of India, aim not to abolish inflation but to keep it low and stable within a target band, raising interest rates to cool an overheating economy and lowering them to revive a sluggish one. The art lies in steadiness, not in chasing a price level of zero.

The task

Reduce the passage to about one-third of its length (roughly 50 words), in your own words, in one connected paragraph, neutral in tone, with a title and a word count.

Model precis

Title: Inflation as a Managed Balance

Inflation acts like a hidden tax, eroding the value of money and hurting fixed-income earners while easing borrowers' real debts. Mild, predictable inflation aids an economy, but rapid, uncertain inflation destroys trust and savings. Hence central banks aim to keep it low and stable, not zero. (50 words)

Why this precis works

• It keeps the central argument (inflation is a managed balance, not an evil to abolish) and the main supports (who it hurts, when it helps, what central banks do).
• It drops the examples and rhetoric (the lubrication image, the price-signal detail) without losing the thread.
• It is in the author's reported sense, in the third person, neutral, and within the one-third target with a stated word count.