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Precis Writing Practice Passage Fourteen for Beginners

Syed Kazim Ali

Essay & Precis Writing Expert | CSS, PMS, GRE English Mentor

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10 August 2025

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This Precis Writing Practice Passage Fourteen for Beginners is created to help new learners strengthen their summarization skills using a clear and freely available text. Part of the Easy Precis Practice series, it guides beginners through identifying the main message, removing non-essential details, and arranging ideas in a smooth, logical flow. The passage’s simplicity makes it ideal for understanding how to retain meaning while compressing content into a concise precis.

By engaging with this exercise, students learn how to preserve the tone of the original, follow the correct sequence of ideas, and meet the word limit, core skills for CSS, PMS, and other competitive exams.

Taught and written by Sir Syed Kazim Ali, Pakistan’s most respected English mentor, this beginner-level passage helps students build confidence in precis writing before advancing to more challenging texts.

Precis Writing Practice Passage Fourteen for Beginners

Precis Writing Practice Passage Fourteen for Beginners

Many people relentlessly pursue material possessions, believing that acquiring more wealth, a bigger house, or the latest gadgets will bring lasting contentment. They often equate success with accumulation, working long hours to achieve these tangible goals. However, this focus frequently leads to a cycle of temporary satisfaction, followed by a renewed desire for something new. This constant chase can create stress and leave individuals feeling perpetually unfulfilled, even amidst abundance.

Instead, a growing number of studies suggest that genuine well-being is often derived from non-material pursuits. Engaging in acts of kindness, fostering meaningful relationships, or dedicating time to personal growth activities like learning a new skill frequently correlates with deeper, more sustainable joy. These experiences cultivate a sense of purpose and connection that possessions simply cannot provide. Furthermore, a resilient spirit, developed through facing and overcoming challenges, proves more valuable for long-term contentment than any external comfort. Ultimately, embracing an inner richness, built on empathy, growth, and perseverance, tends to lead to a more profound and enduring state of happiness.

Precis Writing Practice for Beginners

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Precis Solution

Important Vocabulary

  • Relentlessly (Adverb): In a way that is constant, determined, and unyielding
    • Contextual Explanation: Refers to people’s continuous and intense pursuit of material possessions without pause or reflection
  • Perpetually unfulfilled (Adjective phrase): Constantly feeling incomplete or unsatisfied
    • Contextual Explanation: Describes the emotional state of individuals who remain discontent despite their possessions
  • Amidst (Preposition): In the middle of or surrounded by
    • Contextual Explanation: Refers to the irony of feeling unfulfilled even when surrounded by material abundance
  • Non-material pursuits (Noun phrase): Activities focused on inner growth or relationships rather than physical things
    • Contextual Explanation: Refers to the alternative paths, like kindness or learning, that offer deeper joy
  • Fostering meaningful relationships (Verb phrase): Building and developing deep, valuable connections with others
    • Contextual Explanation: Seen as a key contributor to genuine well-being in contrast to acquiring goods
  • Correlates (Verb): Has a mutual or complementary relationship with something
    • Contextual Explanation: Indicates that well-being often aligns with activities rooted in emotional or spiritual growth
  • External comfort (Noun phrase): Physical or material ease provided by outside sources
    • Contextual Explanation: Contrasted with inner fulfilment; suggests that such comfort alone doesn’t ensure joy
  • Inner richness (Noun phrase): Deep personal qualities like compassion, wisdom, and resilience
    • Contextual Explanation: Presented as the true source of heartfelt happiness and contentment

Important Ideas of the Passage

The main theme of the passage highlights that true happiness comes from non-material pursuits, such as relationships and personal growth, rather than the relentless chase for possessions. The author aims to shift the focus from material wealth to inner fulfillment, emphasizing the importance of empathy, resilience, and personal connection.

Main Ideas of the Passage

  • Chasing material possessions and external success often results in only short-lived satisfaction, stress, and a sense of emptiness.
  • True and lasting happiness arises from inner richness, developed through empathy, meaningful relationships, personal growth, and resilience in the face of challenges.

Supporting Ideas Helping the Main Ideas

  • People often liken happiness to assets, working hard to attain them.
  • Material gains bring only temporary satisfaction, creating a repeated cycle of desire.
  • This cycle causes tension and emotional emptiness despite material abundance.
  • True well-being often arises from non-material sources like kindness, relationships, and personal growth.
  • Such experiences offer lasting joy and determination.
  • Resilience and emotional strength contribute more to happiness than physical comforts.
  • An inner life based on empathy, growth, and perseverance promotes deeper and durable contentment.

Confused About Main and Supporting Ideas?

Kindly make sure to revise all five lectures on Precis Writing that I have already delivered. In these sessions, we discussed in detail:

  • What a precis is and its purpose.
  • What the main idea means and how to extract it effectively.
  • What supporting ideas are and how to identify them.
  • How to coordinate the main and supporting ideas while writing a concise, coherent precis.

Additionally, go through the 20 examples I shared in the WhatsApp groups. These examples highlight the Dos and Don’ts of Precis Writing, and revising them will help you avoid common mistakes and refine your technique.

Precis

Precis 1

Usually, happiness is associated with wealth, but such worldly gains bring only short-lived pleasure and continuous longing, leading to tension and emptiness. In contrast, true and eternal joy comes from spiritual acts, like being kind, building relationships, and practising self-growth. Similarly, emotional strength, compassion, and determination provide deeper fulfilment than physical ease, nurturing long-lasting inner bliss.

  • Original Words in the Passage: 170
  • Precis Word Count: 56
  • Title: Finding True Joy Beyond Materialism

Precis 2

Society often links happiness to wealth and assets, but such gains offer only momentary satisfaction, fueling anxiety and desire. In contrast, real and durable joy stems from kindheartedness, relationships, and self-improvement. Likewise, emotional resilience and qualities like sympathy and resolution, unlike tangible comforts, provide deeper and permanent gratification.

  • Original Words in the Passage: 170
  • Precis Word Count: 48
  • Title: The Real Source of Permanent Gratification

Precis 3

Though assets offer transient pleasure, they often deepen dissatisfaction and anxiety. Contrarily, everlasting fulfilment arises from altruism, authentic relationships, and self-cultivation. Similarly, emotional resilience and virtues, rather than worldly indulgence, nurture a deeper, eternal sense of pleasure.

  • Original Words in the Passage: 170
  • Precis Word Count: 37
  • Title: The Futility of Material Pleasure

Want to Know Who Sir Syed Kazim Ali Is?

Sir Syed Kazim Ali is Pakistan’s top English mentor for CSS & PMS, renowned for producing qualifiers through unmatched guidance in essay, precis, and communication. Discover how he turns serious aspirants into high-scoring, confident candidates.

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10 August 2025

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Syed Kazim Ali

CEO & English Writing Coach

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1st Update: September 9, 2025 | 2nd Update: October 11, 2025

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