The following precis appeared in the CSS Precis 2002 exam:
‘The official name of our species is homo sapiens; but there are many anthropologists who prefer to think of man as homo Fabcr-thc smith, the maker of tools It would be possible. I think, to reconcile these two definitions in a third. If man is a knower and an efficient doer, it is only because he is also a talker In order to be Faber and Sapiens, Homo must first be loquax, the loquacious one. Without language we should merely be hairless chimpanzees. Indeed which should be some thing much worse.
Possessed of a high IQ but no language, we should be like the Yahoos of Gulliver’s Travels- Creatures too clever to be guided by instinct, too Self-centered to live in a state of animal grace, and therefore condemned forever, frustrated and malignant, between contented apehood and
aspiring’humanity. It was language that made possible the accumulation of knowledge and the broadcasting of information. It was language that permitted the expression of religious insight, the formulation of ethical ideals, the codification to laws, It was language, in a word, that turned us into human beings and gave birth to civilization.
SOLUTION of CSS 2002 Precis
Title: language and evolution of human civilization
It does not create any difference that man is known as homo sapien or homo faber, because it is the language which plays a pivotal role to distinguish human from other creatures by rendering him prudent and intellectual. Language is central to the evolution of civilization, as it enables man to communicate and learn human values along with religion, ethics, and law.
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