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A précis is a brief, accurate summary of a longer piece of writing—a passage, an article,a speech, a report, an epic poem, a short story, or a whole novel.

Précis is one of the most important forms of retelling; it states briefly the essential thought of a passage.Depending on the main contents, a précis can be a few pages long or as short as only one single sentence.It is neither a paraphrase, nor a close reproduction of the original in other words.It is a group of coherently stated sentences that summarize the essence of the passage.

précis writing is most important in that it demands us to fully comprehend what we read.We thus cannot afford to skim; we must read for the purpose of distinguishing between the trifling details and the main thought; we must get to the heart of the whole matter.This demands our looking steadfastly at the passage to understand perfectly what the writer is trying to get across, and we can, at the same time, benefit enormously during the process.

Besides demanding care and thought when we read, précis writing also requires discrimination when we write.Clearness, preciseness and conciseness are requisites.It is no easy job to pack the essence of a passage into a few well-ordered sentences; vocabulary building, sentence construction, and clear, concise expression are all to be attended to.A good précis needs thrift and care in the use f words no repetition or looseness of style is allowed.précis writing is an exercise of quite some value in vocabulary building, in sentence construction, and in clear, concise expression, thus it offers not only a deep study of the language itself, but a practical training in writing as well.

Précis writing is useful in that it will help you grasp the main idea of what you have read or heard, trains your ability to express your thought clearly, concisely and effectively, and improves your practical writing ability in your daily life and job.

Before starting a précis, you should thoroughly understand the following features of a précis:

● A précis is a brief summary of a longer piece of writing expressed in your own words.It must not be a patchwork made up of phrases and sentences quoted from the original.

● A précis is not a paraphrase of the original writing.It is not just saying in different and simpler words exactly what the original says.

● All you have to do in writing a précis is to give the gist of the author’s exact and essential meaning.It should be the shortest possible description of what you have read.

● A précis contains no comments or opinions of your own.It contains no details, no examples, no illustrations.

● A précis is usually only one-third or one-fourth the length of the original paragraph or passage.However, for something fairly long, such as a short story or a novel, it can be only one-hundredth or one-thousandth as long as the original.

The above principles explain in five aspects what a précis is, or should be.In practical writing, follow these steps:

● Read the selection carefully.A thorough understanding of what the author says is the basis for a good précis.Therefore you should read as carefully as possible and as many times as necessary to meet the purpose.

● Take brief notes on points that seem important to the author.

● Write the main idea in your own words on the basis of your notes.

● Revise the writing and make it as concise as possible.

Read the model and the four précis, discuss which précis is better and why.

I dreamed I was at a children’s May-day party, in which every means of entertainment had been provided for them by a wise and kind host.It was in a stately house, with beautiful gardens attached to it; and the children had been set free in the rooms and gardens, with no care whatever but how to pass their afternoon rejoicingly.They did not, indeed, know much about what was to happen next day; and some of them, I thought, were a little frightened,because there was a chance of their being sent to a new school where there were examinations;but they kept the thoughts of that out of their heads as well as they could, and resolved to enjoy themselves.The house, I said, was in a beautiful garden, and in the garden were all kinds of flowers; sweet, grassy banks for rest; and smooth lawns for play; and pleasant streams and woods; and rocky places for climbing.And the children were happy for a little while, but presently they separated themselves into parties; and then each party declared it would have a piece of the garden for its own, and that none of the others should have anything to do with that piece.Next, they quarreled violently about which pieces they should have; and at last the boys took up the thing, as boys should do, “practically,” and fought in the flower-beds till there was hardly a flower left standing; they trampled down each other’s bits of the garden out of spite; and the girls cried till they could cry no more; and so they all lay down at last breathless in the ruin, and waited for the time when they were to be taken home in the evening.(292 words)

The author saw in his dream what happened at a child’s May-day gathering in a house with a wonderful attached garden, where the children could enjoy themselves in whatever way they liked.The children forgot everything else and did enjoy themselves for some time.However, they soon divided themselves into groups, each of which wanted apart of the garden for them only.Then squabble resulted over which parts they would have, and the boys started to fight while the girls began to cry.When they stopped, exhausted, the garden was completely destroyed.(93 words)

The author dreamed that he saw what happened at a child’s May-day party: the children were playing in a house with a garden, where they could enjoy themselves in whatever way they liked.After a short happy time, they divided themselves into some small groups.Each group wanted to have for themselves a piece of the beautiful garden, but they couldn’t reach any agreement as to the parts they should have.So they started a fight and destroyed the garden, and consequently ruined the party.They really shouldn’t have done that.(91 words)

The author went to a child’s May-day gathering in his dream.He saw a good house where the children had access to every way of entertainment supplied by the wonderful host.He also saw a beautiful garden which had various flowers, banks covered with grass, tidy laws where they could play and rocky places where they could climb up and down.It also had some beautiful brooks and trees.The garden was attached to the house.From the house and the garden, you can see that the owner was of exquisite taste.The children liked the place very much, so they forgot everything that would happen the following day even though they might be taken to new schools and difficult exams.After some time, they got an idea and divided themselves into small groups, and each group wanted to occupy a part of the garden that no other group should touch.Of course, they couldn’t agree with each other on which parts they should have.So the party ended in a fight and the ruin of the garden.(180 words)

The author dreamed he went to a child’s May-day party.It was in a stately house, with beautiful gardens attached to it.The children tried to keep everything out of their hands and only thought of enjoying themselves.The children were happy for a little while and then separated themselves into parties.Each group declared that it would have a piece of the garden for its own, so they started to quarrel violently and then tramped down each other’s bits of the garden out of spite.Then they lay down breathlessly and waited to be taken home.(97 words)

Write a précis for each of the following seven passages.

Most importantly, television is educational.Preschoolers learn colors, numbers, and letters from public television programs, like Sesame Street, that use animation and puppets to make learning fun.Science shows for older children, like 1-2-3 Contact, go on location to analyze everything from volcanoes to rocket launches.Adults, too, can get an education from courses given on television.Also, television widens our knowledge by covering important events and current news.Viewers can see and hear presidents’ speeches, state funerals,natural disasters, and election results as they are happening.Finally, a television set hooked up to a home computer can help its owner learn how to manage the household budget, invest in the stock market, or master a foreign language.

There are three important qualities necessary in a good boss.The most important is fairness.If the boss is fair, workers can feel that if they do a good job, their work will be appreciated, and their efforts will be rewarded.

The second most important quality is leadership.The boss should be an example and a teacher.This allows workers to learn from a boss, so that they can increase their job skills and get promoted.The third most important factor is that the boss acts with consistency.That way the workers know what to expect each day.They know how they’ll be treated and what their share of the workload will be.I would hire a boss with these qualities for myself.

The snow lay so deep on the mountain that winter that Peter’s hut was buried in it up to the window sills.Fresh snow fell almost every night.So on most mornings he had to jump out of the living-room window if the frost in the night had not been enough to harden the surface,he stepped deep into soft snow and then had to battle his way out with feet and hands and even head.Then his mother handed him out a big room, with which he cleared a path to the door.This had to be done skillfully.He piled the snow well away from the entrance, so that there was no likelihood of a great mass of soft snow falling into the house when the door was opened.There was also the danger that hard frost might turn soft snow into a solid wall, and so barricade the door–and only Peter was small and agile enough to squeeze through the window.

Accurate, legible notes are invaluable aids to the student who is enrolled in a lecture course.Notes should be taken during lectures, and when the student is reading the texts prior to each session of the course.The key to good note-taking is to be able to listen a lot and to write only as much as is needed to record the essence of a point or idea presented by the lecture.Thus, students should endeavor to identify only the main points and ideas being presented and to write them down in outline form.They should also strive to take good notes the first time and not plan to recopy notes-or to do so only when clarity and conciseness demand it.Finally, they should review their notes for about five minutes on the same day when they take them, and go over them again for regular schedule or plan.There is no course syllabus to be memorized; instead, the examinations will be based on the material presented in the lectures and textbooks.

Many people go to church on Sunday, but others don’t.Many sleep late on Sunday morning, but others don’t.Some people work on Sunday, but most don’t.However, almost everyone reads the Sunday paper.

Often the paper is waiting outside the door when the family gets up.The newspaper boy has delivered it.

The Sunday paper is usually very thick.It has many advertisements and many different sections.The adults in the family like the front page, the editorial page, and the world news section.Many men also read the sports pages and the financial pages.

Most men don’t read the women’s pages, but the mother of the family usually does.The women’s pages have news about parties and clothes.

Most Sunday papers have comics, which children enjoy.Older people read the death notices, which tell about people who have died during the week.

There is something for everyone in the Sunday paper.

Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect eating animals.We owe a lot to the birds and beasts that eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.

How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there was more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

I could not help recalling my two friends whom I met in Holland in 1999.They both were postdocs and were working in Holland.Their spoken English was poor and they were,therefore, often in trouble.One of them lost his job because of his inability to communicate.His boss had grown tired of having to write down everything he said.My friend then told me:“You are a teacher; it is your job to help your students with their spoken English.How 1 wish my teachers had done a better job when l was a student!” The embarrassment of my friend made me think a lot.

Traditionally, Chinese students tend to consider their teachers the main source of learning, which, to a great extent, results from the philosophical foundation for education in China laid by Confucius, one of the greatest thinkers in ancient China.Even today, no one can deny his unparalleled contribution to Chinese education.Many of his wise sayings and maxims still govern the behavior of learners in China.Take TEFL (Teaching English As a Foreign Language) for example, students are still accustomed to an education dominated by a teacher-centered, book-centered, grammar, translation method and an emphasis on rote memory.There is little student initiative and, if any at all, little student-student interaction.

Teachers who are keen on spoon-feeding their students generally receive higher appreciation than teachers who are not.Any attempt from a teacher for simulated interactions such as games, role playing, talk-based communicative activities, i.e., pair/group/team work,risks resistance or even resentment from some students.They tend to associate games and communicative activities in class with entertainment and, exclusively and accordingly, are skeptical of the use of games as learning tools.To make things worse, there are some students who may go so far as to distinguish “good teachers” from “bad ones” solely by how many pages they can cover in their notebooks.Teachers who advocate a communicative approach to teaching English are likely, though unfairly, to be considered lazy or irresponsible by some students.

On the other hand, a large number of Chinese teachers of English play a crucial part in the current situation of TEFL.Although China has been on the way of opening to the outside world and many foreign experts in English teaching are increasingly available, many of these newly-arrived teachers are engaged in training Chinese foreign language teachers or Chinese technology specialists.The bulk of the English teaching is still conducted by Chinese teachers,mostly trained in a traditional way, the majority of whom have never been outside of China or talked to a native speaker.Owing to a lack of English proficiency themselves, some Chinese teachers find it a painful step to adjust to different teaching techniques and, therefore, are usually unprepared when difficulties crop up in the course of teaching.Consequently, they often give up and resort to using outdated methods in their teaching.Other teachers stick to the outdated methods because they would not be able to answer students’ sociolinguistic or cultural questions if they allowed students too much freedom.It is not rare to hear teachers complain: “I can only teach English for the sake of teaching.If I am bombarded with many questions on language or cultural differences, I may be at a loss.”