PARAGRAPH FOR PRECIS
Like every other instrument that man has invented, sport can be used for good or for evil purposes. Used well, it can teach endurance and courage, a sense of fair play and a respect for rules, coordinated effort, and the subordination of personal interests to those of the group. Used badly, it can encourage personal vanity and group vanity, a great desire for victory and hatred for rivals and intolerant esprit de corps, and contempt for people who are beyond a certain arbitrary selected pole. Sport can be either a preparation for war or, in some measure, a substitute for war; a training ground either of potential war managers or of potential peace-lovers; an educative influence fonning either militarists or men who will be ready and able to apply the principle of pacifism in every activity of life. It is for us to choose which part of the organised amusements of children and adults shall play.
(152 words)
SOLVED PRECIS
Title: The Plus and Minus Roles of Sports
Sports is an activity created by men which can create good men or evil men. Endurance, courage, a sense of fair play are the plus qualities that sports encourage to develop while vanity, greed to win and rivalry are its minus points. In sports lie the seeds of war preparedness or love for peace and goodwill.
(52 words)