PPSC junior Clerk BS11 Past Paper 2025

Mirza Ghalib, one of the most celebrated poets in Urdu and Persian literature, was born in Agra (A), India, in 1797. His full name was Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, and he later adopted the pen names Ghalib and Asad. Agra holds the distinction of being his birthplace, a fact significant to his early life and heritage.

• While Ghalib spent a considerable portion of his life in Delhi (B) and is strongly associated with the city's literary culture, it was not his birthplace.
• Lucknow (C) was another prominent center for Urdu poetry during his time, but Ghalib was not born there.
• Lahore (D) is a major city in present-day Pakistan with a rich cultural history, but it is not Ghalib's birthplace.

Hafeez Jalandhari, a renowned Pakistani poet who penned the national anthem, is indeed buried in Lahore. This is a factual piece of information related to his life and legacy. Lahore is the capital of Punjab province and a major cultural hub, often associated with many prominent literary figures. The other cities, Karachi, Islamabad, and Hyderabad, while significant urban centers in Pakistan, are not the burial place of Hafeez Jalandhari. His mausoleum in Lahore is a notable landmark, commemorating his contributions to Urdu literature and national identity.

Allama Iqbal, the national poet of Pakistan and a key figure in the Pakistan Movement, sought guidance from the famous Urdu poet Dagh Dehlvi in his early poetic career. Dagh Dehlvi was a master of classical Urdu poetry and significantly influenced Iqbal's initial style, helping him refine his craft and poetic expression. Iqbal Khan is not a known mentor for Allama Iqbal. Mir Taqi Mir and Ghalib were earlier classical poets, long deceased by Iqbal's time, so he could not have sought direct help from them. This mentorship was crucial for Iqbal's poetic development.

Shah Wali Ullah Dehlawi was an influential 18th-century Islamic scholar, reformer, and philosopher. His most famous and comprehensive work is Hujjatullah al-Baligha, which delves into the philosophy of Islamic law, the wisdom behind its injunctions, and the universal principles of Islam. It is considered a masterpiece of Islamic thought. Fath-ul-Mubeen and Sirat un-Nabi are significant Islamic works, but they are not attributed to Shah Wali Ullah. Sirat un-Nabi, for example, is famously a biography of the Prophet Muhammad by Shibli Nomani. Therefore, Hujjatullah al-Baligha is the correct answer.

The phrase 'good at' is an idiomatic expression used to describe proficiency or skill in a particular activity, subject, or task. It indicates that someone performs well in that area.

• At is the correct preposition. The idiom is 'good at something', meaning skilled or proficient in that activity. For example, 'He is good at playing the piano.'
• In is incorrect. While one might be 'good in a crisis', 'good in' is not typically used to express skill in a game or activity.
• On is incorrect. 'Good on' is used in different contexts, such as 'good on paper' or 'good on the team', but not for skill in a game.
• With is incorrect. 'Good with' implies being adept at handling something or someone, or having a good relationship, e.g., 'good with children' or 'good with tools', but not for the game itself.

In most word processing applications like MS Word, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Up Arrow is specifically designed to move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph. This function allows for efficient navigation through a document, jumping between blocks of text. Moving the cursor to the beginning of the entire document is typically achieved with Ctrl + Home. Moving the cursor up just one line is accomplished by simply pressing the Up Arrow key. Selecting the entire line involves different shortcuts, such as Shift + End from the beginning of a line, or triple-clicking the line, not Ctrl + Up Arrow.

In grammar, a conjunction is a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. Clauses are fundamental units of a sentence containing a subject and a verb. Conjunctions like 'and', 'but', 'or', and 'because' are crucial for forming complex and compound sentences by linking these clauses.

• 'Conjunction' is correct as its primary function is to join grammatical units, including clauses.
• 'Adjective' modifies nouns or pronouns, describing their qualities.
• 'Noun' names a person, place, thing, or idea.
• 'Article' (a, an, the) specifies or generalizes nouns. None of these parts of speech serve the primary function of joining clauses.

Among the given options, MS Access is a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Microsoft. It is designed for creating, managing, and retrieving data, making it suitable for small to medium-sized businesses and personal use. It allows users to store and organize information efficiently. MS Word is a word processor used for creating text documents. MS Excel is a spreadsheet program primarily used for data analysis, calculations, and creating charts. Adobe Photoshop is a powerful image editing software. Therefore, MS Access is the only database software listed.

In spreadsheet applications like MS Excel, the Chart Area refers to the entire region that encompasses all components of a chart. This includes the plot area, chart title, axis titles, legend, and data labels. It represents the complete visual space occupied by the chart. The Plot Area, in contrast, is only the specific region within the chart area where the data series are actually plotted, bounded by the axes. 'Graph Area' and 'Data Area' are not standard or precise terms for the total chart region in this context, making Chart Area the correct terminology for the overall chart container.

When converting reported speech to direct speech, several changes are necessary to reflect the original speaker's exact words and perspective. The foundational concept involves reversing the tense and pronoun shifts.

• Correct Option C: "He said, 'I will go as soon as it is possible.'" is accurate because 'he' in reported speech becomes 'I' (the original speaker), 'would go' reverts to 'will go' (future tense), and 'was possible' reverts to 'is possible' (present tense). This correctly captures the original statement.
• Option A: "He said, 'He would go as soon as it was possible.'" is incorrect as it fails to change the pronoun from 'he' to 'I' and the tenses back to their original form.
• Option B: "He said, 'I would go as soon as it was possible.'" is incorrect because while it changes the pronoun to 'I', it does not revert the tenses ('would go' and 'was possible') to their direct speech equivalents.
• Option D: "He said, 'I shall go when it is possible.'" is incorrect because 'shall' is less common than 'will' for future intention in modern English, and 'when' alters the meaning slightly from 'as soon as', which implies immediacy.

Identifying the subject of a sentence is a foundational concept in grammar. The subject is the noun or pronoun that performs the action of the verb or is described by the predicate.

• Correct Option B: "All the books on the table" is the complete subject. The main noun is 'books', but it is modified by the quantifier 'All' and the prepositional phrase 'on the table', which together specify exactly which books are being discussed. The verb 'are' agrees with this plural subject.
• Option A: "The table" is incorrect because 'table' is part of a prepositional phrase ('on the table') that modifies 'books', not the main subject itself.
• Option C: "Are new" is incorrect because this is the predicate of the sentence, which describes the subject.
• Option D: "Books on the table" is close, but it omits the crucial quantifier 'All', which is an integral part of the subject phrase, indicating the entire quantity of books.

Understanding synonyms is a key aspect of vocabulary building. Synonyms are words that have the same or nearly the same meaning as another word.

• Correct Option A: "Ruin" is the correct synonym for 'Wreck'. Both words mean to severely damage, destroy, or cause the collapse of something. For example, a storm can wreck a ship, or a bad decision can ruin a reputation.
• Option B: "Build" is incorrect because it is an antonym, meaning to construct or create something.
• Option C: "Delight" is incorrect because it refers to great pleasure or joy, which is unrelated to the meaning of 'wreck'.
• Option D: "Repair" is incorrect because it is an antonym, meaning to fix or restore something that is damaged.

A complete sentence fundamentally requires a Subject and a Predicate. The subject is the noun or pronoun performing the action or being described, while the predicate contains the verb and all its modifiers, objects, or complements, describing what the subject does or is.

• Predicate is correct because it completes the essential structure of a sentence by providing the action or state of being for the subject.
• Adjective is incorrect; an adjective modifies a noun but is not a core structural component of a sentence.
• Article is incorrect; articles (a, an, the) are a type of adjective and do not form the predicate.
• Phrase is incorrect; a phrase is a group of words without a subject-verb pair and cannot stand alone as a complete predicate.

A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language. The word 'Unusual' describes something not common, ordinary, or expected.

• Extraordinary is the correct synonym because it means beyond what is ordinary or usual; remarkably good or impressive, perfectly aligning with the meaning of 'unusual'.
• Ordinary is incorrect as it is an antonym, meaning common or regular.
• Usual is incorrect as it is also an antonym, meaning customary or normal.
• Routine is incorrect as it implies a regular, unvarying procedure, which is the opposite of unusual.

To transform an active voice sentence into the passive voice, the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence, and the verb is changed to a form of 'to be' plus the past participle. The original subject often becomes part of a 'by' phrase.

• Who was helped by the rich man? is correct. In the active sentence, 'Whom' is the object. In the passive voice, this object becomes the subject 'Who', and the verb 'did help' becomes 'was helped'. The original subject 'the rich man' becomes 'by the rich man'.
• Whom was helped the rich man? is incorrect because 'Whom' is an objective pronoun and cannot be the subject of the passive sentence.
• Who did help the rich man? is incorrect because it remains in the active voice.
• By whom the rich man was helped? is grammatically awkward and less natural for a question; the subject 'who' should initiate the question.

Possessive pronouns indicate ownership or possession and do not use apostrophes. Words like 'ours', 'yours', 'his', 'hers', 'its', and 'theirs' inherently show possession without any additional punctuation.

• ours is the correct form. Possessive pronouns like 'ours' already denote possession and therefore do not require an apostrophe. Adding an apostrophe to a possessive pronoun is a common grammatical error.
• our's is incorrect. Apostrophes are used for contractions (e.g., 'it's' for 'it is') or to show possession with nouns (e.g., 'the dog's bone'), but not with possessive pronouns.
• ours' is incorrect. This form is typically used for plural possessive nouns ending in 's', but not for possessive pronouns.
• ours's is incorrect. This is an incorrect and redundant application of the apostrophe.

An antonym is a word opposite in meaning to another. 'Unmindful' means not conscious or aware of something; heedless or oblivious.

• Aware is the correct antonym. It means having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact, which is the direct opposite of being unmindful.
• Ignorant is incorrect because it is a synonym or closely related term to unmindful, meaning lacking knowledge or awareness.
• Brave is incorrect because it refers to courage and is unrelated to awareness or mindfulness.
• Careless is incorrect because it is a synonym or closely related term to unmindful, implying a lack of attention or concern.

In computing and mathematics, operations are categorized by their function. The 'Greater Than' sign (>) is used to compare two values. This comparison yields a Boolean result (true or false), indicating whether the condition is met.

• 'Logical' is the correct classification. Logical or relational operators perform comparisons between values, resulting in a true or false outcome, which is a fundamental concept in programming and conditional logic.
• 'Arithmetic' operations involve mathematical calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• 'Conditional' refers to statements (like if-else) that execute code based on a condition, but the sign itself is the operator that defines the condition, not the condition itself.
• 'Greater' describes the comparison being made, not the type of operation.

The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + X is a fundamental command used across various operating systems and applications, including word processors and file explorers. Its primary function is to cut selected text, images, or files. This action removes the selected item from its original location and places it onto the clipboard, making it available for pasting elsewhere.

• Copy (Ctrl + C): This command duplicates the selected item to the clipboard without removing it from its original place.
• Paste (Ctrl + V): This command inserts the content currently stored on the clipboard into the desired location.
• Undo (Ctrl + Z): This command reverses the last action performed.

Therefore, Ctrl + X is specifically for cutting, which involves both copying and deleting the original.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the core component of a computer that executes instructions, performs calculations, and manages the overall flow of information. Its role in processing data and controlling operations makes it analogous to the human brain.

• 'CPU' is correct because it is responsible for carrying out the vast majority of processing inside a computer, making it the central 'brain' of the system.
• 'Hard Drive' is a storage device for long-term data.
• 'RAM' (Random Access Memory) is for temporary, volatile storage of data actively being used.
• 'Monitor' is an output device for displaying visual information. These components support the CPU but do not perform its central processing function.

In most word processing applications, including MS Word, the default alignment of text is Left. This means that text is aligned along the left margin of the document, creating a straight left edge while the right edge remains ragged. This is the most common and readable alignment for body text in many languages.

• Center: Aligns text equidistant from both the left and right margins.
• Right: Aligns text along the right margin, leaving the left edge ragged.
• Justify: Distributes text evenly between both the left and right margins, creating straight edges on both sides by adjusting word spacing.

Understanding default settings helps in efficient document creation.