A Level Urdu: Translation and Reading — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Translation and Reading revision notes

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Section A — Translation into English

1. Translate into English:

تعلیم صرف ڈگری حاصل کرنے کا نام نہیں، بلکہ یہ انسان کے طرزِ فکر کو بدل دیتی ہے۔ جو قوم اپنی بیٹیوں کو تعلیم نہیں دیتی، وہ اپنے آدھے مستقبل سے خود ہاتھ دھو بیٹھتی ہے۔

[10]

Section B — Translation into Urdu

2. Translate into Urdu:

Over the past twenty years, the number of students studying abroad has risen sharply. Many return with new skills, but some never come back, and their country loses the talent it invested in.

[10]

Section C — Language and response

3. Explain the difference between a literal and an idiomatic translation, and state which is expected at A Level, with a reason. [4]

4. Translate these idioms into English and explain why a word-for-word rendering fails:

(a) آنکھوں کا تارا (b) ہاتھ دھو بیٹھنا (c) دال میں کچھ کالا ہونا [6]

5. Explain three differences between formal and informal register in Urdu, giving an example of each. [6]

Section D — Reading comprehension and writing

6. Read the passage, then answer the questions that follow in English.

ماحولیاتی تبدیلی صرف سائنس دانوں کا مسئلہ نہیں رہی، بلکہ اب یہ ہر گھر کی بات بن چکی ہے۔ شہروں میں گرمی کی شدت ہر سال بڑھ رہی ہے، اور بارشوں کا وقت بھی بے ترتیب ہو گیا ہے۔ کچھ لوگ سمجھتے ہیں کہ یہ مسئلہ صرف حکومتوں کا ہے، مگر حقیقت یہ ہے کہ عام آدمی کی چھوٹی چھوٹی عادتیں بھی بڑا فرق ڈال سکتی ہیں۔

(a) What does the writer say has changed about climate change as an issue? [2] (b) According to the passage, what has happened to rainfall patterns? [1] (c) Explain, in your own words, why some people are wrong to see this as only the government’s problem. [3]

7. In 120–150 words, write in Urdu about the importance of individual responsibility in protecting the environment. [15]

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Answers

1. Model translation:

Education is not merely a matter of obtaining a degree; rather, it transforms a person’s way of thinking. A nation that does not educate its daughters loses half its own future.

Marking: “صرف… کا نام نہیں” rendered as “not merely a matter of” rather than literally “is not the name of” [2]; “بلکہ” correctly conveyed as a contrastive “rather” [1]; “طرزِ فکر” as “way of thinking” or “outlook” [2]; “ہاتھ دھو بیٹھنا” rendered idiomatically as “loses” or “forfeits”, not as “washes its hands” [3]; overall fluency and correct English register [2].

2. Model translation:

پچھلے بیس برسوں میں بیرونِ ملک تعلیم حاصل کرنے والے طلبہ کی تعداد میں تیزی سے اضافہ ہوا ہے۔ بہت سے طلبہ نئی مہارتیں لے کر واپس آتے ہیں، لیکن کچھ کبھی واپس نہیں لوٹتے، اور اُن کا ملک اُس صلاحیت سے محروم ہو جاتا ہے جس پر اُس نے سرمایہ لگایا تھا۔

Marking: “over the past twenty years” as پچھلے بیس برسوں میں [2]; “risen sharply” as تیزی سے اضافہ ہوا rather than a literal “went up hard” [2]; correct use of the perfect and habitual tenses [2]; “the talent it invested in” rendered with a relative clause (جس پر… سرمایہ لگایا تھا) [2]; gender and verb agreement throughout [2].

3. A literal translation renders each word individually in the same order, preserving the form of the original [1]. An idiomatic translation conveys the meaning and effect in natural target-language expression, changing the wording where necessary [1]. Idiomatic translation is expected at A Level [1], because the examiner is testing understanding of meaning and command of natural expression, and a literal version of an idiom is usually meaningless or absurd in the target language [1].

4. (a) آنکھوں کا تارا — “the apple of one’s eye” [1]; literally “the star of the eyes”, which in English conveys nothing about being deeply loved [1]. (b) ہاتھ دھو بیٹھنا — “to lose (something) for good” [1]; literally “to sit having washed one’s hands”, which in English suggests giving up responsibility, the opposite of the Urdu sense of irrecoverable loss [1]. (c) دال میں کچھ کالا ہونا — “there is something fishy about it” [1]; literally “there is something black in the lentils”, which would be read as a comment on food rather than as suspicion [1].

5. Any three, 2 marks each: pronouns and verb forms — formal Urdu uses آپ with the ہیں/کیجیے forms, informal uses تم or تُو with کرو/کر [1] [1]. Vocabulary — formal register draws on Persian and Arabic loanwords (تشریف لائیے، ملاحظہ فرمائیے) where informal uses plain everyday words (آؤ، دیکھو) [1] [1]. Sentence structure and openings — formal writing uses longer, more complex sentences and set conventions such as جنابِ محترم or گزارش ہے کہ, while informal writing is short and direct [1] [1]. Honorific plurals — a single respected person is referred to in the plural (والد صاحب آئے ہیں), which does not occur in informal speech about peers [1] [1].

6. (a) It has stopped being an issue only for scientists — it has become something every household talks about [2] (one mark for “no longer only scientists’”, one for “now a household matter”). (b) Rainfall has become irregular in timing — بے ترتیب — rather than following its usual pattern [1]. (c) The passage argues that individuals’ small daily habits (عام آدمی کی چھوٹی چھوٹی عادتیں) can make a large difference, so treating the issue as the government’s alone ignores the real contribution ordinary people can make [3]: 1 mark for identifying the claim about individual habits, 1 for linking it to the “government-only” misconception, 1 for expressing this in the candidate’s own words rather than lifting the sentence.

7. Marks split between content (relevance, development, organisation — a clear introduction, developed points, a conclusion) and language (range and accuracy — gender agreement, consistent tense and person, correct postpositions including the ergative نے, and accurate script). A response that makes only one point but expresses it with varied, accurate Urdu can outscore one that lists several points in simple, repetitive sentences, since content and language are marked separately.

Worked illustration of register choice, translating the idea “he lost his temper” into natural Urdu-register English elsewhere in a passage: a literal rendering (“anger came upon him”) is unnatural English; an overly free rendering (“he flipped out”) loses the register of a formal passage; the balanced version (“he became angry”) is both accurate and appropriately formal — the same literal/too-free/balanced check applies when translating out of Urdu, not only into it.

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Where marks are usually lost

• Translating idioms word for word.
• Losing the tense in translation into Urdu, particularly the perfect.
• Using تم forms in a formal passage.
• Producing English that is accurate in meaning but unnatural in word order.
• Answering a reading-comprehension question in the wrong language, or lifting the passage’s own wording where the question asks for explanation in the candidate’s own words.
• In the writing task, listing points in short, repetitive sentences instead of developing fewer points with varied, accurate language.