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CAT 2021 VARC Section Slot 3 Questions with Solutions

Instruction

Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.

Back in the early 2000s, an awesome thing happened in the New X-Men comics. Our mutant heroes had been battling giant robots called Sentinels for years, but suddenly these mechanical overlords spawned a new threat: Nano-Sentinels! Not content to rule Earth with their metal fists, these tiny robots invaded our bodies at the microscopic level. Infected humans were slowly converted into machines, cell by cell.

Now, a new wave of extremely odd robots is making at least part of the Nano-Sentinels story come true. Using exotic fabrication materials like squishy hydrogels and elastic polymers, researchers are making autonomous devices that are often tiny and that could turn out to be more powerful than an army of Terminators. Some are 1-centimetre blobs that can skate overwater. Others are flat sheets that can roll themselves into tubes, or matchstick-sized plastic coils that act as powerful muscles. No, they won't be invading our bodies and turning us into Sentinels - which I personally find a little disappointing - but some of them could one day swim through our bloodstream to heal us. They could also clean up pollutants in water or fold themselves into different kinds of vehicles for us to drive. . . .

Unlike a traditional robot, which is made of mechanical parts, these new kinds of robots are made from molecular parts. The principle is the same: both are devices that can move around and do things independently. But a robot made from smart materials might be nothing more than a pink drop of hydrogel. Instead of gears and wires, it's assembled from two kinds of molecules - some that love water and some that avoid it - which interact to allow the bot to skate on top of a pond.

Sometimes these materials are used to enhance more conventional robots. One team of researchers, for example, has developed a different kind of hydrogel that becomes sticky when exposed to a low-voltage zap of electricity and then stops being sticky when the electricity is switched off. This putty-like gel can be pasted right onto the feet or wheels of a robot. When the robot wants to climb a sheer wall or scoot across the ceiling, it can activate its sticky feet with a few volts. Once it is back on a flat surface again, the robot turns off the adhesive like a light switch.

Robots that are wholly or partly made of gloop aren't the future that I was promised in science fiction. But it's definitely the future I want. I'm especially keen on the nanometre-scale "soft robots" that could one day swim through our bodies. Metin Sitti, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany, worked with colleagues to prototype these tiny, synthetic beasts using various stretchy materials, such as simple rubber, and seeding them with magnetic microparticles. They are assembled into a finished shape by applying magnetic fields. The results look like flowers or geometric shapes made from Tinkertoy ball and stick modelling kits. They're guided through tubes of fluid using magnets, and can even stop and cling to the sides of a tube.

Question 1:

Which one of the following scenarios, if false, could be seen as supporting the passage?

  1. Some hydrogels turn sticky when an electric current is passed through them; this potentially has very useful applications.

  2. Robots made from smart materials are likely to become part of our everyday lives in the future.

  3. Nano-Sentinel-like robots are likely to be used to inject people to convert them into robots, cell by cell.

  4. There are two kinds of molecules used to make some nano-robots: one that reacts positively to water and the other negatively.

Option: 3
Explanation:

To make this question easy you have to simplify it. Which of the following, if false, will support the passage=which of the following, if true, will weaken the passage.

So we have to just find the choice that will weaken the passage.

All choices 1,2 and 4 are there in the passage and are true to what the author says. 3 is not. The researchers don't intend to inject Nano sentinels to convert us into robots. This weakens the passage arguments.


Question 2:

Which one of the following statements, if true, would be the most direct extension of the arguments in the passage?

  1. In the future, robots will be used to search and destroy diseases even in the deepest recesses of the human body.

  2. X-Men may be created by injecting people with mutant nano-gels that will respond to the brain's magnetic field.

  3. Sentinel robots will be used in warfare to cause large-scale destructive mutations amongst civilians.

  4. 1-centimetre blobs of gel that have nano-robots in them will be used to send messages.

Option: 1
Explanation:

The question asks us to pick a choice that is the most direct extension of the arguments in the passage. To extend the passage logically, we have to carefully look at the contents of the last paragraph, which talks about Nano robots that could enter our bodies. Option 1 is a logical extension of this discussion. Option 2 is there in the first para. It cannot be logical extension of the last paragraph. 3 talks of destructive purpose, which is not consistent with the researchers' intention. Option 4 is a close choice, but not as close as 1.


Question 3:

Which one of the following statements best captures the sense of the first paragraph?

  1. The X-Men were mutant heroes who now had to battle tiny robots called Nano-Sentinels.

  2. People who were infected by Nano-Sentinel robots became mutants who were called X-Men.

  3. Tiny sentinels called X-Men infected people, turning them into mutant robot overlords.

  4. None of the options listed here.

Option: 1
Explanation:
This question is both less time consuming and easy to answer, because the clue to the right answer can be found in the first paragraph alone. Option 2 is factually incorrect because the infected people did not become X-Men. Option 3 is incorrect because it suggests that infected people became mutant robot overlords, something that is not correct as per the passage. Option 1 is the best choice.

Question 4:

Which one of the following statements best summarises the central point of the passage?

  1. Robots will use nano-robots on their feet and wheels to climb walls or move on ceilings.

  2. Once the stuff of science fiction, nano-robots now feature in cutting-edge scientific research.

  3. Nano-robots made from molecules that react to water have become increasingly useful.

  4. The field of robotics is likely to be feature more and more in comics like the New X-Men

Option: 2
Explanation:

This is a very easy question, and we have to understand the broader message of the passage to find the right answer. The passage starts with nano sentinels created by giant robots called Sentinels. These nano sentinels invade our bodies and convert us into machines, cell by cell.

The author says that researchers are working on something similar but for all the good reasons. He later goes on to discuss all the good reasons in the passage.

Option 2 becomes the right choice. Option 1 though true, is just a minor fact of the passage. Same goes with 3. Option 4 is totally irrelevant to the passage.


Instruction

Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.

Keeping time accurately comes with a price. The maximum accuracy of a clock is directly related to how much disorder, or entropy, it creates every time it ticks. Natalia Ares at the University of Oxford and her colleagues made this discovery using a tiny clock with an accuracy that can be controlled. The clock consists of a 50-nanometre-thick membrane of silicon nitride, vibrated by an electric current. Each time the membrane moved up and down once and then returned to its original position, the researchers counted a tick, and the regularity of the spacing between the ticks represented the accuracy of the clock. The researchers found that as they increased the clock's accuracy, the heat produced in the system grew, increasing the entropy of its surroundings by jostling nearby particles . . . "If a clock is more accurate, you are paying for it somehow," says Ares. In this case, you pay for it by pouring more ordered energy into the clock, which is then converted into entropy. "By measuring time, we are increasing the entropy of the universe," says Ares. The more entropy there is in the universe, the closer it may be to its eventual demise. "Maybe we should stop measuring time," says Ares. The scale of the additional entropy is so small, though, that there is no need to worry about its effects, she says.

The increase in entropy in timekeeping may be related to the "arrow of time", says Marcus Huber at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, who was part of the research team. It has been suggested that the reason that time only flows forward, not in reverse, is that the total amount of entropy in the universe is constantly increasing, creating disorder that cannot be put in order again.

The relationship that the researchers found is a limit on the accuracy of a clock, so it doesn't mean that a clock that creates the most possible entropy would be maximally accurate - hence a large, inefficient grandfather clock isn't more precise than an atomic clock. "It's a bit like fuel use in a car. Just because I'm using more fuel doesn't mean that I'm going faster or further," says Huber.

When the researchers compared their results with theoretical models developed for clocks that rely on quantum effects, they were surprised to find that the relationship between accuracy and entropy seemed to be the same for both. . . . We can't be sure yet that these results are actually universal, though, because there are many types of clocks for which the relationship between accuracy and entropy haven't been tested. "It's still unclear how this principle plays out in real devices such as atomic clocks, which push the ultimate quantum limits of accuracy," says Mark Mitchison at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Understanding this relationship could be helpful for designing clocks in the future, particularly those used in quantum computers and other devices where both accuracy and temperature are crucial, says Ares. This finding could also help us understand more generally how the quantum world and the classical world are similar and different in terms of thermodynamics and the passage of time.

Question 5:

Which one of the following sets of words and phrases serves best as keywords of the passage?

  1. Electric current; Heat; Quantum effects.

  2. Silicon Nitride; Energy; Grandfather Clock.

  3. Measuring Time; Accuracy; Entropy.

  4. Membrane; Arrow of time; Entropy.

Option: 3
Explanation:

This is a very simple question. We have to pick the option that has the keywords. Measuring time is the first keyword that we can derive from the first paragraph. The second half of the passage discusses entropy. Thus option 3 is the best answer.


Question 6:

The author makes all of the following arguments in the passage, EXCEPT that:

  1. The relationship between accuracy and entropy may not apply to all clocks.

  2. Researchers found that the heat produced in a system is the price paid for increased accuracy of measurement.

  3. There is no difference in accuracy between an inefficient grandfather clock and an atomic clock.

  4. In designing clocks for quantum computers, both precision and heat have to be taken into account.

Option: 2
Explanation:

This question has been challenged by our team and also by many students, including IMS. This question is contentious.


Question 7:

None of the following statements can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT that:

  1. the arrow of time has not yet been tested for atomic clocks.

  2. quantum computers are likely to produce more heat and, hence, more entropy, because of the emphasis on their clocks' accuracy.

  3. grandfather clocks are likely to produce less heat and, hence, less entropy, because they are not as accurate.

  4. a clock with a 50-nanometre-thick membrane of silicon nitride has been made to vibrate, producing electric currents.

Option: 2
Explanation:

This is a moderate difficulty question. We have to pick the choice that cannot be inferred. Two options can be checked by understanding the idea of "arrow of time", which according to the passage, means time always moves forward because of increasing entropy in the universe... But the idea of entropy vs accuracy has not yet been understood as to how it plays out for atomic clocks, suggesting that arrow of time must have been tested on atomic clocks. That's why you don't understand how arrow of time plays out in atomic clocks. Thus 1 cannot be inferred, as the opposite of 1 is true. 3 cannot be inferred because the passage talks opposite of this. 4 cannot be inferred because it fed with electric currents, not producing electric currents. Thus 1, 3 and 4 cannot be inferred. 2 can be inferred from last paragraph.


Question 8:

"It's a bit like fuel use in a car. Just because I'm using more fuel doesn't mean that I'm going faster or further . . ." What is the purpose of this example?

  1. If you go faster in a car, you will tend to consume more fuel, but the converse is not necessarily true. In the same way, increased entropy does not necessarily mean greater accuracy of a clock.

  2. The further you go in a car, the more fuel you use. In the same way, the faster you go in a car, the less time you use.

  3. If you measure the speed of a car with a grandfather clock, the result will be different than if you measured it with an atomic clock.

  4. The further and faster you go in a car, the greater the amount of fuel you will use, the greater the amount of heat produced and, hence, the greater the entropy.

Option: 1
Explanation:

This is an easy question; you just have to focus on the paragraph where this sentence has come. Option 1 accurately captures this. Entropy and fuel are analogous, higher entropy doesn't always mean higher accuracy, just as higher fuel consumption in a car doesn't mean greater speed.


Instruction

Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.

Today we can hardly conceive of ourselves without an unconscious. Yet between 1700 and1900, this notion developed as a genuinely original thought. The "unconscious" burst the shell of conventional language, coined as it had been to embody the fleeting ideas and the shifting conceptions of several generations until, finally, it became fixed and defined in specialized terms within the realm of medical psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis.

The vocabulary concerning the soul and the mind increased enormously in the course of the nineteenth century. The enrichments of literary and intellectual language led to an altered understanding of the meanings that underlie time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords. At the same time, once coined, powerful new ideas attracted to themselves a whole host of seemingly unrelated issues, practices, and experiences, creating a peculiar network of preoccupations that as a group had not existed before. The drawn-out attempt to approach and define the unconscious brought together the spiritualist and the psychical researcher of borderline phenomena (such as apparitions, spectral illusions, haunted houses, mediums, trance, automatic writing); the psychiatrist or alienist probing the nature of mental disease, of abnormal ideation, hallucination, delirium, melancholia, mania; the surgeon performing operations with the aid of hypnotism; the magnetizer claiming to correct the disequilibrium in the universal flow of magnetic fluids but who soon came to be regarded as a clever manipulator of the imagination; the physiologist and the physician who puzzled oversleep, dreams, sleepwalking, anesthesia, the influence of the mind on the body in health and disease; the neurologist concerned with the functions of the brain and the physiological basis of mental life; the philosopher interested in the will, the emotions, consciousness, knowledge, imagination and the creative genius; and, last but not least, the psychologist.

Significantly, most if not all of these practices (for example, hypnotism in surgery or psychological magnetism) originated in the waning years of the eighteenth century and during the early decades of the nineteenth century, as did some of the disciplines (such as psychology and psychical research). The majority of topics too were either new or assumed hitherto unknown colors. Thus, before 1790, few if any spoke, in medical terms, of the affinity between creative genius and the hallucinations of the insane . . .

Striving vaguely and independently to give expression to a latent conception, various lines of thought can be brought together by some novel term. The new concept then serves as a kind of resting place or stocktaking in the development of ideas, giving satisfaction and a stimulus for further discussion or speculation. Thus, the massive introduction of the term unconscious by Hartmann in 1869 appeared to focalize many stray thoughts, affording a temporary feeling that a crucial step had been taken forward, a comprehensive knowledge gained, a knowledge that required only further elaboration, explication, and unfolding in order to bring in a bounty of higher understanding. Ultimately, Hartmann's attempt at defining the unconscious proved fruitless because he extended its reach into every realm of organic and inorganic, spiritual, intellectual, and instinctive existence, severely diluting the precision and compromising the impact of the concept.

Question 9:

All of the following statements may be considered valid inferences from the passage, EXCEPT:

  1. New conceptions in the nineteenth century could provide new knowledge because of the establishment of fields such as anaesthesiology.

  2. Unrelated practices began to be treated as related to each other, as knowledge of the mind grew in the nineteenth century.

  3. Without the linguistic developments of the nineteenth century, the growth of understanding of the soul and the mind may not have happened.

  4. Eighteenth century thinkers were the first to perceive a connection between creative genius and insanity.

Option: 1
Explanation:

This question apparently looks tough because it has the phrase "valid inferences... except". Option 2 can be inferred from the entire second paragraph. From the first paragraph we can infer 3. From the last sentence of second last paragraph we can infer 4. Thus 1 is the best choice, as we don't have any evidence for 1.


Question 10:

Which one of the following sets of words is closest to mapping the main arguments of the passage?

  1. Language; Unconscious; Psychoanalysis.

  2. Unconscious; Latent conception; Dreams.

  3. Literary language; Unconscious; Insanity.

  4. Imagination; Magnetism; Psychiatry.

Option: 1
Explanation:

The question asks us to pick the choice that is closest to mapping the main arguments of the passage. We have to ensure that the three ideas have significant presence in the passage, precisely in the order in which they have come in the passage. Here we can mark the answer by looking at the first word of each choice. The first paragraph and the first few lines of second paragraph talk about how the word unconscious burst the shell of conventional language. This makes choice 1 our best bet. Literary language, in choice 3, is different from language, while the latter means language in general, the former means "highly stylized language". Thus literary language is not the author's idea; it is how the word unconscious burst the shell of conventional language, not literary language.

Latent conception in option 2, and magnetism in option 4 make those choices irrelevant.


Question 11:

Which one of the following statements best describes what the passage is about?

  1. The collating of diverse ideas under the single term: unconscious.

  2. The identification of the unconscious as an object of psychical research.

  3. The discovery of the unconscious as a part of the human mind.

  4. The growing vocabulary of the soul and the mind, as diverse processes.

Option: 1
Explanation:

This question is about the central idea of the passage. If we read the passage twice, we get to know that the author is discussing how over a period of almost 200 years, the term unconscious brought within itself a wide range of related, interconnected things, ideas and concepts. This is precisely what option 1 talks about. In option 2 the phrase "psychical research" is not the core idea of the passage. It might be a small issue of a broad framework, but not the central theme.

Instead of the discovery of the unconscious, it is the evolution of the term unconscious and the various things that fall under it, that is the concern of the passage.

The growing vocabulary is again not the broad idea. It might be factually correct in the context of the passage, but it is not the main idea. The main idea occupies bulk of the passage.


Question 12:

"The enrichments of literary and intellectual language led to an altered understanding of the meanings that underlie time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords." Which one of the following interpretations of this sentence would be closest in meaning to the original?

  1. Time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords were enriched by literary and intellectual language.

  2. The meanings of time-honored expressions were changed by innovations in literary and intellectual language.

  3. All of the options listed here.

  4. Literary and intellectual language was altered by time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords.

Option: 2
Explanation:

To answer this question there is no need to read the passage. The question simply asks you to choose an option that is closest in meaning to the sentence given in the question. 

The sentence has three important words: enrichments of literary language.... led to an....altered understanding of ...the meanings that underlie traditional catchwords.

We have to choose an option that closely resembles this. 1 looks good, but it is not as close as 2 is. If you compare 1 and 2, you will see that 1 misses on "enrichment of literary language”. It also distorts the meaning. The time honoured expressions were not enriched, their meanings were changed or altered. 2 is the best choice.

Option 4 states the exact opposite.


Instruction

Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.

Starting in 1957, [Noam Chomsky] proclaimed a new doctrine: Language, that most human of all attributes, was innate. The grammatical faculty was built into the infant brain, and your average 3-year-old was not a mere apprentice in the great enterprise of absorbing English from his or her parents, but a "linguistic genius." Since this message was couched in terms of Chomskyan theoretical linguistics, in discourse so opaque that it was nearly incomprehensible even to some scholars, many people did not hear it. Now, in a brilliant, witty and altogether satisfying book, Mr. Chomsky's colleague Steven Pinker . . . has brought Mr. Chomsky's findings to everyman. In "The Language Instinct" he has gathered persuasive data from such diverse fields as cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and speech therapy to make his points, and when he disagrees with Mr. Chomsky he tells you so. . . .

For Mr. Chomsky and Mr. Pinker, somewhere in the human brain there is a complex set of neural circuits that have been programmed with "super-rules" (making up what Mr. Chomsky calls "universal grammar"), and that these rules are unconscious and instinctive. A half-century ago, this would have been pooh-poohed as a "black box" theory, since one could not actually pinpoint this grammatical faculty in a specific part of the brain, or describe its functioning. But now things are different. Neurosurgeons [have now found that this] "blackbox" is situated in and around Broca's area, on the left side of the forebrain. . . .

Unlike Mr. Chomsky, Mr. Pinker firmly places the wiring of the brain for language within the framework of Darwinian natural selection and evolution. He effectively disposes of all claims that intelligent nonhuman primates like chimps have any abilities to learn and use language. Itis not that chimps lack the vocal apparatus to speak; it is just that their brains are unable to produce or use grammar. On the other hand, the "language instinct," when it first appeared among our most distant hominid ancestors, must have given them a selective reproductive advantage over their competitors (including the ancestral chimps). . . .

So according to Mr. Pinker, the roots of language must be in the genes, but there cannot be a "grammar gene" any more than there can be a gene for the heart or any other complex body structure. This proposition will undoubtedly raise the hackles of some behavioural psychologists and anthropologists, for it apparently contradicts the liberal idea that human behavior may be changed for the better by improvements in culture and environment, and it might seem to invite the twin bugaboos of biological determinism and racism. Yet Mr. Pinker stresses one point that should allay such fears. Even though there are 4,000 to 6,000languages today, they are all sufficiently alike to be considered one language by an extraterrestrial observer. In other words, most of the diversity of the world's cultures, so beloved to anthropologists, is superficial and minor compared to the similarities. Racial differences are literally only "skin deep." The fundamental unity of humanity is the theme of Mr. Chomsky's universal grammar, and of this exciting book.

Question 13:

From the passage, it can be inferred that all of the following are true about Pinker's book, "The Language Instinct", EXCEPT that Pinker:

  1. disagrees with Chomsky on certain grounds.

  2. writes in a different style from Chomsky.

  3. draws extensively from Chomsky's propositions.

  4. draws from behavioural psychology theories

Option: 4
Explanation:

This is a slightly tricky question. Many people rush to mark 2 but option 2 can be inferred from the first paragraph. In the first para the author says ".. Chomsky's discourse was so opaque that it was incomprehensible..."...but Pinker's book is "brilliant, witty and altogether satisfying...", suggesting that the style of the two writers was different. Thus 2 can be inferred. From the first sentence of last paragraph 1 can be inferred. From first paragraph 3 can be inferred, but not 4 because the last sentence of first paragraph says that "pinker gathered from cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and speech therapy. Behavioral psychology theories have nowhere come. We must understand that developmental psychology is different from behavioral psychology.


Question 14:

On the basis of the information in the passage, Pinker and Chomsky may disagree with each other on which one of the following points?

  1. The Darwinian explanatory paradigm for language.

  2. The language instinct.

  3. The possibility of a universal grammar.

  4. The inborn language acquisition skills of humans.

Option: 1
Explanation:

The right answer can be found in the second last paragraph. The author says "Unlike Chomsky, Pinker firmly places.... within the framework of Darwinian natural selection...". Thus we see that this is a point of disagreement between Pinker and Chomsky. Thus 1 is the right choice. All the other points are points of agreement.


Question 15:

According to the passage, all of the following are true about the language instinct EXCEPT that:

  1. all intelligent primates are gifted with it.

  2. it confers an evolutionary reproductive advantage.

  3. developments in neuroscience have increased its acceptance.

  4. not all intelligent primates are gifted with it.

Option: 1
Explanation:

Option 1 is the right answer. The second last paragraph says that "he effectively disposes of all claims that intelligent nonhuman primates...have any abilities to learn and use language", suggesting that intelligent nonhuman primates don't have language skills. Thus 1 is an exception and the right answer. Option 2 can be seen in the same paragraph. Evidence for 2 can be seen in first paragraph. Option 4 is the exact opposite of 1, hence 4 is correct.


Question 16:

Which one of the following statements best summarises the author's position about Pinker's book?

  1. The evolutionary and deterministic framework of Pinker's book makes it racist.

  2. Anatomical developments like the voice box play a key role in determining language acquisition skills.

  3. The universality of the "language instinct" counters claims that Pinker's book is racist.

  4. Culture and environment play a key role in shaping our acquisition of language.

Option: 3
Explanation:

This question can be easily solved by carefully comparing the options, keeping in mind the evidence available in the passage. To arrive at the right answer, we should read the last paragraph, where the author says "...it might seem to invite... racism. Yet Mr. Pinker ... should allay such fears.". It means that Pinker's book should not be considered racist or should go against racism. Option 3 precisely captures this idea because it implies that "Pinker's book is not racist". Option 1 is contrary to this, so it goes out. Option 2 is the finding of neurosurgeons, not the author's position on Pinker's book. Option 4 is not the author's stand. The author says language is genetic and instinctive, whereas option 4 says "culture and environment" play a key role.


Question 17:

Directions for Summary: A paragraph is followed by four options which have summarized the passage in their own way. Pick the option that best summarizes the passage:

The human mind is wired to see patterns. Not only does the brain process information as it comes in, it also stores insights from all our past experiences. Every interaction, happy or sad, is catalogued in our memory. Intuition draws from that deep memory well to inform our decisions going forward. In other words, intuitive decisions are based on data, and not contrary to data as many would like to assume. When we subconsciously spot patterns, the body starts firing neurochemicals in both the brain and gut. These "somatic markers" are what give us that instant sense that something is right... or that it's off. Not only are these automatic processes faster than rational thought, but our intuition draws from decades of diverse qualitative experience (sights, sounds, interactions, etc.) - a wholly human feature that big data alone could never accomplish.

  1. Intuition is infinitely richer than big data which is based on rational thought and accomplishes more than what big data can.

  2. Intuitions are automatic processes and are therefore faster than rational thought, and so decisions based on them are better.

  3. Intuition draws from deep memory, and may not be related to data, but to decades of diverse qualitative experience.

  4. Intuitions are neuro-chemical firings based on pattern recognition and draw upon a rich and vast database of experiences.

Option: 4
Explanation:

This is a very simple question. The paragraph tells us that intuition draws from deep memory well, which is the store house of our past experiences, good or bad. Option 4 precisely captures that. 1 goes out because the author is not explicitly saying that intuition is richer than big data… In fact he says "...a wholly human feature that big data alone could never accomplish". In other words, big data and human experience come together. Option 2 makes the same mistake of comparing intuitions with rational thought. No such thing has come in the passage. Option 3 distorts the message when it says "...and may not be related to data..."


Question 18:

Directions for sentence exclusion: Five sentences are given below; out of these, four come together to form a coherent paragraph, but one sentence does not fit into the sequence. Choose the sentence that does not fit into the sequence.

1. A typical example is Wikipedia, where the overwhelming majority of contributors are male and so the available content is skewed to reflect their interests.

2. Without diversity of thought and representation, society is left with a distorted picture of future options, which are likely to result in augmenting existing inequalities.

3. Gross gender inequality in the technology sector is problematic, not only for the industry-wide marginalisation of women, but because technology designs embody the values of their makers.

4. While redressing unequal representation in the workplace is a step in the right direction, broader social change is needed to address the structural inequalities embedded within the current organisation of work and employment.

5. If technology merely reflects the perspectives of the male stereotype, then new technologies are unlikely to accommodate the diverse social contexts within which they operate.

Option: 4
Explanation:

This question is an easy one. We have to go by the common theme that is there in all the sentences. 5 talks about "technology reflecting the male stereotype". A typical example of that has come in 1. Thus 51 is a pair. Gross gender inequality in 3 becomes the background for 5 and 1. Sentence 3 echoes an idea that we already see in 2, which talks about "diversity of thought and representation..." Thus 2351 form a paragraph whose theme is gender diversity. 4 is the odd one out because it lays undue emphasis on "broader social change...".


Question 19:

Directions for sentence exclusion: Five sentences are given below; out of these, four come together to form a coherent paragraph, but one sentence does not fit into the sequence. Choose the sentence that does not fit into the sequence.

1. They often include a foundation course on navigating capitalism with Chinese characteristics and have replaced typical cases from US corporates with a focus on how Western theories apply to China's buzzing local firms.

2. The best Chinese business schools look like their Western rivals but are now growing distinct in terms of what they teach and the career boost they offer.

3. Western schools have enhanced their offerings with double degrees, popular with domestic and overseas students alike - and boosted the prestige of their Chinese partners.

4. For students, a big draw is the chance to rub shoulders with captains of China's private sector.

5. Their business courses now largely cater to the growing demand from China Inc which has become more global, richer and ready to recruit from this sinocentric student body.

Option: 3
Explanation:

This is an easy question. By looking at the consistency of the common theme, we can easily arrive at the odd sentence. Except the odd sentence, all the other sentences seem to focus on how Chinese business schools are becoming distinct. Thus the paragraph begins with 2, sentences 1 and 5 talk about Chinacentric curriculum. 4 further adds on a similar idea. 3 becomes the odd one out because, it talks about what western business schools have done, which is not the concern of the other four sentences.


Question 20:

Directions for Summary: A paragraph is followed by four options which have summarized the passage in their own way. Pick the option that best summarizes the passage:

People view idleness as a sin and industriousness as a virtue, and in the process have developed an unsatisfactory relationship with their jobs. Work has become a way for them to keep busy, even though many find their work meaningless. In their need for activity people undertake what was once considered work (fishing, gardening) as hobbies. The opposing view is that hard work has made us prosperous and improved our levels of health and education. It has also brought innovation and labour and time-saving devices, which have lessened life's drudgery.

  1. While the idealisation of hard work has propelled people into meaningless jobs and endless activity, it has also led to tremendous social benefits from prosperity and innovation.

  2. Some believe that hard work has been glorified to the extent that it has become meaningless, and led to greater idleness, but it has also had enormous positive impacts on everyday life.

  3. Hard work has overtaken all aspects of our lives and has enabled economic prosperity, but it is important that people reserve their leisure time for some idleness.

  4. Despite some detractors, hard work is essential in today's world to enable economic progress, for education and health and to propel innovations that make life easier.

Option: 1
Explanation:

This is an easy paragraph summary question. This paragraph can be broken down into two broad areas, the first part gives a negative view of work, which has resulted in people's unsatisfactory relationship with job. Then, there is an opposing view which, along with other positive points, says that hard work has made us prosperous...

Option 1 captures both these ideas. Option 2 uses the phrase "greater idleness" which is not substantiated in the passage. Similarly, option 3 says "hard work has overtaken all aspects of our lives...". This too is not there in the passage. Option 4, instead of bringing out the two opinions, says that "despite some detractors, hard work is essential in today's world....

The essentiality of hard work is not the concern of the passage.


Question 21:

Directions for Summary: A paragraph is followed by four options which have summarized the passage in their own way. Pick the option that best summarizes the passage:

Brazil's growth rate has been low, yet most Brazilians say their financial situation has improved, and they expect it to get even better. This is because most incomes are rising fast, with higher minimum wages and very low unemployment. The result is falling inequality and a growing middle class - the result of economic stabilization, improved social security and universal primary education. But despite recent improvements the Brazilian economy is still painfully unequal, with poor Brazilians paying the biggest share of their income in taxes and getting the least back in government services.

  1. Good economic indicators have masked the unfair taxation of the poor that is likely to destabilise the Brazilian economy in the next few years.

  2. Economic reforms have benefitted many Brazilians, but they are unaware of the impending problems from rising inequalities in their society.

  3. Most Brazilians feel they have benefitted from recent economic events, but the poor continue to be dealt unfairly by the state.

  4. With rising incomes and falling unemployment, most Brazilians are being misled into thinking that their economy is doing well.

Option: 3
Explanation:

This question is easy. There are two parts to the passage. The first part talks about Brazil's economic growth, falling inequality, and economic stabilization. The second part talks about poor Brazilians who have to pay a good part of their income as taxes, and getting the least in return. The fact that these poor Brazilians are paying a big share of their income in taxes suggests that taxation is unfair. Choice 3 captures this accurately.

1 goes out because "masked the unfair taxation" is a distortion of facts.

2 goes out because nowhere does the passage say that "Brazilians are unaware of the impending problems"

4 goes out because "most Brazilians are being misled" has no basis in the passage.


Question 22:

Four sentences that are a part of paragraph are given below; the sentences may or may not be in the right order; create the sequence that forms a coherent paragraph.

1. Restitution of artefacts to original cultures could faces legal obstacles, as many Western museums are legally prohibited from disposing off their collections.

2. This is in response to countries like Nigeria, which are pressurising European museums to return their precious artefacts looted by colonisers in the past.

3. Museums in Europe today are struggling to come to terms with their colonial legacy, some taking steps to return artefacts but not wanting to lose their prized collections.

4. Legal hurdles notwithstanding, politicians and institutions in France and Germany would now like to defuse the colonial time bombs, and are now backing the return of part of their holdings.

Option: 3214
Explanation:

This is a very simple question. 2 offers us a palpable clue. It says "this is in response to..." We see that 2 can be a response to what is happening in 3. Statement 3 says "museums in Europe are taking steps to return artefacts..." 2 further adds "this is in response to countries...which are pressurising European museums to return...". Thus 32 form a pair. Further, 1 talks about legal obstacles that might act as barriers. 4 further adds that "notwithstanding legal hurdles... politicians are now backing the return..." Thus after 32, 14 will come in sequence, making 3214 the right order.


Question 23:

Four sentences that are a part of paragraph are given below; the sentences may or may not be in the right order; create the sequence that forms a coherent paragraph.

1. It is regimes of truth that make certain relationships speakable - relationships, like subjectivities, are constituted through discursive formations, which sustain regimes of truth.

2. Relationships are nothing without the communication that brings them into being; interpersonal communication is connected to knowledge shared by interlocutors, and scholars should attend to relational histories in their analyses.

3. A Foucauldian approach to relationships goes beyond these conceptions of discourse and history to macro level regimes of truth as constituting relationships.

4. Reconsidering micropractices within relationships that are constituted within and simultaneously contributors to regimes of truth acknowledges the central position of power/knowledge in the constitution of what has come to be considered true and real.

Option: 2314
Explanation:

This is a difficult parajumble question. The sentences are a little difficult to understand and we don't have many explicit clues using which we could form pairs. But there is one clue in sentence 3. It says "A Foucaldian approach to relationships goes beyond these conceptions of discourse and history...". We must try to connect the pronoun "these conceptions" to some noun. These have come in 2, which says "... interpersonal communication is connected to knowledge shared by interlocutors, and scholars should attend to relational histories....". Thus 23 form a pair. From 23 the sentence moves to discussing "regimes of truth". The emphasis on "regimes of truth..." in 1 tells us that the author wants to justify why he thinks that it is wise to move on to "regimes to truth". Thus 31 is a continuity, with 4 coming at the end. Thus 2314 is the right sequence.


Question 24:

Four sentences that are a part of paragraph are given below; the sentences may or may not be in the right order; create the sequence that forms a coherent paragraph.

1. Businesses find automation, such as robotic employees, a big asset in terms of productivity and efficiency.

2. But in recent years, robotics has had increasing impacts on unemployment, not just of manual labour, as computers are rapidly handling some white-collar and service-sector work.

3. For years politicians have promised workers that they would bring back their jobs by clamping down on trade, offshoring and immigration.

4. Economists, based on their research, say that the bigger threat to jobs now is not globalisation but automation.

Option: 3412
Explanation:

This parajumble question is very easy. We should pick sentence 2 and try to form a logical pair. 2 says "But in recent years, robotics has had increasing impacts on unemployment...". This is a negative opinion about robotics. Since the conjunction "but" creates a contrast, the sentence that comes before 2 must speak positively about robotics. That sentence is 1, which says "businesses find...robotic employees...a big asset". Thus 12 is a pair. 

3 and 4 don't talk about robotics. In fact, they talk about unemployment in general. So unemployment is a broader idea, and automation is one of the factors that cause unemployment. So 3 says politicians have promised workers that they won't lose jobs on account of globalization. 4 says that a bigger threat to jobs is not globalization, but automation. Thus 34 form a pair, and 13 talks of robotics as a tool of automation. Thus 3412 is the right answer.


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