The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Humans today make music. Think beyond all the qualifications that might trail after this bald statement: that only certain humans make music, that extensive training is involved, that many societies distinguish musical specialists from nonmusicians, that in today’s societies most listen to music rather than making it, and so forth. These qualifications, whatever their local merit, are moot in the face of the overarching truth that making music, considered from a cognitive and psychological vantage, is the province of all those who perceive and experience what is made. We are, almost all of us, musicians — everyone who can entrain (not necessarily dance) to a beat, who can recognize a repeated tune (not necessarily sing it), who can distinguish one instrument or one singing voice from another. I will often use an antique word, recently revived, to name this broader musical experience. Humans are musicking creatures. . . .
The set of capacities that enables musicking is a principal marker of modern humanity. There is nothing polemical in this assertion except a certain insistence, which will figure often in what follows, that musicking be included in our thinking about fundamental human commonalities. Capacities involved in musicking are many and take shape in complicated ways, arising from innate dispositions . . . Most of these capacities overlap with nonmusical ones, though a few may be distinct and dedicated to musical perception and production. In the area of overlap, linguistic capacities seem to be particularly important, and humans are (in principle) language-makers in addition to music-makers — speaking creatures as well as musicking ones.
Humans are symbol-makers too, a feature tightly bound up with language, not so tightly with music. The species Cassirer dubbed Homo symbolicus cannot help but tangle musicking in webs of symbolic thought and expression, habitually making it a component of behavioral complexes that form such expression. But in fundamental features musicking is neither language-like nor symbol-like, and from these differences come many clues to its ancient emergence.
If musicking is a primary, shared trait of modern humans, then to describe its emergence must be to detail the coalescing of that modernity. This took place, archaeologists are clear, over a very long durée: at least 50,000 years or so, more likely something closer to 200,000, depending in part on what that coalescence is taken to comprise. If we look back 20,000 years, a small portion of this long period, we reach the lives of humans whose musical capacities were probably little different from our own. As we look farther back we reach horizons where this similarity can no longer hold — perhaps 40,000 years ago, perhaps 70,000, perhaps 100,000. But we never cross a line before which all the cognitive capacities recruited in modern musicking abruptly disappear. Unless we embrace the incredible notion that music sprang forth in full-blown glory, its emergence will have to be tracked in gradualist terms across a long period.
This is one general feature of a history of music’s emergence . . . The history was at once sociocultural and biological . . . The capacities recruited in musicking are many, so describing its emergence involves following several or many separate strands.
Question 1:Which one of the following statements, if true, would weaken the author's claim that humans are musicking creatures?
As musicking is neither language-like nor symbol-like, it is a much older form of expression.
Nonmusical capacities are of far greater consequence to human survival than the capacity for music.
Musical capacities are primarily socio-cultural, which explains the wide diversity of musical forms.
From a cognitive and psychological vantage, musicking arises from unconscious dispositions, not conscious ones.
Explanation:
The first sentence of the third paragraph supports option 1, and is in sync with what the author has to stay. 1 goes out. Many of us are tempted to mark option 2 but though it appears to be weakening the author’s point of view, it is not at all weakening the author’s claim. The author has nowhere compared non musical capacities with musical capacities with respect to human survival. He has nowhere claimed that humans’ capacity for music is of greater importance than any other capacity. So, in effect option 2 does nothing to weaken the author’s point of view. Even if option 2 is correct, the author’s argument in the passage remains valid. Option 3 is the right answer because it contradicts what the author has stated in the first paragraph where he says “… that extensive training is involved…. these qualifications, whatever their local merit, are moot in the face of the overarching truth…” The author does not believe that extensive musical training makes us musical, suggesting that it is not something that society or culture gives us. Instead, he suggests that it is an inborn trait “…innate dispositions.” Thus 3 is the best choice. It directly contradicts the author’s point of view expressed in the first paragraph. Option 4 also goes out because the author says that musicking is born out of ‘innate dispositions’, which means it is not entirely a conscious/social or cultural process.
Question 2:
Which one of the following sets of terms best serves as keywords to the passage?
Humans; Psychological vantage; Musicking; Cassirer; Emergence of music.
Musicking; Cognitive psychology; Antique; Symbol-makers; Modernity.
Humans; Capacities; Language; Symbols; Modernity.
Humans; Musicking; Linguistic capacities; Symbol-making; Modern humanity.
Explanation:
While answering this question, we must remember that we should not pick a choice because the words given in it are there in the passage. We should pick the answer based on whether those words are important or not. We will go by picking the odd one out. Both option 2 and option 3 have the word ‘modernity’ in them. Modernity is different from modern humans. Modernity implies being from or in the modern world. In the last two paragraphs the author specifically discusses modern humans, not modernity. Thus, we can eliminate options 2 and 3. Let’s compare 1 with 4. Linguistic capacities and symbol making are far more important words than Cassirer and psychological vantage, though all the four find mention in the passage. Thus 4 has the right keywords and should be the right answer
Question 3:
Based on the passage, which one of the following statements is a valid argument about the emergence of music/musicking?
Although musicking is not language-like, it shares the quality of being a form of expression.
All musical work is located in the overlap between linguistic capacity and music production.
Anyone who can perceive and experience music must be considered capable of musicking.
20,000 years ago, human musical capacities were not very different from what they are today.
Explanation:
This should be an easy question to answer because the question asks us to pick the valid argument. It means that there is one valid argument and the other three are not. 3 is a valid argument because it is the very theme of the passage. 2 also finds mention in the passage. To prove 2, you just have to look at the options and the right answers of the preceding two questions. 1 also is true as per the passage. 4 is also correct.
You must be wondering, then, why option 4 is the right answer if all the other choices are factually correct. For this you have to read the question carefully. It asks you to pick a choice ‘about the emergence of music/musicking’. Options 1,2, and 3, though correct, have nothing to do with the emergence of musicking. Emergence of musicking has been discussed in the last two paragraphs.
Question 4:
" Think beyond all the qualifications that might trail after this bald statement . . ." In the context of the passage, what is the author trying to communicate in this quoted extract?
Thinking beyond qualifications allows us to give free reign to musical expressions.
A bald statement is one that is trailed by a series of qualifying clarifications and caveats.
Although there may be many caveats and other considerations, the statement is essentially true.
A bald statement is one that requires no qualifications to infer its meaning.
Explanation:
In CAT RCs you will often find questions whose answers are purely contextual and cannot be proven by logic. The quoted part has nothing do with musical expressions. There is no connection between these two. 1 is not the right choice. A bald statement is that which is very simple and straightforward. It need not always be trailed by a series of clarifications. Both 2 and 4 make the mistake of defining a bald statement as though ‘bald statement’ were some sort of scientific concept. Both these options overlook the contextual reference. If you read the entire first paragraph, you will realize that 3 is the best choice and the right answer. The author states all the caveats after making the bald statement.
Instruction
The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
[Octopuses are] misfits in their own extended families . . . They belong to the Mollusca class Cephalopoda. But they don’t look like their cousins at all. Other molluscs include sea snails, sea slugs, bivalves – most are shelled invertebrates with a dorsal foot. Cephalopods are all arms, and can be as tiny as 1 centimetre and as large at 30 feet. Some of them have brains the size of a walnut, which is large for an invertebrate. . . .
It makes sense for these molluscs to have added protection in the form of a higher cognition; they don’t have a shell covering them, and pretty much everything feeds on cephalopods, including humans. But how did cephalopods manage to secure their own invisibility cloak? Cephalopods fire from multiple cylinders to achieve this in varying degrees from species to species. There are four main catalysts – chromatophores, iridophores, papillae and leucophores. . . .
[Chromatophores] are organs on their bodies that contain pigment sacs, which have red, yellow and brown pigment granules. These sacs have a network of radial muscles, meaning muscles arranged in a circle radiating outwards. These are connected to the brain by a nerve. When the cephalopod wants to change colour, the brain carries an electrical impulse through the nerve to the muscles that expand outwards, pulling open the sacs to display the colours on the skin. Why these three colours? Because these are the colours the light reflects at the depths they live in (the rest is absorbed before it reaches those depths). . . .
Well, what about other colours? Cue the iridophores. Think of a second level of skin that has thin stacks of cells. These can reflect light back at different wavelengths. . . . It’s using the same properties that we’ve seen in hologram stickers, or rainbows on puddles of oil. You move your head and you see a different colour. The sticker isn’t doing anything but reflecting light – it’s your movement that’s changing the appearance of the colour. This property of holograms, oil and other such surfaces is called “iridescence”. . . .
Papillae are sections of the skin that can be deformed to make a texture bumpy. Even humans possess them (goosebumps) but cannot use them in the manner that cephalopods can. For instance, the use of these cells is how an octopus can wrap itself over a rock and appear jagged or how a squid or cuttlefish can imitate the look of a coral reef by growing miniature towers on its skin. It actually matches the texture of the substrate it chooses.
Finally, the leucophores: According to a paper, published in Nature, cuttlefish and octopuses possess an additional type of reflector cell called a leucophore. They are cells that scatter full spectrum light so that they appear white in a similar way that a polar bear’s fur appears white. Leucophores will also reflect any filtered light shown on them . . . If the water appears blue at a certain depth, the octopuses and cuttlefish can appear blue; if the water appears green, they appear green, and so on and so forth.
Question 5:All of the following are reasons for octopuses being " misfits" EXCEPT that they:
exhibit higher intelligence than other molluscs.
do not possess an outer protective shell.
are consumed by humans and other animals.
have several arms.
Explanation:
The answer to this question can be found only in the first paragraph or the second paragraph. We must look for the word ‘misfit’ and find the reasons behind those misfits. The one that is not the reason is the right answer. It is clearly given in the passage that most are shelled but octopuses are not. 2 goes out. They have higher cognition (higher implies that this too is an exception). 1 goes out because of this. The first paragraph also says that they are all arms, whereas others are shelled with a dorsal foot. Thus 4 also goes out. 3 is not an exception because there is no clarity whether this is a point of difference or similarity. The other three options are quite clear because they stand out as reasons behind octopuses being misfits.
Question 6:
Based on the passage, it can be inferred that camouflaging techniques in an octopus are most dissimilar to those in:
polar bears
cuttlefish
squids
sea snails
Explanation:
For this too we must go the part of the passage where ‘camouflaging’ has been discussed. The second last paragraph compares octopuses with squids and cuttlefish. So, both 2 and 3 go out. The last paragraph discusses polar bears with octopuses. With respect of camouflaging, there is no any comparison between sea snails and octopuses. 4 is the right answer.
Question 7:
Based on the passage, we can infer that all of the following statements, if true, would weaken the camouflaging adeptness of Cephalopods EXCEPT:
the hydrostatic pressure at the depths at which Cephalopods reside renders radial muscle movements difficult.
the number of chromatophores in Cephalopods is half the number of iridophores and leucophores.
light reflects the colours red, green, and yellow at the depths at which Cephalopods reside.
the temperature of water at the depths at which Cephalopods reside renders the transmission of neural signals difficult.
Explanation:
This could be a time-consuming question. We should find the option that is not weakening the camouflaging adeptness of Cephalopods. Three options are weakening and one is not. For option 1 we have to read the third paragraph, if radial muscle movement is difficult then the technique won’t work, weakening the whole process of camouflaging. 1 goes out. Iridophores is the second level of skin. It means the others are at the first level. But the impact of their numbers on the camouflaging process is not very clear. Thus 2 does nothing to the argument, it neither strengthens it nor weakens it. The passage says that red, brown, and yellow are reflected, the others are absorbed. It means even green is absorbed, but the option says that green is reflected. Thus, 3 weakens. If the transmission of neural signals is difficult, then the whole camouflaging process will not work. 2 is the best choice.
Question 8:
Which one of the following statements is not true about the camouflaging ability of Cephalopods?
Cephalopods can change their colour.
Cephalopods can change their texture.
Cephalopods can blend into the colour of their surroundings.
Cephalopods can take on the colour of their predator.
Explanation:
The answer to this question could have been marked with little effort. We just have to find the word that we did not encounter anywhere else. There is nothing in the passage that talks about Cephalopods’ predators. Thus 4 becomes the right choice. The fact that camouflaging process is in place means 1, 2 and 3 are correct. 4 is not correct.
Instruction
The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
We begin with the emergence of the philosophy of the social sciences as an arena of thought and as a set of social institutions. The two characterisations overlap but are not congruent. Academic disciplines are social institutions. . . . My view is that institutions are all those social entities that organise action: they link acting individuals into social structures. There are various kinds of institutions. Hegelians and Marxists emphasise universal institutions such as the family, rituals, governance, economy and the military. These are mostly institutions that just grew. Perhaps in some imaginary beginning of time they spontaneously appeared. In their present incarnations, however, they are very much the product of conscious attempts to mould and plan them. We have family law, established and disestablished churches, constitutions and laws, including those governing the economy and the military. Institutions deriving from statute, like joint-stock companies are formal by contrast with informal ones such as friendships. There are some institutions that come in both informal and formal variants, as well as in mixed ones. Consider the fact that the stock exchange and the black market are both market institutions, one formal one not. Consider further that there are many features of the work of the stock exchange that rely on informal, noncodifiable agreements, not least the language used for communication. To be precise, mixtures are the norm . . . From constitutions at the top to by-laws near the bottom we are always adding to, or tinkering with, earlier institutions, the grown and the designed are intertwined.
It is usual in social thought to treat culture and tradition as different from, although alongside, institutions. The view taken here is different. Culture and tradition are sub-sets of institutions analytically isolated for explanatory or expository purposes. Some social scientists have taken all institutions, even purely local ones, to be entities that satisfy basic human needs – under local conditions . . . Others differed and declared any structure of reciprocal roles and norms an institution. Most of these differences are differences of emphasis rather than disagreements. Let us straddle all these versions and present institutions very generally . . . as structures that serve to coordinate the actions of individuals. . . . Institutions themselves then have no aims or purpose other than those given to them by actors or used by actors to explain them . . .
Language is the formative institution for social life and for science . . . Both formal and informal language is involved, naturally grown or designed. (Language is all of these to varying degrees.) Languages are paradigms of institutions or, from another perspective, nested sets of institutions. Syntax, semantics, lexicon and alphabet/character-set are all institutions within the larger institutional framework of a written language. Natural languages are typical examples of what Ferguson called ‘the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design’[;] reformed natural languages and artificial languages introduce design into their modifications or refinements of natural language. Above all, languages are paradigms of institutional tools that function to coordinate.
Question 9:" Consider the fact that the stock exchange and the black market are both market institutions, one formal one not." Which one of the following statements best explains this quote, in the context of the passage?
Market instruments can be formally traded in the stock exchange and informally traded in the black market.
The stock exchange and the black market are both organised to function by rules.
The stock exchange and the black market are both dependent on the market to survive.
The stock exchange and the black market are examples of how, even within the same domain, different kinds of institutions can co-exist.
Explanation:
To get the right answer, we should go to that part of the passage where the quote has come. The author has stated a fact with some purpose and that purpose is to show that everything is intertwined. The options further help us arrive at the right answer. The example of stock exchange and black market has not come because the author wants to discuss the technicalities of these two things. He has discussed these to highlight a point of view and that view is there in option 4. It is the best answer because the broader point that the author wants to make through these examples is that different institutions can co-exist.
Question 10:
All of the following inferences from the passage are false, EXCEPT:
institutions like the family, rituals, governance, economy, and the military are natural and cannot be consciously modified.
as concepts, " culture" and " tradition" have no analytical, explanatory or expository power, especially when they are treated in isolation.
the institution of friendship cannot be found in the institution of joint-stock companies because the first is an informal institution, while the second is a formal one.
" natural language" refers to that stage of language development where no conscious human intent is evident in the formation of language.
Explanation:
The question asks us to mark the right inference. In the first paragraph we have “universal institutions such as the family, rituals, governance, economy, and the military. These are mostly institutions that just grew. Perhaps in some imaginary beginning of time they spontaneously appeared… In their present incarnations, however, they are very much the product of conscious attempts to mold and plan them” From this we can falsify option 1. Further the passage says “Culture and tradition are sub-sets of institutions analytically isolated for explanatory or expository purposes.” …this helps falsify option 2. The passage later says “Institutions deriving from statute, like joint-stock companies are formal by contrast with informal ones such as friendships.” There is no evidence from this statement that can lead us to option 3. So, option 3 cannot be inferred. Since it cannot be inferred, it would be a false inference. There is no co-relation between the institution of friendship and the institution of join-stock companies, except that one is formal while the other is informal. The last paragraph of the passage says “Natural languages are typical examples of what Ferguson called ‘the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design’…This helps us infer option 4. Thus 4 is the best choice.
Question 11:
In the first paragraph of the passage, what are the two " characterisations" that are seen as overlapping but not congruent?
" an arena of thought" and " academic disciplines" .
" individuals" and " social structures" .
" academic disciplines" and " institutions" .
" the philosophy of the social sciences" and " a set of social institutions" .
Explanation:
The answer to this question can be found at the start of the first paragraph, though we need to look closely as to what those two overlapping things are. The author in the first paragraph says “We begin with the emergence of the philosophy of the social sciences as an arena of thought and as a set of social institutions. The two characterizations overlap but are not congruent”…from this sentence one thing is clear that one of the characterizations is “social institutions”…this helps us eliminate 1 and 2 because neither has the word ‘institutions’ or ‘social institutions’. Out of 3 and 4, we can choose 3 because if one characterization is ‘social institutions’, the other is ‘an arena of thought’. What does the author mean by ‘an arena of thought’? It is not philosophy but academic study. Hence 3 is the best answer. We have to understand that it is the philosophy of social sciences that has two things: an arena of thought (academic discipline) and a set of social institutions.
Question 12:
Which of the following statements best represents the essence of the passage?
It is usual in social thought to treat culture and tradition as different from institutions.
Language is the fundamental formal institution for social life and for science.
The stock exchange and the black market are both market institutions.
Institutions are structures that serve to coordinate the actions of individuals.
Explanation:
To answer this question, we have to look for the broader picture. Option 1 says ‘it is usual….’…whether something is usual or not is not the theme of the passage. Also, language and the stock exchange are not the broad ideas. 4 is the best choice simply by elimination because right across the passage the author discusses the importance of institutions. The last sentence of the paragraph says “Above all, languages are paradigms of institutional tools that function to coordinate.”….language is also an institution…but not the only institution.
Instruction
The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
When we teach engineering problems now, we ask students to come to a single " best" solution defined by technical ideals like low cost, speed to build, and ability to scale. This way of teaching primes students to believe that their decision-making is purely objective, as it is grounded in math and science. This is known as technical-social dualism, the idea that the technical and social dimensions of engineering problems are readily separable and remain distinct throughout the problem-definition and solution process.
Nontechnical parameters such as access to a technology, cultural relevancy or potential harms are deemed political and invalid in this way of learning. But those technical ideals are at their core social and political choices determined by a dominant culture focused on economic growth for the most privileged segments of society. By choosing to downplay public welfare as a critical parameter for engineering design, we risk creating a culture of disengagement from societal concerns amongst engineers that is antithetical to the ethical code of engineering.
In my field of medical devices, ignoring social dimensions has real consequences. . . . Most FDA-approved drugs are incorrectly dosed for people assigned female at birth, leading to unexpected adverse reactions. This is because they have been inadequately represented in clinical trials.
Beyond physical failings, subjective beliefs treated as facts by those in decision-making roles can encode social inequities. For example, spirometers, routinely used devices that measure lung capacity, still have correction factors that automatically assume smaller lung capacity in Black and Asian individuals. These racially based adjustments are derived from research done by eugenicists who thought these racial differences were biologically determined and who considered nonwhite people as inferior. These machines ignore the influence of social and environmental factors on lung capacity.
Many technologies for systemically marginalized people have not been built because they were not deemed important such as better early diagnostics and treatment for diseases like endometriosis, a disease that afflicts 10 percent of people with uteruses. And we hardly question whether devices are built sustainably, which has led to a crisis of medical waste and health care accounting for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Social justice must be made core to the way engineers are trained. Some universities are working on this. . . . Engineers taught this way will be prepared to think critically about what problems we choose to solve, how we do so responsibly and how we build teams that challenge our ways of thinking.
Individual engineering professors are also working to embed societal needs in their pedagogy. Darshan Karwat at the University of Arizona developed activist engineering to challenge engineers to acknowledge their full moral and social responsibility through practical self-reflection. Khalid Kadir at the University of California, Berkeley, created the popular course Engineering, Environment, and Society that teaches engineers how to engage in place-based knowledge, an understanding of the people, context and history, to design better technical approaches in collaboration with communities. When we design and build with equity and justice in mind, we craft better solutions that respond to the complexities of entrenched systemic problems.
Question 13:In this passage, the author is making the claim that:
technical-social dualism has emerged as a technique for engineering students to incorporate social considerations into their technical
problem-solving processes.
engineering students today are trained to be non-subjective in their reasoning as this best enables them to develop much-needed universal solutions.
the objective of best solutions in engineering has shifted the focus of pedagogy from humanism and social obligations to technological perfection.
engineering students today are taught to focus on objective technical outcomes, independent of the social dimensions of their work.
Explanation:
We have to understand the meaning of the word ‘claim’. A claim is something that you think is supposedly true without any concrete proof. A claim is different from a suggestion. For example, I claim to have healed myself by taking a specific medicine, I suggest you do the same. Now, in the paragraph, the author makes a claim. We have to see what that claim is. Let us take each option, option 1 is factually incorrect because technical social dualism is not allowing them to incorporate social considerations into their problem-solving processes. It is making them separate the technical and social dimensions. Option 2 is also factually incorrect because as per the passage, engineering students are trained to be objective so that they create the best solution from technological perspective, but since these solutions ignore societal concerns, they cannot be called universal solutions. Option 3 might seem correct but by using the phrase ‘shifted the focus’ it misleads us. The focus was never there, so question of shifting the focus does not even arise. Option 4 is the best choice because this precisely the author’s argument and in the first paragraph and he furnishes evidence in support of this claim in the subsequent paragraphs.
Question 14:
We can infer that the author would approve of a more evolved engineering pedagogy that includes all of the following EXCEPT:
moving towards technical-social dualism where social community needs are incorporated in problem-definition and solutions.
design that is based on the needs of communities using local knowledge and responding to local priorities.
making considerations of environmental sustainability intrinsic to the development of technological solutions.
a more responsible approach to technical design and problem-solving than a focus on speed in developing and bringing to scale.
Explanation:
The question asks us to pick a choice that the author would not approve. The ones that he is likely to approve will go out and the one he is not, will be the right answer. The author will certainly favor option 2 because he is in favor of considering local priorities that addresses needs of different communities, not just one. Option 3 is also likely to be supported by the author. Option 4 is also in sync with the author’s point view of because a more responsible approach means ‘including societal factors as well’. Option 1 is incorrect because in technical-social dualism you don’t integrate, you separate. So option1 is dichotomous because it suggests a solution whose principle is contrary to the intended outcome.
Question 15:
All of the following are examples of the negative outcomes of focusing on technical ideals in the medical sphere EXCEPT the:
continuing calibration of medical devices based on past racial biases that have remained unadjusted for changes.
incorrect assignment of people as female at birth which has resulted in faulty drug interventions.
neglect of research and development of medical technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that typically afflict marginalised communities.
exclusion of non-privileged groups in clinical trials which leads to incorrect drug dosages.
Explanation:
Option 2 goes out because it misquotes what is given in the passage. There is no incorrect assignment of people as female at birth. The passage says that because females have been inadequately represented in clinical trials, the drugs assigned to them at birth are not correctly dosed. Option 2 is a comical distortion of what is given in the passage. All the other options can be found in the passage.
Question 16:
The author gives all of the following reasons for why marginalised people are systematically discriminated against in technology-related interventions EXCEPT:
" And we hardly question whether devices are built sustainably, which has led to a crisis of medical waste and health care accounting for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions."
" But those technical ideals are at their core social and political choices determined by a dominant culture focused on economic growth for the most privileged segments of society."
" These racially based adjustments are derived from research done by eugenicists who thought these racial differences were biologically determined and who considered nonwhite people as inferior."
" Beyond physical failings, subjective beliefs treated as facts by those in decision-making roles can encode social inequities."
Explanation:
We have to find the reasons for discrimination and then mark the one that is not the reason. Option 2 is the reason for discrimination because it focuses on privileged section of society. Option 3 and 4 also have reasons in them. Option 3 because it says nonwhite people are inferior, and option 4 because it mentions subjective beliefs as reasons behind social inequities. Option 1 talks about sustainability, not discrimination.
Question 17:
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Today, many of the debates about behavioural control in the age of big data echo Cold War-era anxieties about brainwashing, insidious manipulation and repression in the 'technological society'. In his book Psychopolitics, Han warns of the sophisticated use of targeted online content, enabling 'influence to take place on a pre-reflexive level'. On our current trajectory, " freedom will prove to have been merely an interlude." The fear is that the digital age has not liberated us but exposed us, by offering up our private lives to machine-learning algorithms that can process masses of personal and behavioural data. In a world of influencers and digital entrepreneurs, it's not easy to imagine the resurgence of a culture engendered through disconnect and disaffiliation, but concerns over the threat of online targeting, polarisation and big data have inspired recent polemics about the need to rediscover solitude and disconnect.
The role of technology in influencing public behaviour is reminiscent of the manner in which behaviour was manipulated during the Cold War.
With big data making personal information freely available, the debate on the nature of freedom and the need for privacy has resurfaced.
The notion of freedom and privacy is at stake in a world where artificial intelligence is capable of influencing behaviour through data gathered online.
Rather than freeing us, digital technology is enslaving us by collecting personal information and influencing our online behaviour.
Explanation:
Option 4 goes out because of it takes an extreme stand by stating that ‘digital technology is enslaving us..’. This is nowhere given or implied in the passage. Option 1 is incorrect because it says that the manner in which behaviour was manipulated during the Cold War may not be similar to the manner in which is done today. The anxieties are the same but the manner of influencing may not be the same. There is no such information in the passage. Option 3 says artificial intelligence is capable of influencing, but it is capable of processing, not influencing. It is the influencers and digital entrepreneurs who are capable of influencing. Thus 2 is the best choice and the right answer.
Question 18:
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:
1. The trajectory of cheerfulness through the self is linked to the history of the word 'cheer' which comes from an Old French meaning 'face'.
2. Translations of the Bible into vernacular languages, expanded the noun 'cheer' into the more abstract 'cheerful-ness', something that circulates as an emotional and social quality defining the self and a moral community.
3. When you take on a cheerful expression, no matter what the state of your soul, your cheerfulness moves into the self: the interior of the self is changed by the power of cheer.
4. People in the medieval 'Canterbury Tales' have a 'piteous' or a 'sober' cheer; 'cheer' is an expression and a body part, lying at the intersection of emotions and physiognomy.
Explanation:
Statement 1 introduces to us the history of the word cheer. That history is further elaborated in sentence 4, which talks about the book ‘Canterbury Tales’ and further in sentence 2, which talks about the translations of the Bible into vernacular languages. 4 will come first because it talks about ‘cheer’ as an expression and a body part. 2 further expands this idea by talking about the more abstract cheerfulness. Thus 142 form a link. Because we need to introduce the topic cheer, sentence 3 is placed best as an opening sentence. Thus 3142 is the right sequence.
Question 19:
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
There’s a common idea that museum artworks are somehow timeless objects available to admire for generations to come. But many are objects of decay. Even the most venerable Old Master paintings don’t escape: pigments discolour, varnishes crack, canvases warp. This challenging fact of art-world life is down to something that sounds more like a thread from a morality tale: inherent vice. Damien Hirst’s iconic shark floating in a tank – entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living – is a work that put a spotlight on inherent vice. When he made it in 1991, Hirst got himself in a pickle by not using the right kind of pickle to preserve the giant fish. The result was that the shark began to decompose quite quickly – its preserving liquid clouding, the skin wrinkling, and an unpleasant smell wafting from the tank.
The role of museums has evolved to ensure that the artworks are preserved forever in addition to guarding and displaying them.
Artworks may not last forever; they may deteriorate with time, and the challenge is to slow down their degeneration.
Museums are left with the moral responsibility of restoring and preserving the artworks since artists cannot preserve their works beyond their life.
Museums have to guard timeless art treasures from intrinsic defects such as the deterioration of paint, polish and canvas.
Explanation:
Option 1 goes out because the role of museums has not been the focus of the paragraph. In fact, the word role has not even been mentioned in the passage. The passage talks about museum artworks and says that many of these artworks are subject to decay. Thus 1 is not the right choice. Both 3 and 4 are also incorrect because they both talk about museums and not museum artworks. Also, nowhere in the passage do we see any discussion of the moral responsibility of museums or that they have to guard timeless art treasures. Option 2 is the best choice.
Question 20:
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Several of the world's earliest cities were organised along egalitarian lines. In some regions, urban populations governed themselves for centuries without any indication of the temples and palaces that would later emerge; in others, temples and palaces never emerged at all, and there is simply no evidence of a class of administrators or any other sort of ruling stratum. It would seem that the mere fact of urban life does not, necessarily, imply any particular form of political organization, and never did. Far from resigning us to inequality, the picture that is now emerging of humanity's past may open our eyes to egalitarian possibilities we otherwise would have never considered.
We now have the evidence in support of the existence of an egalitarian urban life in some ancient cities, where political and civic organisation was far less hierarchical.
Contrary to our assumption that urban settlements have always involved hierarchical political and administrative structures, ancient cities were not organised in this way.
The emergence of a class of administrators and ruling stratum transformed the egalitarian urban life of ancient cities to the hierarchical civic organisations of today.
The lack of hierarchical administration in ancient cities can be deduced by the absence of religious and regal structures such as temples and palaces.
Explanation:
Option 2 looks like a good choice but it simply says that ‘ancient cities were not organized this way’…the passage does not talk about all ancient cities or urban settlements. It just talks about just a few examples, which is expressed in the first sentence where it says ‘several of the world’s earliest cities were organized along egalitarian lines’. The subsequent lines talk about the evidence that we have at hand. Also, there is nowhere any mention of our assumption. So 1 is better than 2. Option 3, instead of focusing on the main idea of the passage, talks about something that can inferred from the paragraph. Option 4, like option 3, is an inference.
Question 21:
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:
1. Women may prioritize cooking because they feel they alone are responsible for mediating a toxic and unhealthy food system.
2. Food is commonly framed through the lens of individual choice: you can choose to eat healthily.
3. This is particularly so in a neoliberal context where the state has transferred the responsibility for food onto individual consumers.
4. The individualized framing of choice appeals to a popular desire to experience agency, but draws away from the structural obstacles that stratify individual food choices.
Explanation:
This is a very difficult question. The only thing we can say is that 2 will open the paragraph because it is the best introductory sentence among all the four options. The pronoun ‘this’ in the phrase ‘this is particularly so in a neoliberal context…’ refers to what is stated in 4. Thus we see that 43 form a pair, though we feel that 23 form an equally good pair. 1 should end the paragraph because that is the only place for it. The two possible sequences are 2431 or 2341. Unfortunately, the right answer is 2431
Question 22:
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:
1. From chemical pollutants in the environment to the damming of rivers to invasive species transported through global trade and travel, every environmental issue is different and there is no single tech solution that can solve this crisis.
2. Discourse on the threat of environmental collapse revolves around cutting down emissions, but biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are caused by myriad and diverse reasons.
3. This would require legislation that recognises the rights of future generations and other species that allows the judiciary to uphold a much higher standard of environmental protection than currently possible.
4. Clearly, our environmental crisis requires large political solutions, not minor technological ones, so, instead of focusing on infinite growth, we could consider a path of stable-state economies, while preserving markets and healthy competition.
Explanation:
This is one of the simplest parajumble question. In the very first glance, we see that the pronoun ‘this’ in sentence 3 refers to a noun or a noun phrase. We need to find that noun or noun phrase in some other sentence and place that before 3. The suggestions given sentence 4 would require ‘legislation that recognizes the rights of future generations…’. Thus 43 form a pair. Sentence 2 is the best opening for the paragraph because it introduces the topic ‘threat of environmental collapse’. At the end of 2 we have ‘…ecosystem collapse are caused by…diverse reasons’. These reasons are given in 1. Thus 21 form a pair, with 43 coming at the end. The right answer is 2143
Question 23:
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: This was years in the making but fast-tracked during the pandemic, when " people started being more mindful about their food" , he explained.
Paragraph: For millennia, ghee has been a venerated staple of the subcontinental diet, but it fell out of favour a few decades ago when saturated fats were largely considered to be unhealthy. ____(1)____ But more recently, as the thinking around saturated fats is shifting globally, Indians are finding their own way back to this ingredient that is so integral to their cuisine. ____(2)____ For Karmakar, a renewed interest in ghee is emblematic of a return-to-basics movement in India. ____(3)____ This movement is also part of an overall trend towards " slow food" . In keeping with the movement's philosophy, ghee can be produced locally (even at home) and has inextricable cultural ties. ____(4)____ At a basic level, ghee is a type of clarified butter believed to have originated in India as a way to preserve butter from going rancid in the hot climate.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Explanation:
The sentence that we need to accommodate is: This was years in the making but fast-tracked during the pandemic, when “people started being more mindful about their food”, he explained. Here, we have to use the contextual reference. The pronoun ‘he’ in the phrase ‘he explained’ refers to some person, and this person must be introduced. After position 2, we have Karamakar as the person who seems to be talking about something. So, after position 2, we can fit the sentence either at position 3 or position 4. 3 is the right position because in the sentence before position 3, we have ‘a renewed interest in ghee’. The pronoun ‘this’ in the phrase ‘this was years in the making’ refers to ‘a renewed interest.’ Thus 3 is the best position in which we can fit the sentence.
Question 24:
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: Most were first-time users of a tablet and a digital app.
Paragraph: Aage Badhein's USP lies in the ethnographic research that constituted the foundation of its development process. Customizations based on learning directly from potential users were critical to making this self-paced app suitable for both a literate and non-literate audience. ____(1)____ The user interface caters to a Hindi-speaking audience who have minimal to no experience with digital services and devices. ____(2)____ The content and functionality of the app are suitable for a wide audience. This includes youth preparing for an independent role in life or a student ready to create a strong foundation of financial management early in her life. ____(3)____ Household members desirous of improving their family's financial strength to reach their aspirations can also benefit. We piloted Aage Badhein in early 2021 with over 400 women from rural areas. ____(4)____ The digital solution generated a large amount of interest in the communities.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Explanation:
The sentence that we need to accommodate in the paragraph is: Most were first-time users of a tablet and a digital app. The grammatical elements of the sentence suggest that the pronoun ‘most’ refers to some human entity and these entities were using a tablet and a digital app for the first time. The sentence preceding this sentence has to be the one in which we must have such a contextual reference. Position 1 cannot be the right choice because the sentence after the first position does not talk about the ‘first time users’. Instead, it talks about the user interface of the app. The same problem is with position 2. After position 2, we again have the app being described by the author. So, in the first few sentences of the paragraph, the author discusses the functionalities of the app. Option 4 is the best choice because the app was piloted with over 400 women, and most of them were first time users of a tablet and a digital app. This crystal-clear reference is not there in any other sentence. Option 4 is the best choice.