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Question 1:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author's position.

North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis) look like easy meals for birds, but they have a trick up their sleeves — they produce whistles that sound like bird alarm calls, scaring potential predators away. At first, scientists suspected birds were simply startled by the loud noise. But a new study suggests a more sophisticated mechanism: the caterpillar's whistle appears to mimic a bird alarm call, sending avian predators scrambling for cover. When pecked by a bird, the caterpillars whistle by compressing their bodies like an accordion and forcing air out through specialized holes in their sides. The whistles are impressively loud — they have been measured at over 5O dB from 5 cm away from the caterpillar — considering they are made by a two-inch long insect.

1. North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars will whistle periodically to ward off predator birds - they have a specialized vocal tract that helps them whistle.
2. North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars can whistle very loudly; the loudness of their whistles is shocking as they are very small insects.
3. The North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in a case of acoustic deception, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.
4. North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in. a case of deception and camouflage, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.

Question 2:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author's position.

Both Socrates and Bacon were very good at asking useful questions. In fact, Socrates is largely credited with coming up with a way of asking questions, 'the Socratic method,' which itself is at the core of the 'scientific method,' popularised by Bacon. The Socratic method disproves arguments by finding exceptions to them, and can therefore lead your opponent to a point where they admit something that contradicts their original position. In common with Socrates, Bacon stressed it was as important to disprove a theory as it was to prove one — and real-world observation and experimentation were key to achieving both aims. Bacon also saw science as a collaborative affair, with scientists working together, challenging each other.

1. Both Socrates and Bacon advocated clever questioning of the opponents to disprove their arguments and theories.
2. Both Socrates and Bacon advocated challenging arguments and theories by observation and experimentation.
3. Both Socrates and Bacon advocated confirming arguments and theories by finding exceptions.
4. Both Socrates and Bacon advocated examining arguments and theories from both sides to prove them.

Question 3:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

A fundamental property of language is that it is slippery and messy and more liquid than solid, a gelatinous mass that changes shape to fit. As Wittgenstein would remind us, "usage has no sharp boundary." Oftentimes, the only way to determine the meaning of a word is to examine how it is used. This insight is often described as the "meaning is use" doctrine. There are differences between the "meaning is use" doctrine and a dictionary-first theory of meaning. "The dictionary's careful fixing of words to definitions, like butterflies pinned under glass, can suggest that this is how language works. The definitions can seem to ensure and fix the meaning of words, just as the gold standard can back a country's currency." What Wittgenstein found in the circulation of ordinary language, however, was a free-floating currency of meaning. The value of each word arises out of the exchange. The lexicographer abstracts a meaning from that exchange, which is then set within the conventions of the dictionary definition.

1. Dictionary definitions are like 'gold standards' — artificial, theoretical and dogmatic. Actual meaning of words is their free-exchange value.
2. Language is already slippery; given this, accounting for 'meaning in use' will only exasperate the problem. That is why lexicographers 'fix' meanings.
3. Meaning is dynamic; definitions are static. The 'meaning in use' theory helps us understand that definitions of words are culled from their meaning in exchange and use and not vice versa.
4. The meaning of words in dictionaries is clear, fixed and less dangerous and ambiguous than the meaning that arises when words are exchanged between people.

Question 4:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

To me, a "classic" means precisely the opposite of what my predecessors understood: a work is classical by reason of its resistance to contemporaneity and supposed universality, by reason of its capacity to indicate human particularity and difference in that past epoch. The classic is not what tells me about shared humanity — or, more truthfully put, what lets me recognize myself as already present in the past, what nourishes in me the illusion that everything has been like me and has existed only to prepare the way for me. Instead, the classic is what gives access to radically different forms of human consciousness for any given generation of readers, and thereby expands for them the range of possibilities of what it means to be a human being.

1. A classic is able to focus on the contemporary human condition and a unified experience of human consciousness.
2. A classical work seeks to resist particularity and temporal difference even as it focuses on a common humanity.
3. A classic is a work exploring the new, going beyond the universal, the contemporary, and the notion of a unified human consciousness.
4. A classic is a work that provides access to a universal experience of the human race as opposed to radically different forms of human consciousness.

Question 5:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

A translator of literary works needs a secure hold upon the two languages involved, supported by a good measure of familiarity with the two cultures. For an Indian translating works in an Indian language into English, finding satisfactory equivalents in a generalized western culture of practices and symbols in the original would be less difficult than gaining fluent control of contemporary English. When a westerner works on texts in Indian languages the interpretation of cultural elements will be the major challenge, rather than control over the grammar and essential vocabulary of the language concerned. It is much easier to remedy lapses in language in a text translated into English, than flaws of content. Since it is easier for an Indian to learn the English language than it is for a Briton or American to comprehend Indian culture, translations of Indian texts is better left to Indians.

1. While translating, the Indian and the westerner face the same challenges but they have different skill profiles and the former has the advantage.
2. As preserving cultural meanings is the essence of literary translation Indians' knowledge of the local culture outweighs the initial disadvantage of lower fluency in English.
3. Indian translators should translate Indian texts into English as their work is less likely to pose cultural problems which are harder to address than the quality of language.
4. Westerners might be good at gaining reasonable fluency in new languages, but as understanding the culture reflected in literature is crucial, Indians remain better placed.

Question 6:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

For each of the past three years, temperatures have hit peaks not seen since the birth of meteorology, and probably not for more than 110,000 years. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is at its highest level in 4 million years. This does not cause storms like Harvey — there have always been storms and hurricanes along the Gulf of Mexico — but it makes them wetter and more powerful. As the seas warm, they evaporate more easily and provide energy to storm fronts. As the air above them warms, it holds more water vapor. For every half a degree Celsius in warming, there is about a 3% increase in atmospheric moisture content. Scientists call this the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. This means the skies fill more quickly and have more to dump. The storm surge was greater because sea levels have risen 20 cm as a result of more than 100 years of human- related global warming which has melted glaciers and thermally expanded the volume of seawater.

1. The storm Harvey is one of the regular, annual ones from the Gulf of Mexico; global warming and Harvey are unrelated phenomena.
2. Global warming does not breed storms but makes them more destructive; the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, though it predicts potential increase in atmospheric moisture content, cannot predict the scale of damage storms might wreck.
3. Global warming melts glaciers, resulting in seawater volume expansion; this enables more water vapour to fill the air above faster. Thus, modern storms contain more destructive energy.
4. It is naive to think that rising sea levels and the force of tropical storms are unrelated; Harvey was destructive as global warming has armed it with more moisture content, but this may not be true of all storms.

Question 7:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

Production and legitimation of scientific knowledge can be approached from a number of perspectives. To study knowledge production from the sociology of professions perspective would mean a focus on the institutionalization of a body of knowledge. The professions-approach informed earlier research on managerial occupation, business schools and management knowledge. It however tends to reify institutional power structures in its understanding of the links between knowledge and authority. Knowledge production is restricted in the perspective to the selected members of the professional community, most notably to the university faculties and professional colleges. Power is understood as a negative mechanism, which prevents the non-professional actors from offering their ideas and information as legitimate knowledge.

1. Professions-approach aims at the institutionalization of knowledge but restricts knowledge production as a function of a select few.
2. The study of knowledge production can be done through many perspectives.
3. Professions-approach focuses on the creation of institutions of higher education and disciplines to promote knowledge production
4. The professions-approach has been one of the most relied upon perspective in the study of management knowledge production.

Question 8:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

Artificial embryo twinning is a relatively low-tech way to make clones. As the name suggests, this technique mimics the natural process that creates identical twins. In nature, twins form very early in development when the embryo splits in two. Twinning happens in the first days after egg and sperm join, while the embryo is made of just a small number of unspecialized cells. Each half of the embryo continues dividing on its own, ultimately developing into separate, complete individuals. Since they developed from the same fertilized egg, the resulting individuals are genetically identical.

1. Artificial embryo twinning is low-tech and mimetic of the natural development of genetically identical twins from the embryo after fertilization.
2. Artificial embryo twinning is low-tech unlike the natural development of identical twins from the embryo after fertilization.
3. Artificial embryo twinning is just like the natural development of twins, where during fertilization twins are formed.
4. Artificial embryo twinning is low-tech and is close to the natural development of twins where the embryo splits into two identical twins.

Question 9:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

The conceptualization of landscape as a geometric object first occurred in Europe and is historically related to the European conceptualization of the organism, particularly the human body, as a geometric object with parts having a rational, three-dimensional organization and integration. The European idea of landscape appeared before the science of landscape emerged, and it is no coincidence that Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who studied the structure of the human body, also facilitated an understanding of the structure of landscape. Landscape which had been a subordinate background to religious or historical narratives, became an independent genre or subject of art by the end of sixteenth century or the beginning of the seventeenth century.

1. Landscape became a major subject of art at the turn of the sixteenth century.
2. The three-dimensional understanding of the organism in Europe led to a similar approach towards the understanding of landscape.
3. The study of landscape as an independent genre was aided by the Renaissance artists.
4. The Renaissance artists were responsible for the study of landscape as a subject of art.

Question 10:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

The early optimism about sport's deterrent effects on delinquency was premature as researchers failed to find any consistent relationships between sports participation and deviance. As the initial studies were based upon cross-sectional data and the effects captured were short-term, it was problematic to test and verify the temporal sequencing of events suggested by the deterrence theory. The correlation between sport and delinquency could not be disentangled from class and cultural variables known. Choosing individuals to play sports in the first place was problematic, which became more acute in the subsequent decades as researchers began to document just how closely sports participation was linked to social class indicators.

1. Sports participation is linked to class and cultural variables such as education, income, and social capital.
2. Contradicting the previous optimism, latter researchers have proved that there is no consistent relationship between sports participation and deviance.
3. Statistical and empirical weaknesses stand in the way of inferring any relationship between sports participation and deviance.
4. There is a direct relationship between sport participation and delinquency but it needs more empirical evidence.

Question 11:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position:

A Japanese government panel announced that it recommends regulating only genetically modified organisms that have had foreign genes permanently introduced into their genomes and not those whose endogenous genes have been edited. The only stipulation is that researchers and businesses will have to register their modifications to plants or animals with the government, with the exception of microbes cultured in contained environments. Reactions to the decision are mixed. While lauding the potential benefits of genome editing, an editorial opposes across-the-board permission. Unforeseen risks in gene editing cannot be ruled out. All genetically modified products must go through the same safety and labeling processes regardless of method.

1. A government panel in Japan says transgenic modification and genome editing are not the same.
2. Excepting microbes cultured in contained environments from the regulations of genome editing is premature.
3. Exempting from regulations the editing of endogenous genes is not desirable as this procedure might be risk-prone.
4. Creating categories within genetically modified products in terms of transgenic modification and genome editing advances science but defies laws.

Question 12:

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

Should the moral obligation to rescue and aid persons in grave peril, felt by a few, be enforced by the criminal law? Should we follow the lead of a number of European countries and enact bad Samaritan laws? Proponents of bad Samaritan laws must overcome at least three different sorts of obstacles. First, they must show the laws are morally legitimate in principle, that is, that the duty to aid others is a proper candidate for legal enforcement. Second, they must show that this duty to aid can be defined in a way that can be fairly enforced by the courts. Third, they must show that the benefits of the laws are worth their problems, risks and costs.

1. A number of European countries that have successfully enacted bad Samaritan laws may serve as model statutes.
2. Everyone agrees that people ought to aid others, the only debate is whether to have a law on it.
3. If bad Samaritan laws are found to be legally sound and enforceable they must be enacted.
4. Bad Samaritan laws may be desirable but they need to be tested for legal soundness.

Question 13:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

A distinguishing feature of language is our ability to refer to absent things, known as displaced reference. A speaker can bring distant referents to mind in the absence of any obvious stimuli. Thoughts, not limited to the here and now, can pop into our heads for unfathomable reasons. This ability to think about distant things necessarily precedes the ability to talk about them. Thought precedes meaningful referential communication. A prerequisite for the emergence of human-like meaningful symbols is that the mental categories they relate to can be invoked even in the absence of immediate stimuli.

1. Thoughts are essential to communication and only humans have the ability to think about objects not present in their surroundings.
2. The ability to think about objects not present in our environment precedes the development of human communication.
3. Displaced reference is particular to humans and thoughts pop into our heads for no real reason.
4. Thoughts precede all speech acts and these thoughts pop up in our heads even in the absence of any stimulus.

Question 14:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Physics is a pure science that seeks to understand the behaviour of matter without regard to whether it will afford any practical benefit. Engineering is the correlative applied science in which physical theories are put to some specific use, such as building a bridge or a nuclear reactor. Engineers obviously rely heavily on the discoveries of physicists, but an engineer's knowledge of the world is not the same as the physicist's knowledge. In fact, an engineer's know-how will often depend on physical theories that, from the point of view of pure physics, are false. There are some reasons for this. First, theories that are false in the purest and strictest sense are still sometimes very good approximations to the true ones, and often have the added virtue of being much easier to work with. Second, sometimes the true theories apply only under highly idealized conditions which can only be created under controlled experimental situations. The engineer finds that in the real world, theories rejected by physicists yield more accurate predictions than the ones that they accept.

1. The relationship between pure and applied science is strictly linear, with the pure science directing applied science, and never the other way round.
2. Though engineering draws heavily from pure science, it contributes to knowledge, by incorporating the constraints and conditions in the real world.
3. The unique task of the engineer is to identify, understand, and interpret the design constraints to produce a successful result.
4. Engineering and physics fundamentally differ on matters like building a bridge or a nuclear reactor.

Question 15:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders alerted the public to the psychoanalytical techniques used by the advertising industry. Its premise was that advertising agencies were using depth interviews to identify hidden consumer motivations, which were then used to entice consumers to buy goods. Critics and reporters often wrongly assumed that Packard was writing mainly about subliminal advertising. Packard never mentioned the word subliminal, however, and devoted very little space to discussions of “subthreshold” effects. Instead, his views largely aligned with the notion that individuals do not always have access to their conscious thoughts and can be persuaded by supraliminal messages without their knowledge.

1. Packard argued that advertising as a ‘hidden persuasion’ understands the hidden motivations of consumers and works at the subliminal level, on the subconscious level of the awareness of the people targeted.
2. Packard argued that advertising as a ‘hidden persuasion’ works at the supraliminal level, wherein the people targeted are aware of being persuaded, after understanding the hidden motivations of consumers and works.
3. Packard held that advertising as a ‘hidden persuasion’ builds on peoples’ conscious thoughts and awareness, by understanding the hidden motivations of consumers and works at the subliminal level.
4. Packard held that advertising as a ‘hidden persuasion’ understands the hidden motivations of consumers and works at the supraliminal level, though the people targeted have no awareness of being persuaded.

Question 16:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Language is an autapomorphy found only in our lineage, and not shared with other branches of our group such as primates. We also have no definitive evidence that any species other than Homo sapiens ever had language. However, it must be noted straightaway that ‘language’ is not a monolithic entity, but rather a complex bundle of traits that must have evolved over a significant time frame…. Moreover, language crucially draws on aspects of cognition that are long established in the primate lineage, such as memory: the language faculty as a whole comprises more than just the uniquely linguistic features.

1. Language, a derived trait found only in humans, has evolved over time and involves memory.
2. Language evolved with linguistic features building on features of cognition such as memory.
3. Language is not a single, uniform entity but the end result of a long and complex process of linguistic evolution.
4. Language is a distinctively human feature as there is no evidence of the existence of language in any other species.

Question 17:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Privacy-challenged office workers may find it hard to believe, but open-plan offices and cubicles were invented by architects and designers who thought that to break down the social walls that divide people, you had to break down the real walls, too. Modernist architects saw walls and rooms as downright fascist. The spaciousness and flexibility of an open plan would liberate homeowners and office dwellers from the confines of boxes. But companies took up their idea less out of a democratic ideology than a desire to pack in as many workers as they could. The typical open-plan office of the first half of the 20th century was a white-collar assembly line. Cubicles were interior designers’ attempt to put some soul back in.

1. Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out the way their utopian inventors intended, as they became tools for exploitation of labor.
2. Wall-free office spaces could have worked out the way their utopian inventors intended had companies cared for workers' satisfaction.
3. Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out as desired and therefore cubicles came into being.
4. Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out as companies don’t believe in democratic ideology.

Question 18:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Social movement organizations often struggle to mobilize supporters from allied movements in their efforts to achieve critical mass. Organizations with hybrid identities—those whose organizational identities span the boundaries of two or more social movements, issues, or identities—are vital to mobilizing these constituencies. Studies of the post-9/11 U.S. antiwar movement show that individuals with past involvement in non-anti-war movements are more likely to join hybrid organizations than are individuals without involvement in non-anti-war movements. In addition, they show that organizations with hybrid identities occupy relatively more central positions in inter-organizational contact networks within the antiwar movement and thus recruit significantly more participants in demonstrations than do nonhybrid organizations.

1. Post 9/11 studies show that people who are involved in non anti-war movements are likely to join hybrid organizations.
2. Movements that work towards social change often find it difficult to mobilize a critical mass of supporters.
3. Hybrid organizations attract individuals that are deeply involved in anti-war movements.
4. Organizations with hybrid identities are able to mobilize individuals with different points of view.

Question 19:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

As Soviet power declined, the world became to some extent multipolar, and Europe strove to define an independent identity. What a journey Europe has undertaken to reach this point. It had in every century changed its internal structure and invented new ways of thinking about the nature of international order. Now at the culmination of an era, Europe, in order to participate in it, felt obliged to set aside the political mechanisms through which it had conducted its affairs for three and a half centuries. Impelled also by the desire to cushion the emergent unification of Germany, the new European Union established a common currency in 2002 and a formal political structure in 2004. It proclaimed a Europe united, whole, and free, adjusting its differences by peaceful mechanisms.

1. Europe has consistently changed its internal structure to successfully adapt to the changing world order.
2. Europe has consistently changed in keeping with the changing world order and that has culminated in a united Europe.
3. The establishment of a formal political structure in Europe was hastened by the unification of Germany and the emergence of a multipolar world.
4. Europe has chosen to lower political and economic heterogeneity, in order to adapt itself to an emerging multi-polar world.

Question 20:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

For years, movies and television series like Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) paint an unrealistic picture of the “science of voices.” In the 1994 movie Clear and Present Danger an expert listens to a brief recorded utterance and declares that the speaker is “Cuban, aged 35 to 45, educated in the […] eastern United States.” The recording is then fed to a supercomputer that matches the voice to that of a suspect, concluding that the probability of correct identification is 90%. This sequence sums up a good number of misimpressions about forensic phonetics, which have led to errors in reallife  justice. Indeed, that movie scene exemplifies the so-called “CSI effect”—the phenomenon in which judges hold unrealistic expectations of the capabilities of forensic science.

1. Although voice recognition is often presented as evidence in legal cases, its scientific basis can be shaky.
2. Movies and televisions have led to the belief that the use of forensic phonetics in legal investigations is robust and fool proof.
3. Voice recognition as used in many movies to identify criminals has been used to identify criminals in real life also.
4. Voice recognition has started to feature prominently in crime-scene intelligence investigations because of movies and television series.

Question 21:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

For nearly a century most psychologists have embraced one view of intelligence. Individuals are born with more or less intelligence potential (I.Q.); this potential is heavily influenced by heredity and difficult to alter; experts in measurement can determine a person’s intelligence early in life, currently from paper-and-pencil measures, perhaps eventually from examining the brain in action or even scrutinizing his/her genome. Recently, criticism of this conventional wisdom has mounted. Biologists ask if speaking of a single entity called “intelligence” is coherent and question the validity of measures used to estimate heritability of a trait in humans, who, unlike plants or animals, are not conceived and bred under controlled conditions.

1. Biologists have questioned the long-standing view that ‘intelligence’ is a single entity and the attempts to estimate it's heritability.
2. Biologists have started questioning psychologists' view of 'intelligence' as a measurable immutable characteristic of an individual.
3. Biologists have questioned the view that ‘intelligence’ is a single entity and the ways in which what is inherited.
4. Biologists have criticised that conventional wisdom that individuals are born with more or less intelligence potential.

Question 22:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

With the Treaty of Westphalia, the papacy had been confined to ecclesiastical functions, and the doctrine of sovereign equality reigned. What political theory could then explain the origin and justify the functions of secular political order? In his Leviathan, published in 1651, three years after the Peace of Westphalia, Thomas Hobbes provided such a theory. He imagined a “state of nature” in the past when the absence of authority produced a “war of all against all.” To escape such intolerable insecurity, he theorized, people delivered their rights to a sovereign power in return for the sovereign’s provision of security for all within the state’s border. The sovereign state’s monopoly on power was established as the only way to overcome the perpetual fear of violent death and war.

1. Thomas Hobbes theorized the emergence of sovereign states based on a transactional relationship between people and sovereign state that was necessitated by a sense of insecurity of the people.
2. Thomas Hobbes theorized the voluntary surrender of rights by people as essential for emergence of sovereign states.
3. Thomas Hobbes theorized the emergence of sovereign states as a form of transactional governance to limit the power of the papacy.
4. Thomas Hobbes theorized that sovereign states emerged out of people’s voluntary desire to overcome the sense of insecurity and establish the doctrine of sovereign equality.

Question 23:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

All humans make decisions based on one or a combination of two factors. This is either intuition or information. Decisions made through intuition are usually fast, people don’t even think about the problem. It is quite philosophical, meaning that someone who made a decision based on intuition will have difficulty explaining the reasoning behind it. The decision-maker would often utilize her senses in drawing conclusions, which again is based on some experience in the field of study. On the other side of the spectrum, we have decisions made based on information. These decisions are rational — it is based on facts and figures, which unfortunately also means that it can be quite slow. The decision-maker would frequently use reports, analyses, and indicators to form her conclusion. This methodology results in accurate, quantifiable decisions, meaning that a person can clearly explain the rationale behind it.

1. We make decisions based on intuition or information on the basis of the time available.
2. It is better to make decisions based on information because it is more accurate, and the rationale behind it can be explained.
3. Decisions based on intuition and information result in differential speed and ability to provide a rationale.
4. While decisions based on intuition can be made fast, the reasons that led to these cannot be spelt out.

Question 24:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

The rural-urban continuum and the heterogeneity of urban settings pose an obvious challenge to identifying urban areas and measuring urbanization rates in a consistent way within and across countries. An objective methodology for distinguishing between urban and rural areas that is based on one or two metrics with fixed thresholds may not adequately capture the wide diversity of places. A richer combination of criteria would better describe the multifaceted nature of a city’s function and its environment, but the joint interpretation of these criteria may require an element of human judgment.

1. The difficulty of accurately identifying urban areas means that we need to create a rich combination of criteria that can be applied to all urban areas.
2. With the diversity of urban landscapes, measurable criteria for defining urban areas may need to be supplemented with human judgement.
3. Current methodologies used to define urban and rural areas are no longer relevant to our being able to study trends in urbanisation.
4. Distinguishing between urban and rural areas might call for some judgement on the objective methodology being used to define a city’s functions.

Question 25:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Brown et al. (2001) suggest that ‘metabolic theory may provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology just as genetic theory provides a foundation for much of evolutionary biology’. One of the successes of genetic theory is the diversity of theoretical approaches and models that have been developed and applied. A Web of Science (v. 5.9. Thomson Reuters) search on genetic* + theor* + evol* identifies more than 12000 publications between 2005 and 2012. Considering only the 10 most-cited papers within this 12000 publication set, genetic theory can be seen to focus on genome dynamics, phylogenetic inference, game theory and the regulation of gene expression. There is no one fundamental genetic equation, but rather a wide array of genetic models, ranging from simple to complex, with differing inputs and outputs, and divergent areas of application, loosely connected to each other through the shared conceptual foundation of heritable variation.

1. Genetic theory has a wide range of theoretical approaches and applications and Metabolic theory must have the same in the field of ecology.
2. Genetic theory has evolved to spawn a wide range of theoretical models and applications but Metabolic theory need not evolve in a similar manner in the field of ecology.
3. Genetic theory has a wide range of theoretical approaches and application and is foundational to evolutionary biology and Metabolic theory has the potential to do the same for ecology.
4. Genetic theory provides an example of how a range of theoretical approaches and applications can make a theory successful.

Question 26:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

The dominant hypotheses in modern science believe that language evolved to allow humans to exchange factual information about the physical world. But an alternative view is that language evolved, in modern humans at least, to facilitate social bonding. It increased our ancestors’ chances of survival by enabling them to hunt more successfully or to cooperate more extensively. Language meant that things could be explained and that plans and past experiences could be shared efficiently.

1. From the belief that humans invented language to process factual information, scholars now think that language was the outcome of the need to ensure social cohesion and thus human survival.
2. Since its origin, language has been continuously evolving to higher forms, from being used to identify objects to ensuring human survival by enabling our ancestors to bond and cooperate.
3. Most believe that language originated from a need to articulate facts, but others think it emerged from the need to promote social cohesion and cooperation, thus enabling human survival.
4. Experts are challenging the narrow view of the origin of language, as being merely used to describe facts and label objects, to being necessary to promote more complex interactions among humans.

Question 27:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Aesthetic political representation urges us to realize that ‘the representative has autonomy with regard to the people represented’ but autonomy then is not an excuse to abandon one’s responsibility. Aesthetic autonomy requires cultivation of ‘disinterestedness’ on the part of actors which is not indifference. To have disinterestedness, that is, to have comportment towards the beautiful that is devoid of all ulterior references to use – requires a kind of aesthetic commitment; it is the liberation of ourselves for the release of what has proper worth only in itself.

1. Disinterestedness is different from indifference as the former means a non-subjective evaluation of things which is what constitutes aesthetic political representation.
2. Aesthetic political representation advocates autonomy for the representatives manifested through disinterestedness which itself is different from indifference.
3. Disinterestedness, as distinct from indifference, is the basis of political representation.
4. Aesthetic political representation advocates autonomy for the representatives drawing from disinterestedness, which itself is different from indifference

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Solution 1:
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Solution 2:
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Solution 3:
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Solution 4:
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Solution 5:
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Solution 6:
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Solution 7:

This question, though it looks a little challenging, is in fact quite simple. You must read the passage twice to get some basic understanding of it. The first sentence says that scientific knowledge can be approached from a number of perspectives. Studying something from the perspective of a particular profession would lead to institutionalization of that knowledge. Though it helps, it restricts knowledge production to a domain of few, which results in power centered in the hands of few, preventing the non-professional actors from offering their ideas.

The above simplification helps us arrive at option 1 as the right choice. Options 3 and 4 are against the author’s stand in the passage. Option 2 is not the core message, but an inference that can be derived from the above passage.

Solution 8:

This is a slightly tricky question in which we have to pick the options after carefully comparing them with the others. The first sentence says that artificial embryo twinning is low-tech. The second sentence says that it mimics the natural process that creates identical twins. Option 1 very much captures the key ideas. In option 2, the word ‘unlike’ shows dissimilarity, but the passage focuses on similarity, not dissimilarity. Option 2 goes out. Option 3 says twins are formed during fertilization, but the passage says that the twins are formed after fertilization. Option 4 is close to 1 but does not clearly specify the exact time when the embryo splits into two. Moreover, the passage says mimics, while option 4 says ‘close to’, which is a slight distortion of the facts as given in the passage.

Solution 9:

Both options 2 and 3 are very close. Option a goes out because the paragraph says that landscape became an independent genre of art of form, while the option says it became a major subject of art. This is a distortion of the fact given in the passage.

Option 2 too has some distortions; while the passage says that conceptualization of landscape as geometric object is related to the European conceptualization of the organism as a geometric object, the option says that three-dimensional understanding of the organism led to a similar approach…. It should be geometric understanding of the organism.

Option 3 best captures the author’s position, which in the passage is clearly visible as “Renaissance artists also facilitated an understanding of the structure of landscape”.

Option 4 is incorrect because it distorts the fact by saying the Renaissance artists were responsible, while the passage says that they facilitated.

Solution 10:

This is an easy question and the right answer should be 3. We can arrive at the right quickly by way of elimination. The passage focuses on delinquency and sports participation, suggesting that deviation from delinquency and sports participation is not yet confirmed, as there are many hindrances to arriving at the right conclusion.

Option 1 goes out because it says that there is a link, but the link is not yet established

Option 2 is close but the later researches haven’t proved anything yet. They have gathered enough evidence that doubts the earlier optimism, without proving that there is no relationship

Option 3 aptly sums up the main position of the paragraph, which is statistical data not being enough to infer anything about relationship between sports participation and deviance.

Option 4 the direct relationship idea is being doubted in the paragraph, while the option states exactly the opposite.

Solution 11:

The paragraph speaks about the Japanese government’s recommendation. The recommendation is the key idea of the passage. The recommendation is about regulating only genetically modified organisms, and leaving the rest. The reactions are mixed, however the author cautions about the unforeseen risks. Option 3 is the best choice.

Option 1 goes out because the Japanese recommendation is about regulating only genetically modified organisms. This is the main idea, but option 1 does not cover this idea. The right word is exempting, not excepting. Also, the prematurity part of it is nowhere found in the passage. Option 4 says “creating categories within genetically modified products…defies law”. The defying of the legal aspect of it is not there in the passage. Option 3 is the best choice.

Solution 12:

The passage starts with a few questions. The answer is nowhere given by the author. After the questions, the author says that proponents of bad Samaritan laws must overcome three obstacles, and further goes on to elaborate what those obstacles are. These obstacles are the test which must be overcome as per the author. Thus choice 4 is the best choice.

Option 3 goes out because nowhere has the author suggested or implied that the laws must be enacted. The idea of ‘everyone agrees’, in option 2, is again nowhere found in the message and nor is it the main idea of the passage. Though what is given in option 1 is correct in the context of the passage, it is not the key focus on the paragraph. In summary questions we must capture the key idea of the passage. Any option that ignores the key idea cannot be the right choice.

Solution 13:

Everything is good with option 1 except that it says only humans have the ability to think, something that is nowhere to found in the passage. 1 can be ruled out.

Option 3 goes out because displaced reference is a distinguishing feature of language, not of humans. Option 3 can be ruled out.

Option 4 goes out because the passage says that thought precedes all meaningful communication, while option 4 says that thought precedes all speech acts, something that may not always be the case. Thus option 4 too goes out.

Option 2 is succinct and does not have any distortions or misrepresentations.

Solution 14:

The passage broadly talks about the difference between purse science and applied science, i.e. engineering. Further the author says that engineers might find even those theories of physics useful that from the point of view of pure physics are false. Option 2 precisely captures that. It says that engineering incorporates the constraints and conditions of physics in the real world.

Option 1 says the relationship is strictly linear, but that is not the case. Had that been the case, the false theories of pure science could not have been used by engineers for accurate predictions.

Option 3 goes out because it does not even mention the word pure science. It solely focuses on engineers, ignoring the relationship between purse science and engineering.

Option 4 gives a summary that is totally different from the what the passage discusses.

Solution 15:

There is a clear difference between the choices with respect to supraliminal and subliminal. The passage clearly tells us that Packard believed in supraliminal images, not subliminal. Thus 3 and 1 go out. We have to choose between 4 and 2.

Statement 2 says people are aware, while statement 4 says that people are not aware. The passage too says that people are not aware. Thus option 4 is the best choice.

This was a very simple question.

Solution 16:

Option 1 goes out because nowhere does the para says that language is a derived trait. It says that it is a human trait, but not a derived trait (a derived trait would be something that was missing in the common ancestor). Option 2 is correct, nothing is distorted or missing in this choice.

Option 3 is very close to 2 except that it misses the crucial point of ‘language drawing on aspects of cognition such as memory’

Option 4 misses two crucial points, one about language evolving over a period of time, and the other about point of ‘language drawing on aspects of cognition such as memory’

This is a very difficult question as there was little difference between 2 and 3. 

We could eliminate 4 because it does not cover two critical points, focussing on the information that is less significant and is not the part of the author’s main focus, which is ‘evolution of language’.

Solution 17:

This is moderate difficulty question. The passage has two parts, the first speaks of the dismantling of the walls to overcome all divisions, the second speaks of how something else resulted from it because of selfish business interest.

Option 1 is the best choice; it says that the intention was to make things democratic, but by putting in as many people as possible in cubicles, it became a tool of exploitation of labour.

Option 2 goes out because workers’ satisfaction is a little far-fetched. People might work in confined spaces but they could still be satisfied with their work

Option 3 is quite close, but the passage talks of intention of the companies. The inventor’s idea was to dismantle barriers but the organizations took it as a tool to exploit labour. It did not work out because they did not want it to work out that way.

Option 4 too misses on highlighting the exploitation of labour point, something that is critical in the passage.

Solution 18:

The question is easy if you read the passage twice. The passage mentions hybrid organizations and says that it is easy for hybrid organizations to attract people, than it is for non-hybrid organizations.

Option 1 goes out because it broadly focuses on 9/11, which is just a minor detail as an example of hybrid organizations attracting more people. Option 2 does not even talk of hybrid organizations, it has to go out.

Option 3 is a misrepresentation. While hybrid organizations do attract people from anti-war movements, these movements are just an example. These hybrid organizations might attract people from any social movement, not necessarily anti-war movements. Option 4 is the best choice.

Solution 19:

This is a slightly difficult question. The passage talks about what modern Europe has done in order to adapt to changing international order. There are two things it has done: establish a common currency, and a formal political structure, adjusting its internal differences by peaceful mechanisms. 1 looks good, but does the passage say that “Europe has consistently done this”? Maybe. But what it misses here is the essence. Europe has changed its structure, but the focus of the passage is on “what it has done of late”. For this reason, 4 wins. By choosing a common currency it has tried to lower economic heterogeneity, and by establishing European Union it has tried to lower political heterogeneity. Thus 4 captures the essence, while 1, 2 and 3 walk on the periphery.

Solution 20:

This question is slightly easier than the earlier one. Let’s see the critical elements of the passage. The most important critical element is “forensic phonetics in movies and television”, and “these have led to errors in real-life justice, with unrealistic expectations of the capabilities of forensic science”. 1 goes out because it misses the context of “movies and television”. 3 is a complete distortion, whereas 4 misses the “unrealistic expectations” part. 2 is the best choice in every way.

Solution 21:

In this question, too, we have to look for the keywords. The passage talks about intelligence and its heritability, and the criticism mounted against it. Option 1 exactly captures all the keywords. 2 misses on the heritability part of the story. 3 wrongly mentions the debate about “ways in which intelligence is inherited”.  The criticism is about heritability itself, not about the ways in which it is inherited. Choice 4 also missies the crucial idea of heritability. Thus 1 is the best choice.

Solution 22:

The passage has three important keywords: sovereign equality, sense of insecurity, and what was done to overcome that insecurity. The passage tells us that people delivered their rights to a sovereign power in return for the sovereign’s provision of security. This was the only way to overcome the fear of insecurity. After all there is a give and take happening, and therefore there is a transaction. Thus 1 is the best choice. 2 misses on the people’s sense of insecurity. 3 goes out because limiting the power of papacy is not the essence of the discussion. Choice 4 misses the idea of give and take, people give their rights to the sovereign in return for his protection. It misses the crucial word “transactional relationship”.

Solution 23:

In the passage the author compares the two factors based on which humans make decisions. The first is intuition and the other is information. The author seems to be comparing the two without any preference. 1 goes out because it inaccurately says that “we choose intuition or information based on the time available”. Nothing of this sort has been given in the passage. Time in not the causative factor here. 2 says “it is better”. Since the author has not given any preference, it would be wrong to say which one is better. Thus 2 also goes out. 3 is the right summary, and captures the essence by stating that the difference is differential speed and ability to provide a rationale. 4 just focuses on intuition, and ignores the other factor entirely.

Solution 24:

There are three important keywords in this paragraph: the challenge posed by rural-urban continuum, the objective methodology with one or two metrics may not be enough to capture the wide diversity, it may require an element of human judgement. 2 captures all the keywords succinctly. 1 misses the element of human judgement, 3 also misses on the same. 4 goes out because it is not about the judgment of objective methodology, but human judgement coming as an additional factor to aid the methodology.

Solution 25:

For summary questions we must learn to pick the broader keywords and connect them together to form the summary. In this paragraph the author uses two broad keywords “genetic theory and metabolic theory. The genetic theory was successful because of the diversity of genetic models, and the same might happen for metabolic theory, which would provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology.” The contrast in choice 2 makes the choice an incorrect one because the author stresses on similarity, not contrasts. Option 1 says “metabolic theory must have the wide range of theoretical models”. The word “must” makes this choice an incorrect one. The author talks about a possibility, not a necessity. Option 4 goes out it because it misses discussing the keyword “metabolic theory” and how it is compared with genetic theory. 3 is the right choice.

Solution 26:

This is a very simple summary question. There are two views pertaining to the evolution of language. One view believes in sharing of factual information as the reason, whereas the other view believes in social bonding as the reason. The former being the dominant view, while the latter being the less dominant. Choice 1 does not being out this distinction. Choice 2 also misses on this comparison. Option 4 incorrectly mentions that the views were challenged by one group. There is no such thing in the passage

Solution 27:

This is one of the most difficult questions of this paper. There are three keywords in this paragraph: aesthetic political representation, disinterestedness and indifference. The author seems to prefer disinterestedness for aesthetic political representation. Option 1 is wrong because it inaccurately states that “aesthetic political representation constitutes of disinterestedness”. But the passage says that aesthetic political representation should be seen from the angle of disinterestedness.  3 is too short a summary and misses on the crucial word “aesthetic”. 2 and 4 are very close choices, with only a slight difference. 2 says “manifested through indifference”, while 4 says “drawing from indifference”. Now what is the difference between the two? When X is manifested through y, it is y that dominates. God is manifested through human beings, means that God is hidden within the human being and the human being dominates the outward appearance. Whereas drawing from something means, aesthetic political representation should have a tinge of disinterestedness. There is little to choose between 2 and 4, but the right choice is 4 because disinterestedness is just an outward shade which must be cultivated, but not necessarily allowed to dominate.