Test: CAT Verbal & Reading Comprehension- 7 (October 31) - CAT MCQ

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

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 vapour. 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 sea water.

Directions: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.

1. For decades, physicists have hoped dark matter would prove to be heavy—consisting of so-called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that could be straightforwardly detected in the lab.

2. Even after decades of searching, scientists have never seen a particle of dark matter.

3. With no definitive sign of WIMPs emerging from years of careful searching, however, physicists have been broadening the scope of their quest.

4. Evidence for the substance's existence is close to incontrovertible, but no one yet knows what it is made of.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question.

What do we remember from the vast quantity of events happening to us, involving us, and relevant to our life-story? People's memories for their experiences are not a veridical recording of such experiences, however, and can be influenced by many factors. An important and influential theory focusing on the emergence and content of autobiographical memory is the social cultural developmental theory, which emphasises the role of society and culture in shaping people's memories of their autobiographical past.
In essence, autobiographical memory is about defining the self in time and in relation to others, so that individuals gain a sense of who they are by relating to others within a culture and creating a shared past. Autobiographical memory emerges gradually and is influenced by cognitive developments of an individual and his/her social interactions, thus becoming a social-cultural-cognitive system.
One important dimension of culture is the extent of individualism or collectivism exhibited. Collectivism puts an emphasis on distinguishing between in-groups and out-groups, engaging in cooperative tasks, and focusing on what people have in common. Conversely, individualism is characterised by engagement in competitive tasks, by public situations, and by an emphasis on what makes the individual distinct. In general, in societies in which agreeing on social norms is important and jobs are interdependent, collectivism is preponderant, whereas in complex, stratified societies, where affluence, independence, and differences are emphasised, individualism is preponderant. However, both collectivist and individualistic cultures are concerned with how individuals in a society prioritise and manage their relationships and goals.
The emphasis on one or another starts in the family, even with the very structure of the family: a large, multigenerational one emphasises collectivism, whereas a smaller, nuclear family emphasises individualism.
Socio-cultural influences can be seen both in the formation and content of autobiographical memories. An analysis of conversations about reminiscing about one's experiences in Caucasian mother-child dyads and Korean mother-child dyads revealed that Caucasian dyads talked on average as much as three times more than the Koreans dyads. In addition, Caucasian mothers talked more during their turns and were more likely to portray the child as the protagonist in the talk, and to emphasise the child's and others' feelings and thoughts, whereas Korean mothers focused on norms, social roles, and emphasised behaviourial expectations.
Cultural influences on memory continue into adulthood. In one study, American college students' earliest childhood memories were from around the age of 3.5 years, whereas the Chinese college students' earliest childhood memories were dating from approximately 4.1 years of age. Furthermore, when considering the influence of culture on autobiographical memory, it is important to realise that people can internalise more than one culture, in equal measure, so as to form a bicultural identity.
In autobiographical memories, connections between self and the past are made. But how do people differentiate between events that really happened and events that they only thought about, inferred, or imagined? Memories of experienced events generally have more sensory and perceptual details than memories for events that did not really occur but were products of the imagination. Such qualitative details allow people to differentiate between memories of real and imagined.
Nonetheless, imagining events that never happened can have consequences, as the phenomenon of imagination inflation shows. Imagination inflation refers to an increase in confidence that a fictional event that was imagined actually happened, leading to false memories of the event.

Q. According to the social cultural developmental theory, all of the following factors would impact the autobiographical memory of an individual, EXCEPT:

Directions: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.

1. With these benefits, the Roman Empire flourished and sparked a golden age of technological advancement and architectural development.

2. The Romans were impressive builders and some of the structures built by the Romans that still stand up to this day exhibit this.

3. Large infrastructure was one of the fundamental aspects that allowed the Roman Empire to maintain its expansive territory.

4. Roads allowed the free movement of goods, information and troops and the sewers and freshwater systems enabled the growth of large populations.

Directions: 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: For today's aspirational class, inconspicuous consumption choices secure and preserve social status, even if they do not necessarily display it.

Paragraph: (1) __________. Given that everyone can now buy designer handbags and new cars, the rich have taken to using much more tacit signifiers of their social position. But the dramatic changes in elite spending are driven by a well-to-do, educated elite, or what I call the 'aspirational class'. (2) __________. This new class cements its status through prizing knowledge and building cultural capital, not to mention the spending habits that go with it. It prefers spending on services, education and human-capital investments over purely material goods. These new status behaviours are what I call 'inconspicuous consumption'. (3) __________. Inconspicuous consumption is a far more pernicious form of status spending than the conspicuous consumption of Veblen's time. Inconspicuous consumption – whether breastfeeding or education – is a means to a better quality of life and improved social mobility for one's own children, whereas conspicuous consumption is merely an end in itself – simply ostentation. (4) __________.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question.

Social media can be a powerful force for positive change, especially when it comes to environmental issues. A seemingly perfect example is the drive to stem the tide of single-use plastic, particularly when it comes to food packaging. But it is possible that these sorts of well-intentioned moves, based on simple, social-media-friendly messages, can have unintended consequences.
Fruit and vegetables are still living plants, constantly interacting with the world around them in complex ways, some of which degrade the product.
Understanding these incredibly sophisticated interactions and how to control them has spurred the creation of a branch of study called post-harvest technology. Over the past half century or so, this has led to a suite of ingenious inventions, including wrapping, that have dramatically extended the shelf life of crops. Waste has been slashed and nutritional quality and flavour improved. Take, for example, a study published in 2011 showing that shrink-wrapped cucumbers lost a lot less water in a typical journey from farm to fork than the unwrapped equivalent, extending shelf life by up to 60 per cent. Ditching this wrapping would therefore have a significant impact on food as, much of the time, the crop would go off before being eaten.
The upsides of plastic packaging don't stop with shelf life, but can retain the nutritional value of the crops too.
It can be easy to assume that biodegradable food waste has nowhere near the same environmental impact as plastic waste that can persist for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. However, assessing this isn't that straightforward. While fruit and vegetable waste does break down fast into compounds, many benign, the environmental cost of producing these foods in the first place can be surprisingly high. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one-third of all food is wasted, and so many resources are dedicated to its production that, if food waste were a country, it would come third after China and the US in terms of carbon emissions. Based on such stats, growing this wasted food requires almost 13 per cent of the planet's farmland and, if all waste was averted, it would be enough to feed 2 billion people.
Given the clear benefits of using some plastic packaging on some crops, I wonder whether we should move away from the idea of blanket bans and instead review which types are genuinely of benefit for shelf life, and thus the planet, and which are simply there for marketing or presentation. And what about a third approach of swapping to alternative, more recyclable or perhaps even biodegradable packaging, for those instances where plastic does play a useful role, rather than ditching it altogether – even if such an approach doesn't get quite as many shares on social media.

Q. Which of the following sets of words most accurately describes the flow of the passage?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.

At times, we understand and feel others' pain so acutely it might as well be our own. We wince at another person's injuries and cry when we see people suffering, even strangers. This empathy is a vital social tool: when we recognise and feel someone's distress, we're driven to help. Yet despite its prevalence and importance, empathy is not the only way we might respond to others' pain. There exists a twin process, the dark mirror of empathy, called sadism. This capacity, to instead feel pleasure from other people's pain and suffering, is not as rare as you might think.
People who exhibit everyday sadism experience pleasure from others' physical or psychological pain as they go about daily life. For example, they might enjoy seeing a fight outside the pub, or someone messing up an important presentation at work. But more than that, they also enjoy doing things to elicit suffering.
People who score higher on questionnaire measures of everyday sadism are also more likely to carry out acts of vandalism and sexual aggression, and to cyberbully and troll other people online. Such findings show that people's subjective feelings of everyday sadistic pleasure have real-life consequences, increasing the likelihood that they will choose to behave in ways that bring about suffering.
Like all aspects of personality, everyday sadism is not a binary phenomenon. It's not that you're either an everyday sadist or you're not; rather, it's a trait that exists as a spectrum in the general population. The people who score highly on the trait are more likely to behave in obviously antisocial ways, such as bullying and harming others. Those with more modest sadism scores are likely to express their tendency to enjoy others' suffering in more subtle fashion, for example via an enjoyment of violent films and games (it's worth noting though that the enjoyment of such content can be driven by other factors such as curiosity or suspense, and just because a person has such tastes doesn't mean that they're more likely to hurt a person in real life).
In our ancestral past, hurting others – particularly those who posed a threat – might have led to more food or protection, or served as a warning to enemies and competitors. If witnessing others' pain was linked to an increased chance of survival in this way, it's logical that the experience evolved to become rewarding to some extent. The advantages of a sadistic impulse are still apparent today – in many settings, including prisons and schools, aggression and violence can confer social status.
Whatever its advantages, sadism causes untold suffering. It's associated with bullying, for example, which can have a serious negative impact on victims' mental health for years after the bullying has ended. By recognising and better understanding sadism, we can counteract its harmful consequences. But first we must shake the notion that it exists in only a tiny proportion of people. The capacity to experience pleasure at others' distress exists, to some degree, in many of us.

Q. Which of the following statements is the author of the passage most likely to agree with?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question.

Social media can be a powerful force for positive change, especially when it comes to environmental issues. A seemingly perfect example is the drive to stem the tide of single-use plastic, particularly when it comes to food packaging. But it is possible that these sorts of well-intentioned moves, based on simple, social-media-friendly messages, can have unintended consequences.
Fruit and vegetables are still living plants, constantly interacting with the world around them in complex ways, some of which degrade the product.
Understanding these incredibly sophisticated interactions and how to control them has spurred the creation of a branch of study called post-harvest technology. Over the past half century or so, this has led to a suite of ingenious inventions, including wrapping, that have dramatically extended the shelf life of crops. Waste has been slashed and nutritional quality and flavour improved. Take, for example, a study published in 2011 showing that shrink-wrapped cucumbers lost a lot less water in a typical journey from farm to fork than the unwrapped equivalent, extending shelf life by up to 60 per cent. Ditching this wrapping would therefore have a significant impact on food as, much of the time, the crop would go off before being eaten.
The upsides of plastic packaging don't stop with shelf life, but can retain the nutritional value of the crops too.
It can be easy to assume that biodegradable food waste has nowhere near the same environmental impact as plastic waste that can persist for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. However, assessing this isn't that straightforward. While fruit and vegetable waste does break down fast into compounds, many benign, the environmental cost of producing these foods in the first place can be surprisingly high. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one-third of all food is wasted, and so many resources are dedicated to its production that, if food waste were a country, it would come third after China and the US in terms of carbon emissions. Based on such stats, growing this wasted food requires almost 13 per cent of the planet's farmland and, if all waste was averted, it would be enough to feed 2 billion people.
Given the clear benefits of using some plastic packaging on some crops, I wonder whether we should move away from the idea of blanket bans and instead review which types are genuinely of benefit for shelf life, and thus the planet, and which are simply there for marketing or presentation. And what about a third approach of swapping to alternative, more recyclable or perhaps even biodegradable packaging, for those instances where plastic does play a useful role, rather than ditching it altogether – even if such an approach doesn't get quite as many shares on social media.

Q. Which of the following statements will the author of the passage most likely agree with?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

Few entrepreneurs start out with both a well-defined strategy and a plan for developing an organisation that can achieve that strategy. In fact, many start-ups, which don't have formal control systems, decision-making processes, or clear roles for employees, can hardly be called organisations. The founders of such ventures improvise. They perform most of the important functions themselves and make decisions as they go along.
Informality is fine as long as entrepreneurs aren't interested in building a large, sustainable business. Once that becomes their goal, however, they must start developing formal systems and processes. Such organisational infrastructure allows a venture to grow, but at the same time, it increases overhead and may slow down decision-making. How much infrastructure is enough and how much is too much? To match investments in infrastructure to the requirements of a venture's strategy, entrepreneurs must consider the degree to which their strategy depends on the following:
As a young venture grows, its founders will probably need to delegate many of the tasks that they used to perform. To get employees to perform those tasks competently and diligently, the founders may need to establish mechanisms to monitor employees and standard operating procedures and policies. Consider an extreme example. Randy and Debbi Fields pass along their skills and knowledge through software that tells employees in every Mrs. Fields Cookies shop exactly how to make cookies and operate the business. The software analyses data such as local weather conditions and the day of the week to generate hourly instructions about such matters as which cookies to bake, when to offer free samples, and when to reorder chocolate chips.
Telling employees how to do their jobs, however, can stifle initiative. Companies that require frontline employees to act quickly and resourcefully might decide to focus more on outcomes than on behaviour, using control systems that set performance targets for employees, compare results against objectives and provide appropriate incentives.
In a small-scale start-up, everyone does a little bit of everything but as a business grows and tries to achieve economies of scale and scope, employees must be assigned clearly defined roles and grouped into appropriate organisational units. An all purpose workshop employee, for example, might become a machine tool operator, who is part of a manufacturing unit. Specialised activities need to be integrated by, for example, creating the position of a general manager, who coordinates the manufacturing and marketing functions, or through systems that are designed to measure and reward employees for cross-functional cooperation. Poor integrative mechanisms are reasons why geographic expansion, vertical integration, broadening of product lines and other strategies to achieve economies of scale and scope often fail.
Cash-strapped businesses that are trying to grow need good systems to forecast and monitor the availability of funds. Outside sources of capital such as banks often refuse to advance funds to companies with weak controls and organisational infrastructure.
If entrepreneurs hope to build a company that they can sell, they must start preparing early. Public markets and potential acquirers like to see an extended history of well-kept financial records and controls to reassure them of the soundness of the business.

Q. Which of the following statements is the author of the passage most likely to agree with?

Directions: 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: Knowing why you procrastinate and learning how to combat it are the only ways to change your behaviour.

Paragraph: (1) _________. Procrastination can have practical consequences, such as falling behind at work or failing to achieve personal goals or to cross off errands from a to-do list. But there are also emotional or mental impacts. If you're stuck in what seems like an endless cycle of procrastination, guilt and chaos, you might be wondering, Why am I so lazy? (2) _________. Despite that common perception, laziness usually isn't the reason behind procrastination. Laziness is like, 'I have absolutely no desire to even think about this.' Procrastination is, 'It troubles me to think about this. And therefore, it's hard for me to get the job done.' That's a big difference. (3) _________. You could be the perfectionist, the dreamer, the worrier or the defier — these are all procrastination styles. (4) _________. These procrastination types aren't specific diagnoses and aren't backed by research, but they are psychological types or reasons why someone might procrastinate.

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

Few entrepreneurs start out with both a well-defined strategy and a plan for developing an organisation that can achieve that strategy. In fact, many start-ups, which don't have formal control systems, decision-making processes, or clear roles for employees, can hardly be called organisations. The founders of such ventures improvise. They perform most of the important functions themselves and make decisions as they go along.
Informality is fine as long as entrepreneurs aren't interested in building a large, sustainable business. Once that becomes their goal, however, they must start developing formal systems and processes. Such organisational infrastructure allows a venture to grow, but at the same time, it increases overhead and may slow down decision-making. How much infrastructure is enough and how much is too much? To match investments in infrastructure to the requirements of a venture's strategy, entrepreneurs must consider the degree to which their strategy depends on the following:
As a young venture grows, its founders will probably need to delegate many of the tasks that they used to perform. To get employees to perform those tasks competently and diligently, the founders may need to establish mechanisms to monitor employees and standard operating procedures and policies. Consider an extreme example. Randy and Debbi Fields pass along their skills and knowledge through software that tells employees in every Mrs. Fields Cookies shop exactly how to make cookies and operate the business. The software analyses data such as local weather conditions and the day of the week to generate hourly instructions about such matters as which cookies to bake, when to offer free samples, and when to reorder chocolate chips.
Telling employees how to do their jobs, however, can stifle initiative. Companies that require frontline employees to act quickly and resourcefully might decide to focus more on outcomes than on behaviour, using control systems that set performance targets for employees, compare results against objectives and provide appropriate incentives.
In a small-scale start-up, everyone does a little bit of everything but as a business grows and tries to achieve economies of scale and scope, employees must be assigned clearly defined roles and grouped into appropriate organisational units. An all purpose workshop employee, for example, might become a machine tool operator, who is part of a manufacturing unit. Specialised activities need to be integrated by, for example, creating the position of a general manager, who coordinates the manufacturing and marketing functions, or through systems that are designed to measure and reward employees for cross-functional cooperation. Poor integrative mechanisms are reasons why geographic expansion, vertical integration, broadening of product lines and other strategies to achieve economies of scale and scope often fail.
Cash-strapped businesses that are trying to grow need good systems to forecast and monitor the availability of funds. Outside sources of capital such as banks often refuse to advance funds to companies with weak controls and organisational infrastructure.
If entrepreneurs hope to build a company that they can sell, they must start preparing early. Public markets and potential acquirers like to see an extended history of well-kept financial records and controls to reassure them of the soundness of the business.

Q. The author of the passage will most likely agree with each of the following statements, EXCEPT:

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

Few entrepreneurs start out with both a well-defined strategy and a plan for developing an organisation that can achieve that strategy. In fact, many start-ups, which don't have formal control systems, decision-making processes, or clear roles for employees, can hardly be called organisations. The founders of such ventures improvise. They perform most of the important functions themselves and make decisions as they go along.
Informality is fine as long as entrepreneurs aren't interested in building a large, sustainable business. Once that becomes their goal, however, they must start developing formal systems and processes. Such organisational infrastructure allows a venture to grow, but at the same time, it increases overhead and may slow down decision-making. How much infrastructure is enough and how much is too much? To match investments in infrastructure to the requirements of a venture's strategy, entrepreneurs must consider the degree to which their strategy depends on the following:
As a young venture grows, its founders will probably need to delegate many of the tasks that they used to perform. To get employees to perform those tasks competently and diligently, the founders may need to establish mechanisms to monitor employees and standard operating procedures and policies. Consider an extreme example. Randy and Debbi Fields pass along their skills and knowledge through software that tells employees in every Mrs. Fields Cookies shop exactly how to make cookies and operate the business. The software analyses data such as local weather conditions and the day of the week to generate hourly instructions about such matters as which cookies to bake, when to offer free samples, and when to reorder chocolate chips.
Telling employees how to do their jobs, however, can stifle initiative. Companies that require frontline employees to act quickly and resourcefully might decide to focus more on outcomes than on behaviour, using control systems that set performance targets for employees, compare results against objectives and provide appropriate incentives.
In a small-scale start-up, everyone does a little bit of everything but as a business grows and tries to achieve economies of scale and scope, employees must be assigned clearly defined roles and grouped into appropriate organisational units. An all purpose workshop employee, for example, might become a machine tool operator, who is part of a manufacturing unit. Specialised activities need to be integrated by, for example, creating the position of a general manager, who coordinates the manufacturing and marketing functions, or through systems that are designed to measure and reward employees for cross-functional cooperation. Poor integrative mechanisms are reasons why geographic expansion, vertical integration, broadening of product lines and other strategies to achieve economies of scale and scope often fail.
Cash-strapped businesses that are trying to grow need good systems to forecast and monitor the availability of funds. Outside sources of capital such as banks often refuse to advance funds to companies with weak controls and organisational infrastructure.
If entrepreneurs hope to build a company that they can sell, they must start preparing early. Public markets and potential acquirers like to see an extended history of well-kept financial records and controls to reassure them of the soundness of the business.

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

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question.

What do we remember from the vast quantity of events happening to us, involving us, and relevant to our life-story? People's memories for their experiences are not a veridical recording of such experiences, however, and can be influenced by many factors. An important and influential theory focusing on the emergence and content of autobiographical memory is the social cultural developmental theory, which emphasises the role of society and culture in shaping people's memories of their autobiographical past.
In essence, autobiographical memory is about defining the self in time and in relation to others, so that individuals gain a sense of who they are by relating to others within a culture and creating a shared past. Autobiographical memory emerges gradually and is influenced by cognitive developments of an individual and his/her social interactions, thus becoming a social-cultural-cognitive system.
One important dimension of culture is the extent of individualism or collectivism exhibited. Collectivism puts an emphasis on distinguishing between in-groups and out-groups, engaging in cooperative tasks, and focusing on what people have in common. Conversely, individualism is characterised by engagement in competitive tasks, by public situations, and by an emphasis on what makes the individual distinct. In general, in societies in which agreeing on social norms is important and jobs are interdependent, collectivism is preponderant, whereas in complex, stratified societies, where affluence, independence, and differences are emphasised, individualism is preponderant. However, both collectivist and individualistic cultures are concerned with how individuals in a society prioritise and manage their relationships and goals.
The emphasis on one or another starts in the family, even with the very structure of the family: a large, multigenerational one emphasises collectivism, whereas a smaller, nuclear family emphasises individualism.
Socio-cultural influences can be seen both in the formation and content of autobiographical memories. An analysis of conversations about reminiscing about one's experiences in Caucasian mother-child dyads and Korean mother-child dyads revealed that Caucasian dyads talked on average as much as three times more than the Koreans dyads. In addition, Caucasian mothers talked more during their turns and were more likely to portray the child as the protagonist in the talk, and to emphasise the child's and others' feelings and thoughts, whereas Korean mothers focused on norms, social roles, and emphasised behaviourial expectations.
Cultural influences on memory continue into adulthood. In one study, American college students' earliest childhood memories were from around the age of 3.5 years, whereas the Chinese college students' earliest childhood memories were dating from approximately 4.1 years of age. Furthermore, when considering the influence of culture on autobiographical memory, it is important to realise that people can internalise more than one culture, in equal measure, so as to form a bicultural identity.
In autobiographical memories, connections between self and the past are made. But how do people differentiate between events that really happened and events that they only thought about, inferred, or imagined? Memories of experienced events generally have more sensory and perceptual details than memories for events that did not really occur but were products of the imagination. Such qualitative details allow people to differentiate between memories of real and imagined.
Nonetheless, imagining events that never happened can have consequences, as the phenomenon of imagination inflation shows. Imagination inflation refers to an increase in confidence that a fictional event that was imagined actually happened, leading to false memories of the event.

Q. 'Memories of experienced events generally have more sensory and perceptual details than memories for events that did not really occur but were products of the imagination.' In light of this quoted extract, which of the following statements is true?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question.

What do we remember from the vast quantity of events happening to us, involving us, and relevant to our life-story? People's memories for their experiences are not a veridical recording of such experiences, however, and can be influenced by many factors. An important and influential theory focusing on the emergence and content of autobiographical memory is the social cultural developmental theory, which emphasises the role of society and culture in shaping people's memories of their autobiographical past.
In essence, autobiographical memory is about defining the self in time and in relation to others, so that individuals gain a sense of who they are by relating to others within a culture and creating a shared past. Autobiographical memory emerges gradually and is influenced by cognitive developments of an individual and his/her social interactions, thus becoming a social-cultural-cognitive system.
One important dimension of culture is the extent of individualism or collectivism exhibited. Collectivism puts an emphasis on distinguishing between in-groups and out-groups, engaging in cooperative tasks, and focusing on what people have in common. Conversely, individualism is characterised by engagement in competitive tasks, by public situations, and by an emphasis on what makes the individual distinct. In general, in societies in which agreeing on social norms is important and jobs are interdependent, collectivism is preponderant, whereas in complex, stratified societies, where affluence, independence, and differences are emphasised, individualism is preponderant. However, both collectivist and individualistic cultures are concerned with how individuals in a society prioritise and manage their relationships and goals.
The emphasis on one or another starts in the family, even with the very structure of the family: a large, multigenerational one emphasises collectivism, whereas a smaller, nuclear family emphasises individualism.
Socio-cultural influences can be seen both in the formation and content of autobiographical memories. An analysis of conversations about reminiscing about one's experiences in Caucasian mother-child dyads and Korean mother-child dyads revealed that Caucasian dyads talked on average as much as three times more than the Koreans dyads. In addition, Caucasian mothers talked more during their turns and were more likely to portray the child as the protagonist in the talk, and to emphasise the child's and others' feelings and thoughts, whereas Korean mothers focused on norms, social roles, and emphasised behaviourial expectations.
Cultural influences on memory continue into adulthood. In one study, American college students' earliest childhood memories were from around the age of 3.5 years, whereas the Chinese college students' earliest childhood memories were dating from approximately 4.1 years of age. Furthermore, when considering the influence of culture on autobiographical memory, it is important to realise that people can internalise more than one culture, in equal measure, so as to form a bicultural identity.
In autobiographical memories, connections between self and the past are made. But how do people differentiate between events that really happened and events that they only thought about, inferred, or imagined? Memories of experienced events generally have more sensory and perceptual details than memories for events that did not really occur but were products of the imagination. Such qualitative details allow people to differentiate between memories of real and imagined.
Nonetheless, imagining events that never happened can have consequences, as the phenomenon of imagination inflation shows. Imagination inflation refers to an increase in confidence that a fictional event that was imagined actually happened, leading to false memories of the event.

Q. By using the example of American and Chinese College students, the writer demonstrates that:

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.

At times, we understand and feel others' pain so acutely it might as well be our own. We wince at another person's injuries and cry when we see people suffering, even strangers. This empathy is a vital social tool: when we recognise and feel someone's distress, we're driven to help. Yet despite its prevalence and importance, empathy is not the only way we might respond to others' pain. There exists a twin process, the dark mirror of empathy, called sadism. This capacity, to instead feel pleasure from other people's pain and suffering, is not as rare as you might think.
People who exhibit everyday sadism experience pleasure from others' physical or psychological pain as they go about daily life. For example, they might enjoy seeing a fight outside the pub, or someone messing up an important presentation at work. But more than that, they also enjoy doing things to elicit suffering.
People who score higher on questionnaire measures of everyday sadism are also more likely to carry out acts of vandalism and sexual aggression, and to cyberbully and troll other people online. Such findings show that people's subjective feelings of everyday sadistic pleasure have real-life consequences, increasing the likelihood that they will choose to behave in ways that bring about suffering.
Like all aspects of personality, everyday sadism is not a binary phenomenon. It's not that you're either an everyday sadist or you're not; rather, it's a trait that exists as a spectrum in the general population. The people who score highly on the trait are more likely to behave in obviously antisocial ways, such as bullying and harming others. Those with more modest sadism scores are likely to express their tendency to enjoy others' suffering in more subtle fashion, for example via an enjoyment of violent films and games (it's worth noting though that the enjoyment of such content can be driven by other factors such as curiosity or suspense, and just because a person has such tastes doesn't mean that they're more likely to hurt a person in real life).
In our ancestral past, hurting others – particularly those who posed a threat – might have led to more food or protection, or served as a warning to enemies and competitors. If witnessing others' pain was linked to an increased chance of survival in this way, it's logical that the experience evolved to become rewarding to some extent. The advantages of a sadistic impulse are still apparent today – in many settings, including prisons and schools, aggression and violence can confer social status.
Whatever its advantages, sadism causes untold suffering. It's associated with bullying, for example, which can have a serious negative impact on victims' mental health for years after the bullying has ended. By recognising and better understanding sadism, we can counteract its harmful consequences. But first we must shake the notion that it exists in only a tiny proportion of people. The capacity to experience pleasure at others' distress exists, to some degree, in many of us.

Q. Which of the following most corresponds to the author's view that everyday sadism is not a binary phenomenon?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.

At times, we understand and feel others' pain so acutely it might as well be our own. We wince at another person's injuries and cry when we see people suffering, even strangers. This empathy is a vital social tool: when we recognise and feel someone's distress, we're driven to help. Yet despite its prevalence and importance, empathy is not the only way we might respond to others' pain. There exists a twin process, the dark mirror of empathy, called sadism. This capacity, to instead feel pleasure from other people's pain and suffering, is not as rare as you might think.
People who exhibit everyday sadism experience pleasure from others' physical or psychological pain as they go about daily life. For example, they might enjoy seeing a fight outside the pub, or someone messing up an important presentation at work. But more than that, they also enjoy doing things to elicit suffering.
People who score higher on questionnaire measures of everyday sadism are also more likely to carry out acts of vandalism and sexual aggression, and to cyberbully and troll other people online. Such findings show that people's subjective feelings of everyday sadistic pleasure have real-life consequences, increasing the likelihood that they will choose to behave in ways that bring about suffering.
Like all aspects of personality, everyday sadism is not a binary phenomenon. It's not that you're either an everyday sadist or you're not; rather, it's a trait that exists as a spectrum in the general population. The people who score highly on the trait are more likely to behave in obviously antisocial ways, such as bullying and harming others. Those with more modest sadism scores are likely to express their tendency to enjoy others' suffering in more subtle fashion, for example via an enjoyment of violent films and games (it's worth noting though that the enjoyment of such content can be driven by other factors such as curiosity or suspense, and just because a person has such tastes doesn't mean that they're more likely to hurt a person in real life).
In our ancestral past, hurting others – particularly those who posed a threat – might have led to more food or protection, or served as a warning to enemies and competitors. If witnessing others' pain was linked to an increased chance of survival in this way, it's logical that the experience evolved to become rewarding to some extent. The advantages of a sadistic impulse are still apparent today – in many settings, including prisons and schools, aggression and violence can confer social status.
Whatever its advantages, sadism causes untold suffering. It's associated with bullying, for example, which can have a serious negative impact on victims' mental health for years after the bullying has ended. By recognising and better understanding sadism, we can counteract its harmful consequences. But first we must shake the notion that it exists in only a tiny proportion of people. The capacity to experience pleasure at others' distress exists, to some degree, in many of us.

Q. The author discusses all of the following in the passage, EXCEPT:

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.

At times, we understand and feel others' pain so acutely it might as well be our own. We wince at another person's injuries and cry when we see people suffering, even strangers. This empathy is a vital social tool: when we recognise and feel someone's distress, we're driven to help. Yet despite its prevalence and importance, empathy is not the only way we might respond to others' pain. There exists a twin process, the dark mirror of empathy, called sadism. This capacity, to instead feel pleasure from other people's pain and suffering, is not as rare as you might think.
People who exhibit everyday sadism experience pleasure from others' physical or psychological pain as they go about daily life. For example, they might enjoy seeing a fight outside the pub, or someone messing up an important presentation at work. But more than that, they also enjoy doing things to elicit suffering.
People who score higher on questionnaire measures of everyday sadism are also more likely to carry out acts of vandalism and sexual aggression, and to cyberbully and troll other people online. Such findings show that people's subjective feelings of everyday sadistic pleasure have real-life consequences, increasing the likelihood that they will choose to behave in ways that bring about suffering.
Like all aspects of personality, everyday sadism is not a binary phenomenon. It's not that you're either an everyday sadist or you're not; rather, it's a trait that exists as a spectrum in the general population. The people who score highly on the trait are more likely to behave in obviously antisocial ways, such as bullying and harming others. Those with more modest sadism scores are likely to express their tendency to enjoy others' suffering in more subtle fashion, for example via an enjoyment of violent films and games (it's worth noting though that the enjoyment of such content can be driven by other factors such as curiosity or suspense, and just because a person has such tastes doesn't mean that they're more likely to hurt a person in real life).
In our ancestral past, hurting others – particularly those who posed a threat – might have led to more food or protection, or served as a warning to enemies and competitors. If witnessing others' pain was linked to an increased chance of survival in this way, it's logical that the experience evolved to become rewarding to some extent. The advantages of a sadistic impulse are still apparent today – in many settings, including prisons and schools, aggression and violence can confer social status.
Whatever its advantages, sadism causes untold suffering. It's associated with bullying, for example, which can have a serious negative impact on victims' mental health for years after the bullying has ended. By recognising and better understanding sadism, we can counteract its harmful consequences. But first we must shake the notion that it exists in only a tiny proportion of people. The capacity to experience pleasure at others' distress exists, to some degree, in many of us.

Q. The author of the passage would consider each of the following as an example of everyday sadism EXCEPT:

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given question.

What do we remember from the vast quantity of events happening to us, involving us, and relevant to our life-story? People's memories for their experiences are not a veridical recording of such experiences, however, and can be influenced by many factors. An important and influential theory focusing on the emergence and content of autobiographical memory is the social cultural developmental theory, which emphasises the role of society and culture in shaping people's memories of their autobiographical past.
In essence, autobiographical memory is about defining the self in time and in relation to others, so that individuals gain a sense of who they are by relating to others within a culture and creating a shared past. Autobiographical memory emerges gradually and is influenced by cognitive developments of an individual and his/her social interactions, thus becoming a social-cultural-cognitive system.
One important dimension of culture is the extent of individualism or collectivism exhibited. Collectivism puts an emphasis on distinguishing between in-groups and out-groups, engaging in cooperative tasks, and focusing on what people have in common. Conversely, individualism is characterised by engagement in competitive tasks, by public situations, and by an emphasis on what makes the individual distinct. In general, in societies in which agreeing on social norms is important and jobs are interdependent, collectivism is preponderant, whereas in complex, stratified societies, where affluence, independence, and differences are emphasised, individualism is preponderant. However, both collectivist and individualistic cultures are concerned with how individuals in a society prioritise and manage their relationships and goals.
The emphasis on one or another starts in the family, even with the very structure of the family: a large, multigenerational one emphasises collectivism, whereas a smaller, nuclear family emphasises individualism.
Socio-cultural influences can be seen both in the formation and content of autobiographical memories. An analysis of conversations about reminiscing about one's experiences in Caucasian mother-child dyads and Korean mother-child dyads revealed that Caucasian dyads talked on average as much as three times more than the Koreans dyads. In addition, Caucasian mothers talked more during their turns and were more likely to portray the child as the protagonist in the talk, and to emphasise the child's and others' feelings and thoughts, whereas Korean mothers focused on norms, social roles, and emphasised behaviourial expectations.
Cultural influences on memory continue into adulthood. In one study, American college students' earliest childhood memories were from around the age of 3.5 years, whereas the Chinese college students' earliest childhood memories were dating from approximately 4.1 years of age. Furthermore, when considering the influence of culture on autobiographical memory, it is important to realise that people can internalise more than one culture, in equal measure, so as to form a bicultural identity.
In autobiographical memories, connections between self and the past are made. But how do people differentiate between events that really happened and events that they only thought about, inferred, or imagined? Memories of experienced events generally have more sensory and perceptual details than memories for events that did not really occur but were products of the imagination. Such qualitative details allow people to differentiate between memories of real and imagined.
Nonetheless, imagining events that never happened can have consequences, as the phenomenon of imagination inflation shows. Imagination inflation refers to an increase in confidence that a fictional event that was imagined actually happened, leading to false memories of the event.

Q. Which of the following is an aspect that collectivism and individualism do not influence?

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

Punishment in society is typically seen as a method to correct the fracture of societal harmony. This fracture occurs when there is a threat to the shared values, morals, norms and the identity of the group and/or society. The state has regulated society's shared norms and values, and those who commit these infractions are subjected to degrees of punishment: whether it be fines, community service, prison time, and sometimes death at the hands of the state. Other than punishment being a method of correcting threats to societal harmony, punishment can reveal the relationship between how actors, institutions, administrative tactics, and social mechanisms create society, more specifically, how it establishes and perpetuates inequality amongst the people.

Directions: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.

1. The study suggests that the disease did not spread with such intensity, but that it may have driven human migrations across Europe and Asia.

2. The oldest sample came from an individual who lived in southeast Russia about 5,000 years ago.

3. In the analysis of fragments of DNA from 101 Bronze Age skeletons for sequences from Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the disease, seven tested positive.

4. DNA from Bronze Age human skeletons indicate that the black plague could have emerged as early as 3,000 BCE, long before the epidemic that swept through Europe in the mid-1300s.

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

In its most basic form, longtermism claims that the best option is that which is best for the far future. The thesis is typically justified by four premises - two empirical and two evaluative. The first premise states that there are, in expectation, an extremely large number of future people. The second premise states that we ought to adopt a zero rate of pure time preference (or impatience) such that we do not discount the well-being of these future people. The third premise claims that there are ways we can alter our established practices that will predictably influence the well-being of these future people. The final premise states that the best option is that which maximises well-being. Thus if we can expect a vast number of future generations, and if the well-being of a future person is weighted equally to that of a present-day person, then the value of an option that is best for the far future is likely to swamp the value of an option that is best for the short-term.