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Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? for CAT 2024 is part of CAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the CAT exam syllabus. Information about Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for CAT 2024 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?.

Solutions for Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? in English & in Hindi are available as part of our courses for CAT. Download more important topics, notes, lectures and mock test series for CAT Exam by signing up for free.

Here you can find the meaning of Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? defined & explained in the simplest way possible. Besides giving the explanation of Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:Humans often appear to react irrationally in the face of disease, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Many cling to religion or become superstitious. Others become fatalistic. In times of plague and trauma, we moderns seek to protect ourselves with prayers, charms, sigils and spells as much as any medieval peasant. That a surgical mask is hygienic doesn’t make it any less of a magical symbol.Despite the often blood-soaked history of the use of the term ‘magic’, we must remember that Western history is filled with thinkers who have defended its honour as good natural science - a tried-and-true technology for harnessing interactions between minds and bodies, human and otherwise. And their empirical claims were never tested more than during the centuries of plague. During the previous millennium, the biggest boom in the practice of magic coincided with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It was the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing as much as half the population of Asia, Africa and Europe - around 200 million souls.The Islamic world...was hit particularly hard by the plague. There, it helped give rise to the ‘occult-scientific revolution’, where various occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, geomancy, dream interpretation - became an important basis for empire more than ever before. The ability to predict the future with divination, then change it with magic, was of obvious political, military and economic interest. Western Europe saw a parallel upsurge of occultism - much of it from Arabic sources - which we now call the Renaissance. The scientific revolution that followed continued the same trend: historians now admit that saints of science such as Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were likewise raving occultists.Medicine, too, was often classified and practised as an occult science among premodern Muslim, Jewish and Christian physicians. Many considered it alchemy’s sister, both sciences being predicated on the harnessing of cosmic correspondences and natural sympathies to restore elemental equilibrium in the human body - the definition of health. Techniques for life-extension were also central to the alchemical quest. The sweeping physical and sociopolitical imbalances wrought by plague were accordingly answered by an upsurge in medicine, occult and otherwise.Why did, and do, most practitioners of spiritual medicine see it as a perfectly rational response?Leaving aside the possible agency of spirits and other nonhuman entities, one factor is certain: the placebo effect.It refers to the clinical effectiveness of inert substitutes in healing disease, as long as the patient believes them to be a real drug.Under conditions of mass trauma, combined with sincere belief and mental focus, the effectiveness of the placebo often goes up sharply, with patients able tochange their physiology at will.As it happens, creating extreme psychophysical conditions is also a prerequisite to the practice of many occult arts: fasting, prayer, isolation, a vegetarian diet, ritual cleanliness and constant vigil, for weeks, months or even years on end.By any premodern definition, then, the placebo effect is simply a form of magic.Whether you believe in the authority of celestial spirits or of doctors in white lab coats, the effect is similar: astonishing reversals (or inducements) of disease can sometimes be achieved through the power of belief alone - especially when ritually, traumatically harnessed.Q. Why does the author mention the surgical mask in the passage?a)To indicate that the scientific notions of hygiene do not reduce the status of an object as a magic symbol.b)To imply that occult items like prayers and charms in the medieval era held the same significance as a surgical mask holds in the modern era.c)To imply that during times of disease, modern humans tend to act in the same irrational manner as they did in pre-modern times.d)To draw a parallel between the occult practices of the premodern era and modern sciencCorrect answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? tests, examples and also practice CAT tests.