Question Description
Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer? for CAT 2025 is part of CAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the CAT exam syllabus. Information about Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for CAT 2025 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer?.

Solutions for Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. 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 Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer? defined & explained in the simplest way possible. Besides giving the explanation of Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Direction: The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world, and are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies. People read Benjamin not only (or even mainly) to learn about the particular topics he took on -- Belle Époque fashions, Art Nouveau interiors, iron construction -- but also to absorb his methods of urban analysis and extravagantly cultivated sensibility.What became ''The Arcades Project'' started out as a newspaper article. Benjamin worked on the project, with periodic interruptions, from 1927 until his death 13 years later. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, ''The Arcades Project'' was left incomplete on Walter Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood.The arcade itself is a building type that proliferated in early 19th-century Paris. Typically sheltered beneath an iron and glass roof, the arcade was a block long pedestrian passage nestled between two masonry structures. It was lined on either side with small shops, tearooms, amusements and other commercial attractions. At one time, more than 300 arcades punctuated the Paris cityscape. Only about 30 now remain.For Benjamin, the Parisian arcade was the most important building type of the 19th century, and represented a pivotal moment in modern history. With it, society began its transition from a culture of production to one of consumption. Beneath the arcade's greenhouse roof, the technical apparatus of the industrial society was used to furnish people's minds with images of desire.The arcades had grown shabby long before Benjamin came to Paris, reduced to haunted ballrooms populated by the ghosts of yesterday's fashions. Places dedicated to the pursuit of novelty, the arcades were doomed by the desire they inspired. But under Benjamin's eye, the faded arcade became something new again: an intellectual reflection.His analytic approach could be summarized as a fusion of Marxist and Freudian schools of thought. Benjamin did not read Marx until late in life, however, and he rejected the scientific claims of orthodox psychoanalysis. Perhaps because he wished to avoid the objective detachment these two ideologies claimed to represent, Benjamin chose to absorb his ideas from indirect sources. But the most important direct influence on ''The Arcades Project'' came from Surrealism. From Surrealists, Benjamin acquired the belief that social revolution and psychological analysis went hand in hand.The arcade itself was a visual device: a spatial frame around the shop windows that inspired passers-by with the desire to purchase la vie en rose. Behind the windows, novelties continuously appeared. Benjamin used the word ''phantasmagoria'' to describe the dream state in which the social contract is rewritten.Years after his death, the phantasmagoria has become even more gripping. Industrial production has been shipped overseas. The manipulation industries -- advertising, fashion, mass media, spin -- have extended their influence to global dimensions. The 19th-century dream has been carried over to the 21st. All of Paris is an arcade, and many American cities have remade themselves as shopping malls in order to survive. Cities are fun! Cities R Us! And the streets are safer than ever!Why wake up? And how effective a wake-up call can a choppy, overweight, 60-year-old book possibly be?Q. The word ‘phantasmagoria' is closest in meaning to which of the following?a)A collective reverieb)A societal conventionc)An intellectual pursuitd)An artist’s imaginationCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer? tests, examples and also practice CAT tests.