VA/LR For XAT 2020 | Verbal Ability (VA) & Reading Comprehension (RC) - CAT PDF Download

Carefully read the paragraph below:
A map is a useful metaphor for our brain when talking about _______ because at its most basic level our brain __________to be our atlas of sorts, a system of routes _______to navigate us toward just one destination: staying alive!

Carefully read the paragraph below:
__________, medicine has been operated by trial and error, in other words, __________. We know by now that there can be entirely_________ connections between symptoms and treatment, and some medications succeed in medical trials for mere random reasons.

Read the following sentences and answer the question that follows:
1. I have good knowledge of German.
2. Except for Rajiv, everybody was there.
3. Whole Delhi was celebrating Independence Day.
4. Neither the dog, nor is the cat responsible for this mess.
5. He knows to swim.
6. I look forward to seeing you.

Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:
Once, during a concert of cathedral organ music, as I sat getting gooseflesh amid that tsunami of sound, I was struck with a thought: for a medieval peasant, this must have been the loudest human-made sound they ever experienced, awe-inspiring in now-unimaginable ways. No wonder they signed up for the religion being proffered. And now we are constantly pummeled with sounds that dwarf quaint organs. Once, hunter-gatherers might chance upon honey from a beehive and thus briefly satisfy a hardwired food craving. And now we have hundreds of carefully designed commercial foods that supply a burst of sensation unmatched by some lowly natural food. Once, we had lives that, amid considerable privation, also offered numerous subtle, hard-won pleasures. And now we have drugs that cause spasms of pleasure and dopamine release a thousandfold higher than anything stimulated in our old drug-free world.

An emptiness comes from this combination of over-the-top nonnatural sources of reward and the inevitability of habituation; this is because unnaturally strong explosions of synthetic experience and sensation and pleasure evoke unnaturally strong degrees of habituation. This has two consequences. First, soon we barely notice the fleeting whispers of pleasure caused by leaves in autumn, or by the lingering glance of the right person, or by the promise of reward following a difficult, worthy task. And the other consequence is that we eventually habituate to even those artificial deluges of intensity. If we were designed by engineers, as we consumed more, we’d desire less. But our frequent human tragedy is that the more we consume, the hungrier we get. More and faster and stronger. What was an unexpected pleasure yesterday is what we feel entitled to today, and what won’t be enough tomorrow.

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
“People who work in law, hotel and food services, and technology were found the most likely to skip breakfast daily, according to a recent study. As for people who do eat breakfast and prefer a savoury type (like an egg), the study found they tend to make more money, be night owls and prefer cats over dogs. If you prefer a sweet breakfast like a donut you tend to be a morning person, like romcoms and are a dog person”.

Read the poem below and answer the 2 associated questions:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But, if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
In a 2017 survey of 3,915 American workers, my colleagues and I found that workers report experiencing a sizable “voice gap” at work — that is, a gap between how much say or influence they feel they ought to have and how much they actually have — on topics such as wages, working conditions, fair treatment, and input into how they do their work.
And now a second study, I have just completed with a new team, finds that today’s workers want forms of voice and representation that go well beyond traditional unions.

Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:
There is nothing spectacularly new in the situation. Most old-societies-turned-young-nation-states learn to live in a world dominated by the psychology and culture of exile. For some, the twentieth century has been a century of refugees. Others like Hannah Arendt have identified refugees as virtually a new species of human being who have come to symbolize the distinctive violence of our time. Refugees as contemporary symbols, however, proclaim something more than a pathology of a global nation-state system. They also represent a state of mind, a form of psychological displacement that has become endemic to modernizing societies. One does not even have to cross national frontiers to become a refugee; one can choose to be seduced by the ‘pull’ of self-induced displacement rather than be ‘pushed’ by an oppressive or violent system at home. It is this changed status of territoriality in human life that explains why, in immigrant societies like the United States, the metaphor of exile is now jaded. Some have already begun to argue that human beings need not have a ‘home’ as it has been traditionally understood in large parts of the world, that the idea itself is a red herring. While the idea of exile begins to appear trite in intellectual circles, an increasingly large proportion of the world is getting reconciled to living with the labile sense of self. Exile no longer seems a pathology or an affliction. Displacement and the psychology of exile are in; cultural continuities and settled communities are out; there is a touch of ennui about them.

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
In Australia, jellyfish are most common between November and May. In Hawaii, jellyfish often show up on south-facing beaches eight days after a full moon. In the Mediterranean, blooms usually appear in the summer. Unfortunately for travellers, there is no worldwide database for recent jellyfish sightings, and tourism officials are sometimes reluctant to publicize jellyfish swarms out of fear that such news will scare off visitors.

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
Global surface temperatures in 2019 are on track to be either the second or third warmest since records began in the mid-1800s, behind only 2016 and possibly 2017. On top of the long-term warming trend, temperatures in 2019 have been buoyed by a moderate El Niño event that is likely to persist through the rest of the year.

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
If we can send a human to the Moon, why can’t we build sustainable cities? Defeat cancer? Tackle climate change? So, go the rallying cries inspired by one of humanity’s greatest achievements, the US effort that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on 20 July 1969.

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
When asked what the politician will do for the nation’s economy, he attacked the opponent by saying, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious? Nevertheless, we’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS.”

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
The nature of knowledge cannot survive unchanged within this context of general transformation. It can fit into the new channels, and become operational, only if learning is translated into quantities of information. We can predict that anything in the constituted body of knowledge that is not translatable in this way will be abandoned and that the direction of new research will be dictated by the possibility of its eventual results being translatable into computer language. The “producers” and users of knowledge must know, and will have to, possess the means of translating into these languages whatever they want to invent or learn. Research on translating machines is already well advanced. Along with the hegemony of computers comes a certain logic, and therefore a certain set of prescriptions determining which statements are accepted as “knowledge” statements.
We may thus expect a thorough exteriorisation of knowledge with respect to the “knower,” at whatever point he or she may occupy in the knowledge process. The old principle that the acquisition of knowledge is indissociable from the training (Bildung) of minds, or even of individuals, is becoming obsolete and will become ever more so. The relationships of the suppliers and users of knowledge to the knowledge they supply and use is now tending, and will increasingly tend, to assume the form already taken by the relationship of commodity producers and consumers to the commodities they produce and consume - that is, the form of value. Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange.
Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself, it loses its “use-value.”

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen. Sure, in the old inefficient socialist states like the Soviet Union, where employment was considered both a right and a sacred duty, the system made up as many jobs as it had to. (This is why in Soviet department stores it took three clerks to sell a piece of meat.) But, of course, this is the very sort of problem market competition is supposed to fix. According to economic theory, at least, the last thing a profit-seeking firm is going to do is shell out money to workers they don’t really need to employ. Still, somehow, it happens. While corporations may engage in ruthless downsizing, the layoffs and speed-ups invariably fall on that class of people who are actually making, moving, fixing, and maintaining things. Through some strange alchemy no one can quite explain, the number of salaried paper pushers ultimately seems to expand, and more and more employees find themselves—not unlike Soviet workers, actually—working forty- or even fifty-hour weeks on paper but effectively working fifteen hours just as Keynes predicted, since the rest of their time is spent organizing or attending motivational seminars, updating their Facebook profiles, or downloading TV box sets. The answer clearly isn’t economic: it’s moral and political. The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger. (Think of what started to happen when this even began to be approximated in the sixties.) And, on the other hand, the feeling that work is a moral value in itself, and that anyone not willing to submit themselves to some kind of intense work discipline for most of their waking hours deserves nothing, is extraordinarily convenient for them.

Go through the statements below and answer the question that follows:
P. Fast food intake for more than three times a week is associated with greater odds of atopic disorders such as asthma, eczema or rhinitis. Thus, it should be definitely and strictly controlled in children as it does no good.
Q. Regular junk food intake can lead to physical and psychological issues among children.
R. Lack of Vitamins such as A and C, and minerals such as magnesium and calcium, encourage the development of deficiency diseases and osteoporosis, as well as dental caries due to higher intake.
S. Junk food, which are rich in energy with lots of fat and sugar, are relatively low in other important nutrients such as protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals.
T. Emotional and self-esteem problems, along with chronic illnesses in later life due to obesity, are the issues associated with the junk food.

Go through the statements below and answer the question that follows:
P. Surabhi’s Instagram profile has 1.4 million followers. It is filled with pictures of her posing in different settings.
Q. In India, reports suggest that WhatsApp (Much more than Facebook or Twitter) is the primary tool for the dissemination of political communication.
R. Political campaigns pay social media companies to promote their content.
S. Political advertising on social media comes in many forms and remains underexamined in India.
T. Social media influencers are used for the dissemination of content.