Instructions
The passage below is accompanied by a set of six questions.
Choose the best answer to each question. Understanding where you are in the world is a basic survival skill, which is why we, like most species come hard-wired with specialised brain areas to create cognitive maps of our surroundings. Where humans are unique, though, with the possible exception of honeybees, is that we try to communicate this understanding of the world with others. We have a long history of doing this by drawing maps — the earliest versions yet discovered were scrawled on cave walls 14,000 years ago. Human cultures have been drawing them on stone tablets, papyrus, paper and now computer screens ever since. Given such a long history of human map-making, it is perhaps surprising that it is only within the last few hundred years that north has been consistently considered to be at the top. In fact, for much of human history, north almost never appeared at the top, according to Jerry Brotton, a map historian... "North was rarely put at the top for the simple fact that north is where darkness comes from," he says. "West is also very unlikely to be put at the top because west is where the sun disappears." Confusingly, early Chinese maps seem to buck this trend. But, Brotton, says, even though they did have compasses at the time, that isn't the reason that they placed north at the top. Early Chinese compasses were actually oriented to point south, which was considered to be more desirable than deepest darkest north. But in Chinese maps, the Emperor, who lived in the north of the country was always put at the top of the map, with everyone else, his loyal subjects, looking up towards him. "In Chinese culture the Emperor looks south because it's where the winds come from, it's a good direction. North is not very good but you are in a position of subjection to the emperor, so you look up to him," says Brotton. Given that each culture has a very different idea of who, or what, they should look up to it's perhaps not surprising that there is very little consistency in which way early maps pointed. In ancient Egyptian times the top of the world was east, the position of sunrise. Early Islamic maps favoured south at the top because most of the early Muslim cultures were north of Mecca, so they imagined looking up (south) towards it. Christian maps from the same era (called Mappa Mundi) put east at the top, towards the Garden of Eden and with Jerusalem in the centre. So when did everyone get together and decide that north was the top? It's tempting to put it down to European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Megellan, who were navigating by the North Star. But Brotton argues that these early explorers didn't think of the world like that at all. "When Columbus describes the world it is in accordance with east being at the top, he says. "Columbus says he is going towards paradise, so his mentality is from a medieval mappa mundi." We've got to remember, adds Brotton, that at the time, "no one knows what they are doing and where they are going."
Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:Which one of the following best describes what the passage is trying to do?
Explanation
Option A: He gives explanation/reasoning behind the various methods adopted in history but does not question them.
Option C: The author does not discuss about the merits/ demerits or evaluate a method of map-making. It is involved more with the history of the method. Option D speaks about myth. While most of the data are quoted from history, they cannot be misrepresented as a myth.
The author starts the passage by talking about the history of map making. The author then mentions how north was never put at the top in ancient times. "Given such a long history of human map-making, it is perhaps surprising that it is only within the last few hundred years that north has been consistently considered to be at the top. In fact, for much of human history, north almost never appeared at the top".
He implicitly means that people have a preemptive notion of maps facing the north. He goes on to mention that it was considered a bad direction. He says that north being put at the top is a fairly recent phenomenon. He then goes on to discuss why different people started putting north at the top. He mentions that the reasons for different people putting north at the top were different from what people think now.
He cites various examples to show that north' s presence in top is more recent and due to varied factors.
Hence, he is trying to clear certain misconceptions about why north is put at the top in the maps. Thus, option B is the most suitable answer.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:Early maps did NOT put north at the top for all the following reasons EXCEPT
Explanation
The passage mentions that the Chinese put North at the top of the map because the emperor would live in the North and he preferred to look towards South. Hence, the fact that South was preferred by some emperors is not a reason why North was put at the top. Hence, option B is false. All other options are mentioned in the passage.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:According to the passage, early Chinese maps placed north at the top because
Explanation
We can straightaway eliminate options A and D. The passage states that the Chinese compasses pointed to magnetic south and that south was considered a more desirable direction. While option C is true, that is not the reason why North was placed at the top.
The passage states that the emperor lived in the north and hence maps depicted him as above his subjects. Thus, north was placed at the top of the map to show respect for the emperor. Thus, option B is correct.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:It can be inferred from the passage that European explorers like Columbus and Megellan
Explanation
We can straightaway eliminate option A. The author says that though one might think that the trend of north-up maps was set by these explorers, this is in fact not true. Options B and D are also incorrect. The passage says that the explorers navigated with the help of the North Star.
In the passage, it is given that "When Columbus describes the world it is in accordance with east being at the top, he says. "Columbus says he is going towards paradise, so his mentality is from a medieval mappa mundi." Hence, we can infer that statement C is true.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:Which one of the following about the northern orientation of modern maps is asserted in the passage?
Explanation
In the passage, the author discusses how North was traditionally not put on the top of early maps. The author explicitly refutes the role of the compass and of European explorers in placing North at the top of maps. Hence, we can eliminate options A and B. The author says that East was placed at the top of Christian maps. Hence, option C is also incorrect. Thought the author counters all known explanations as to why North was placed on the top, he does not offer any explanation of his own. Hence, option D is correct.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:The role of natural phenomena in influencing map-making conventions is seen most clearly in
Explanation
According to the passage, early Egyptian maps placed the East at the top because that was the position of sunrise. Hence, we can say that natural phenomena dictated the map-making convention in this case. Thus, option A is correct.
Options B and D are incorrect as the conventions were decided by religious factors and not natural
phenomena. Option C also can be eliminated as the orientation was a result of their desire to honour their emperor. Hence, the answer is option A.
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Instructions
The passage below is accompanied by a set of six questions.
Choose the best answer to each question. I used a smartphone GPS to find my way through the cobblestoned maze of Geneva's Old Town, in search of a handmade machine that changed the world more than any other invention. Near a 13th-century cathedral in this Swiss city on the shores of a lovely lake, I found what I was looking for: a Gutenberg printing press. "This was the Internet of its day — at least as influential as the iPhone," said Gabriel de Montmollin, the director of the Museum of the Reformation, toying with the replica of Johann Gutenberg's great invention. Before the invention of the printing press, it used to take four monks up to a year to produce a single book. With the advance in movable type in 15th-century Europe, one press could crank out 3,000 pages a day. Before long, average people could travel to places that used to be unknown to them — with maps! Medical information passed more freely and quickly, diminishing the sway of quacks. The printing press offered the prospect that tyrants would never be able to kill a book or suppress an idea. Gutenberg's brainchild broke the monopoly that clerics had on scripture. And later, stirred by pamphlets from a version of that same press, the American colonies rose up against a king and gave birth to a nation. So, a question in the summer of this 10th anniversary of the iPhone: has the device that is perhaps the most revolutionary of all time given us a single magnificent idea? Nearly every advancement of the written word through new technology has also advanced humankind. Sure , you can say the iPhone changed everything. By putting the world's recorded knowledge in the palm of a hand, it revolutionized work, dining, travel and socializing. It made us more narcissistic — here's more of me doing cool stuff! — and it unleashed an army of awful trolls. We no longer have the patience to sit through a baseball game without that reach to the pocket. And one more casualty of Apple selling more than a billion phones in a decade's time: daydreaming has become a lost art. For all of that, I'm still waiting to see if the iPhone can do what the printing press did for religion and democracy...the Geneva museum makes a strong case that the printing press opened more minds than anything else...it's hard to imagine the French or American revolutions without those enlightened voices in print... Not long after Steve Jobs introduced his iPhone, he said the bound book was probably headed for history's attic. Not so fast. After a period of rapid growth in e-books, something closer to the medium for Chaucer's volumes has made a great comeback. The hope of the iPhone, and the Internet in general, was that it would free people in closed societies. But the failure of the Arab Spring, and the continued suppression of ideas in North Korea, China and Iran, has not borne that out. The iPhone is still young. It has certainly been "one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in. history," as Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook said. But I'm not sure if the world changed for the better with the iPhone — as it did with the printing press — or merely changed.
Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:The printing press has been likened to the Internet for which one of the following reasons?
Explanation
In the first passage, the author mentions printing press as the internet of its day. Immediately, in the next paragraph he elucidates how printing press helped in spreading ideas and information. Thus, the author likened the printing press to the internet because it enabled access to new information and sharing of ideas.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:According to the passage, the invention of the printing press did all of the following EXCEPT
Explanation
From the lines "Medical information passed more freely and quickly, diminishing the sway of quacks" and "Gutenberg's brainchild broke the monopoly that clerics had on scripture" , we can infer that option B is true.
From the lines "And later, stirred by pamphlets from a version of that same press, the American colonies rose up against a king and gave birth to a nation" and "it's hard to imagine the French or American revolutions without those enlightened voices in print", we can infer option A is true.
From the lines "Before the invention of the printing press, it used to take four monks up to a year to produce a single book. With the advance in movable type in 15th-century Europe, one press could crank out 3,000 pages a day", we can infer that option C is true.
Option D has not been stated nor implied anywhere in the passage.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:Steve Jobs predicted which one of the following with the introduction of the iPhone?
Explanation
Refer to the following lines - "Not long after Steve Jobs introduced his iPhone, he said the bound book was probably headed for history's attic". Thus, we can infer that Steve Jobs predicted that reading printed books would become a thing of the past. Hence, option C is the right answer.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:"I'm still waiting to see if the iPhone can do what the printing press did for religion and democracy." The author uses which one of the following to indicate his uncertainty?
Explanation
The author says that the iPhone has not fulfilled its potential as a piece of revolutionary technology. He goes on to say that the hope was that the iPhone could help in liberating people in closed societies. However, the failure of the Arab spring and continued suppression in places like North Korea shows that this has not happened. Hence, the author uses the continued suppression of free speech in closed societies to indicate why he is still uncertain about the potential of the iPhone. Hence, option C is correct.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:The author attributes the French and American revolutions to the invention of the printing press because
Explanation
Refer to the line "it's hard to imagine the French or American revolutions without those enlightened voices in print". Hence, from this we can straightaway eliminate options A and C. Between options B and D, B correctly captures the point made by the author. The printing press allowed the spread of enlightened voices and as a result people were exposed to new ideas on freedom and democracy.
Option D slightly distorts what is given in the passage. The passage does not mention any revolutionary "strategies". Hence, we can eliminate this option. Thus, the answer is option B.
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Question for CAT PYQ 2017: Reading Comprehension - 1
Try yourself:The main conclusion of the passage is that the new technology has
Explanation
The main point of the passage is that unlike the Gutenberg printing press, the iPhone has in comparison done nothing to make the society more liberated or enlightened. This point has been accurately captured by option B.
The author is not weighing the advantages or disadvantages of new technology. Hence, we can eliminate option A.
The author does not say that the society has rapidly changed as a result of new technology. In fact, he says that nothing really has changed as a result of it. The author says that people are no longer daydreaming as a result of new technology. Hence, option D, which contradicts what is given in the passage, can be eliminated.
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