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RCs for For Daily Practice Questions for CAT with Answers PDF

Passage

Around 13,000 years ago North America had a more diverse mammal community than modern-day Africa. There were multiple horse species, camels, llamas and a now-extinct animal called Glyptodon, which looked something like a Volkswagen bug–size armadillo. Smilodon, a sabertoothed cat around the size of today’s African lion, skulked across the grasslands in search of ground sloths and mammoths. Seven-foot-long giant otters chowed down on massive trees. And such massive creatures were not just found in North America. On every continent mammals on average were a lot larger in the late Pleistocene, the geologic epoch spanning from around 2.5 million until about 11,700 years ago.
Scientists have long debated what caused all these large-bodied critters to go extinct while many of their smaller counterparts survived. A team of researchers led by University of New Mexico biologist Felisa Smith analyzed evidence from millions of years’ worth of mammalian extinctions and found that on each continent large mammals started to die out around the same time humans first showed up.
If the extinction trend continues apace, modern elephants, rhinos, giraffes, hippos, bison, tigers and many more large mammals will soon disappear as well, as the primary threats from humans have expanded from overhunting, poaching or other types of killing to include indirect processes such as habitat loss and fragmentation. The largest terrestrial mammal 200 years from now could well be the domestic cow, Smith’s research suggests.
Some scientists lay the blame squarely on humanity’s shoulders, arguing overhunting doomed the planet's megafauna. After our hominid relative Homo erectus fanned out from Africa into Eurasia starting some two million years ago, Homo sapiens followed around 60,000 to 80,000 years ago and became widespread in Eurasia, joining our close cousins, the Neandertals and Denisovans. It is thought Homo sapiens later reached Australia between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago and finally settled the Americas between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago. In the time line of mammalian extinctions, large animals started to disappear only after humans or their hominid cousins showed up. But could that be a coincidence? Others have argued the main culprit behind these die-offs was the changing climate.
In North America the average mammal weighed around 98 kilograms before the ancestors of humans showed up. Today the average size is closer to eight kilograms.“We’ve lopped a couple orders of magnitude off the distribution of mammals’ [body sizes],” Smith says. For most of mammalian evolutionary history, an animal’s size was not predictive of its extinction risk. That link only appeared once hominids began to live alongside large mammals.
This finding does not mean climate-related changes could not have stressed some wildlife populations, enabling humans to more easily bring about their eventual downfall. Rather it suggests the greater likelihood of large-bodied mammals going extinct is tied to human activities. A suite of animals that evolved in Eurasia, Australia and the Americas without the risk of predation from tool-using, fire-making, group-living hominids were suddenly faced with a new threat. They simply could not adapt fast enough to survive the incursion of these omnivorous bipedal apes.
In addition, Smith’s analysis looked at the size distribution of African mammals prior to the hominid migration into Eurasia. She found African mammals were also smaller on average once hominids began appearing on the landscape there—and they evolved right alongside one another. “They have evidence that hominids in Africa had already been impacting the size distribution of mammals on that continent before Homo sapiens evolved,” says paleoecologist Emily Lindsey, assistant curator and excavation site director of the La Brea Tar Pits Museum in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study. What that means, she says, is “these groups of hominid species were having impacts on a continental scale before the evolution of modern humans.” And it does not take all that many hominids to have such broad effects. Driving a large species to extinction does not mean killing every last one of its members. “You just have to kill slightly more than are being produced each year,” Lindsey says. If a population's reproduction rate cannot compensate for its losses each year, within a few hundred to a couple of thousand years the species will simply die out.
Large-bodied mammals are especially vulnerable because they reproduce slowly. Mammoths and mastodons, for example, likely had a two-year gestation period, akin to modern elephants, and would have typically produced just one offspring at a time. It is therefore a lot easier to decimate a population of 100,000 mammoths than a population of 100,000 rabbits, which reproduce twice a year and birth by litter.

Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 53
Try yourself:The central idea of the passage is that …
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 53
Try yourself:Which one of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 53
Try yourself:According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a risk to the existence of modern large mammals?
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 53
Try yourself:All of the following statements about hominids are true EXCEPT:
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 53
Try yourself:Which of the following best sums up the findings of the study led by biologist Felisa Smith?
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The document RCs for For Daily Practice Questions for CAT with Answers PDF is a part of the CAT Course Verbal Ability (VA) & Reading Comprehension (RC).
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FAQs on RCs for For Daily Practice Questions for CAT with Answers PDF

1. What are some tips for practicing Reading Comprehension passages?
Ans. Some tips for practicing Reading Comprehension passages include: - Skim the passage to get a general understanding of the topic and main ideas. - Take notes while reading to help you remember important details. - Pay attention to the structure of the passage and how ideas are presented. - Look for key words and phrases that indicate the author's opinion or main points. - Practice answering questions based on the passage, focusing on understanding the main idea and supporting details.
2. How can I improve my reading speed for RC passages?
Ans. To improve reading speed for RC passages, you can try the following techniques: - Practice daily reading exercises to build up your reading speed. - Use a pointer (such as your finger or a pen) to guide your eyes along the lines, helping you read faster. - Avoid subvocalization (mentally pronouncing words as you read) to increase reading speed. - Eliminate distractions and create a quiet environment to focus solely on reading. - Try timed reading exercises, gradually increasing the time allotted for each passage to challenge yourself and improve speed.
3. What should I do if I don't understand a specific word or phrase in an RC passage?
Ans. If you encounter a word or phrase in an RC passage that you don't understand, you can follow these steps: - Read the sentence again, trying to infer the meaning of the unfamiliar word based on its context. - Look for clues in the surrounding sentences or paragraphs that may help you understand the word's meaning. - Use a dictionary or online resources to look up the definition of the word. - If the word is crucial to understanding the main idea of the passage, make a note of it and try to understand its meaning before continuing to read.
4. How can I effectively manage my time when answering RC questions on the exam?
Ans. To effectively manage your time when answering RC questions on the exam, consider the following strategies: - Read the questions before reading the passage to get an idea of what information you need to look for. - Skim the passage first to quickly identify the main idea and key points. - Allocate a specific amount of time for each question, focusing on the ones you find easier or quicker to answer first. - Avoid spending too much time on one question; if you're unsure, make an educated guess and move on. - Save some time at the end to review your answers and make any necessary changes.
5. How can I improve my overall understanding of RC passages?
Ans. To improve your overall understanding of RC passages, you can employ the following strategies: - Read a variety of texts from different genres and topics to broaden your knowledge and vocabulary. - Practice summarizing the main ideas and key details of each passage you read. - Discuss the passages with others to gain different perspectives and insights. - Take note of any patterns or recurring themes you notice in RC passages. - Review and analyze your mistakes in practice questions to identify areas of weakness and focus on improving them.
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