Verbal for XAT 2022 | Verbal Ability (VA) & Reading Comprehension (RC) - CAT PDF Download

Q1: Which of the following sentences are grammatically CORRECT ?
1. Have you any clothes to dispose of?
2. I saw a pleasant dream last night.
3. I have done it many a times safely.
4. Students struggle to cope up with academic pressure.
5. You need not give negative feedback to your employees.
6. My friend is good at playing football.
(a) 4,5,6
(b) 1,5,6
(c) 2,3,4
(d) 3,4,5
(e) 1,2,3

  View Answer

Q2: Read the poem carefully, and answer the following question.
I smiled at you because I thought that you
Were someone else; you smiled back; and there grew
Between two strangers in a library
Something that seems like love; but you loved me
(If that’s the word) because you thought that I
Was other than I was. And by and by
We found we’d been mistaken all the while
From that first glance, that first mistaken smile
Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from the poem?
(a) The idea of love is different for the parties involved.
(b) Love may start with small acts like glancing and smiling.
(c) We make mistakes in love.
(d) We don’t fall in love with others but with ourselves.
(e) We fall in love with strangers.

  View Answer

Q3: Carefully read the following statement:
The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it_____ for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that _____ are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the ________ is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has ________ to rewrite its own history.
Which of the following options will BEST fill up the above blanks meaningfully?
(a) Possible, people, consequence, constantly
(b) Absurd, subjects, beauty, no reason
(c) Unique, senators, reason, enough
(d) Necessary, citizens, joy, unusually
(e) Unpleasant, plebeians, fact, forced

  View Answer

Q4: Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
Geologists have been investigating a potential cycle in geological events for a long time. Back in the 1920s and 30s, scientists of the era had suggested that the geological record had a 30-million-year cycle, while in the 1980s and 90s researchers used the best-dated geological events at the time to give them a range of the length between 'pulses' of 26.2 to 30.6 million years. Now, everything seems to be in order -27.5 million years is right about where we'd expect. A study late last year suggested that this 27.5-million-year mark is when mass extinctions happen, too.
Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
(a) Not all species go extinct once every 27.5 million years
(b) “Pulse” between geological events is constant
(c) All species go extinct once every 27.5 million years
(d) Geological disasters happen sporadically
(e) Mass extinctions and “geological pulse” are correlated

  View Answer

Q5: Carefully read the following statement:
When I ask people to name three recently implemented technologies that most impact our world today, they usually propose the computers, the Internet and the laser. All three were unplanned, ___________, and_____________ upon their discovery and remained __________ well after their initial use.
Which of the following options will BEST fill up the above blanks meaningfully?
(a) Unpredicted, Unappreciated, Unappreciated
(b) Amazing, Shocking, Shocking
(c) Surprising, Fulfilling, Unfulfilling
(d) Astonishing, Amazing, Amazing
(e) Astonishing, Superb, Superb

  View Answer

Q6: Which of the following sentences have INCORRECT usage of preposition?
1. The manager was sitting at the desk.
2. My work is superior to yours.
3. I prefer coffee than tea.
4. She was accused for stealing gold.
5. This is an exception to the rule.
6. They are leaving to England soon.
(a) 1,2,3
(b) 3,4,5
(c) 3,4,6
(d) 2,3,4
(e) 1,3,6

  View Answer

Q7: Arrange the following sentences in a LOGICAL sequence:
1. But when it comes to companies that lack computer programmers, the government is far more sympathetic.
2. As a result, limited access to foreign talent is a common gripe of tech founders and venture capitalists.
3. And, demand for the latter has soared among British startups.
4. This is less inconsistent than it may seem.
5. An HGV driver takes between six and ten weeks to train; a competent coder several years.
(a) 3,4,2,1,5
(b) 1,4,5,3,2
(c) 3,5,1,2,4
(d) 1,2,5,3,4
(e) 3,5,4,2,1

  View Answer

Q8: Arrange the following sentences in a LOGICAL sequence:
1. In America, primary-age pupils are on average five months behind where they would usually be in maths, and four months in reading, according to McKinsey, a consultancy.
2. As a new school year gets under way in many countries, the harm caused by months of closure is becoming ever clearer.
3. The crisis will accelerate that trend.
4. The damage is almost certainly worse in places such as India and Mexico, where the disruption to schooling has been greater.
5. Even before pandemic, parents around the world were growing more willing to pay for extra lessons in the hope of boosting their children’s education.
(a) 2,1,4,5,3
(b) 5,1,3,2,4
(c) 3,5,2,4,1
(d) 2,3,1,4,5
(e) 5,3,2,1,4

  View Answer

Q9: Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
One theory of accidents is what experts call the Swiss Cheese model. A slab of swiss cheese has several holes, randomly and unevenly distributed over its surface. If several slabs are stacked together, it would be impossible for something to slip through unless all the holes happen to line up.
If even one slab doesn’t align, the impending catastrophe will meet a layer of resistance, and the worst is averted. Aviation professionals will tell you that plane crashes never happen for a single reason. There may be an identifiable primary factor, but it’s usually a chain of events, an array of circumstances neatly piling up.
Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
(a) Averting catastrophe is actually easier than it seems
(b) Any historically relevant event is an accident because it involves a chain of preceding events
(c) Accidents cannot be averted since a chain of events have to be averted to avert accidents
(d) A catastrophe can be averted if the preceding array of events meets resistance
(e) Any disaster is a culmination of many events happening in a particular order

  View Answer

Q10 to 12: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Stupidity is a very specific cognitive failing. Crudely put, it occurs when you don’t have the right conceptual tools for the job. The result is an inability to make sense of what is happening and a resulting tendency to force phenomena into crude, distorting pigeonholes.

This is easiest to introduce with a tragic case. British high command during the First World War frequently understood trench warfare using concepts and strategies from the cavalry battles of their youth. As one of Field Marshal Douglas Haig’s subordinates later remarked, they thought of the trenches as ‘mobile operations at the halt’: i.e., as fluid battle lines with the simple caveat that nothing in fact budged for years. Unsurprisingly, this did not serve them well in formulating a strategy: they were hampered, beyond the shortage of material resources, by a kind of ‘conceptual obsolescence’, a failure to update their cognitive tools to fit the task in hand. In at least some cases, intelligence actively abets stupidity by allowing pernicious rationalisation.

Stupidity will often arise in cases like this, when an outdated conceptual framework is forced into service, mangling the user’s grip on some new phenomenon. It is important to distinguish this from mere error. We make mistakes for all kinds of reasons. Stupidity is rather one specific and stubborn cause of error. Historically, philosophers have worried a great deal about the irrationality of not taking the available means to achieve goals: Tom wants to get fit, yet his running shoes are quietly gathering dust. The stock solution to Tom’s quandary is simple willpower. Stupidity is very different from this. It is rather a lack of the necessary means, a lack of the necessary intellectual equipment. Combatting it will typically require not brute willpower but the construction of a new way of seeing our self and our world. Such stupidity is perfectly compatible with intelligence: Haig was by any standard a smart man.

Q10: Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the author's view on stupidity?
(a) Comprehending a problem by applying our existing world view is stupidity
(b) The inability to avoid forcing our current views on a new situation is stupidity
(c) Pushing our extant solution to fix an alien problem is stupidity
(d) The inability to comprehend what is happening around us is stupidity
(e) The novelty of the problem, in relation to our cognitive capacity, is the cause of stupidity

  View Answer

Q11: Which of the following statements BEST explains why stupidity for a smart person is“perfectly compatible with intelligence”?
(a) Intelligence is poorly defined, and is usually a perception, making it compatible with stupidity.
(b) A new phenomenon creates fear, rushing intelligent people to explain it to put others at ease.
(c) Past successes make us believe that we are intelligent and capable of explaining any new phenomenon.
(d) Intelligent people are scared to admit their lack of knowledge, and therefore, try to explain everything, including things they do not understand.
(e) Intelligence, when perceived through past successes, makes any rationalization of a new phenomenon acceptable.

  View Answer

Q12: Based on the passage, which of the following can BEST help a leader avoidstupidity?
(a) Be ready to discuss with everyone before taking a decision
(b) Being aware that our current answers are only applicable to the current context
(c) Being aware that we are short of the required resources
(d) Be cautious in taking a decision until the future unfolds
(e) Being aware that we must handle future with a different cognitive tool

  View Answer

Q13: Read the excerpt carefully and answer the following question.
The over-whelming preponderance of people have not freely decided what to believe, but, rather, have been socially conditioned (indoctrinated) into their beliefs. They are unreflective thinkers.
Which of the following statements CANNOT be concluded from the excerpt?
(a) A normal thinker finds it difficult to recognize what is happening to them
(b) Beliefs that appear normal and natural heighten their acceptance
(c) A lot of people end up believing what they passionately oppose
(d) Things that we do automatically need to be reflected upon
(e) The inability to criticize one’s belief leads to indoctrination

  View Answer

Q14 to 16: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
What bullshit essentially misrepresents is neither the state of affairs to which it refers nor the beliefs of the speaker concerning that state of affairs. Those are what lies misrepresent, by virtue of being false. Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to. This is the crux of the distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that. But the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it. This does not mean that his speech is anarchically impulsive, but that the motive guiding and controlling it is unconcerned with how the things about which he speaks truly are. It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false.

Q14: Which of the following statements can be BEST inferred from the passage?
(a) Both the liar and the bullshitter misrepresent the truth
(b) Both the liar and the bullshitter intend to deceive in their own ways
(c) Both the liar and the bullshitter are guided by the truth
(d) Both the liar and the bullshitter live in their own worlds of realities
(e) Both the liar and the bullshitter are not bound by any conviction

  View Answer

Q15: Why does the author say that the bullshitter’s intention “is neither to report the truthnor to conceal it?”
(a) Because bullshitters are not convinced about the truth
(b) Because bullshitters know the truth
(c) Because bullshitters do not like to deceive
(d) Because bullshitters do not find the truth useful
(e) Because bullshitters are respectful to the truth

  View Answer

Q16: When will a liar BEST turn into a bullshitter?
(a) When a liar stops responding to the truth
(b) When a liar stops worrying about the correct comprehension of reality
(c) When a liar focusses only on the outcome and not on telling lies
(d) When a liar lies to people about his intention
(e) When a liar stops misrepresenting the state of affairs

  View Answer

Q17 to 19: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
What does a good life look like to you? For some, the phrase may conjure up images of a close-knit family, a steady job, and a Victorian house at the end of a street arched with oak trees. Others may focus on the goal of making a difference in the world, whether by working as a nurse or teacher, volunteering, or pouring their energy into environmental activism. According to Aristotlean theory, the first kind of life would be classified as “hedonic”—one based on pleasure, comfort, stability, and strong social relationships. The second is“eudaimonic,” primarily concerned with the sense of purpose and fulfilment one gets by contributing to the greater good. The ancient Greek philosopher outlined these ideas in his treatise Nicomachean Ethics, and the psychological sciences have pretty much stuck with them ever since when discussing the possibilities of what people might want out of their time on Earth. But a new paper, published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Review, suggests there’s another way to live a good life. It isn’t focused on happiness or purpose, but rather it’s a life that’s “psychologically rich.”

What is a psychologically rich life? According to authors Shige Oishi, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, and Erin Westgate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida, it’s one characterized by “interesting experiences in which novelty and/or complexity are accompanied by profound changes in perspective.” Studying abroad, for example, is one way that college students often introduce psychological richness into their lives. As they learn more about a new country’s customs and history, they’re often prompted to reconsider the social mores of their own cultures. Deciding to embark on a difficult new career path or immersing one’s self in avant-garde art(the paper gives a specific shout-out to James Joyce’s Ulysses) also could make a person feel as if their life is more psychologically rich.

Crucially, an experience doesn’t have to be fun in order to qualify as psychologically enriching. It might even be a hardship. Living through war or a natural disaster might make it hard to feel as though you’re living a particularly happy or purposeful life, but you can still come out of the experience with psychological richness. Or you might encounter less dramatic but nonetheless painful events: infertility, chronic illness, unemployment. Regardless of the specifics, you may experience suffering but still find value in how your experience shapes your understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Q17: Which of the following statements BEST contrasts Hedonic from Eudaimonic?
(a) Hedonic focuses on the emptiness from seeking pleasure, while Eudaimonic focuses onthe fulfilment by giving pleasure to others
(b) Hedonic focuses on what gives pleasure to self, while Eudaimonic focuses on whathe/she believes benefits the society
(c) Hedonic believes that pleasure leads to fulfilment while Eudaimonic believes thatfulfilment leads to pleasure
(d) Hedonic believes in seeking pleasure while Eudaimonic focuses on depriving oneself ofpleasure
(e) Hedonic focuses on pleasure to self while Eudaimonic focuses on pleasure to the other

  View Answer

Q18: Which of the following statements BEST defines a “psychologically rich life”?
(a) A life that offers interesting experiences that makes you question what life is
(b) Any novel experience that affects us cognitively makes us psychologically rich
(c) A life that is filled with learning opportunities that makes us an expert in a particular area
(d) A life that is filled with novel experiences which changes our view of what a good life is
(e) A life where novel experiences result in a fundamental change to our existing views

  View Answer

Q19: Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
(a) A psychologically rich life is a good life.
(b) A bad experience can enrich someone psychologically.
(c) An unpleasant experience can enable a good life.
(d) A good life should not be seen in binary terms.
(e) Life need not be good, but can still be psychologically rich.

  View Answer

Q20 to 22: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
What Arendt does for us is to remind us that our “publicness” is as important to our flourishing as our sociability and our privacy. She draws a distinction between what it means to act “socially” and what is means to act “politically.” The social realm for Arendt is both the context where all our basic survival needs “are permitted to appear in public” and also the realm of “behaviour.” One of the things she fears about modern societies is that society - focused on how we behave and what we will permit for ourselves and others -becomes the realm of conformism. This is worrying not just because we don’t really get vibrant societies out of conformism and sameness, but also, Arendt says because there is a risk that we think this is all there is to our living together. We lose ourselves in the tasks of managing behaviour and forget that our true public task is to act, and to distinguish ourselves in doing so. The risk, says Arendt, is therefore that we confuse behaviour with action , that in modern liberal societies “behaviour replaces action as the foremost mode of human relationship.” This confusion can happen in any area of our modern lives and institutions, secular or faith-based. None is immune.

Arendt wants to drive home the point that the healthy public life requires that we do not just see ourselves as social actors but also as fully public persons, committed to judging and acting as members of a common world we want to inhabit and pass on. Arendt tells us that public action is action in which we stand out, are individuated, become in some way excellent in a manner that is of service to others and a greater good. This is the space where we take risks, subject our common life to scrutiny, seek justice (that sometimes requires us to transgress what seem like accepted laws) in order to be increasingly open to the claims and needs of other humans - ones who are not our household and our kin.

Q20: According to the passage, who can be BEST categorised as a “public person”?
(a) An NGO employee who was tasked to lead a campaign against tribal land acquisition.
(b) A wildlife photographer who highlighted the plight of poverty-stricken migrants by posting their pictures.
(c) An online fraud victim who ran a campaign against online fraudsters.
(d) A parent who organized protests against the random fee hike by a local school.
(e) A local politician who filed RTI applications to unearth financial scams by a village panchayat.

  View Answer

Q21: Based on the passage, which of the following options BEST describes “public action”?
(a) Acting based on our core beliefs while being mindful of what society thinks
(b) Acting for a just cause regardless of what society thinks about it
(c) Acting in a way that is perceived to be anti-social
(d) Acting based on our conviction regardless of what society thinks
(e) Acting in a way that is seen as acceptable to the society

  View Answer

Q22: Which of the following is the BEST reason for focusing on behaviour instead of acting in public?
(a) We are dependent on each other, leading to focus on what is accepted by others
(b) Our fear of being called out on our imperfect thoughts leads us to behave
(c) Our focus is to survive and not to flourish
(d) To survive is not to distinguish ourselves from others
(e) The foundation of any vibrant society is based on cooperation and not confrontation

  View Answer

Q23 to 24: Read the poem carefully, and answer the questions that follow.
It hurts to walk on new legs:
The curse of consonants. The wobble of vowels.
And you for whom I gave up a kingdom
Can never love that thing I was.
When you look into my past
You see
Only weeds and scales.
Once I had a voice.
Now I have legs.
Sometimes I wonder
Was it a fair trade?

Q23: Which of the following statements BEST reflects the theme of the poem?
(a) Our concern for loss is more than what we gain.
(b) Our quest for love is accompanied with pain.
(c) Our loss of identity is irreparable.
(d) As the future unfolds, our distant past looks pleasant.
(e) Nostalgic recollection undermines materialistic gains.

  View Answer

Q24: What does the author BEST mean by “Once I had a voice. /Now I have legs?”
(a) The poet is contemplative of his/her identity
(b) The poet has lost his/her speech
(c) The poet puts less value on the new world
(d) The poet’s actions speak louder than his/her words now
(e) The poet is indecisive about choosing between the two worlds

  View Answer

Q25: Which of the following conditional sentences are grammatically INCORRECT?
1. If Sandhya had started from the hotel on time, she would have not missed the flight.
2. The students wouldn’t have completed their assignment even if the professor would have been there.
3. I had travelled across Europe if I weren’t afraid of airplane crashes.
4. Saurav won’t join music classes unless his father will ask him.
5. Should you wish to join the party, you must let me know by this evening.
6. We would be stupid if we shared our strategy with her.
(a) 4,5,6
(b) 1,5,6
(c) 2,3,4
(d) 3,4,5
(e) 1,2,3

  View Answer

Q26: Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
Labouring is simply what we do to survive. We labour to eat. To keep our bodieshealthy. To keep roof over our heads, and to keep life reproducing. All animalslabour, with or without coaxing…. There’s nothing special about labour, save for thefact that without it we would die.
Work, on the other hand, gives collective meaning to what we do. When we work toproduce something we both put something into and leave something lasting in theworld: a table, a house, a book, a car, a rug, a high precision piece of engineeringwith which we can order the days into time, or keep a body breathing.
Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
(a) Labour enables us to survive while work makes survival meaningful
(b) Doing what is asked of a role is labour, while going beyond the role is work
(c) Unacknowledged work is labour, while acknowledgement makes it work
(d) To be healthy needs labour, while making others healthy is work
(e) Terrace gardening is labour, while producing a vaccine is work

  View Answer