CAT Previous Year Questions: Paragraph Summary | Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) PDF Download

2024

Q1: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. 
Scientific research shows that many animals are very intelligent and have sensory and motor abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles. Many animals also display wide-ranging emotions, including joy, happiness, empathy, compassion, grief, and even resentment and embarrassment. It's not surprising that animals share many emotions with us because we also share brain structures, located in the limbic system, that are the seat of our emotions.

(a) The advanced sensory and motor abilities of animals is the reason why they can display wide-ranging emotions.
(b) The similarity in brain structure explains why animals show emotions typically associated with humans.
(c) Animals can show emotions which are typically associated with humans.
(d) Animals are more intelligent than us in sensing danger and detecting diseases.

Ans: b

Sol: The correct answer is B: The similarity in brain structure explains why animals show emotions typically associated with humans.

The passage highlights shared brain structures between humans and animals as the basis for emotional similarities:

"It’s not surprising that animals share many emotions with us because we also share brain structures, located in the limbic system."

Option B captures this relationship. Option C is incomplete, and Option A incorrectly attributes emotions to advanced sensory abilities. Option D shifts focus to intelligence rather than emotions.

Q2: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. 
Certain codes may, of course, be so widely distributed in a specific language community or culture, and be learned at so early an age, that they appear not to be constructed - the effect of an articulation between sign and referent - but to be 'naturally' given. Simple visual signs appear to have achieved a 'near-universality' in this sense: though evidence remains that even apparently 'natural' visual codes are culture specific. However, this does not mean that no codes have intervened; rather, that the codes have been profoundly naturalized. The operation of naturalized codes reveals not the transparency and 'naturalness' of language but the depth, the habituation and the near-universality of the codes in use. They produce apparently 'natural' recognitions. This has the (ideological) effect of concealing the practices of coding which are present.

(a) All codes, linguistic and visual, have a natural origin but some are so widespread that they become universal. This is what hides the mechanism of coding behind signs.
(b) Not all codes are natural but certain codes are naturalized and made to appear universal. Ideology aims to hide the mechanism of coding behind signs.
(c) Language and visual signs are codes. However, some of the codes are so widespread that they not only seem naturally given but also hide the mechanism of coding behind the signs.
(d) Learning linguistic and visual signs at an early age makes all such codes appear natural. This naturalization of codes is the effect of ideology.

Ans: c

Sol: The correct answer is C: Language and visual signs are codes. However, some of the codes are so widespread that they not only seem naturally given but also hide the mechanism of coding behind the signs.

The passage explains how widespread codes appear natural but conceal their constructed nature:

"They produce apparently ‘natural’ recognitions. This has the (ideological) effect of concealing the practices of coding."

Option C succinctly captures this idea. Options A, B, and D either misinterpret or oversimplify the passage.

Q3: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. 

Cartographers design and create maps to communicate information about phenomena located somewhere on our planet. In the past, cartographers did not worry too much about who was going to read their maps. Although some simple "usability" research was done-like comparing whether circle or bar symbols worked best-cartographers knew how to make maps. This has changed now, however, due to all kinds of societal and technological developments. Today, map readers are more demanding-mostly because of the tools they use to read maps. Cartographers, who are also influenced by these trends, are now more interested in seeing if their products are efficient, effective, and appreciated.
(a) New technological developments have prompted cartographers to experiment with their maps by applying these new innovations.
(b) Today, cartographers also need to look into the usability of maps because of the new technological developments.
(c) Maps are being used for a variety of reasons and therefore map readers have become more demanding.
(d) Modern mapmakers evaluate a map's effectiveness efficiency and satisfaction of the user through a series of experiments.

Ans: b

Sol: The correct answer is B: Today, cartographers also need to look into the usability of maps because of the new technological developments.

The passage discusses how societal and technological changes have influenced cartographers to focus on usability:

"Cartographers, who are also influenced by these trends, are now more interested in seeing if their products are efficient, effective, and appreciated."

Option B encapsulates this idea. Options A, C, and D either oversimplify or deviate from the central point.

Q4: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
When the tradwife puts on that georgic, pinstriped dress, she is not just admiring the visual cues of a fantastical past. She takes these dreams of storybook bliss literally, tracing them backward in time until she reaches a logical conclusion that satisfies her. And by doing so, she ends up delivering an unhappy reminder of just how much our lives consist of artifice and playacting. The tradwife outrages people because of her deliberately regressive ideals. And yet her behaviour is, on some level, indistinguishable from the non-tradwife’s. The tradwife’s trollish genius is to beat us at our own dress-up game. By insisting that the idyllic cottage daydream should be real, right down to the primitive gender roles, she leaves others feeling hollow, cheated. The hullabaloo and headaches she causes may be the price we pay for taking too many things at face value: our just deserts, served Instagram-perfect by a manicured hand on a gorgeous ceramic dish, with fat, mouthwatering maraschino cherries on top.   [2024]
(a) By promoting an idealised past, the tradwife exposes the artifice of contemporary values and mocks societal norms.
(b) The tradwife, with her vintage dress and traditional roles, highlights the superficiality of modern life and challenges current societal norms.
(c) The tradwife’s vintage dress and adherence to traditional roles reveal the artificial nature of modern life and its superficial values.
(d) The tradwife’s commitment to outdated gender roles and retro fashion critiques the superficiality of today's societal ideals

Ans: (b)

Q5: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Humans have managed to tweak the underlying biology of various plants and animals to produce high-tech crops and microbes. But regulating these entities is complicated, as the framework of policies and procedures are outdated and not flexible enough to adapt to emerging technology. The question is whether regulation will ever be able to keep up with human innovation, to regulate living things, which are apt to be unpredictable and unique; to capture all the potential risks when new biological entities are introduced, or when they pass on variations of their genes?  [2024]
(a) The mercurial nature of biological entities calls for scientists to shape the regulations governing emerging technology, with regular calibration to handle variations in the field.
(b) The problem with formulating regulation for innovation in the scientific arena it that it is impossible to imagine the outcomes or risks related to the outcomes of all the research.
(c) Current regulation of biotechnology is outdated, but it is debatable if we can create a framework, imaginative and flexible, to cover all contingencies in this fast-changing area.
(d) A new framework of rules and procedures for regulating the most recent research emerging from biotechnology is urgently needed, to keep up with this rapidly changing discipline.

Ans: (c)

Q6: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Lyric poetry is a genre of private meditation rather than public commitment. The impulse in Marxism toward changing a society deemed unacceptable in its basic design would seem to place demands on lyric poetry that such poetry, with its tendency toward the personal, the small scale, and the idiosyncratic, could never answer. There is within Marxism, however, also a strand of thought that would locate in lyric poetry alternative modes of perception and description that call forth a vision of worlds at odds with a repressive reality or that draw attention to the workings of ideology within the hegemonic culture. The poetic imagination may indeed deflect larger social concerns, but it may also be implicitly critical and utopian.   [2024]
(a) The focus of lyric poetry as personal may not seem compatible with Marxism. However, it is possible to envisage lyric poetry as a symbol of resistance against an oppressive culture.
(b) Marxism has internal contradictions due to which one strand of Marxism sees no merit in lyric poetry while another appreciates the alternative modes of perception in poetry.
(c) Marxism makes unreasonable demands on lyric poetry. However, lyric poetry has its own merits that are largely ignored by Marxism due to its personal nature.
(d) The focus of lyric poetry is largely personal while that of Marxism is bringing change in society. Unless the difference is resolved, poetry will remain largely utopian.

Ans: (a)

Q7: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Recent important scientific findings have emerged from crossing the boundaries of scientific fields. They stem from physicists collaborating with biologists, sociologists and others, to answer questions about our world. But physicists and their potential collaborators often find their cultures out of sync. For one, physicists often discard a lot of information while extracting broad patterns; for other scientists, information is not readily disposed. Further, many non-physicists are uncomfortable with mathematical models. Still, the desire to work on something new and different is real, and there are clear benefits from the collision of views.   [2024]
(a) Large data sets and mathematical models in physics research combined with the research methods of non-physicist collaborators have yielded important scientific findings.
(b) The desire to diversify their research and answer important questions has led to several collaborations between physicists and other social scientists.
(c) Physicists have successfully buried their differences on research methods applied in other fields in their desire to find answers to baffling scientific questions.
(d) Despite differences in their research styles, physicists’ research collaborations with scholars from other disciplines have yielded important research findings.

Ans: (d)

Q8: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Different from individuals, states conduct warfare operations using the DIME model— “diplomacy, information, military, and economics.” Most states do everything they can to inflict pain and confusion on their enemies before deploying the military. In fact, attacks on vectors of information are a well-worn tactic of war and usually are the first target when the charge begins. It’s common for telecom data and communications networks to be routinely monitored by governments, which is why the open data policies of the web are so concerning to many advocates of privacy and human rights. With the worldwide adoption of social media, more governments are getting involved in low-grade information warfare through the use of cyber troops. According to a study by the Oxford Internet Institute in 2020, cyber troops are “government or political party actors tasked with manipulating public opinion online.” The Oxford research group was able to identify 81 countries with active cyber troop operations utilizing many different strategies to spread false information, including spending millions on online advertising.   [2024]
(a) Governments primarily use the DIME model to deploy cyber troops who practise low grade information warfare, seeking to manipulate public opinion with the objective of inflicting pain and confusion on their enemies.
(b) Using the DIME model, together with military operations, many governments simultaneously conduct information warfare with the help of cyber troops and routinely monitor telecom data and communications networks.
(c) Following the DIME model, many governments have taken advantage of open data policies of the web to deploy cyber troops who manipulate domestic public opinion, using advertising and other strategies to spread false information. 
(d) As part of conducting information warfare as per the DIME model, many governments routinely monitor telecom data and communications networks, and use cyber troops on social media to manipulate public opinion.

Ans: (d)

Q9: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
John Cleese told Fox News Digital that comedians do not have the freedom to be funny in 2022. “There’s always been limitations on what they’re allowed to say,” Cleese said. “I think it’s particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you’re not checking everything you say critically before you move on. What you have to be able to do is to build without knowing where you’re going because you’ve never been there before. That’s what creativity is — you have to be allowed to build. And a lot of comedians now are sitting there and when they think of something, they say something like, ‘Can I get away with it? I don’t think so. So and so got into trouble, and he said that, oh, she said that.’ You see what I mean? And that’s the death of creativity.”   [2024]
(a) Comedians must not check what they think and say. They must go where no one has gone before.
(b) Freedom and creativity are essential for comedy. Fear about offending people hinders originality.
(c) Creativity and critical thinking cannot work together. Comedians must first be creative, and later be critical.
(d) Comedians are being prevented from saying what they want and that is the death of this art form.

Ans: (b)

Q10: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
When the tradwife puts on that georgic, pinstriped dress, she is not just admiring the visual cues of a fantastical past. She takes these dreams of storybook bliss literally, tracing them backward in time until she reaches a logical conclusion that satisfies her. And by doing so, she ends up delivering an unhappy reminder of just how much our lives consist of artifice and playacting. The tradwife outrages people because of her deliberately regressive ideals. And yet her behaviour is, on some level, indistinguishable from the nontradwife’s. The tradwife’s trollish genius is to beat us at our own dress-up game. By insisting that the idyllic cottage daydream should be real, right down to the primitive gender roles, she leaves others feeling hollow, cheated. The hullabaloo and headaches she causes may be the price we pay for taking too many things at face value: our just deserts, served Instagram-perfect by a manicured hand on a gorgeous ceramic dish, with fat, mouthwatering maraschino cherries on top.   [2024]
(a) By promoting an idealized past, the tradwife exposes the artifice of contemporary values and mocks societal norms.
(b) The tradwife, with her vintage dress and traditional roles, highlights the superficiality of modern life and challenges current societal norms.
(c) The tradwife’s vintage dress and adherence to traditional roles reveal the artificial nature of modern life and its superficial values.
(d) The tradwife’s commitment to outdated gender roles and retro fashion critiques the superficiality of today's societal ideals.

Ans: (b)

Q11: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Humans have managed to tweak the underlying biology of various plants and animals to produce high-tech crops and microbes. But regulating these entities is complicated, as the framework of policies and procedures are outdated and not flexible enough to adapt to emerging technology. The question is whether regulation will ever be able to keep up with human innovation, to regulate living things, which are apt to be unpredictable and unique; to capture all the potential risks when new biological entities are introduced, or when they pass on variations of their genes?   [2024]
(a) The mercurial nature of biological entities calls for scientists to shape the regulations governing emerging technology, with regular calibration to handle variations in the field.
(b) The problem with formulating regulation for innovation in the scientific arena it that it is impossible to imagine the outcomes or risks related to the outcomes of all the research.
(c) Current regulation of biotechnology is outdated, but it is debatable if we can create a framework, imaginative and flexible, to cover all contingencies in this fast-changing area.
(d) A new framework of rules and procedures for regulating the most recent research emerging from biotechnology is urgently needed, to keep up with this rapidly changing discipline.

Ans: (c)

Q12: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Lyric poetry is a genre of private meditation rather than public commitment. The impulse in Marxism toward changing a society deemed unacceptable in its basic design would seem to place demands on lyric poetry that such poetry, with its tendency toward the personal, the small scale, and the idiosyncratic, could never answer. There is within Marxism, however, also a strand of thought that would locate in lyric poetry alternative modes of perception and description that call forth a vision of worlds at odds with a repressive reality or that draw attention to the workings of ideology within the hegemonic culture. The poetic imagination may indeed deflect larger social concerns, but it may also be implicitly critical and utopian.   [2024]
(a) The focus of lyric poetry as personal may not seem compatible with Marxism. However, it is possible to envisage lyric poetry as a symbol of resistance against an oppressive culture.
(b) Marxism has internal contradictions due to which one strand of Marxism sees no merit in lyric poetry while another appreciates the alternative modes of perception in poetry.
(c) Marxism makes unreasonable demands on lyric poetry. However, lyric poetry has its own merits that are largely ignored by Marxism due to its personal nature.
(d) The focus of lyric poetry is largely personal while that of Marxism is bringing change in society. Unless the difference is resolved, poetry will remain largely utopian.

Ans: (a)

2023

Q1: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Manipulating information was a feature of history long before modern journalism established rules of integrity. A record dates back to ancient Rome, when Antony met Cleopatra and his political enemy Octavian launched a smear campaign against him with “short, sharp slogans written upon coins.” The perpetrator became the first Roman Emperor and “fake news had allowed Octavian to hack the republican system once and for all”. But the 21st century has seen the weaponisation of information on an unprecedented scale. Powerful new technology makes the fabrication of content simple, and social networks amplify falsehoods peddled by States, populist politicians, and dishonest corporate entities. The platforms have become fertile ground for computational propaganda, ‘trolling’ and ‘troll armies’.    [2023]
(a) Disinformation, which is mediated by technology today, is not new and has existed since ancient times.
(b) People need to become critical of what they read, since historically, weaponisation of information has led to corruption.
(c) Octavian used fake news to manipulate people and attain power and influence, just as people do today.
(d) Use of misinformation for attaining power, a practice that is as old as the Octavian era, is currently fueled by technology.

Ans: (d)
Main points of the passage:

• Information manipulation has existed for before modern journalism's integrity rules.
• Octavian is mentioned as example from ancient Rome to support this point.
• In 21st century, technology has led to fabrication of context for propaganda and trolling by states, politicians and corporates.

Option (a): The passage does not mention anything about technology mediating disinformation. Hence, this is not the best summary.
Option (b): People's point of view or what action they need to take is not mentioned in the passage.
Option (c): Though this is true but this is used only as an example to prove the point that misinformation is peddled to attain power. This point misses an important point about how technology today leads to wider scale of misinformation. Hence, this is not the best summary.
Option (d): Captures the main points of the passage and is the best summary.
Hence, option (d).

Q2: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. In the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. The modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political control in spite of geographical dispersion. The term colonialism is used to describe the process of European settlement, violent dispossession and political domination over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.   [2023]
(a) Colonialism surged in the 16th century due to advancements in navigation, enabling British settlements abroad and global dominance.
(b) As a result of developments in navigation technology, European colonialism led to the displacement of indigenous populations and global political changes in the 16th century.
(c) Technological advancements in navigation in the 16th century, transformed colonialism, enabling Europeans to establish settlements and exert political dominance over distant regions.
(d) Colonialism, conceptualised in the 16th century, allowed colonisers to expand their territories, establish settlements, and exercise political power.

Ans: (c)
Main points of the passage:

• Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon but has existed for many centuries.
• It gained momentum due to advancement in navigational technologies.
• Colonialism is the process of European settlement over the rest of the world.

Option (a): The passage mentions Europeans and not specifically British. Hence, this is not the best summary.
Option (b): The passage talks about Europeans being able to move their people across geographies. It does not mention anything about displacement of indigenous populations. Hence, this is not the best summary.
Option (d): Colonialism has existed for many centuries. It wasn't conceptualized in sixth century, it gained momentum in sixth century. Hence, this is not the best summary.
Option (c): Captures the main points of the passage and is the best summary.
Hence, option (c).

Q3: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Heatwaves are becoming longer, frequent and intense due to climate change. The impacts of extreme heat are unevenly experienced; with older people and young children, those with pre-existing medical conditions and on low incomes significantly more vulnerable. Adaptation to heatwaves is a significant public policy concern. Research conducted among at-risk people in the UK reveals that even vulnerable people do not perceive themselves as at risk of extreme heat; therefore, early warnings of extreme heat events do not perform as intended. This suggests that understanding how extreme heat is narrated is very important. The news media play a central role in this process and can help warn people about the potential danger, as well as about impacts on infrastructure and society.    [2023]
(a) People are vulnerable to heatwaves caused due to climate change, measures taken are ineffective.
(b) News stories help in warning about heatwaves, but they have to become more effective.
(c) Heatwaves pose an enormous risk; the media plays a pivotal role in alerting people to this danger.
(d) Protection from heat waves is important but current reports and public policies seem ineffective.

Ans: (c)
The passage discusses the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves due to climate change, particularly affecting vulnerable groups. The passage emphasizes the crucial role of the news media in warning the public about the dangers of heatwaves and their impacts on infrastructure and society.
Therefore, Option (c) accurately conveys the main points about the substantial risk posed by heatwaves and the media's critical role in public alertness.
Option (a) broadly highlights the importance of protection without specifically addressing the media's role in alerting people to heatwave risks.
Option (b) calls for more effective news stories but does not emphasize the central role of the media in warning about heatwave risks, as the passage does.
Option (d) acknowledges vulnerability to heatwaves but does not emphasize the media's role in alerting people and suggests a broader critique of protective measures.
Hence, option (c).

Q4: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
People spontaneously create counterfactual alternatives to reality when they think “if only” or “what if” and imagine how the past could have been different. The mind computes counterfactuals for many reasons. Counterfactuals explain the past and prepare for the future, they implicate various relations including causal ones, and they affect intentions and decisions. They modulate emotions such as regret and relief, and they support moral judgments such as blame. The ability to create counterfactuals develops throughout childhood and contributes to reasoning about other people's beliefs, including their false beliefs.   [2023]
(a) Counterfactual alternatives to reality are created for a variety of reasons and is part of one's developmental process.
(b) People create counterfactual alternatives to reality for various reasons, including reasoning about other people's beliefs.
(c) Counterfactuals help people to prepare for the future by understanding intentions and making decisions.
(d) Counterfactual thinking helps to reverse past and future actions and reason out false beliefs.

Ans: (a)
The main points of the passage are:

• People naturally create counterfactual scenarios for multiple purposes
• These include explaining the past, preparing for the future, understanding various relationships (including causal ones), influencing emotions, and forming moral judgments
• Counterfactuals evolves throughout childhood and aids in reasoning about others' beliefs

Thus, Option (a) captures the essence of the passage most accurately.
Option (b) fails to highlight the developmental aspect and the various reasons for creating counterfactuals. It also implies that people intentionally create counterfactual alternative, while passage states that people spontaneously creater these alternatives.
Option (c) emphasizes only the preparation for the future, overlooking the broader purposes of counterfactual thinking.
Option (d) incorrectly implies that counterfactual thinking helps reverse past and future actions, which is not correct. Counterfactual alternative do not reverse the past actions, it helps explain the past.
Hence, option (a).

Q5: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The weight of society’s expectations is hardly a new phenomenon but it has become particularly draining over recent decades, perhaps because expectations themselves are so multifarious and contradictory. The perfectionism of the 1950s was rooted in the norms of mass culture and captured in famous advertising images of the ideal white American family that now seem self-satirising. In that era, perfectionism meant seamlessly conforming to values, behaviour and appearance: chiselled confidence for men, demure graciousness for women. The perfectionist was under pressure to look like everyone else, only more so. The perfectionists of today, by contrast, feel an obligation to stand out through their idiosyncratic style and wit if they are to gain a foothold in the attention economy.   [2023]
(a) The desire to attract attention is so deep-rooted in individual consciousness that people are willing to go to any lengths to achieve it.
(b) Though long-standing, the pressure to appear perfect and thereby attract attention, has evolved over time from one of conformism to one of non-conformism.
(c) The image of perfectionism is reflected in and perpetuated by the media; and people do their best to adhere to these ideals.
(d) The pressure to appear perfect has been the cause of tension and conflict because the idea itself has been in a state of flux and hard to define.

Ans: (b)
Sol: The passage talks about how perfectionism of 1950s meant conforming to values, behaviour and appearance. But perfectionists of today in contrast feel an obligation to stand out.
Option (b) captures this essence perfectly.
Option (a) empahsizes that people will go to any length for perctionism which is not mentioned in the passage.
Option (c): The passage doen't discuss role of media in perpetuating perfectionism. The passage only mentions about advertising and not the role of media.
Option (d): The passage does not mention conflict due to idea of perfectionism not defined. The idea of perfectionism has changed in modern times, but it did not lead to tension and conflicts.
Hence, option (b).

Q6: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Gradually, life for the island’s birds is improving. Antarctic prions and white-headed petrels, which also nest in burrows, had managed to cling on in some sites while pests were on the island. Their numbers are now increasing. “It’s fantastic and so exciting,” Shaw says. As birds return to breed, they also poo. This adds nutrients to the soil, which in turn helps the plants to grow back stronger. Tall plants then help burrowing birds hide from predatory skuas. “It’s this wonderful feedback loop,” Shaw says. Today, the “pretty paddock” that Houghton first experienced has been transformed. “The tussock is over your head, and you’re dodging all these penguin tunnels,” she says. The orchids and tiny herb that had been protected by fencing have started turning up all over the place.   [2023]
(a) In the absence of pests, life on the island is now protected, and there has been a revival of a variety of birds and plants.
(b) There is an increasing number of predatory birds and plants on the island despite the presence of pests which is a positive development.
(c) There is a huge positive transformation of the ecosystem of the island when brought under environmental protection.
(d) Flowering plants, herbs and birds are now being protected on this wonderful Antarctic island.

Ans: (a)
Sol: The passage illustrates the gradual enhancement of life on the island, particularly benefiting birds such as Antarctic prions and white-headed petrels. It underscores the rising bird populations, attributed to absence of pests on the island. The elimination of pests facilitates the birds' return, fostering breeding activities and contributing positively to the ecosystem.Furthermore, the passage notes the valuable role of bird droppings in enriching the soil with nutrients, supporting the growth of plants. 
In summary, Option (a) accurately captures the core theme of the passage, emphasizing the rejuvenation and improvement of the island's environment through the eradication of pests, positively impacting both birds and plants.
Option (b) incorrectly implies an increase in predatory bird numbers, contradicting the positive developments outlined in the passage.
Option (c) is inaccurate, as the passage doesn't explicitly identify the mentioned protection as the primary cause of the positive changes.
Option (d) is too general and fails to specifically highlight the absence of pests as a pivotal factor in the positive transformation detailed in the passage.
Hence, option (a).

2022

Q1: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Petitioning is an expeditious democratic tradition, used frequently in prior centuries, by which citizens can bring issues directly to governments. As expressions of collective voice, they support procedural democracy by shaping agendas. They can also recruit citizens to causes, give voice to the voteless, and apply the discipline of rhetorical argument that clarifies a point of view. By contrast, elections are limited in several respects: they involve only a few candidates, and thus fall far short of a representative democracy. Further, voters’ choices are not specific to particular policies or laws, and elections are episodic, whereas the voice of the people needs to be heard and integrated constantly into democratic government.   [2022]
(a) By giving citizens greater control over shaping political and democratic agendas, political petitions are  invaluable as they represent an ideal form of a representative democracy.
(b) Petitioning is definitely more representative of the collective voice, and the functioning of democratic government could improve if we relied more on petitioning rather than holding periodic elections.
(c) Citizens become less inclined to petitioning as it enables vocal citizens to shape political agendas, but this needs to change to strengthen democracies today.
(d) Petitioning has been important to democratic functioning, as it supplements the electoral process by enabling ongoing engagement with the government.

Ans: (d)
Sol: Option (a): Although passage discusses about positive aspects of petitioning, it does not mentions that it is an ideal form of democracy.
Option (b): The passage says that petitioning gives voice to people and elections have limitations, but it does not mention that we should rely more on petitioning that elections.
Option (c): The passage does not suggest that citizens are becoming less inclined to petitioning. In fact, the passage does not address the prevalence of petitioning in contemporary times at all.
Option (d) captures the essence of the passage.
Hence, option (d).

Q2: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
It’s not that modern historians of medieval Africa have been ignorant about contacts between Ethiopia and Europe; they just had the power dynamic reversed. The traditional narrative stressed Ethiopia as weak and in trouble in the face of aggression from external forces, so Ethiopia sought military assistance from their fellow Christians to the north. But the real story, buried in plain sight in medieval diplomatic texts, simply had not yet been put together by modern scholars. Recent research pushes scholars of medieval Europe to imagine a much more richly connected medieval world: at the beginning of the so-called Age of Exploration, there is evidence that the kings of Ethiopia were sponsoring their own missions of diplomacy, faith and commerce.    [2022]
(a) Historians were under the illusion that Ethiopia needed military protection from their neighbours, but in fact the country had close commercial and religious connections with them.
(b) Medieval texts have been ‘cherry-picked’ to promote a view of Ethiopia as weak and in need of Europe’s military help with aggressive neighbours, but recent studies reveal it was a well-connected and outward-looking culture.
(c) Medieval historical sources selectively promoted the narrative that powerful European forces were called on to protect weak African civilisations such as Ethiopia, but this is far from reality.
(d) Medieval texts have documented how strong connections between the Christian communities of Ethiopia and Europe were invaluable in establishing military and trade links between the two civilisations.

Ans: (b)
Sol: There was a narrative set that Ethiopia was weak and sougth military help from Europeans. But recent research shows that Ethiopia was actually a well-connected and outward-looking culture that engaged in missions of diplomacy, faith, and commerce with Europe.
Option (a): Historians were not under this illusion, they themselvses created this narrative.
Option (b) capture the essence of the passage
Option (c) & (d) do not mention an important point that Ethiopia was an outward-looking culture.
Hence, option (b).

Q3: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
All that we think we know about how life hangs together is really some kind of illusion that we have perpetrated on ourselves because of our limited vision. What appear to be inanimate objects such as stones turn out not only to be alive in the same way that we are, but also in many infinitesimal ways to be affected by stimuli just as humans are. The distinction between animate and inanimate simply cannot be made when you enter the world of quantum mechanics and try to determine how those apparent subatomic particles, of which you and everything else in our universe is composed, are all tied together. The point is that physics and metaphysics show there is a pattern to the universe that goes beyond our capacity to grasp it with our brains.   [2022]
(a) Arbitrary distinctions between inanimate and animate objects disappear at the scale at which quantum mechanics works.
(b) The inanimate world is both sentient and cognizant like its animate counterpart.
(c) The effect of stimuli is similar in inanimate objects when compared to animate objects or living beings.
(d) Quantum physics indicates that an astigmatic view of reality results in erroneous assumptions about the universe.

Ans: (a)
Sol: The passage is about the limitations of our understanding of how things work. This is illustrated through the example of animate and inanimate object. The way we distinguish between them may be flawed due to our limited perspective. At quantum level there is no distinction between animate and inanimate objects.
Option (a) captures this essence and hence is the correct answer.
Option (b) mentions the words sentient and congnizant for inanimate objects which have not been used for in the passage.
Option (c) is wrong. Although the passage mentions that inanimate objects are affected by stimuli just like humans are affected, but it does not mention that the effect is similar.
Option (d) is wrong as the passage does not mention anything about astigmatic view. It also does not mention the main idea of the passage which is distinction between animate and inanimate objects.
Hence, option (a).

Q4: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Several of the world’s earliest cities were organised along egalitarian lines. In some regions, urban populations governed themselves for centuries without any indication of the temples and palaces that would later emerge; in others, temples and palaces never emerged at all, and there is simply no evidence of a class of administrators or any other sort of ruling stratum. It would seem that the mere fact of urban life does not, necessarily, imply any particular form of political organization, and never did. Far from resigning us to inequality, the picture that is now emerging of humanity’s past may open our eyes to egalitarian possibilities we otherwise would have never considered.   [2022]
(a) We now have the evidence in support of the existence of an egalitarian urban life in some ancient cities, where political and civic organisation was far less hierarchical.
(b) The lack of hierarchical administration in ancient cities can be deduced by the absence of religious and regal structures such as temples and palaces.
(c) Contrary to our assumption that urban settlements have always involved hierarchical political and administrative structures, ancient cities were not organised in this way.
(d) The emergence of a class of administrators and ruling stratum transformed the egalitarian urban life of ancient cities to the hierarchical civic organisations of today.

Ans: a
Sol:
The gist of the paragraph is that an urban life does not necessarily imply any particular form of political organisation. Egalitarianism was the way of life and now many evidences from the past lend credibility to this viewpoint. Option C is generalised for all cities. Option A captures the essence in the best way.

Q5: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
There's a common idea that museum artworks are somehow timeless objects available to admire for generations to come. But many are objects of decay. Even the most venerable Old Master paintings don't escape: pigments discolour, varnishes crack, canvases warp. This challenging fact of art-world life is down to something that sounds more like a thread from a morality tale: inherent vice. Damien Hirst's iconic shark floating in a tank – entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living – is a work that put a spotlight on inherent vice. When he made it in 1991, Hirst got himself in a pickle by not using the right kind of pickle to preserve the giant fish. The result was that the shark began to decompose quite quickly – its preserving liquid clouding, the skin wrinkling, and an unpleasant smell wafting from the tank.   [2022]
(a) Artworks may not last forever; they may deteriorate with time, and the challenge is to slow down their degeneration.
(b) The role of museums has evolved to ensure that the artworks are preserved forever in addition to guarding and displaying them
(c) Museums have to guard timeless art treasures from intrinsic defects such as the deterioration of paint, polish and canvas.
(d) Museums are left with the moral responsibility of restoring and preserving the artworks since artists cannot preserve their works beyond their life.

Ans: (c)
Sol:
The gist of the paragraph is that many museum artworks are susceptible to decay because of something called as inherent vice i.e., a manufacturing defect. An example of this is given where the use of the wrong kind of material resulted in the decay of an artwork. Nowhere in the paragraph is the role or duty of the museums given. So, options B, C and D are eliminated. Only option A is left which is not 100% correct as the “challenge is to slow down their degeneration” is not stated explicitly. Still, this is a better option than the rest.

Q6: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Today, many of the debates about behavioural control in the age of big data echo Cold War-era anxieties about brainwashing, insidious manipulation and repression in the ‘technological society’. In his book Psychopolitics, Han warns of the sophisticated use of targeted online content, enabling ‘influence to take place on a pre-reflexive level’. On our current trajectory, “freedom will prove to have been merely an interlude.” The fear is that the digital age has not liberated us but exposed us, by offering up our private lives to machine-learning algorithms that can process masses of personal and behavioural data. In a world of influencers and digital entrepreneurs, it’s not easy to imagine the resurgence of a culture engendered through disconnect and disaffiliation, but concerns over the threat of online targeting, polarisation and big data have inspired recent polemics about the need to rediscover solitude and disconnect.   [2022]
(a) The notion of freedom and privacy is at stake in a world where artificial intelligence is capable of influencing behaviour through data gathered online.
(b) The role of technology in influencing public behaviour is reminiscent of the manner in which behaviour was manipulated during the Cold War.
(c) With big data making personal information freely available, the debate on the nature of freedom and the need for privacy has resurfaced.
(d) Rather than freeing us, digital technology is enslaving us by collecting personal information and influencing our online behaviour.

Ans: (c)

Q7: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
To defend the sequence of alphabetisation may seem bizarre, so obvious is its application that it is hard to imagine a reference, catalogue or listing without it. But alphabetical order was not an immediate consequence of the alphabet itself. In the Middle Ages, deference for ecclesiastical tradition left scholars reluctant to categorise things according to the alphabet — to do so would be a rejection of the divine order. The rediscovery of the ancient Greek and Roman classics necessitated more efficient ways of ordering, searching and referencing texts. Government bureaucracy in the 16th and 17th centuries quickened the advance of alphabetical order, bringing with it pigeonholes, notebooks and card indexes.   [2022]
(a) Unlike the alphabet, once the efficacy of the alphabetic sequence became apparent to scholars and administrators, its use became widespread.
(b) While adoption of the written alphabet was easily accomplished, it took scholars several centuries to accept the alphabetic sequence as a useful tool in their work.
(c) The ban on the use by scholars of any form of categorisation - but the divinely ordained one - delayed the adoption of the alphabetic sequence by several centuries.
(d) The alphabetic order took several centuries to gain common currency because of religious beliefs and a lack of appreciation of its efficacy in the ordering of things.

Ans: (d)
Sol:
According to the passage, alphabetical order was not an immediate consequence of the alphabet itself. Reluctance due to ecclesiastical (relating to the Christian Church or its clergy) traditions and the need of a more efficient way of ordering were a few reasons why the alphabetic order took several centuries to gain common currency (to gain common currency means to get wide acceptance). Option D covers these points in the most efficient way.

Q8: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. 
“It does seem to me that the job of comedy is to offend, or have the potential to offend, and it cannot be drained of that potential,” Rowan Atkinson said of cancel culture. “Every joke has a victim. That’s the definition of a joke. Someone or something or an idea is made to look ridiculous.” The Netflix star continued, “I think you’ve got to be very, very careful about saying what you’re allowed to make jokes about. You’ve always got to kick up? Really?” He added, “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in  what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”   [2022]
(a) Cancel culture does not understand the role and duty of comedians, which is to deride and mock everyone.
(b) Victims of jokes must not only be politicians and royalty, but also arrogant people from lower classes should be mentioned by comedians.
(c) Every joke needs a victim and one needs to include people from lower down the society and not just the upper class.
(d) All jokes target someone and one should be able to joke about anyone in the society, which is inconsistent with cancel culture.

Ans: (d)
Sol:

According to Rowan Atkinson (the famous character Mr. Bean), comedy has the potential to offend and it shouldn’t be drained of that. Every joke targets someone. In a proper free society, one should be able to make jokes about anything. He says this of cancel culture i.e., cancel culture must not be following these ideals; that’s the reason he says what ‘a proper free society’ should be like.

Option (d) covers this idea the best.

Q9: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. 
Tamsin Blanchard, curator of Fashion Open Studio, an initiative by a campaign group showcasing the work of ethical designers says, “We're all drawn to an exquisite piece of embroidery, a colourful textile or even a style of dressing that might have originated from another heritage. [But] this magpie mentality, where all of culture and history is up for grabs as 'inspiration', has accelerated since the proliferation of social media... Where once a fashion student might research the history and traditions of a particular item of clothing with care and respect, we now have a world where images are lifted from image libraries without a care for their cultural significance. It's easier than ever to steal a motif or a craft technique and transfer it on to a piece of clothing that is either mass produced or appears on a runway without credit or compensation to their original communities."   [2022]
(a) Taking fashion ideas from any cultural group without their consent is a form of appropriation without giving due credit, compensation, and respect.
(b) Media has encouraged mass production; images are copied effortlessly without care or concern for the interests of ethnic communities.
(c) Copying an embroidery design or pattern of textile from native communities who own them is tantamount to stealing and they need to be compensated.
(d) Cultural collaboration is the need of the hour. Beautiful design ideas of indigenous people need to be showcased and shared worldwide.

Ans: (a)
Sol:
The paragraph says that the mentality that traditional culture and history is up for grabs has increased since the proliferation (growth) of social media. Because of this, a culture of mass production of clothes having prints of stolen imageries or techniques has increased where neither credit nor compensation is given to the original creator communities.
Option A covers this idea in the best possible manner.
Option B is rejected as soon as the word “media” is read. ‘Media’ and ‘social media’ are two different things.
Option C emphasizes on the need for compensation which hasn’t been brought up in the paragraph.
Option D is the vaguest option.

2021

Q1: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Developing countries are becoming hotbeds of business innovation in much the same way as Japan did from the 1950s onwards. They are reinventing systems of production and distribution, and experimenting with entirely new business models. Why are countries that were until recently associated with cheap hands now becoming leaders in innovation? Driven by a mixture of ambition and fear they are relentlessly climbing up the value chain. Emerging-market champions have not only proved highly competitive in their own backyards, they are also going global themselves.   [2021]
(a) Competition has driven emerging economies, once suppliers of cheap labour, to become innovators of business models that have enabled them to move up the value chain and go global.
(b) Innovations in production and distribution are helping emerging economies compete with countries to which they once supplied cheap labour.
(c) Developing countries are being forced to invent new business models which challenge the old business models, so they can remain competitive domestically.
(d) Production and distribution models are going through rapid innovations worldwide as developed countries are being challenged by their earlier suppliers from the developing world.

Correct Option is (a)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. Developing economies are becoming hotbeds of economic innovation.
2. Earlier they used to be associated with cheap labour, but now ambition and fear have made them competitive globally.
Option A: It correctly captures the two main points and hence is the answer.
Option B: This option is distorted. Business innovations have not been mentioned as the reason why emerging economies have become competitive globally. It has only been mentioned as a factor in close association.
Option C: Again, the paragraph does not mention that the developing economies are being forced to do this in order to stay competitive. This option suggests an element of necessity for the survival of the economies, which is not implied.
Option D: This option is distorted. The passage only mentions innovations in developing economies and not worldwide.

Q2: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Foreign peacekeepers often exist in a bubble in the poor countries in which they are deployed; they live in posh compounds, drive fancy vehicles, and distance themselves from locals. This may be partially justified as they are outsiders, living in constant fear, performing a job that is emotionally draining. But they are often despised by the locals, and many would like them to leave. A better solution would be bottom-up peacebuilding, which would involve their spending more time working with communities, understanding their grievances and earning their trust, rather than only meeting government officials.   [2021]
(a) Peacekeeping duties would be more effectively performed by local residents given their better understanding, knowledge and rapport with their own communities.
(b) The environment in poor countries has tended to make foreign peacekeeping forces live in enclaves, but it is time to change this scenario.
(c) Extravagant lifestyles and an aloof attitude among the foreigners working as peacekeepers in poor countries have justifiably made them the target of local anger.
(d) Peacekeeping forces in foreign countries have tended to be aloof for valid reasons but would be more effective if they worked more closely with local communities.

Correct Option is (d)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. The peacekeeping forces often exist in a bubble. Though there are valid reasons behind this, this also results in the locals feeling antipathy towards them.
2. The solution to this problem is to build rapport with the locals too instead of focusing only on the government officials.
Option A: Not implied in the paragraph. The paragraph suggests building relationships with the locals. Appointing only locals as peacekeepers has not been implied.
Option B: This option distorts what is being presented in the paragraph. The paragraph suggests that the bubble is justified sometimes and also suggest measures to counter that. The option implicates the country's environment as being responsible for that bubble, hence the blame is shifted completely. Also, the option fails to mention the antipathy and the measures suggested to counter the bubble.
Option C: This option is distorted. Where the paragraph says that the aloof attitude is justified sometimes, the option blames the peacekeeping forces and their 'extravagant lifestyles' for the antipathy they face. Hence, can be eliminated.
Option D: Option D correctly captures the main points and is the answer.

Q3: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
McGurk and MacDonald (1976) reported a powerful multisensory illusion occurring with audio-visual speech. They recorded a voice articulating a consonant ‘ba-ba-ba’ and dubbed it with a face articulating another consonant ‘ga-ga-ga’. Even though the acoustic speech signal was well recognised alone, it was heard as another consonant after dubbing with incongruent visual speech i.e., ‘da-da-da’. The illusion, termed as the McGurk effect, has been replicated many times, and it has sparked an abundance of research. The reason for the great impact is that this is a striking demonstration of multisensory integration, where that auditory and visual information is merged into a unified, integrated percept.    [2021]
(a) Visual speech mismatched with auditory speech can result in the perception of an entirely different message: this illusion is known as the McGurk effect.
(b) When the quality of auditory information is poor, the visual information wins over the auditory information.
(c) The McGurk effect which is a demonstration of multisensory integration has been replicated many times.
(d) When the auditory speech signal does not match the visual speech movements, the acoustic speech signal is confusing and integration of the two is imperfect.

Correct Option is (a)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. A multisensory illusion, dubbing a different visual cue to audio, makes the subject perceive a different sound. (Important point)
2. This illusion is called McGurk effect. (Important point. Related to 1)
3. An impactful subject of research as it demonstrates multisensory integration. (Secondary point. 1 and 2 can stand without this point)
Option A: Covers 1 and 2. Hence, a plausible option.
Option B: It distorts what the author is trying to say. It draws a conclusion out of the results of the study instead of paraphrasing the passage.
Option C: Option C covers only 3. It does not mention 1 and hence is not a good summary.
Option D: Mentions only 1. Not an apt summary.
Hence, the answer is Option A.

Q4: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Biologists who publish their research directly to the Web have been labelled as “rogue”, but physicists have been routinely publishing research digitally (“preprints”), prior to submitting in a peer-reviewed journal. Advocates of preprints argue that quick and open dissemination of research speeds up scientific progress and allows for wider access to knowledge. But some journals still don’t accept research previously published as a preprint. Even if the idea of preprints is gaining ground, one of the biggest barriers for biologists is how they would be viewed by members of their conservative research community.    [2021]
(a) One of the advantages of digital preprints of research is they hasten the dissemination process, but these are not accepted by most scientific communities.
(b) Compared to biologists, physicists are less conservative in their acceptance of digital pre-publication of research papers, which allows for faster dissemination of knowledge.
(c) While digital publication of research is gaining popularity in many scientific disciplines, almost all peer-reviewed journals are reluctant to accept papers that have been published before.
(d) Preprints of research are frowned on by some scientific fields as they do not undergo a rigourous reviewing process but are accepted among biologists as a quick way to disseminate information.

Correct Option is (b)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. As compared to physicists, biologists are more conservative when it comes to the subject of preprints.
2. Preprints allow faster dissemination of knowledge.
Option A: Misses out the comparison between biologists and physicists.
Option B: Captures both the points appropriately and is the answer.
Option C: Also misses out the comparison between biologists and physicists.
Option D: Factually incorrect, physicists and not biologists are open to the idea of preprints.

Q5: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Creativity is now viewed as the engine of economic progress. Various organisations are devoted to its study and promotion; there are encyclopedias and handbooks surveying creativity research. But this proliferating success has tended to erode creativity’s stable identity: it has become so invested with value that it has become impossible to police its meaning and the practices that supposedly identify and encourage it. Many people and organisations committed to producing original thoughts now feel that undue obsession with the idea of creativity gets in the way of real creativity.   [2021]
(a) The obsession with original thought, how it can be promoted and researched, has made it impossible for people and organizations to define the concept anymore.
(b) The industry that has built up around researching what comprises and encourages creativity has destroyed the creative process itself.
(c) Creativity has proliferated to the extent that is no longer a stable process, and its mutating identity has stifled the creative process.
(d) The value assigned to creativity today has assumed such proportions that the concept itself has lost its real meaning and this is hampering the engendering of real creativity.

Correct Option is (d)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. The value of creativity to economic progress has been realised, with serious investment being done to study/promote it.
2. But this success fires back. Policing its meaning can lead to obsession, hampering creativity itself.
Option A: It is extreme in approach. The paragraph does not imply that it has become impossible to define the concept, but it becomes difficult to practice creativity when it is being forced on oneself.
Option B: It is also extreme. The obsession hampers, not completely destroys the creative process.
Option C: This option is a distortion and fails to capture the above points.
Option D: Comes the closest to capturing the above two points, and hence, is the answer.

Q6: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The unlikely alliance of the incumbent industrialist and the distressed unemployed worker is especially powerful amid the debris of corporate bankruptcies and layoffs. In an economic downturn, the capitalist is more likely to focus on costs of the competition emanating from free markets than on the opportunities they create. And the unemployed worker will find many others in a similar condition and with anxieties similar to his, which will make it easier for them to organize together. Using the cover and the political organization provided by the distressed, the capitalist captures the political agenda.   [2021]
(a) In an economic downturn, the capitalists use the anxieties of the unemployed and their political organisation to set the political agenda to suit their economic interests.
(b) The purpose of an unlikely alliance between the industrialist and the unemployed during an economic downturn is to stifle competition in free markets.
(c) An economic downturn creates competition because of which the capitalists capture the political agenda created by the political organisation provided by the unemployed.
(d) An unlikely alliance of the industrialist and the unemployed happens during an economic downturn in which they come together to unite politically and capture the political agenda.

Correct Option is (a)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. In an economic disaster, the atypical alliance of established industrialist and unemployed workers proves powerful.
2. Anxieties and anticipation lead them to look after their interests.
3. It is the industrialist that benefits the most as he is able to use the latter to achieve his vested political interests.
Option A: Comes the closest in capturing all three points, and hence, is the answer.
Option B: Distortion. This purpose has not been mentioned in the passage.
Option C: Distortion. It has not been mentioned that an economic downturn creates competition. It has been mentioned that during such a disaster, the industrialist is more likely to focus on the downsides emerging from free-market (competition) than the upsides.
Option D: Distortion. It has been implied that the industrialist manipulates the situation to fulfill his own political agenda, and not that the two parties come together to achieve a single goal.

Q7: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
People view idleness as a sin and industriousness as a virtue, and in the process have developed an unsatisfactory relationship with their jobs. Work has become a way for them to keep busy, even though many find their work meaningless. In their need for activity people undertake what was once considered work (fishing, gardening) as hobbies. The opposing view is that hard work has made us prosperous and improved our levels of health and education. It has also brought innovation and labour and time-saving devices, which have lessened life’s drudgery.   [2021]
(a) Despite some detractors, hard work is essential in today’s world to enable economic progress, for education and health and to propel innovations that make life easier.
(b) Hard work has overtaken all aspects of our lives and has enabled economic prosperity, but it is important that people reserve their leisure time for some idleness.
(c) Some believe that hard work has been glorified to the extent that it has become meaningless, and led to greater idleness, but it has also had enormous positive impacts on everyday life.
(d) While the idealisation of hard work has propelled people into meaningless jobs and endless activity, it has also led to tremendous social benefits from prosperity and innovation.

Correct Option is (d)
The main points of the passage are:
1. People increasingly view idleness as sin and industriousness as a virtue, pushing them into meaningless jobs.
2. On the other hand, this has also saved us from many of life's drudgeries.
Option A: Misses out on point 1.
Option B: A distortion. The author does not advocate idleness. Also, 1 is not covered properly.
Option C: Incorrect. 'led to greater idleness' is not implied anywhere in the passage.
Option D: Covers both the points aptly and is the answer.

Q8: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The human mind is wired to see patterns. Not only does the brain process information as it comes in, it also stores insights from all our past experiences. Every interaction, happy or sad, is catalogued in our memory. Intuition draws from that deep memory well to inform our decisions going forward. In other words, intuitive decisions are based on data, and not contrary to data as many would like to assume. When we subconsciously spot patterns, the body starts firing neurochemicals in both the brain and gut. These “somatic markers” are what give us that instant sense that something is right … or that it’s off. Not only are these automatic processes faster than rational thought, but our intuition draws from decades of diverse qualitative experience (sights, sounds, interactions, etc.) - a wholly human feature that big data alone could never accomplish.   [2021]
(a) Intuition is infinitely richer than big data which is based on rational thought and accomplishes more than what big data can.
(b) Intuitions are automatic processes and are therefore faster than rational thought, and so decisions based on them are better.
(c) Intuition draws from deep memory, and may not be related to data, but to decades of diverse qualitative experience.
(d) Intuitions are neuro-chemical firings based on pattern recognition and draw upon a rich and vast database of experiences.

Correct Option is (d)
The main points of the paragraph are as follows:
1. Intuition draws from a vast array of memories that our brain keeps in store.
2. When our brain recognises a pattern from past memories, neuron firing starts, which gives us the gut feeling of intuition.
Option A: Distortion: The passage does not give any detail about big data being based on rational thought.
Option B: Out of scope. The paragraph does not allude to whether the decisions based on intuition are better or worse.
Option C: Incorrect: The passage says that intuitive decisions are based on data.
Option D: Correctly covers the mentioned points and hence, is the answer.

Q9: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Brazil’s growth rate has been low, yet most Brazilians say their financial situation has improved, and they expect it to get even better. This is because most incomes are rising fast, with higher minimum wages and very low unemployment. The result is falling inequality and a growing middle class — the result of economic stabilization, improved social security and universal primary education. But despite recent improvements the Brazilian economy is still painfully unequal, with poor Brazilians paying the biggest share of their income in taxes and getting the least back in government services.    [2021]
(a) Economic reforms have benefitted many Brazilians, but they are unaware of the impending problems from rising inequalities in their society.
(b) Good economic indicators have masked the unfair taxation of the poor that is likely to destabilise the Brazilian economy in the next few years.
(c) Most Brazilians feel they have benefitted from recent economic events, but the poor continue to be dealt unfairly by the state.
(d) With rising incomes and falling unemployment, most Brazilians are being misled into thinking that their economy is doing well.

Correct Option is (c)
The main points of the paragraph are:
1. The Brazilian economy has been stagnant, but the popular perception is that the times have improved.
2. The reasons are falling inequality and other important services.
3. Despite this, the economy is brutally unequal.
Option A: Ignorance on the part of Brazilians is not implied. What the author is saying that though things have improved for the ones who say so, others are still being dealt a rough hand.
Option B: The paragraph does not imply that the good economic indicators are being used as subterfuge to cover up the prevailing inequality.
Option C: Comes the closest in capturing the three points. Hence, is the answer.
Option D: It has a problem similar to Option A. Things have improved for that section of people. They are not ignorant, nor are they being misled into believing something.

​2020

Q1: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. 
For nearly a century most psychologists have embraced one view of intelligence. Individuals are born with more or less intelligence potential (I.Q.); this potential is heavily influenced by heredity and difficult to alter; experts in measurement can determine a person’s intelligence early in life, currently from paper-and-pencil measures, perhaps eventually from examining the brain in action or even scrutinizing his/her genome. Recently, criticism of this conventional wisdom has mounted. Biologists ask if speaking of a single entity called “intelligence” is coherent and question the validity of measures used to estimate heritability of a trait in humans, who, unlike plants or animals, are not conceived and bred under controlled conditions.     [2020]
1. Biologists have questioned the long-standing view that ‘intelligence’ is a single entity and the attempts to estimate its heritability.
2. Biologists have started questioning psychologists' view of 'intelligence' as a measurable immutable characteristic of an individual.
3. Biologists have questioned the view that ‘intelligence’ is a single entity and the ways in which what is inherited.
4. Biologists have criticised that conventional wisdom that individuals are born with more or less intelligence potential.

Ans: 1
In this question, too, we have to look for the keywords. The passage talks about intelligence and its heritability, and the criticism mounted against it. Option 1 exactly captures all the keywords. 2 misses on the heritability part of the story. 3 wrongly mentions the debate about “ways in which intelligence is inherited”. The criticism is about heritability itself, not about the ways in which it is inherited. Choice 4 also missies the crucial idea of heritability. Thus 1 is the best choice.

Q2: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
As Soviet power declined, the world became to some extent multipolar, and Europe strove to define an independent identity. What a journey Europe has undertaken to reach this point. It had in every century changed its internal structure and invented new ways of thinking about the nature of international order. Now at the culmination of an era, Europe, in order to participate in it, felt obliged to set aside the political mechanisms through which it had conducted its affairs for three and a half centuries. Impelled also by the desire to cushion the emergent unification of Germany, the new European Union established a common currency in 2002 and a formal political structure in 2004. It proclaimed a Europe united, whole, and free, adjusting its differences by peaceful mechanisms.     [2020]
1. Europe has consistently changed its internal structure to successfully adapt to the changing world order.
2. Europe has consistently changed in keeping with the changing world order and that has culminated in a united Europe.
3. The establishment of a formal political structure in Europe was hastened by the unification of Germany and the emergence of a multipolar world.
4. Europe has chosen to lower political and economic heterogeneity, in order to adapt itself to an emerging multi-polar world.

Ans: 4
This is a slightly difficult question. The passage talks about what modern Europe has done in order to adapt to changing international order. There are two things it has done: establish a common currency, and a formal political structure, adjusting its internal differences by peaceful mechanisms. 1 looks good, but does the passage say that “Europe has consistently done this”? Maybe. But what it misses here is the essence. Europe has changed its structure, but the focus of the passage is on “what it has done of late”. For this reason, 4 wins. By choosing a common currency it has tried to lower economic heterogeneity, and by establishing European Union it has tried to lower political heterogeneity. Thus 4 captures the essence, while 1, 2 and 3 walk on the periphery.

Q3: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
For years, movies and television series like Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) paint an unrealistic picture of the “science of voices.” In the 1994 movie Clear and Present Danger an expert listens to a brief recorded utterance and declares that the speaker is “Cuban, aged 35 to 45, educated in the […] eastern United States.” The recording is then fed to a supercomputer that matches the voice to that of a suspect, concluding that the probability of correct identification is 90%. This sequence sums up a good number of misimpressions about forensic phonetics, which have led to errors in reallife justice. Indeed, that movie scene exemplifies the so-called “CSI effect”—the phenomenon in which judges hold unrealistic expectations of the capabilities of forensic science.     [2020]
1. Although voice recognition is often presented as evidence in legal cases, its scientific basis can be shaky.
2. Movies and televisions have led to the belief that the use of forensic phonetics in legal investigations is robust and fool proof.
3. Voice recognition as used in many movies to identify criminals has been used to identify criminals in real life also.
4. Voice recognition has started to feature prominently in crime-scene intelligence investigations because of movies and television series.

Ans: 2
This question is slightly easier than the earlier one. Let’s see the critical elements of the passage. The most important critical element is “forensic phonetics in movies and television”, and “these have led to errors in real-life justice, with unrealistic expectations of the capabilities of forensic science”. 1 goes out because it misses the context of “movies and television”. 3 is a complete distortion, whereas 4 misses the “unrealistic expectations” part. 2 is the best choice in every way.

Q4: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
All humans make decisions based on one or a combination of two factors. This is either intuition or information. Decisions made through intuition are usually fast, people don’t even think about the problem. It is quite philosophical, meaning that someone who made a decision based on intuition will have difficulty explaining the reasoning behind it. The decision-maker would often utilize her senses in drawing conclusions, which again is based on some experience in the field of study. On the other side of the spectrum, we have decisions made based on information. These decisions are rational — it is based on facts and figures, which unfortunately also means that it can be quite slow. The decision-maker would frequently use reports, analyses, and indicators to form her conclusion. This methodology results in accurate, quantifiable decisions, meaning that a person can clearly explain the rationale behind it.     [2020]
1. We make decisions based on intuition or information on the basis of the time available.
2. It is better to make decisions based on information because it is more accurate, and the rationale behind it can be explained.
3. Decisions based on intuition and information result in differential speed and ability to provide a rationale.
4. While decisions based on intuition can be made fast, the reasons that led to these cannot be spelt out.

Ans: 3
In the passage the author compares the two factors based on which humans make decisions. The first is intuition and the other is information. The author seems to be comparing the two without any preference. 1 goes out because it inaccurately says that “we choose intuition or information based on the time available”. Nothing of this sort has been given in the passage. Time in not the causative factor here. 2 says “it is better”. Since the author has not given any preference, it would be wrong to say which one is better. Thus 2 also goes out. 3 is the right summary, and captures the essence by stating that the difference is differential speed and ability to provide a rationale. 4 just focuses on intuition, and ignores the other factor entirely.

Q5: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The rural-urban continuum and the heterogeneity of urban settings pose an obvious challenge to identifying urban areas and measuring urbanization rates in a consistent way within and across countries. An objective methodology for distinguishing between urban and rural areas that is based on one or two metrics with fixed thresholds may not adequately capture the wide diversity of places. A richer combination of criteria would better describe the multifaceted nature of a city’s function and its environment, but the joint interpretation of these criteria may require an element of human judgment.     [2020]
1. The difficulty of accurately identifying urban areas means that we need to create a rich combination of criteria that can be applied to all urban areas.
2. With the diversity of urban landscapes, measurable criteria for defining urban areas may need to be supplemented with human judgement.
3. Current methodologies used to define urban and rural areas are no longer relevant to our being able to study trends in urbanisation.
4. Distinguishing between urban and rural areas might call for some judgement on the objective methodology being used to define a city’s functions.

Ans: 2
There are three important keywords in this paragraph: the challenge posed by rural-urban continuum, the objective methodology with one or two metrics may not be enough to capture the wide diversity, it may require an element of human judgement. 2 captures all the keywords succinctly. 1 misses the element of human judgement, 3 also misses on the same. 4 goes out because it is not about the judgment of objective methodology, but human judgement coming as an additional factor to aid the methodology.

Q6: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
With the Treaty of Westphalia, the papacy had been confined to ecclesiastical functions, and the doctrine of sovereign equality reigned. What political theory could then explain the origin and justify the functions of secular political order? In his Leviathan, published in 1651, three years after the Peace of Westphalia, Thomas Hobbes provided such a theory. He imagined a “state of nature” in the past when the absence of authority produced a “war of all against all.” To escape such intolerable insecurity, he theorized, people delivered their rights to a sovereign power in return for the sovereign’s provision of security for all within the state’s border. The sovereign state’s monopoly on power was established as the only way to overcome the perpetual fear of violent death and war.     [2020]
1. Thomas Hobbes theorized the emergence of sovereign states based on a transactional relationship between people and sovereign state that was necessitated by a sense of insecurity of the people.
2. Thomas Hobbes theorized the voluntary surrender of rights by people as essential for emergence of sovereign states.
3. Thomas Hobbes theorized the emergence of sovereign states as a form of transactional governance to limit the power of the papacy.
4. Thomas Hobbes theorized that sovereign states emerged out of people’s voluntary desire to overcome the sense of insecurity and establish the doctrine of sovereign equality.

Ans: 1
The passage has three important keywords: sovereign equality, sense of insecurity, and what was done to overcome that insecurity. The passage tells us that people delivered their rights to a sovereign power in return for the sovereign’s provision of security. This was the only way to overcome the fear of insecurity. After all there is a give and take happening, and therefore there is a transaction. Thus 1 is the best choice. 2 misses on the people’s sense of insecurity. 3 goes out because limiting the power of papacy is not the essence of the discussion. Choice 4 misses the idea of give and take, people give their rights to the sovereign in return for his protection. It misses the crucial word “transactional relationship”.

Q7: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The dominant hypotheses in modern science believe that language evolved to allow humans to exchange factual information about the physical world. But an alternative view is that language evolved, in modern humans at least, to facilitate social bonding. It increased our ancestors’ chances of survival by enabling them to hunt more successfully or to cooperate more extensively. Language meant that things could be explained and that plans and past experiences could be shared efficiently.     [2020]
1. From the belief that humans invented language to process factual information, scholars now think that language was the outcome of the need to ensure social cohesion and thus human survival.
2. Since its origin, language has been continuously evolving to higher forms, from being used to identify objects to ensuring human survival by enabling our ancestors to bond and cooperate.
3. Most believe that language originated from a need to articulate facts, but others think it emerged from the need to promote social cohesion and cooperation, thus enabling human survival.
4. Experts are challenging the narrow view of the origin of language, as being merely used to describe facts and label objects, to being necessary to promote more complex interactions among humans.

Ans: 3
This is a very simple summary question. There are two views pertaining to the evolution of language. One view believes in sharing of factual information as the reason, whereas the other view believes in social bonding as the reason. The former being the dominant view, while the latter being the less dominant. Choice 1 does not being out this distinction. Choice 2 also misses on this comparison. Option 4 incorrectly mentions that the views were challenged by one group. There is no such thing in the passage.

Q8: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Brown et al. (2001) suggest that ‘metabolic theory may provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology just as genetic theory provides a foundation for much of evolutionary biology’. One of the successes of genetic theory is the diversity of theoretical approaches and models that have been developed and applied. A Web of Science (v. 5.9. Thomson Reuters) search on genetic* + theor* + evol* identifies more than 12000 publications between 2005 and 2012. Considering only the 10 most-cited papers within this 12000 publication set, genetic theory can be seen to focus on genome dynamics, phylogenetic inference, game theory and the regulation of gene expression. There is no one fundamental genetic equation, but rather a wide array of genetic models, ranging from simple to complex, with differing inputs and outputs, and divergent areas of application, loosely connected to each other through the shared conceptual foundation of heritable variation.     [2020]
1. Genetic theory has a wide range of theoretical approaches and applications and Metabolic theory must have the same in the field of ecology.
2. Genetic theory has evolved to spawn a wide range of theoretical models and applications but Metabolic theory need not evolve in a similar manner in the field of ecology.
3. Genetic theory has a wide range of theoretical approaches and application and is foundational to evolutionary biology and Metabolic theory has the potential to do the same for ecology.
4. Genetic theory provides an example of how a range of theoretical approaches and applications can make a theory successful.

Ans: 3
For summary questions we must learn to pick the broader keywords and connect them together to form the summary. In this paragraph the author uses two broad keywords “genetic theory and metabolic theory. The genetic theory was successful because of the diversity of genetic models, and the same might happen for metabolic theory, which would provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology.” The contrast in choice 2 makes the choice an incorrect one because the author stresses on similarity, not contrasts. Option 1 says “metabolic theory must have the wide range of theoretical models”. The word “must” makes this choice an incorrect one. The author talks about a possibility, not a necessity. Option 4 goes out it because it misses discussing the keyword “metabolic theory” and how it is compared with genetic theory. 3 is the right choice.

Q9: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Aesthetic political representation urges us to realize that ‘the representative has autonomy with regard to the people represented’ but autonomy then is not an excuse to abandon one’s responsibility. Aesthetic autonomy requires cultivation of ‘disinterestedness’ on the part of actors which is not indifference. To have disinterestedness, that is, to have comportment towards the beautiful that is devoid of all ulterior references to use – requires a kind of aesthetic commitment; it is the liberation of ourselves for the release of what has proper worth only in itself.      [2020]
1. Disinterestedness is different from indifference as the former means a non-subjective evaluation of things which is what constitutes aesthetic political representation.
2. Aesthetic political representation advocates autonomy for the representatives manifested through disinterestedness which itself is different from indifference.
3. Disinterestedness, as distinct from indifference, is the basis of political representation.
4. Aesthetic political representation advocates autonomy for the representatives drawing from disinterestedness, which itself is different from indifference

Ans: 4
This is one of the most difficult questions of this paper. There are three keywords in this paragraph: aesthetic political representation, disinterestedness and indifference. The author seems to prefer disinterestedness for aesthetic political representation. Option 1 is wrong because it inaccurately states that “aesthetic political representation constitutes of disinterestedness”. But the passage says that aesthetic political representation should be seen from the angle of disinterestedness. 3 is too short a summary and misses on the crucial word “aesthetic”. 2 and 4 are very close choices, with only a slight difference. 2 says “manifested through indifference”, while 4 says “drawing from indifference”. Now what is the difference between the two? When X is manifested through y, it is y that dominates. God is manifested through human beings, means that God is hidden within the human being and the human being dominates the outward appearance. Whereas drawing from something means, aesthetic political representation should have a tinge of disinterestedness. There is little to choose between 2 and 4, but the right choice is 4 because disinterestedness is just an outward shade which must be cultivated, but not necessarily allowed to dominate.