Test: Critical Reasoning - 2 - CAT MCQ

A paragraph is given below from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
Historians have established that parts of Bangalore were inhabited since the time of the Western Ganga dynasty (AD 350 to AD 550) and played a role in the fortunes of the Chola, Hoysala and Vijaynagar empires, as the place was situated in a strategic location at the center of the South Indian peninsula. In spite of this hoary history, the founding date of the city is usually given as AD 1537 when Kempe Gowda I built a mud fort which was later fortified by Haider Ali in the 18th century. This fort was the nucleus of what is now commonly known as the “pete” area, a Bangalore that preceded the arrival of the British. With the defeat of Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatnam, the British army garrisoned itself in the vicinity of the old city area of Bangalore, thus laying the foundation of Bangalore Cantonment in the early 19th century ______.        

(2013)

A paragraph is given below from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
Twenty some years ago I took my family (wife, toddler, and infant) to the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. At one point I found myself alone, and I suddenly questioned my assumption that the toddler, my son, was with my wife, who also had the infant. As I stood in a gallery looking around for them, I saw a security guard framed in the door of an adjacent room. He was at first (as guards often are) as staid and unmoving as the statuary he was protecting. _______

(2013)

Given below is a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
Warschawski describes the atrocities of the occupation—from the sack of Ramallah to the massacre in Jenin, the razing of houses and refugee camps, shooting at ambulances and hospitals, the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields— showing how each of these pushes back the boundaries of what was previously thinkable. Warschawski has the keen eye of an Israeli insider.________________.

(2012)

Given below is a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
There is much to commend in this novel, a witty parable of India’s changing society, yet there is much to ponder. The scales have fallen from the eyes of some Indian writers, many either living abroad, or educated there like Adiga. The home country is invariably presented as a place of brutal injustice and sordid corruption, one in which the poor are always dispossessed and victimised by their ageold enemies, the rich. Characters at the colourful extremities of society are Dickensian grotesques, Phiz sketches, adrift in a country that is lurching rapidly towards bland middle-class normality.

(2012)

Given below is a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
It might not sound like a recipe for success – but this is the most important piece of theatre happening anywhere in the country.
Some 40 years ago, director Augusto Boal began experimenting with invisible theatre – rehearsing and performing semi-improvised pieces in public spaces to the unsuspecting public. Meanwhile in the bohemian lofts of New York City, a new generation of visionaries were embedding their art ever further into the everyday. Lurking in the corner of a diner, Vito Acconci sat quietly rubbing his arm to produce a sore, while Allan Kaprow created instructions for almost unseen activities to be carried out on the streets of the city. ________________

(2012)

People repeatedly complain that they see advertisements everywhere, but advertisers should not be blamed for this. No one is forced to advertize his property - for many companies it is an important part of their income. Football teams would have much less money if they were not sponsored. And no one is forced to look at advertising - you can turn the TV off between shows, or just flick past adverts in newspapers. If you don’t want to see the adverts, then just ignore them.

Q. Which of the following statements would weaken the above argument?

(2011)

History, if viewed as a repository not merely of anecdotes or chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science by which we are now possessed. The image has previously been drawn, even by scientists themselves, mainly from the study of finished scientific achievements as these are recorded in the classics and more recently, in the textbooks from which each new scientific generation learns to practice its trade.

Q. Which of the following best summarises the above paragraph?

(2011)

According to recent reports, CEOs of large organisations are paid more than CEOs of small organisations. It does not seem fair that just because a CEO is heading a big organisation she/he should be paid more. CEOs’ salary should be related to performance, especially growth in terms of sales and profits.Of course, big organisations are more complex than ‘the small, but all  CEOs require significant amount of energy and time in managing organisations. There is no proof that CEOs of big organisations are more stressed than CEOs of small organisations.
All CEOs should be paid according to their performance.

Q. Which of the following, if true, would strengthen the speaker ’s argument?

(2011)

The Bistupur Sakchi corner needs a speed breaker. Loyola school children cross this intersection, on their way to the school, and many a times do not check out for traffic. I get to read regular reports of cars and other vehicles hitting children. I know that speedbreakers are irritating for drivers, and I know that children cannot be protected from every danger, but this is one of the worst intersections in town. There needs to be a speed-breaker so that vehicles have to slow down and the children be made safer.

Q. Which of the following arguments is used in the above passage?

(2010)

Hindi ought to be the official language of India. There is no reason for the government to spend money printing documents in different languages, just to cater to people who cannot read/write Hindi. The government has better ways to spend tax payers’ money. People across India should read/write Hindi or learn it at the earliest.

Q. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the speaker ’s argument the most?

(2010)

The Yoga system is divided into two principal parts — Hatha and Raja Yoga. Hatha Yoga deals principally with the physiological part of man with a view to establish his health and train his will. The processes prescribed to arrive at this end are so difficult that only a few resolute souls go through all the stages of its practice. Many have failed and some have died in the attempt. It is therefore strongly denounced by all the philosophers. The most illustrious Shankaracharya has remarked in his treatise called Aparokshanubhuti that "the system of Hatha Yoga was intended for those whose wordly desires are not pacified or uprooted.”

Which one of the following, if true, most substantially strengthens the idea given in the passage?

(2010)

Silver is especially and repetitively savage about what he sees as the extravagant claims made for particle physics, arguing that once the proton, neutron and electron were found and their properties experimentally confirmed, the very expensive searches for ever more exotic particles, such as the Higgs Boson, were increasingly harder to justify other than by their importance to particle physicists. Most of the particles resemble ecstatic happiness: They are very short-lived and have nothing to do with everyday life. His repeated assault goes to the level of sarcasm: “Finding the Higgs Boson will be a magnificent technical and theoretical triumph. Like a great Bobby Fisher game”. Of course, this is a tad unfair, even if some of the claims of its practitioners invite such assaults on their field.

Q. Which of the following, if true, will weaken the argument described in the passage?

(2009)