CAT 1999 VARC | Previous Year CAT Paper
Directions: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
- In rejecting the functionalism in positivist organization theory, either wholly or partially, there is often a move towards a political model of organization theory.
- Thus, the analysis would shift to the power resources possessed by different groups in the organization and the way they use these resources in actual power plays to shape the organizational structure.
- At the extreme, in one set of writings, the growth of administrators in the organization is held to be completely unrelated to the work to be done and to be caused totally by the political pursuit of self-interest.
- The political model holds that individual interests are pursued in organizational life through the exercise of power and influence.
- A.
ADBC
- B.
CBAD
- C.
DBCA
- D.
ABDC
Solution
Discuss
ReportDirections: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
- Group decision-making, however, does not necessarily fully guard against arbitrariness and anarchy, for individual capriciousness can get substituted by collusion of group members.
- Nature itself is an intricate system of checks and balances, meant to preserve the delicate balance between various environmental factors that affect our ecology.
- In institutions also, there is a need to have in place a system of checks and balances which inhibits the concentration of power in the hands of only some individuals.
- When human interventions alter this delicate balance, the outcomes have been seen to be disastrous.
- A.
CDAB
- B.
BCAD
- C.
CABD
- D.
BDCA
Directions: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
- He was bone-weary and soul-weary, and found himself muttering, “Either I can’t manage this place, or it’s unmanageable.”
- To his horror, he realized that he had become the victim of an amorphous, unwitting, unconscious conspiracy to immerse him in routine work that had no significance.
- It was one of those nights in the office when the office clock was moving towards four in the morning and Bennis was still not through with the incredible mass of paper stacked before him.
- He reached for his calendar and ran his eyes down each hour, half-hour, and quarter-hour, to see where his time had gone that day, the day before, the month before.
- A.
ABCD
- B.
CADB
- C.
BDCA
- D.
DCBA
Directions: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
- With that, I swallowed the shampoo, and obtained the most realistic results almost on the spot.
- The man shuffled away into the back regions to make up a prescription, and after a moment I got through on the shop-telephone to the Consulate, intimating my location.
- Then, while the pharmacist was wrapping up a six-ounce bottle of the mixture, I groaned and inquired whether he could give me something for acute gastric cramp.
- I intended to stage a sharp gastric attack, and entering an old-fashioned pharmacy, I asked for a popular shampoo mixture, consisting of olive oil and flaked soap.
- A.
DCBA
- B.
DACB
- C.
BDAC
- D.
BCDA
Directions: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
- Since then, intelligence tests have been mostly used to separate dull children in school from average or bright children, so that special education can be provided to the dull.
- In other words, intelligence tests give us a norm for each age.
- Intelligence is expressed as intelligence quotient, and tests are developed to indicate what an average child of a certain age can do …. What a five-year-old can answer, but a four-year-old cannot, for instance.
- Binet developed the first set of such tests in the early 1900s to find out which children in school needed special attention.
- Intelligence can be measured by tests.
- A.
CDABE
- B.
DECAB
- C.
EDACB
- D.
CBADE
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
Three airlines — IA, JA and SA — operate on the Delhi- Mumbai route. To increase the number of seats sold, SA reduced its fares and this was emulated by IA and JA immediately. The general belief was that the volume of air travel between Delhi and Mumbai would increase as a result.
Which of the following, if true, would add credence to the general belief?
- A.
Increase in profitability of the three airlines.
- B.
Extension of the discount scheme to other routes.
- C.
A study that shows that air travellers in India are price-conscious.
- D.
A study that shows that as much as 80 per cent of air travel in India is company-sponsored.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
According to McNeill, a Brahmin priest was expected to be able to recite at least one of the Vedas. The practice was essential for several centuries when the Vedas had not yet been written down. It must have had a selective effect, since priests would have been recruited from those able or willing to memorize long passages. It must have helped in the dissemination of the work, since a memorized passage can be duplicated many times.
Which of the following can be inferred from the above passage?
- A.
Reciting the Vedas was a Brahmin’s obligation.
- B.
The Vedic priest was like a recorded audio cassette.
- C.
McNeill studied the behaviour of Brahmin priests.
- D.
Vedic hymns had not been scripted.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
Developed countries have made adequate provisions for social security for senior citizens. State insurers (as well as private ones) offer medicare and pension benefits to people who can no longer earn. In India, with the collapse of the joint family system, the traditional shelter of the elderly has disappeared. And the state faced with a financial crunch is not in a position to provide social security. So, it is advisable that the working population give serious thought to building a financial base for itself.
Which one of the following, if it were to happen, weakens the conclusions drawn in the above passage the most?
- A.
The investible income of the working population, as a proportion of its total income, will grow in the future.
- B.
The insurance sector is underdeveloped and trends indicate that it will be extensively privatized in the future.
- C.
India is on a path of development that will take it to a developed country status, with all its positive and negative implications.
- D.
If the working population builds a stronger financial base, there will be a revival of the joint family system.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
Various studies have shown that our forested and hilly regions and, in general, areas where biodiversity — as reflected in the variety of flora — is high, are the places where poverty appears to be high. And these same areas are also the ones where educational performance seems to be poor. Therefore, it may be surmised that, even disregarding poverty status, richness in biodiversity goes hand in hand with educational backwardness.
Which one of the following statements, if true, can be said to best provide supporting evidence for the surmise mentioned in the passage?
- A.
In regions where there is little variety in flora, educational performance is seen to be as good as in regions with high variety in flora, where poverty levels are high.
- B.
Regions which show high biodiversity also exhibit poor education performance, at low levels of poverty.
- C.
Regions which show high biodiversity reveal high levels of poverty and poor educational performance.
- D.
In regions where there is low biodiversity, at all levels of poverty, educational performance is seen to be good.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
Cigarettes constitute a mere 20 per cent of tobacco consumption in India, and fewer than 15 percent of the 200 million tobacco users consume cigarettes. Yet these 15 per cent contribute nearly 90 per cent of the tax revenues to the exchequer from the tobacco sector. The punitive cigarette taxation regime has kept the tax base narrow, and reducing taxes will expand this base.
Which of the following best bolsters the conclusion that reducing duties will expand the tax base?
- A.
The cigarette manufacturers’ association has decided to indulge in aggressive promotion.
- B.
There is a likelihood that tobacco consumers will shift to cigarette smoking if cigarette prices were to reduce.
- C.
The cigarette manufacturers are lobbying for a reduction on duties.
- D.
An increase in duties on non-cigarette tobacco may lead to a shift in favour of cigarette smoking.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
Thomas Malthus, the British clergyman-turned economist, predicted that the planet would not be able to support the human population for long. His explanation was that human population grows at a geometric rate, while the food supply grows only at an arithmetic rate.
Which one of the following, if true, would not undermine the thesis offered by Malthus?
- A.
Population growth can be slowed down by the voluntary choices of individuals and not just by natural disasters.
- B.
The capacity of the planet to feed a growing human population can be enhanced through biotechnological means.
- C.
Human systems, and natural systems like food supply, follow natural laws of growth which have remained constant, and will remain unchanged.
- D.
Human beings can colonize other planetary systems on a regular and ongoing basis to accommodate a growing population.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
The company’s coffee crop for 1998-99 totalled 8,079 tonnes, an all-time record. The increase over the previous year’s production of 5,830 tonnes was 38.58 per cent. The previous highest crop was 6,089 tonnes in 1970-71. The company had fixed a target of 8,000 tonnes to be realized by the year 2000-01, and this has been achieved two years earlier, thanks to the emphasis laid on the key areas of irrigation, replacement of unproductive coffee bushes, intensive refilling and improved agricultural practices. It is now our endeavour to reach the target of 10,000 tonnes in 2001-02.
Which one of the following would contribute most to making the target of 10,000 tonnes in 2001-02 unrealistic?
- A.
The potential of the productivity enhancing measures implemented up to now has been exhausted.
- B.
The total company land under coffee has remained constant since 1969 when an estate in the Nilgiri Hills was acquired.
- C.
The sensitivity of the crop to climatic factors makes predictions about production uncertain.
- D.
The target-setting procedures in the company had been proved to be sound by the achievement of the 8,000 tonnes target.
Directions: Read the short passages given below and answer the question that follows it.
Animals, in general, are shrewd in proportion as they cultivate society. Elephants and beavers show the greatest signs of this sagacity when they are together in large numbers, but when man invades their communities they lose all their spirit of industry. Among insects, the labours of the bee and the ant have attracted the attention and admiration of naturalists, but all their sagacity seems to be lost upon separation, and a single bee or ant seems destitute of every degree of industry. It becomes the most stupid insect imaginable, and it languishes and soon dies.
Which of the following can be inferred from the above passage?
- A.
Humankind is responsible for the destruction of the natural habitat of animals and insects.
- B.
Animals, in general, are unable to function effectively outside their normal social environment.
- C.
Naturalists have great admiration for bees and ants, despite their lack of industry upon separation.
- D.
Elephants and beavers are smarter than bees and ants in the presence of human beings.
Directions: For each of the two questions, indicate which of the statements given with that particular question is consistent with the description of the unseasonable man in the passage below.
Unseasonableness is a tendency to do socially permissible things at the wrong time. The unseasonable man is the sort of person who comes to confide in you when you are busy. He serenades his beloved when she is ill. He asks a man who has just lost money by paying a bill for a friend to pay a bill for him. He invites a friend to go for a ride just after the friend has finished a long car trip. He is eager to offer services which are not wanted, but which cannot be politely refused. If he is present at an arbitration, he stirs up dissension between the two parties, who were really anxious to agree. Such is the unseasonable man.
He tends to
- A.
entertain women.
- B.
be a successful arbitrator when dissenting parties are anxious to agree.
- C.
be helpful when solicited.
- D.
tell a long story to people who have heard it many times before.
The unseasonable man tends to
- A.
bring a higher bidder to a salesman who has just closed a deal.
- B.
disclose confidential information to others.
- C.
sing the praises of the bride when he goes to a wedding.
- D.
sleep late and rise early.
Directions: In each of the following sentence, a part of the sentence is underlined. Four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
It was us who had left before he arrived.
- A.
we who had left before time he had arrived.
- B.
us who had went before he arrived.
- C.
us who had went before had arrived.
- D.
we who had left before he arrived.
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
The MP rose up to say that in her opinion, she thought the Women’s Reservation Bill should be passed on unanimously.
- A.
rose to say that she thought the Women’s Reservation Bill should be passed
- B.
rose up to say that, the Women’s Reservation Bill should be passed on
- C.
rose to say that, in her opinion, she thought that the Women’s Reservation Bill should be passed
- D.
rose to say that, in her opinion, the Women’s Reservation Bill should be passed on
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
Mr Pillai, the president of the union and who is also a member of the community group, will be in charge of the negotiations.
- A.
since he is a member of the community group
- B.
also being a member of the community group
- C.
a member of the community group
- D.
in addition, who is a member of the community group
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
Since the advent of cable television, at the beginning of this decade, the entertainment industry took a giant stride forward in our country.
- A.
this decade saw the entertainment industry taking
- B.
this decade, the entertainment industry has taken
- C.
this decade, the entertainment industry had taken
- D.
this decade, the entertainment industry took
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
His mother made great sacrifices to educate him, moving house on three occasions, and severing the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him understand the need to persevere.
- A.
severing the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him understand the need to persevere.
- B.
severed the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him understand the need to persevere.
- C.
severed the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him understand the need for persevering.
- D.
severing the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make them understand the need to persevere.
If you are in a three-month software design project and, in two weeks, you’ve put together a program that solves part of the problem, show it to your boss without delay.
- A.
and, you’ve put together a program that solves part of the problem in two weeks
- B.
and, in two weeks, you’ve put together a program that solves part of the problem
- C.
and, you’ve put together a program that has solved part of the problem in two weeks
- D.
and, in two weeks, you put together a program that solved only part of the problem
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
Many of these environmentalists proclaim to save nothing less than the planet itself.
- A.
to save nothing lesser than
- B.
that they are saving nothing lesser than
- C.
to save nothing less than
- D.
that they save nothing less than
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
Bacon believes that the medical profession should be permitted to ease and quicken death where the end would otherwise only delay for a few days and at the cost of great pain.
- A.
be delayed for a few days
- B.
be delayed for a few days and
- C.
be otherwise only delayed for a few days and
- D.
otherwise only delay for a few days and
Directions: Passage given below is followed by questions. For each question, choose the best answer.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed in the early 1990s as a component of the Uruguay Round negotiation. However, it could have been negotiated as part of the Tokyo Round of the 1970s, since that negotiation was an attempt at a ‘constitutional reform’ of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Or it could have been put off to the future, as the US Government wanted. What factors led to the creation of the WTO in the early 1990s?
One factor was the pattern of multilateral bargaining that developed late in the Uruguay Round. Like all complex international agreements, the WTO was a product of a series of trade-offs between principal actors and groups. For the United States, which did not want a new organization, the dispute settlement part of the WTO package achieved its longstanding goal of a more effective and more legal dispute settlement system. For the Europeans, who by the 1990s had come to view GATT dispute settlement less in political terms and more as a regime of legal obligations, the WTO package was acceptable as a means to discipline the resort to unilateral measures by the United States. Countries like Canada and other middle and smaller trading partners were attracted by the expansion of a rules-based system and by the symbolic value of a trade organization, both of which inherently support the weak against the strong. The developing countries were attracted due to the provisions banning unilateral measures. Finally, and perhaps most important, many countries at the Uruguay Round came to put a higher priority on the export gains than on the import losses that the negotiation would produce, and they came to associate the WTO and a rulesbased system with those gains. This reasoning — replicated in many countries — was contained in US Ambassador Kantor’s defence of the WTO, and it amounted to a recognition that international trade and its benefits cannot be enjoyed unless trading nations accept the discipline of a negotiated rules-based environment.
A second factor in the creation of the WTO was pressure from lawyers and the legal process. The dispute settlement system of the WTO was seen as a victory of legalists over pragmatists but the matter went deeper than that. The GATT, and the WTO, are contract organizations based on rules, and it is inevitable that an organization created to further rules will in turn be influenced by the legal process. Robert Hudec has written of the ‘momentum of legal development’, but what is this precisely? Legal development can be defined as promotion of the technical legal values of consistency, clarity (or, certainty) and effectiveness: these are values that those responsible for administering any legal system will seek to maximize. As it played out in the WTO, consistency meant integrating under one roof the whole lot of separate agreements signed under GATT auspices; clarity meant removing ambiguities about the powers of contracting parties to make certain decisions or to undertake waivers: and effectiveness meant eliminating exceptions arising out of grandfather-rights and resolving defects in dispute settlement procedures and institutional provisions. Concern for these values is inherent in any rules-based system of cooperation, since without these values, rules would be meaningless in the first place. Rules, therefore, create their own incentive for fulfilment.
The momentum of legal development has occurred in other institutions besides the GATT, most notably in the European Union (EU). Over the past two decades the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has consistently rendered decisions that have expanded incrementally the EU’s internal market, in which the doctrine of ‘mutual recognition’ handed down in the case Cassis de Dijon in 1979 was a key turning point. The court is now widely recognized as a major player in European integration, even though arguably such a strong role was not originally envisaged in the Treaty of Rome, which initiated the current European Union. One means the court used to expand integration was the ‘teleological method of interpretation’, whereby the actions of member states were evaluated against ‘the accomplishment of the most elementary community goals set forth in the Preamble to the [Rome] Treaty’. The teleological method represents an effort to keep current policies consistent with stated goals, and it is analogous to the effort in GATT to keep contracting party trade practices consistent with stated rules. In both cases legal concerns and procedures are an independent force for further cooperation.
In large part, the WTO was an exercise in consolidation. In the context of a trade negotiation that created a near-revolutionary expansion of international trade rules, the formation of the WTO was a deeply conservative act needed to ensure that the benefits of the new rules would not be lost. The WTO was all about institutional structure and dispute settlement: these are the concerns of conservatives and not revolutionaries, which is why lawyers and legalists took the lead on these issues. The WTO codified the GATT institutional practice that had developed by custom over three decades, and it incorporated a new dispute settlement system that was necessary to keep both old and new rules from becoming a sham. Both the international structure and the dispute settlement system were necessary to preserve and enhance the integrity of the multilateral trade regime that had been built incrementally from the 1940s to the 1990s.
What could be the closest reason why the WTO was not formed in the 1970s?
- A.
The US government did not like it.
- B.
Important players did not find it in their best interest to do so.
- C.
Lawyers did not work for the dispute settlement system.
- D.
The Tokyo Round negotiation was an attempt at constitutional reform.
The most likely reason for the acceptance of the WTO package by nations was that
- A.
it had the means to prevent the US from taking unilateral measures.
- B.
they recognized the need for a rule-based environment to protect the benefits of increased trade.
- C.
it settles disputes more legally and more effectively.
- D.
its rule-based system leads to export gains.
According to the passage, WTO promoted the technical legal values partly through
- A.
integrating under one roof the agreements signed under GATT.
- B.
rules that create their own incentive for fulfilment.
- C.
grandfather-rights exceptions and defects in dispute settlement procedures.
- D.
ambiguities about the powers of contracting parties to make certain decisions.
In the method of interpretation of the European Court of Justice,
- A.
current policies needed to be consistent with stated goals.
- B.
contracting party trade practices needed to be consistent with stated rules.
- C.
enunciation of the most elementary community goals needed to be emphasised.
- D.
actions of member states needed to be evaluated against the stated community goals.
In the statement “ . . . it amounted to a recognition that international trade and its benefits cannot be enjoyed unless trading nations accept the discipline of a negotiated rules-based environment”, ‘it’ refers to
- A.
Ambassador Kantor’s defence of the WTO.
- B.
the higher priority on export gains placed by many countries at the Uruguay Round.
- C.
the export gains many countries came to associate with a rule-based system.
- D.
the provision of a rule-based system by the WTO.
The importance of Cassis de Dijon is that it
- A.
gave a new impetus to the momentum of legal development at the European Court of Justice.
- B.
resulted in a decision that expanded incrementally the EU’s internal market.
- C.
strengthened the role of the court more than envisaged in the Treaty of Rome.
- D.
led to a doctrine that was a key turning point in European integration.
Directions: Passage given below is followed by questions. For each question, choose the best answer.
Have you ever come across a painting, by Picasso, Mondrian, Miro, or any other modern abstract painter of this century, and found yourself engulfed in a brightly-coloured canvas which your senses cannot interpret?
Many people would tend to denounce abstractionism as senseless trash. These people are disoriented by Miro’s bright, fanciful creatures and two-dimensional canvases. They click their tongues and shake their heads at Mondrian’s grid works, declaring that the poor guy played too many scrabble games. They silently shake their heads in sympathy for Picasso, whose gruesome, distorted figures must be a reflection of his mental health. Then, standing in front of a work by Charlie Russell, the famous western artist, they’ll declare it a work of God. People feel more comfortable with something they can relate to and understand immediately without too much thought. This is the case with the work of Charlie Russell. Being able to recognize the elements in his paintings — trees, horses and cowboys — gives people a safety line to their world of ‘reality’. There are some who would disagree when I say abstract art requires more creativity and artistic talent to produce a good piece than does representational art, but there are many weaknesses in their arguments.
People who look down on abstract art have several major arguments to support their beliefs. They feel that artists turn abstract because they are not capable of the technical drafting skills that appear in a Russell: therefore, such artists create an art form that anyone is capable of and that is less time consuming, and then parade it as artistic progress. Secondly, they feel that the purpose of art is to create something of beauty in an orderly, logical composition. Russell’s compositions are balanced and rational: everything sits calmly on the canvas, leaving the viewer satisfied that he has seen all there is to see. The modern abstractionists, on the other hand, seem to compose their pieces irrationally. For example, upon seeing Picasso’s Guernica, a friend of mine asked me, “What‘s the point?” Finally, many people feel that art should portray the ideal and real. The exactness of detail in Charlie Russell’s work is an example of this. He has been called a great historian because his pieces depict the lifestyle, dress, and events of the times. His subject matter is derived from his own experiences on the trial, and reproduced to the smallest detail.
I agree in part with many of these arguments, and at one time even endorsed them. But now, I believe differently. Firstly, I object to the argument that abstract artists are not capable of drafting. Many abstract artists, such as Picasso, are excellent draftsmen. As his work matured, Picasso became more abstract in order to increase the expressive quality of his work. Guernica was meant as a protest against the bombing of that city by the Germans. To express the terror and suffering of the victims more vividly, he distorted the figures and presented them in a black and white journalistic manner. If he had used representational images and colour, much of the emotional content would have been lost and the piece would not have caused the demand for justice that it did. Secondly, I do not think that a piece must be logical and aesthetically pleasing to be art. The message it conveys to its viewers is more important. It should reflect the ideals and issues of its time and be true to itself, not just a flowery, glossy surface. For example, through his work, Mondrian was trying to present a system of simplicity, logic, and rational order. As a result, his pieces did end up looking like a scrabble board.
Miro created powerful, surrealistic images from his dreams and subconscious. These artists were trying to evoke a response from society through an expressionistic manner. Finally, abstract artists and representational artists maintain different ideas about ‘reality’. To the representational artist, reality is what he sees with his eyes. This is the reality he reproduces on canvas. To the abstract artist, reality is what he feels about what his eyes see. This is the reality he interprets on canvas. This can be illustrated by Mondrian’s Trees series. You can actually see the progression from the early recognizable, though abstracted Trees, to his final solution, the grid system.
A cycle of abstract and representational art began with the first scratchings of prehistoric man. From the abstractions of ancient Egypt to representational, classical Rome, returning to abstractionism in early Christian art and, so on up to the present day, the cycle has been going on. But this day and age may witness its death through the camera. With film, there is no need to produce finely detailed, historical records manually; the camera does this for us more efficiently. Maybe, representational art would cease to exist. With abstractionism as the victor of the first battle, maybe, a different kind of cycle will be touched off. Possibly, some time in the distant future, thousands of years from now, art itself will be physically nonexistent. Some artists today believe that once they have planned and constructed a piece in their mind, there is no sense in finishing it with their hands; it has already been done and can never be duplicated.
The author argues that many people look down upon abstract art because they feel that
- A.
modern abstract art does not portray what is ideal and real.
- B.
abstract artists are unskilled in matters of technical drafting.
- C.
abstractionists compose irrationally.
- D.
All of the above
The author believes that people feel comfortable with representational art because
- A.
they are not engulfed in brightly-coloured canvases.
- B.
they do not have to click their tongues and shake their heads in sympathy.
- C.
they understand the art without putting too much strain on their minds.
- D.
paintings like Guernica do not have a point.
In the author’s opinion, Picasso’s Guernica created a strong demand for justice since
- A.
it was a protest against the German bombing of Guernica.
- B.
Picasso managed to express the emotional content well with his abstract depiction.
- C.
it depicts the terror and suffering of the victims in a distorted manner.
- D.
it was a mature work of Picasso, painted when the artist’s drafting skills were excellent.
The author acknowledges that Mondrian’s pieces may have ended up looking like a scrabble board
because
- A.
many people declared the poor guy played too many scrabble games.
- B.
Mondrian believed in the ‘grid-works’ approach to abstractionist painting.
- C.
Mondrian was trying to convey the message of simplicity and rational order.
- D.
Mondrian learned from his Tree series to evolve a grid system.
The main difference between the abstract artist and the representational artist in matter of the ‘ideal’ and the ‘real’, according to the author, is
- A.
how each chooses to deal with ‘reality’ on his or her canvas.
- B.
the superiority of interpretation of reality over production of reality.
- C.
the different values attached by each to being a historian.
- D.
the varying levels of drafting skills and logical thinking abilities.
Directions: Passage given below is followed by questions. For each question, choose the best answer.
Each one has his reasons: for one, art is a flight; for another, a means of conquering. But one can flee into a hermitage, into madness, into death. One can conquer by arms. Why does it have to be writing?
Because, behind the various aims of authors, there is a deeper and more immediate choice which is common to all of us. We shall try to elucidate this choice, and we shall see whether it is not in the name of this very choice of writing that the engagement of writers must be required.
Each of our perceptions is accompanied by the consciousness that human reality is a ‘revealer’. That is, it is through human reality that ‘there is’ being , or, to put it differently, that man is the means by which things are manifested. It is our presence in the world which multiplies relations. It is we who set up a relationship between this tree and that bit of sky. Thanks to us, that star which has been dead for millennia, that quarter moon, and that dark river are disclosed in the unity of a landscape. It is the speed of our auto and our airplane which organizes the great masses of the earth. With each of our acts, the world reveals to us a new face. But, if we know that we are directors of being, we also know that we are not its producers. If we turn away from this landscape, it will sink back into its dark permanence. At least, it will sink back: there is no one mad enough to think that it is going to be annihilated. It is we who shall be annihilated, and the earth will remain in its lethargy until another consciousness comes along to awaken it. Thus, to our inner certainty of being ‘revealers’ is added that of being inessential in relation to the thing revealed.
One of the chief motives of artistic creation is certainly the need of feeling that we are essential in relationship to the world. If I fix on canvas or in writing a certain aspect of the fields or the sea or a look on someone’s face which I have disclosed, I am conscious of having produced them by condensing relationships, by introducing order where there was none, by imposing the unity of mind on the diversity of things. That is, I think myself essential in relation to my creation. But this time it is the created object which escapes me; I cannot reveal and produce at the same time. The creation becomes inessential in relation to the creative activity. First of all, even if it appears to others as definitive, the created object always seems to us in a state of suspension; we can always change this line, that shade, that word. Thus, it never forces itself . A novice painter asked his teacher, ‘When should I consider my painting finished’? And the teacher answered, “When you can look at it in amazement and say to yourself ‘I’m the one who did that!”
Which amounts to saying ‘never’. For, it is virtually considering one’s work with someone else’s eyes and revealing what has been created. But it is self-evident that we are proportionally less conscious of the thing produced and more conscious of our productive activity. When it is a matter of poetry or carpentry, we work according to traditional norms, with tools whose usage is codified; it is Heidegger’s famous ‘they’ who are working with our hands. In this case, the result can seem to us sufficiently strange to preserve its objectivity in our eyes. But if we ourselves produce the rules of production, the measures, the criteria, and if our creative drive comes from the very depths of our heart, then we never find anything but ourselves in our work. It is we who have invented the laws by which we judge it, it is our history, our love, our gaiety that we recognize in it. Even if we should regard it without touching it any further, we never receive from it that gaiety or love. We put them into it. The results which we have obtained on canvas or paper never seem to us objective. We are too familiar with the processes of which they are the effects. These processes remain a subjective discovery: they are ourselves, our inspiration, our ruse, and when we seek to perceive our work, we create it again, we repeat mentally the operations which produced it; each of its aspects appears as a result. Thus, in the perception, the object is given as the essential thing and the subject as the inessential. The latter seeks essential in the creation and obtains it, but then it is the object which becomes the inessential.
The dialectic is nowhere more apparent than in the art of writing, for the literary object is a peculiar top which exists only in movement. To make it come into view a concrete act called reading is necessary, and it lasts only as long as this act can last. Beyond that, there are only black marks on paper. Now, the writer cannot read what he writes, whereas the shoemaker can put on the shoes he has just made if they are of his size, and the architect can live in the house he has built. In reading, one foresees: one waits. He foresees the end of the sentence, the following sentence, the next page. He waits for them to confirm or disappoint his foresights. The reading is composed of a host of hypotheses, followed by awakenings, of hopes and deceptions. Readers are always ahead of the sentence they are reading in a merely probable future which partly collapses and partly comes together in proportion as they progress, which withdraws from one page to the next and forms the moving horizon of the literary object. Without waiting, without a future, without ignorance, there is no objectivity.
The author holds that
- A.
there is an objective reality and a subjective reality.
- B.
nature is the sum total of disparate elements.
- C.
it is human action that reveals the various facets of nature.
- D.
apparently disconnected elements in nature are unified in a fundamental sense.
It is the author’s contention that
- A.
artistic creations are results of human consciousness.
- B.
the very act of artistic creation leads to the escape of the created object.
- C.
man can produce and reveal at the same time.
- D.
an act of creation forces itself on our consciousness leaving us full of amazement.
The passage makes a distinction between perception and creation in terms of
- A.
objectivity and subjectivity.
- B.
revelation and action.
- C.
objective reality and perceived reality.
- D.
essentiality and non-essentiality of objects and subjects.
The art of writing manifests the dialectic of perception and creation because
- A.
reading reveals the writing till the act of reading lasts.
- B.
writing to be meaningful needs the concrete act of reading.
- C.
this art is anticipated and progresses on a series of hypotheses.
- D.
this literary object has a moving horizon brought about by the very act of creation.
A writer, as an artist,
- A.
reveals the essentiality of revelation.
- B.
makes us feel essential vis-à-vis nature.
- C.
creates reality.
- D.
reveals nature in its permanence.
Directions: Passage given below is followed by questions. For each question, choose the best answer.
Since Second World War, the nation state has been regarded with approval by every political system and every ideology. In the name of modernization in the West, of socialism in the Eastern Bloc, and of the development in the Third World, it was expected to guarantee the happiness of individuals as citizens and of people as societies. However, the state today appears to have broken down in many parts of the world. It has failed to guarantee either security or social justice, and has been unable to prevent either international wars or civil wars. Distributed by the claims of communities within it, the nation state tries to repress their demands and to proclaim itself as the only guarantor of security of all. In the name of national unity, territorial integrity, equality of all its citizens and non-partisan secularism, the state can use its powerful resources to reject the demands of the communities; it may even go so far as genocide to ensure that order prevails.
As one observes the awakening of communities in different parts of the world, one cannot ignore the context in which identity issues arise. It is no longer a context of sealed frontiers and isolated regions but is one of the integrated global systems. In a reaction to this trend towards globalization, individuals and communities everywhere are voicing their desire to exist, to use their power of creation and to play an active part in national and international life.
There are two ways in which the current upsurge in demands for the recognition of identities can be looked at. On the positive side, the efforts by certain population groups to assert their identity can be regarded as ‘liberation movements’, challenging oppression and injustice. What these groups are doing — proclaiming that they are different, rediscovering the roots of their culture or strengthening group solidarity — may accordingly be seen as legitimate attempts to escape from their state of subjugation and enjoy a certain measure of dignity. On the downside, however, militant action for recognition tends to make such groups more deeply entrenched in their attitude and to make their cultural compartments even more watertight. The assertion of identity then starts turning into self-absorption and isolation, and is liable to slide into intolerance of others and towards ideas of ‘ethnic cleansing’, xenophobia and violence.
Whereas continuous variations among people prevent drawing of clear dividing lines between the groups, those militating for recognition of their group’s identity arbitrarily choose a limited number of criteria such as religion, language, skin colour, and place of origin so that their members recognize themselves primarily in terms of the labels attached to the group whose existence is being asserted . This distinction between the group in question and other groups is established by simplifying the feature selected. Simplification also works by transforming groups into essences, abstractions endowed with the capacity to remain unchanged through time. In some cases, people actually act as though the group has remained unchanged and talk, for example, about the history of nations and communities as if these entities survived for centuries without changing, with the same ways of acting and thinking, the same desires, anxieties, and aspirations.
Paradoxically, precisely because identity represents a simplifying fiction, creating uniform groups out of disparate people, that identity performs a cognitive function. It enables us to put names to ourselves and others, form some idea of who we are and who others are, and ascertain the place we occupy along with the others in the world and society. The current upsurge to assert the identity of groups can thus be partly explained by the cognitive function performed by identity. However, that said, people would not go along as they do, often in large numbers, with the propositions put to them, in spite of the sacrifices they entail, if there was not a very strong feeling of need for identity, a need to take stock of things and know ‘who we are’, ‘where we come from’ and ‘where we are going’.
Identity is thus a necessity in a constantly changing world, but it can also be a potent source of violence and disruption. How can these two contradictory aspects of identity be reconciled? First, we must bear the arbitrary nature of identity categories in mind, not with a view to eliminating all forms of identification — which would be unrealistic since identity is a cognitive necessity — but simply to remind ourselves that each of us has several identities at the same time. Second, since tears of nostalgia are being shed over the past, we recognize that culture is constantly being recreated by cobbling together fresh and original elements and counter-cultures. There are in our own country a large number of syncretic cults wherein modern elements are blended with traditional values or people of different communities venerate saints or divinities of particular faiths. Such cults and movements are characterized by a continual inflow and outflow of members which prevent them from taking on a self-perpetuating existence of their own and hold our hope for the future, indeed, perhaps for the only possible future. Finally, the nation state must respond to the identity urges of its constituent communities and to their legitimate quest for security and social justice. It must do so by inventing what the French philosopher and sociologist, Raymond Aron, called ‘peace through law’. That would guarantee justice both to the state as a whole and its parts, and respect the claims of both reason and emotions. The problem is one of reconciling nationalist demands with exercise of democracy.
According to the author, happiness of individuals was expected to be guaranteed in the name of
- A.
development in the Third World.
- B.
socialism in the Third World.
- C.
development in the West.
- D.
modernization in the Eastern Bloc.
Demands for recognition of identities can be viewed
- A.
positively and negatively.
- B.
as liberation movements and militant action.
- C.
as efforts to rediscover cultural roots which can slide towards intolerance of others.
- D.
All of the above
Going by the author’s exposition of the nature of identity, which of the following statements is untrue?
- A.
Identity represents creating uniform groups out of disparate people.
- B.
Identity is a necessity in the changing world.
- C.
Identity is a cognitive necessity.
- D.
None of the above
According to the author, the nation state
- A.
has fulfilled its potential.
- B.
is willing to do anything to preserve order.
- C.
generates security for all its citizens.
- D.
has been a major force in preventing civil and international wars.
Which of the following views of the nation state cannot be attributed to the author?
- A.
It has not guaranteed peace and security.
- B.
It may go as far as genocide for self-preservation.
- C.
It represents the demands of communities within it.
- D.
It is unable to prevent international wars.
Directions: Passage given below is followed by questions. For each question, choose the best answer.
The persistent patterns in the way nations fight reflect their cultural and historical traditions and deeplyrooted attitudes that collectively make up their strategic culture. These patterns provide insights that go beyond what can be learnt just by comparing armaments and divisions. In the Vietnam War, the strategic tradition of the United States called for forcing the enemy to fight a massed battle in an open area, where superior American weapons would prevail. The United States was trying to re-fight Second World War in the jungles of South-east Asia, against an enemy with no intention of doing so.
Some British historians describe the Asian way of war as one of indirect attacks, avoiding frontal attacks meant to overpower an opponent. This traces back to Asian history and geography: the great distances and harsh terrain have often made it difficult to execute the sort of open field clashes allowed by the flat terrain and relatively compact size of Europe. A very different strategic tradition arose in Asia.
The bow and arrow were metaphors for an Eastern way of war. By its nature, the arrow is an indirect weapon. Fired from a distance of hundreds of yards, it does not necessitate immediate physical contact with the enemy. Thus, it can be fired from hidden positions. When fired from behind a ridge, the barrage seems to come out of nowhere, taking the enemy by surprise. The tradition of this kind of fighting is captured in the classical strategic writing of the East. The 2,000 years worth of Chinese writings on war constitutes the most subtle writing on the subject in any language. Not until Clausewitz, did the West produce a strategic theorist to match the sophistication of Sun-tzu, whose Art of War was written 2,300 years earlier.
In Sun-tzu and other Chinese writings, the highest achievement of arms is to defeat an adversary without fighting. He wrote: “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence.” Actual combat is just one among many means towards the goal of subduing an adversary. War contains too many surprises to be a first resort. It can lead to ruinous losses, as has been seen time and again. It can have the unwanted effect of inspiring heroic efforts in an enemy, as the United States learned in Vietnam, and as the Japanese found out after Pearl Harbour.
Aware of the uncertainties of a military campaign, Sun-tzu advocated war only after the most thorough preparations. Even then, it should be quick and clean. Ideally, the army is just an instrument to deal the final blow to an enemy already weakened by isolation, poor morale, and disunity. Ever since Sun-tzu, the Chinese have been seen as masters of subtlety who take measured actions to manipulate an adversary without his knowledge. The dividing line between war and peace can be obscure. Low level violence often is the backdrop to a larger strategic campaign. The unwitting victim, focused on the day-to-day events, never realizes what’s happening to him until it’s too late. History holds many examples. The Viet Cong lured French and US infantry deep into the jungle, weakening their morale over several years. The mobile army of the United States was designed to fight on the plains of Europe, where it could quickly move unhindered from one spot to the next. The jungle did more than make quick movement impossible; broken down into smaller units and scattered in isolated bases, US forces were deprived of the feeling of support and protection that ordinarily comes from being part of a big army.
The isolation of US troops in Vietnam was not just a logistical detail, something that could be overcome by, for instance, bringing in reinforcements by helicopter. In a big army reinforcements are readily available. It was Napoleon who realized the extraordinary effects on morale that come from being part of a larger formation. Just the knowledge of it lowers the soldier’s fear and increases his aggressiveness. In the jungle and on isolated bases, this feeling was removed. The thick vegetation slowed down the reinforcements and made it difficult to find stranded units. Soldiers felt they were on their own.
More important, by altering the way the war was fought, the Viet Cong stripped the United States of its belief in the inevitability of victory, as it had done to the French before them. Morale was high when these armies first went to Vietnam. Only after many years of debilitating and demoralizing fighting did Hanoi launch its decisive attacks, at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and against Saigon in 1975. It should be recalled that in the final push to victory the North Vietnamese abandoned their jungle guerrilla tactics completely, committing their entire army of twenty divisions to pushing the South Vietnamese into collapse. This final battle, with the enemy’s army all in one place, was the one that the United States had desperately wanted to fight in 1965. When it did come out into the open in 1975, Washington had already withdrawn its forces and there was no possibility of re-intervention.
The Japanese early in Second World War used a modern form of the indirect attack, one that relied on stealth and surprise for its effects. At Pearl Harbour, in the Philippines, and in South-east Asia, stealth and surprise were attained by sailing under radio silence so that the navy’s movements could not be tracked, Moving troops aboard ships into South-east Asia made it appear that the Japanese army was also ’invisible’. Attacks against Hawaii and Singapore seemed, to the American and British defenders, to come from nowhere. In Indonesia and the Philippines the Japanese attack was even faster than the German blitz against France in the West.
The greatest military surprises in American history have all been in Asia. Surely, there is something going on here beyond the purely technical difficulties of detecting enemy movements. Pearl Harbour, the Chinese intervention in Korea, and the Tet offensive in Vietnam all came out of a tradition of surprise and stealth. US technical intelligence — the location of enemy units and their movements — was greatly improved after each surprise, but with no noticeable improvement in the American ability to foresee or prepare what would happen next. There is a cultural divide here, not just a technical one. Even when it was possible to track an army with intelligence satellites, as when Iraq invaded Kuwait or when Syria and Egypt attacked Israel, surprise was achieved. The United States was stunned by Iraq’s attack on Kuwait even though it had satellite pictures of Iraqi troops massing at the border.
The exception that proves the point that cultural differences obscure the West’s understanding of Asian behaviour was the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. This was fully anticipated and understood in advance. There was no surprise because the United States understood Moscow’s world view and thinking. It could anticipate Soviet action almost as well as the Soviets themselves, because the Soviet Union was really a western country.
The difference between the eastern and the western way of war is striking. The West’s great strategic writer, Clausewitz, linked war to politics, as did Sun-tzu. Both were opponents of militarism, of turning war over to the generals. But there, all similarity ends. Clausewitz wrote that the way to achieve a larger political purpose is through destruction of the enemy’s army. After observing Napoleon conquer Europe by smashing enemy armies to bits, Clausewitz made his famous remark in On War (1932) that combat is the continuation of politics by violent means. Morale and unity are important, but they should be harnessed for the ultimate battle. If the eastern way of war is embodied by the stealthy archer, the metaphorical western counterpart is the swordsman charging forward, seeking a decisive showdown, eager to administer the blow that will obliterate the enemy once and for all. In this view, war proceeds along a fixed course and occupies a finite extent of time, like a play in three acts with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The end, the final scene, decides the issue for good.
When things don’t work out quite this way, the western military mind feels tremendous frustration. Suntzu’s great disciples, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, are respected in Asia for their clever use of indirection and deception to achieve an advantage over stronger adversaries. But in the West their approach is seen as underhanded and devious. To the American strategic mind, the Viet Cong guerilla did not fight fairly. They should have come out into the open and fought like men, instead of hiding in the jungle and sneaking around like a cat in the night.
According to the author, the main reason for the US losing the Vietnam War was
- A.
the Vietnamese understood the local terrain better.
- B.
the lack of support for the war from the American people.
- C.
the failure of the US to mobilize its military strength.
- D.
their inability to fight a war on terms other than those they understood well.
Which of the following statements does not describe the ‘Asian’ way of war?
- A.
Indirect attacks without frontal attacks.
- B.
The swordsman charging forward to obliterate the enemy once and for all.
- C.
Manipulation of an adversary without his knowledge.
- D.
Subduing an enemy without fighting.
Which of the following is not one of Sun-tzu’s ideas?
- A.
Actual combat is the principal means of subduing an adversary.
- B.
War should be undertaken only after thorough preparation.
- C.
War is linked to politics.
- D.
War should not be left to the generals alone.
The difference in the concepts of war of Clausewitz and Sun-tzu is best characterized by
- A.
Clausewitz’s support for militarism as against Sun-tzu’s opposition to it.
- B.
their relative degrees of sophistication.
- C.
their attitude to guerilla warfare.
- D.
their differing conceptions of the structure, time and sequence of a war.
To the Americans, the approach of the Viet Cong seemed devious because
- A.
the Viet Cong did not fight like men out in the open.
- B.
the Viet Cong allied with America’s enemies.
- C.
the Viet Cong took strategic advice from Mao Zedong.
- D.
the Viet Cong used bows and arrows rather than conventional weapons.
According to the author, the greatest military surprises in American history have been in Asia because
- A.
the Americans failed to implement their military strategies many miles away from their own country.
- B.
the Americans were unable to use their technologies like intelligence satellites effectively to detect enemy movements.
- C.
the Americans failed to understand the Asian culture of war that was based on stealth and surprise.
- D.
Clausewitz is inferior to Sun-tzu.
Directions: Arrange the sentences A, B, C and D to form a logical sequence between sentences 1 and 6.
1. Making people laugh is tricky.
- At times, the intended humour may simply not come off.
- Making people laugh while trying to sell them something is a tougher challenge, since the commercial can fall flat on two grounds.
- There are many advertisements which do amuse but do not even begin to set the cash registers ringing.
- Again, it is rarely sufficient for an advertiser simply to amuse the target audience in order to reap the sales benefit.
6. There are indications that in substituting the hardsell for a more entertaining approach, some agencies have rather thrown out the baby with the bath-water.
- A.
CDBA
- B.
ABCD
- C.
BADC
- D.
DCBA
Directions: Arrange the sentences A, B, C and D to form a logical sequence between sentences 1 and 6.
1. Picture a termite colony, occupying a tall mud hump on an African plain.
- Hungry predators often invade the colony and unsettle the balance.
- The colony flourishes only if the proportion of soldiers to workers remains roughly the same, so that the queen and workers can be protected by the soldiers, and the queen and soldiers can be serviced by the workers.
- But its fortunes are presently restored, because the immobile queen, walled in well below the ground level, lays eggs not only in large enough numbers, but also in the varying proportions required.
- The hump is alive with worker termites and soldier termites going about their distinct kinds of business.
6. How can we account for a mysterious ability to respond like this to events on the distant surface?
- A.
BADC
- B.
DBAC
- C.
ADCB
- D.
BDCA
Directions: Arrange the sentences A, B, C and D to form a logical sequence between sentences 1 and 6.
1. According to recent research, the critical period for developing language skills is between the age of three and five years.
- The read-to child already has a large vocabulary and a sense of grammar and sentence structure.
- Children who are read to in these years have a far better chance of reading well in school, indeed, of doing well in all their subjects.
- And the reason is actually quite simple.
- This correlation is far and away the highest yet found between home influences and school success.
6. Their comprehension of language is therefore very high.
- A.
DACD
- B.
ADCB
- C.
ABCD
- D.
BDCA
Directions: Arrange the sentences A, B, C and D to form a logical sequence between sentences 1 and 6.
1. High-powered outboard motors were considered to be one of the major threats to the survival of the Beluga whales.
- With these, hunters could approach Belugas within hunting range and profit from its inner skin and blubber.
- To escape an approaching motor, Belugas have learnt to dive to the ocean bottom and stay there for up to 20 min, by which time the confused predator has left.
- Today, however, even with much more powerful engines, it is difficult to come close, because the whales seem to disappear suddenly just when you thought you had them in your sights.
- When the first outboard engines arrived in the early 1930s, one came across 4 HP and 8 HP motors.
6. Belugas seem to have used their well-known sensitivity to noise to evolve an ‘avoidance’ strategy to outsmart hunters and their powerful technologies.
- A.
DACB
- B.
ACDB
- C.
ADCB
- D.
DBAC
Directions: Arrange the sentences A, B, C and D to form a logical sequence between sentences 1 and 6.
1. The reconstruction of history by post-revolutionary science texts involves more than a multiplication of historical misconstructions.
- Because they aim quickly to acquaint the student with what the contemporary scientific community thinks it knows, textbooks treat the various experiments, concepts, laws and theories of the current normal science as separately and as nearly seriatim as possible.
- Those misconstructions render revolutions invisible; the arrangement of the still visible material in science texts implies a process that, if it existed, would deny revolutions a function.
- But when combined with the generally unhistorical air of science writing and with the occasional systematic misconstruction, one impression is likely to follow.
- As pedagogy, this technique of presentation is unexceptionable.
6. Science has reached its present state by a series of individual discoveries and inventions that, when gathered together, constitute the modern body of technical knowledge.
- A.
BADC
- B.
ADCB
- C.
DACB
- D.
CBDA