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The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Understanding the key properties of complex systems can help us clarify and deal with many new and existing global challenges, from pandemics to poverty . . . A recent study in Nature Physics found transitions to orderly states such as schooling in fish (all fish swimming in the same direction), can be caused, paradoxically, by randomness, or 'noise' feeding back on itself. That is, a misalignment among the fish causes further misalignment, eventually inducing a transition to schooling. Most of us wouldn't guess that noise can produce predictable behaviour. The result invites us to consider how technology such as contact-tracing apps, although informing us locally, might negatively impact our collective movement. If each of us changes our behaviour to avoid the infected, we might generate a collective pattern we had aimed to avoid: higher levels of interaction between the infected and susceptible, or high levels of interaction among the asymptomatic.
Complex systems also suffer from a special vulnerability to events that don't follow a normal distribution or 'bell curve'. When events are distributed normally, most outcomes are familiar and don't seem particularly striking. Height is a good example: it's pretty unusual for a man to be over 7 feet tall; most adults are between 5 and 6 feet, and there is no known person over 9 feet tall. But in collective settings where contagion shapes behaviour – a run on the banks, a scramble to buy toilet paper – the probability distributions for possible events are often heavy-tailed. There is a much higher probability of extreme events, such as a stock market crash or a massive surge in infections. These events are still unlikely, but they occur more frequently and are larger than would be expected under normal distributions.
What's more, once a rare but hugely significant 'tail' event takes place, this raises the probability of further tail events. We might call them second-order tail events; they include stock market gyrations after a big fall and earthquake aftershocks. The initial probability of second-order tail events is so tiny it's almost impossible to calculate – but once a first-order tail event occurs, the rules change, and the probability of a second-order tail event increases.
The dynamics of tail events are complicated by the fact that they result from cascades of other unlikely events. When COVID-19 first struck, the stock market suffered stunning losses followed by an equally stunning recovery. Some of these dynamics are potentially attributable to former sports bettors, with no sports to bet on, entering the market as speculators rather than investors. The arrival of these new players might have increased inefficiencies and allowed savvy long-term investors to gain an edge over bettors with different goals. . . .
One reason a first-order tail event can induce further tail events is that it changes the perceived costs of our actions and changes the rules that we play by. This game-change is an example of another key complex systems concept: nonstationarity. A second, canonical example of nonstationarity is adaptation, as illustrated by the arms race involved in the coevolution of hosts and parasites [in which] each has to 'run' faster, just to keep up with the novel solutions the other one presents as they battle it out in evolutionary time.
Q1
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
All of the following inferences are supported by the passage EXCEPT that:
This is an EXCEPT question, so we need the one inference the passage does not support.
Option A claims the passage attributes the market rebound solely to displaced sports bettors and treats them as the overriding cause. The passage is far more tentative: "Some of these dynamics are potentially attributable to former sports bettors", and their arrival "might have increased inefficiencies". The words "solely" and "overriding" turn a hedged possibility into a sweeping causal claim, so A is not supported.
Option B restates paragraph 2: heavy-tailed distributions make extreme events "occur more frequently and are larger" than bell-curve expectations in contagion-driven settings. Supported.
Option C matches paragraphs 3 and 5: a first-order tail event "changes the rules that we play by" and raises the odds of second-order tail events. Supported.
Option D fits the bank-run and toilet-paper examples together with paragraph 1's point that individual choices can produce a collective pattern "we had aimed to avoid". Supported.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q2
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage suggests that contact tracing apps could inadvertently raise risky interactions by altering local behaviour. Which one of the assumptions below is most necessary for that suggestion to hold?
The passage argues that if "each of us changes our behaviour to avoid the infected", the combined result could be a collective pattern we wanted to avoid, such as more contact between the infected and the susceptible. For this to happen, two things must be true: people must actually adjust their movement in response to infection information (and to what others do), and those individual adjustments must interact to produce a large-scale pattern. Option A states exactly this. Negate it (people ignore infection data and act independently) and the argument collapses, which shows it is necessary.
Option B describes uniform traffic and "negligible" interdependence, which would undermine the argument rather than support it.
Option C, perfect one-metre accuracy, is not needed; the effect arises from behavioural feedback, not from data precision.
Option D says the bias is "neutralised" and aggregate patterns do not change predictably, which contradicts the suggestion.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q3
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
The passage moves through three ideas: (1) noise feeding back on itself can create order, as in fish schooling, with a caution about contact-tracing apps; (2) complex systems shaped by contagion are vulnerable to heavy-tailed events, and one tail event raises the odds of others, illustrated with the COVID-19 market crash and recovery; (3) such events change the rules of the game, an instance of nonstationarity, with adaptation as a second example. Option B covers all three in the right order.
Option A narrows the passage to speculators and adds "always" and "invariably", which the passage never claims.
Option C contradicts paragraph 2, which says collective outcomes are often heavy-tailed, not normally distributed.
Option D says nonstationarity is restricted to biology, whereas the passage applies it directly to markets and the pandemic.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q4
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the following observations would most strengthen the passage's claim that a first-order tail event raises the probability of further tail events in complex systems?
The claim is that once a first-order tail event occurs, "the probability of a second-order tail event increases", and the passage cites "stock market gyrations after a big fall" as an example. To strengthen it we need evidence that extreme events cluster after an initial shock.
Option B gives exactly that: after a major crash, large daily moves bunch together for weeks, and extreme days are much more frequent than normal, even for assets that are usually calm. This is direct support for elevated tail probability after a first tail event.
Option A says later outbreaks match the baseline with no rise in extreme clusters, which weakens the claim.
Option C concerns thin-tailed, normally distributed data and says nothing about events following a shock; if anything it cuts against heavy tails.
Option D reports no aftershocks and independence between events, which directly contradicts the claim.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q5
Odd one out TYPE IN THE ANSWER
Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. The Bayeux tapestry was, therefore, an obvious way to tell people about the downfall of the English and the rise of the Normans. 2. So if we take expert in Anglo-Saxon culture Gale Owen-Crocker's idea that the tapestry was originally hung in a square with certain scenes facing each other, people would have stood in the centre. 3. Art historian Linda Neagley has argued that pre-Renaissance people interacted with art visually, kinaesthetically (sensory perception through bodily movement) and physically. 4. That would make it an 11th-century immersive space with scenes corresponding and echoing each other, drawing the viewer's attention, playing on their senses and understanding of the story they thought they knew. 5. The Bayeux tapestry would have been hung at eye level to enable this.
Four sentences explain how the Bayeux tapestry may have been experienced physically, as an immersive space:
3 introduces the idea: Linda Neagley argues that pre-Renaissance people engaged with art visually, kinaesthetically and physically.
5 applies it: the tapestry would have hung at eye level "to enable this", and "this" points back to the bodily interaction in 3.
2 builds on the hanging: "So if" it was hung in a square with facing scenes, viewers would have stood in the centre.
4 concludes: "That would make it" an 11th-century immersive space that plays on the viewer's senses.
So 3-5-2-4 forms a tight chain about viewing and display. Sentence 1 is about the tapestry's purpose, telling the story of the English downfall and Norman rise. Its "therefore" has nothing in the paragraph to follow from, and its political message has nothing to do with how the tapestry was displayed or experienced.
Hence, the answer is 1.
Q6
Missing Sentence MULTIPLE CHOICE
The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence: Historically, silver has been, and still is, an important element in the business of 'show' visible in private houses, churches, government and diplomacy.
Paragraph: ____(1) ____. Timothy Schroder put it succinctly in suggesting that electric light and eating in the kitchen eroded this need. As he explained to the author, 'Silver, when illuminated by flickering candlelight, comes alive and almost dances before the eyes, but when lit by electric light it becomes flat and dead.' ____(2) ____. Domestic and economic changes may have worked against the market, but the London silver trade remained buoyant, thanks to the competition of collectors seeking grand display silver at the top end, and the buyers of 'collectables', like spoons and wine labels and 'novelties', at the bottom. ____(3) ____. Another factor that came into play was the systematic collection building of certain American museums over the period. Boston, Huntington Art Gallery and Williamsburg, among others, were largely supplied by London dealers. ____(4) ____.
The sentence says silver has long been a key part of the business of "show" in houses, churches, government and diplomacy. It is a general opening statement that sets up the idea of display.
Slot 1 fits best. The very next sentence says Schroder explained how electric light and eating in the kitchen "eroded this need". "This need" has no antecedent in the paragraph as given. The missing sentence supplies it: the need for silver as show in private houses. The Schroder quote about candlelight and electric light then explains why domestic display lost its appeal.
Slot 2 would break a continuous thread. "Domestic and economic changes may have worked against the market" follows directly from Schroder's domestic examples.
Slot 3 would separate the collectors (the first factor keeping the trade buoyant) from "Another factor", which needs that first factor right before it.
Slot 4 leaves a broad historical claim dangling after a specific point about American museums buying from London dealers, and "this need" earlier would still lack a referent.
Slot 1 corresponds to option (A), labelled "Option 1".
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q7
Para Summary MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Zombie cells may contribute to age-related chronic inflammation: this finding could help scientists understand more about the aging process and why the immune system becomes less effective as we get older. Zombie or "senescent" cells are damaged cells that can no longer divide and grow like normal cells. Scientists think that these cells can contribute to chronic health problems when they accumulate in the body. In younger people, the immune system is more effective at clearing senescent cells from the body through a process called apoptosis, but as we age this process becomes less efficient. As a result, there is an accumulation of senescent cells in different organs in the body, either through increased production or reduced clearance by the immune system. The zombie cells continue to use energy though they do not divide, and often secrete chemicals that cause inflammation, which if persistent for longer periods of time can damage healthy cells leading to chronic diseases.
The passage sets out a causal chain: with age, immune clearance (apoptosis) of senescent cells becomes less efficient; the zombie cells therefore accumulate; they secrete inflammatory chemicals; persistent inflammation damages healthy cells and leads to chronic disease. The opening frames this as a link to age-related chronic inflammation and the aging process.
Option A captures the whole chain, from weaker apoptosis to accumulation, inflammation and chronic disease, linked back to aging.
Option B leaves out inflammation and chronic disease, the passage's main concern, and wrongly says the cells "resist" apoptosis when the passage says clearance becomes less efficient.
Option C only defines senescent cells and gives none of the mechanism or consequences.
Option D calls them "dead cells" (they are alive and still use energy) and reverses the causal order with the immune system.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q8
Para Jumbles TYPE IN THE ANSWER
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. But man, woman or otherwise, there is no denying that the quality of our life and character will be significantly shaped by the way we handle our anger. 2. Once the taboos have been broken, women usually experience letting their fists fly as intensely liberating. 3. Though this might seem a stereotype, women—unlike men, who are frequently applauded for unbridled aggression—are often socialized to keep a lid on their ire. 4. Many of them are so at odds with their aggressive feelings that, as a coach, I often have to stop them from pulling their punches and encourage them to extend their arms so their blows might actually reach their fleshy target.
The paragraph is about women's suppressed anger and its release through boxing, followed by a general point about handling anger.
3 opens: it states the general observation that women, unlike men, are socialised to "keep a lid on their ire".
4 follows: "Many of them" refers to those women, and the coach's experience illustrates how uneasy they are with aggression (pulling punches).
2 continues: "Once the taboos have been broken" describes what happens after the coach's encouragement in 4, when throwing punches feels liberating.
1 concludes: "But man, woman or otherwise" widens the point beyond gender to a universal claim about how we handle anger.
3-4 is a mandatory pair (pronoun "them"), 4-2 follows the sequence from inhibition to release, and 1 has to come last because it generalises.
Hence, the answer is 3421.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Often the well intentioned music lover or the traditionally-minded professional composer asks two basic questions when faced with the electronic music phenomena: (1) . . . is this type of artistic creation music at all? and, (2) given that the product is accepted as music of a new type or order, is not such music "inhuman"? . . . As Lejaren Hiller points out in his book Experimental Music (co-author Leonard M. Isaacson), two questions which often arise when music is discussed are: (a) the substance of musical communication and its symbolic and semantic significance, if any, and (b) the particular processes, both mental and technical, which are involved in creating and responding to musical composition. The ever-present popular concept of music as a direct, open, emotional expression and as a subjective form of communication from the composer, is, of course still that of the nineteenth century, when composers themselves spoke of music in those terms . . . But since the third decade of our century many composers have preferred more objective definitions of music, epitomized in Stravinsky's description of it as "a form of speculation in terms of sound and time". An acceptance of this more characteristic twentieth-century view of the art of musical composition will of course immediately bring the layman closer to an understanding of, and sympathetic response to, electronic music, even if the forms, sounds and approaches it uses will still be of a foreign nature to him.
A communication problem however will still remain. The principal barrier that electronic music presents at large, in relation to the communication process, is that composers in this medium are employing a new language of forms . . . where terms like 'densities', 'indefinite pitch relations', 'dynamic serialization', 'permutation', etc., are substitutes (or remote equivalents) for the traditional concepts of harmony, melody, rhythm, etc. . . . When the new structural procedures of electronic music are at last fully understood by the listener the barriers between him and the work he faces will be removed. . . .
The medium of electronic music has of course tempted many kinds of composers to try their hand at it . . . But the serious-minded composer approaches the world of electronic music with a more sophisticated and profound concept of creation. Although he knows that he can reproduce and employ melodic, rhythmic patterns and timbres of a traditional nature, he feels that it is in the exploration of sui generis languages and forms that the aesthetic magic of the new medium lies. And, conscientiously, he plunges into this search.
The second objection usually levelled against electronic music is much more innocent in nature. When people speak—sometimes very vehemently—of the 'inhuman' quality of this music they seem to forget that the composer is the one who fires the machines, collects the sounds, manipulates them, pushes the buttons, programs the computer, filters the sounds, establishes pitches and scales, splices tape, thinks of forms, and rounds up the over-all structure of the piece, as well as every detail of it.
Q9
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
What relation does the "communication problem" mentioned in paragraph 2 have to the questions that the author recounts at the beginning of the passage?
The opening asks whether electronic music is music at all. Paragraph 1 argues that once listeners accept the twentieth-century, objective view of music (Stravinsky's definition), they move closer to understanding electronic music. Paragraph 2 then says a "communication problem however will still remain": composers use a new language of forms ('densities', 'permutation') in place of harmony, melody and rhythm. The author adds that when these procedures "are at last fully understood by the listener the barriers... will be removed."
So the communication problem is a remaining obstacle to accepting electronic music as music, and it can be overcome. That is option B.
Option A invents the idea that music "must be difficult to understand".
Option C ignores that the problem follows directly from the first question.
Option D says we "cannot" see it as music, which contradicts the author's view that the barriers can be removed.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q10
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
From the context in which it is placed, the phrase "sui generis" in paragraph 3 suggests which one of the following?
In paragraph 3, the serious composer knows he can reproduce traditional melodies and timbres, but feels the "aesthetic magic of the new medium" lies in exploring sui generis languages and forms. The contrast is with traditional, borrowed patterns. The new languages are ones unique and specific to the electronic medium, of their own kind. "Particular" (peculiar to this medium) is closest.
Option B, "Indescribable", is not implied; the passage actually names the new terms.
The passage begins with two objections commonly raised against electronic music: that it is not music, and that it is "inhuman". The author answers the first by appealing to the objective twentieth-century view of music and by arguing that the communication barrier can be overcome. He answers the second, which he calls "much more innocent", by showing that the composer controls every step of creation. The whole passage is therefore a defence of electronic music against common charges.
Option B: differentiation is incidental; the aim is to defend, not classify.
Option C: Hiller and Stravinsky are cited in support, not attacked.
Option D: the nineteenth-century contrast is only one step in answering the first objection.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q12
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The mention of Stravinsky's description of music in the first paragraph does all the following EXCEPT:
Stravinsky's definition, "a form of speculation in terms of sound and time", replaces the nineteenth-century idea of music as direct emotional communication with an objective view. The author says accepting it brings the layman closer to accepting electronic music.
Option B is done: by rejecting music as subjective emotional expression, it complicates what we think music communicates.
Option C is done: it is the step that lets us accept electronic music as music.
Option D is done: it responds to the earlier, nineteenth-century understanding and broadens it.
Option A is not done. The definition is broad and abstract. It offers no test for sorting musical sounds from non-musical ones; if anything it widens what can count as music.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q13
Missing Sentence MULTIPLE CHOICE
The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence: "Everything is old-world, traditional techniques from Mexico," Ava emphasizes.
Paragraph: The sisters embrace the ways their great-grandfather built and repaired instruments. ____(1) ____. When crafting a Mexican guitarrón used in mariachi music, they use tacote wood for the top of the instrument. Once the wood is cut, they carve the neck and heel from a single block using tools like hand saws, chisels and sandpaper rather than modern power tools — and believe that this traditional method improves the tone of the instrument. ____(2) ____. Their store has a three-year waitlist for instruments that take months to create. ____(3) ____. The family's artisanship has attracted stars like Los Lobos, who own custom guitars made by all three generations of the Delgado family. ____(4) ____. For the sisters, involvement in the family business started at an early age. They each built their first instruments at age 9.
The sentence is a quote stressing that "everything" the sisters do uses old-world, traditional Mexican techniques. It should sit where the paragraph introduces their traditional methods, before the specific examples.
Slot 1 fits. The previous sentence says the sisters "embrace the ways their great-grandfather built and repaired instruments", and Ava's quote reinforces this as a general statement. The next sentence gives the detail: tacote wood for the guitarrón top, then hand tools instead of power tools. So the order runs general claim, quote, examples.
Slot 2 comes after the detailed example has ended with the tonal benefit, and the paragraph has moved on to the waitlist; the quote would arrive too late.
Slot 3 sits between the waitlist and the celebrity clients, where the subject is demand and reputation, not technique.
Slot 4 precedes the sisters' early start in the business, which is a new topic.
Slot 1 corresponds to option (D), labelled "Option 1".
Hence, the answer is (D).
Q14
Para Jumbles TYPE IN THE ANSWER
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. It can in fact be integrated into any function (education, medical treatment, production, punishment); it can increase the effect of this function, by being linked closely with it; it can constitute a mixed mechanism in which relations of power (and of knowledge) may be precisely adjusted, in the smallest detail, to the processes that are to be supervised; it can establish a direct proportion between 'surplus power' and 'surplus production'. 2. It's a case of 'it's easy once you've thought of it' in the political sphere. 3. The panoptic mechanism is not simply a hinge, a point of exchange between a mechanism of power and a function; it is a way of making power relations function in a function, and of making a function function through these power relations. 4. In short, it arranges things in such a way that the exercise of power is not added on from the outside, like a rigid, heavy constraint, to the functions it invests, but is so subtly present in them as to increase their efficiency by itself increasing its own points of contact.
The paragraph describes the panoptic mechanism as a simple, versatile way of building power into functions.
2 opens with the striking claim that the idea is "easy once you've thought of it" in the political sphere, i.e. it is simple.
1 backs this up with "in fact": the mechanism can be built into any function (education, medicine, production, punishment), and it lists what it can do.
4 sums up the list with "In short": power is not added from outside but is present within the functions, increasing their efficiency.
3 closes by stating the principle abstractly and naming it: the panoptic mechanism is "not simply a hinge" but a way of making power relations "function in a function".
1-4 is a mandatory pair: "In short" summarises 1's series of "it can" clauses. 4 and 3 share a "not X but Y" structure, with 3 turning 4's description into a general formula, so 3 works as the conclusion. 2 needs supporting evidence, and 1's "in fact" supplies it.
Hence, the answer is 2143.
Q15
Odd one out TYPE IN THE ANSWER
Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. Developments both technological and sociocultural have afforded us far greater freedom over death than we had in the past, and while we are still adapting ourselves to that freedom, we now appreciate the moral importance of this freedom. 2. But I believe that a type of freedom we can call freedom over death – that is, a freedom in which we shape the timing and circumstances of how we die – should be central to this conversation. 3. Legalising assisted dying is but a further step in realising this freedom over death. 4. Many people endorse, through their opinions or their choices, our freedom over death encompassing a right to medical assistance in hastening our deaths. 5. Freedom is a notoriously complex and contested philosophical notion, and I won't pretend to settle any of the big controversies it raises.
Four sentences present the author's case that "freedom over death" should frame the discussion:
5 opens by admitting freedom is a complex, contested idea that the author won't try to settle.
2 follows with "But I believe": a particular kind of freedom, freedom over death, should be central.
1 explains how technological and sociocultural developments have widened this freedom compared with the past.
3 concludes that legalising assisted dying is "but a further step" in that historical expansion.
The chain 5-2-1-3 moves from concept to definition to historical growth to the next step. Sentence 4 changes the angle to public opinion: many people endorse a right to medical help in hastening death. That is a survey of people's views, not part of the author's argument. It also states the assisted-dying point as already accepted, which would make 3's "further step" redundant.
Hence, the answer is 4.
Q16
Para Summary MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
In the dynamic realm of creativity, artists often find themselves at the crossroads between drawing inspiration from diverse cultures and inadvertently crossing into the territory of cultural appropriation. Inspiration is the lifeblood of creativity, driving artists to create works that resonate across borders. The globalized nature of the modern world invites artists to draw from a vast array of cultural influences. When approached respectfully, inspiration becomes a bridge, fostering understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity. However, the line between inspiration and cultural appropriation can be thin and easily blurred. Cultural appropriation occurs when elements from a particular culture are borrowed without proper understanding, respect, or acknowledgment. This leads to the commodification of sacred symbols, the reinforcement of stereotypes, and the erasure of the cultural context from which these elements originated. It's essential to recognize that the impact of cultural appropriation extends beyond the realm of artistic expression, influencing societal perceptions and perpetuating power imbalances.
The passage says artists in a globalised world draw on many cultures. Done respectfully, this is inspiration that builds understanding. The line is thin, though: appropriation means borrowing without understanding, respect or acknowledgment, and it causes commodification, stereotyping and erasure. The passage closes on what it calls "essential": the impact goes beyond art, shaping social perceptions and perpetuating power imbalances.
Option A captures the globalised setting, the tension between respectful inspiration and unacknowledged appropriation, and the broader societal impact including power imbalances, which is the passage's concluding emphasis.
Option B frames it as a choice between acknowledging and appropriating "works", and leaves out the consequences entirely.
Option C says artists "must" borrow to appeal to all, and that this "results in" both outcomes; this distorts the passage and drops the consequences.
Option D is close but stops at art-level harms (commodification, stereotypes). It misses the passage's final point that the impact extends into society and power relations.
Hence, the answer is (A).
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Studies showing that income inequality plays a positive role in economic growth are largely based on three arguments. The first argument focuses on investment indivisibilities wherein large sunk costs are required when implementing new fundamental innovations. Without stock markets and financial institutions to mobilize large sums of money, a high concentration of wealth is needed for individuals to undertake new industrial activities accompanied by high sunk costs . . . [One study] shows the relation between economic growth and income inequality for 45 countries during 1966-1995. [It was found] that the increase in income inequality has a significant positive relationship with economic growth in the short and medium term. Using system GMM, [another study estimated] the relation between income inequality and economic growth for 106 countries during 1965–2005 period. The results show that income inequality has a positive impact on economic growth in the short run, but the two are negatively correlated in the long run. The second argument is related to moral hazard and incentives . . . Because economic performance is determined by the unobservable level of effort that agents make, paying compensations without taking into account the economic performance achieved by individual agents will fail to elicit optimum effort from the agents. Thus, certain income inequalities contribute to growth by enhancing worker motivation . . . and by giving motivation to innovators and entrepreneurs . . . Finally, [another study] point[s] out that the concentration of wealth or stock ownership in relation to corporate governance contributes to growth. If stock ownership is distributed and owned by a large number of shareholders, it is not easy to make quick decisions due to the conflicting interests among shareholders, and this may also cause a free-rider problem in terms of monitoring and supervising managers and workers. . . .
Various studies have examined the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and most of these assert that a negative correlation exists between the two. . . . Analyzing 159 countries for 1980–2012, they conclude that there exists a negative relation between income inequality and economic growth; when the income share of the richest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP decreases by 0.08%, whereas when the income share of the poorest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP increases by 0.38%. Some studies find that inequality has a negative impact on growth due to poor human capital accumulation and low fertility rates . . . while [others] point out that inequality creates political instability, resulting in lower investment. . . . [Some economists] argue that widening income inequality has a negative impact on economic growth because it negatively affects social consensus or social capital formation. One important research topic is the correlation between democratization and income redistribution. [Some scholars] explain that social pressure for income redistribution rises as income inequality increases in a democratic society. In other words, when democratization extends suffrage to a wider class of people, the increased political power of low- and middle-income voters results in broader support for income redistribution and social welfare expansion. However . . . if the rich have more political influence than the poor, the democratic system actually worsens income inequality rather than improving it.
Q17
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage refers to "democratization". Choose the one option below that comes closest to the opposite of this process.
In the passage, democratisation means extending suffrage "to a wider class of people", which increases the political power of low- and middle-income voters. The opposite is a move toward authoritarian rule in which fewer people can vote and political competition is suppressed.
Option A describes exactly that: a shift to authoritarianism, narrowed suffrage and opposition parties deregistered.
Option B: capping corporate donations and publicly funding parties are pro-democratic reforms; calling them "oligarchy" does not make them so.
Option C: participatory budgeting and recall elections widen participation, whatever a press release calls them.
Option D: term limits and judicial review check power, so they cannot coherently "entrench autocratic rule".
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q18
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
According to the incentive or moral hazard argument, which one of the designs below is most consistent with the claim that some inequality can raise growth?
The moral hazard argument says effort cannot be observed, so paying people without regard to their performance fails to draw out their best effort. Inequality helps growth when pay is tied to results, which motivates workers, innovators and entrepreneurs.
Option C, rewarding highly productive workers on verifiable performance, creates unequal pay that is linked to output, which is what the argument describes.
Option A: rents from market power raise top incomes "without linking pay to results", so they give no incentive.
Option B: tenure-based wages are the kind of performance-blind pay the argument says fails.
Option D is the third (corporate governance) argument, not the incentive argument.
Hence, the answer is (C).
Q19
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The primary function of the three-part case for a positive income inequality–economic growth link in the first half of the passage is to show that:
The first half gives three reasons inequality may help growth: concentrated wealth funds large sunk-cost investments where financial markets are weak; performance-linked inequality aligns incentives; and concentrated ownership speeds corporate decisions and avoids free-riding. The evidence it cites finds positive effects "in the short and medium term" or "in the short run", turning negative in the long run. Option A captures the three channels and the short-term qualification.
Option B says "every period" and "regardless of" conditions, which contradicts the long-run negative finding and the dependence on financial conditions.
Option C reverses the governance argument: dispersed ownership slows decisions and causes free-riding.
Option D is not the function of the three-part case; the passage does not say mature markets harm investment.
Hence, the answer is (A).
Q20
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
The passage first sets out three channels (investment indivisibilities, incentives, corporate governance) through which inequality may help growth, citing studies that find short-run gains but a negative long-run correlation. It then surveys work linking inequality to lower growth. Option C describes the three channels and the short-term-gain, long-term-drawback pattern, so it captures the structure best.
Option A is wrong to say the passage "confines" itself to finance and governance or "overlooks" human capital, fertility and redistribution; all three are discussed.
Option B says the passage "argues" that inequality accelerates growth; it reports both sides and notes that most studies find a negative link.
Option D attributes to the passage a methodological claim it never makes.
Hence, the answer is (C).
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
How can we know what someone else is thinking or feeling, let alone prove it in court? In his 1863 book, A General View of the Criminal Law of England, James Fitzjames Stephen, among the most celebrated legal thinkers of his generation, was of the opinion that the assessment of a person's mental state was an inference made with "little consciousness." In a criminal case, jurors, doctors, and lawyers could watch defendants—scrutinizing clothing, mannerisms, tone of voice—but the best they could hope for were clues. . . . Rounding these clues up to a judgment about a defendant's guilt, or a defendant's life, was an act of empathy and imagination. . . . The closer the resemblance between defendants and their judges, the easier it was to overlook the gap that inference filled. Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed.
In the nineteenth century, physicians who specialized in the study of madness and the care of the insane held themselves out as experts in the new field of mental science. Often called alienists or mad doctors, they were the predecessors of modern psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists. . . . The opinions of family and neighbors had once been sufficient to sift the sane from the insane, but a growing belief that insanity was a subtle condition that required expert, medical diagnosis pushed physicians into the witness box. . . . Lawyers for both prosecution and defense began to recruit alienists to assess defendants' sanity and to testify to it in court.
Irresponsibility and insanity were not identical, however. Criminal responsibility was a legal concept and not, fundamentally, a medical one. Stephen explained: "The question 'What are the mental elements of responsibility?' is, and must be, a legal question. It cannot be anything else, for the meaning of responsibility is liability to punishment." . . . Nonetheless, medical and legal accounts of what it meant to be mentally sound became entangled and mutually referential throughout the nineteenth century. Lawyers relied on medical knowledge to inform their opinions and arguments about the sanity of their clients. Doctors commented on the legal responsibility of their patients. Ultimately, the fields of criminal law and mental science were both invested in constructing an image of the broken and damaged psyche that could be contrasted with the whole and healthy one. This shared interest, and the shared space of the criminal courtroom, made it nearly impossible to consider responsibility without medicine, or insanity without law. . . .
Physicians and lawyers shared more than just concern for the mind. Class, race, and gender bound these middle-class, white, professional men together, as did family ties, patriotism, Protestantism, business ventures, the alumni networks of elite schools and universities, and structures of political patronage. But for all their affinities, men of medicine and law were divided by contests over the borders of criminal responsibility, as much within each profession as between them. Alienists steadily pushed the boundaries of their field, developing increasingly complex and capacious definitions of insanity. Eccentricity and aggression came to be classified as symptoms of mental disease, at least by some.
Q21
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Study the following sets of concepts and identify the set that is conceptually closest to the concerns and arguments of the passage.
The passage asks how courts can judge a defendant's mental state. It discusses judgement as inference, the rise of alienists diagnosing insanity, and Stephen's point that responsibility is a legal concept meaning "liability to punishment". Its closing paragraph covers disputes over the borders of criminal responsibility. Option D, "Judgement, Insanity, Punishment, Responsibility", names these central ideas.
Option A: "Accounts" and "Patronage" are peripheral; patronage is mentioned only in a list of social ties.
Option B: "Business" and "Knowledge" are marginal; business ventures are only a passing mention.
Option C: "Patriotism" is only one item in that list of affinities, and the set leaves out insanity and responsibility.
Hence, the answer is (D).
Q22
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
"Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed." Which one of the following best describes the use of the word "confession" in this sentence?
In the sentence, "confession" sits in a list with disease, gender and race, all features that could make a defendant seem unlike the officials judging them. Here "confession" means a religious denomination, as in "the Protestant confession". The last paragraph supports this reading: it lists Protestantism among the traits shared by the professional men. A defendant of another faith would seem "unlike" them.
Option A misreads "struck" as physical attack; "struck officials as" means "seemed to officials".
Option C is wrong: "by dint of" means "by means of" or "because of", not "didn't".
Option D invents the idea of "professing" gender or race as a defence; nothing in the passage supports it.
Hence, the answer is (B).
Q23
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
The last paragraph of the passage refers to "middle-class, white, professional men". Which one of the following qualities best describes the connection among them?
The last paragraph says these middle-class, white, professional men (physicians and lawyers) were bound by social ties, "but for all their affinities" they "were divided by contests over the borders of criminal responsibility". Among the options, the borders of criminal responsibility are what connect them as a professional group: it was the shared question that both professions worked on in the courtroom, as the previous paragraph's "shared interest" also shows, even though they disagreed about it.
Option A: eccentricity and aggression are symptoms some alienists classified as mental disease, not something linking the men.
Option B: empathy and imagination describe how judges inferred mental states in paragraph 1, not what links this group.
Option D: the opinions of family and neighbours were the older way of judging sanity, which these experts replaced.
Hence, the answer is (C).
Q24
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
According to the passage, who or what was an "alienist"?
Paragraph 2 defines the term: "physicians who specialized in the study of madness and the care of the insane" in the nineteenth century were "often called alienists or mad doctors", the predecessors of modern psychiatrists. Option A matches this definition almost word for word.
Option B distorts the last paragraph; alienists widened definitions of insanity, but nothing says their field became "unrecognisable".
Option C takes "alien" to mean immigrants, which has no support, and wrongly includes lawyers.
Option D takes "alien" to mean extraterrestrials, which is absurd and unsupported.
