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Q1
Grammar, Usage & Correction MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following sentences carefully.
A. There are less cars on the road today. B. She is nicer than her sister. C. I have been here from Monday. D. I know how to swim. E. She is the girl that won the case competition. F. The media are divided on the issue.
Which of the following options contains only grammatically CORRECT sentences?
We must pick the option in which every sentence is grammatically correct. Check each sentence.
A: wrong. "Cars" is a countable noun, so it takes fewer, not less: "There are fewer cars on the road today."
B: correct. "Nicer than" is the proper comparative.
C: wrong. With the present perfect continuous, a starting point in time takes since: "I have been here since Monday."
D: correct. "Know how to + verb" is standard.
E: doubtful. For a person, formal grammar prefers who: "She is the girl who won the case competition." The test setters treat "that" here as the error.
F: correct. "Media" is the plural of "medium", so "the media are divided" is right.
The correct sentences are B, D and F. Every other option contains A, C or E.
Answer: Option 5 (B, D & F)
Q2
Grammar, Usage & Correction MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following sentences carefully.
A. The dean asked for additional funding. B. The boss discussed about the new project with his team. C. Radhika is good in data interpretation. D. Neil is transitioning into a new phase of life. E. Rajat emphasized on the need for consistency in XAT preparation. F. This car is superior to the previous one in terms of efficiency.
Which of the following options contains only grammatically CORRECT sentences?
We must find the option in which all three sentences are correct. The errors here are about prepositions.
A: correct. "Ask for" something is the right phrasal verb.
B: wrong. "Discuss" is transitive and takes no preposition: "discussed the new project".
C: wrong. We are good at a skill or subject: "good at data interpretation".
D: correct. "Transitioning into a new phase" is acceptable.
E: wrong. "Emphasize" is transitive: "emphasized the need". (The noun takes "on": "laid emphasis on".)
F: correct. "Superior" takes to, not "than", and the sentence uses "to".
The correct sentences are A, D and F. Options 2 to 5 each include B, C or E.
Answer: Option 1 (A, D & F)
Q3
Fill in the blanks MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following sentences carefully.
When each_________________ generation grows up, it looks down on the next as if we all forget what it feels like to be______________. When most____________ think about their own youthful indiscretions they do so with a wink and a laugh. But when the same people think about those in today’s generation doing something similar, they _________________sound the alarm about a decline in morality in next generation.
From the options below, choose the one that meaningfully fills up the blanks.
The paragraph says each generation, once grown up, looks down on the young, forgets its own youth and judges the young by a double standard.
Blank 1: "each ___ generation grows up" needs a word for generations that follow one another, so successive fits. "Young generation grows up" and "old generation grows up" make no sense.
Blank 2: "forget what it feels like to be ___" needs young.
Blank 3: the people recalling "their own youthful indiscretions" are grown-ups, so adults. "Youngsters" is illogical.
Blank 4: they excuse their own past with "a wink and a laugh" but complain when the young do the same. That double standard is hypocritical. "Cautiously", "carefully", "naturally" and "sincerely" all miss the point.
Only option 3 fits all four blanks. Option 1 fails at "succeeding" and "cautiously", option 2 at "young generation grows up", option 4 at "be next", and option 5 at "youngsters" recalling their youth.
Answer: Option 3
Q4
Para Jumbles MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following statement carefully.
A. Whatever that might be on Europa—far from the Sun, and beneath kilometres of ice—it will not be sunlight. B. The final ingredient for a habitable world is a source of energy for life to exploit. C. On Earth almost every living thing ultimately depends on photosynthesis for its energy, including the rich ecosystems in the ocean depths, discovered in the 1980s and which helped the idea of life on Europa gain a foothold. D. Their inhabitants do not benefit from sunlight directly, but their metabolisms are powered by chemicals created in the photosynthesising, oxygen-rich surface oceans far above. E. That is a bit of a problem.
Fill in the blanks meaningfully, in the above statement, from the following options.
We must put the five sentences in a logical order.
B opens the topic: "the final ingredient for a habitable world is a source of energy".
A follows. "Whatever that might be on Europa" refers back to B's energy source, and A says it will not be sunlight.
E, "That is a bit of a problem", comments on A: there is no sunlight.
C explains why it is a problem. On Earth almost all life depends on photosynthesis, including the deep-ocean ecosystems that made life on Europa seem possible.
D, "Their inhabitants", refers to C's deep-ocean ecosystems. They get their energy indirectly from photosynthesis at the surface, which underlines the problem for Europa.
Order: B-A-E-C-D. Option 1 starts with "That is a bit of a problem", which has nothing to refer back to. Options 3 and 4 put D or C before the energy question is raised. Option 5 starts with "Whatever that might be", which also has nothing before it.
Answer: Option 2
Q5
Arguments MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following statements and answer the question that follows.
Employees complaining about mundane tasks are often ignored. There is a listlessness that settles around them. A bored employee may continue to produce good results, but that can also be because the tasks are repetitive, and the outcomes are expected.
Which of the following options can be BEST inferred from the passage?
The passage says bored employees' complaints "are often ignored", and that a bored employee "may continue to produce good results" because the work is repetitive. Taken together: the results stay good, so the organisation does not notice the boredom. Good output hides the employee's state of mind, which is option 1.
Option 2 uses "must": the passage never says poor performance is the only way to get noticed.
Option 3 is a recommendation ("needs immediate attention"), not an inference.
Options 4 and 5 change the cause. The listlessness surrounds bored employees in general, not only good performers, and the passage does not say mundane tasks create it around good performers.
Answer: Option 1
Q6
Arguments MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows.
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
Which of the following options can be BEST concluded from the passage?
We need the conclusion that best captures the passage.
The argument: you learn how strong temptation is only by resisting it, just as you learn the strength of an army or a wind by pushing against it. People who give in at once "know very little about badness". So we discover what we really are only when we are tested. Option 1 generalises this correctly: until our beliefs are tested, we do not know what we truly believe.
Option 2 widens the claim to "anything" and adds a self-judging step the passage does not mention.
Option 3, "most of the population", is a claim about numbers that the passage never makes.
Option 4 confuses knowing temptation (a result of resisting it) with a requirement for calling oneself good.
Option 5 is about labels and "entirely". The passage is about self-knowledge, not labelling.
Answer: Option 1
Q7
Para Jumbles MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows.
A. The treaty tests of a budget deficit no bigger than 3% of the GDP and a public debt converging towards a ceiling of 60% of a GDP seemed impossible for Italy to pass by 1999. B. That Belgium also had a public debt above 100 percent of GDP helped, as did a special euro tax Mr. Prodi introduced. C. Into the uncompromising environment came the first of a series of external shocks. One of the earliest was entry into the European single currency, the euro, in 1999. D. But when it became clear in 1997 that Spain was determined to join from the start, Romano Prodi, then Italian prime minister, decided that Italy, as a founder member of the bloc, must be there too. E. Germany had more or less designed the 1992 Maastricht treaty’s convergence criteria to keep out a profligate, chronically indebted Italy.
Which of the following sequences is the MOST logically ordered?
We must find the most logical order of the five sentences.
C opens. It introduces "the first of a series of external shocks": Italy's entry into the euro in 1999.
E gives the background. Germany designed the Maastricht criteria to keep out an indebted Italy.
A states those criteria (deficit no bigger than 3%, debt near 60% of GDP) and says Italy seemed unable to meet them by 1999.
D marks the turn with "But". When Spain was set on joining, Prodi decided Italy must join too.
B lists what helped. Belgium also had debt above 100% of GDP, and Prodi brought in a euro tax.
Order: C-E-A-D-B. Options 1 and 4 open with E, which leaves "Into the uncompromising environment came…" stranded later. Option 3 puts the criteria before Germany's motive and the euro context. Option 2 puts the Belgium detail before Prodi's decision.
Answer: Option 5
Q8
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Observe the cartoon below carefully and answer the question that follows.
(Cartoon by Tom Toro, originally published in The New Yorker on November 18, 2024. Used for educational purpose.)
Which of the following options BEST explains the underlying message depicted in the cartoon?
The cartoon shows a man throwing a ball for his dog. The man thinks: "I love how he finds joy in the simple things." The dog, chasing the ball, thinks: "The emotional burden of alleviating his depression is crushing me."
The joke is the gap between the two views. The man reads the dog's behaviour through his own assumption that dogs are simply happy. In fact the dog is playing to cheer him up. Our reading of others, shaped by what we already believe, can be completely wrong. That is option 5.
Option 1 reads the cartoon as praise of self-sacrificing love. The point is the misunderstanding, not a lesson about love.
Option 2 is about how others' views shape our identity. Neither character's identity is at stake.
Option 3 says "mostly arbitrary". The man's reading is not random; it comes from a specific belief.
Option 4 describes only the dog's side and misses the contrast between the two thoughts.
Answer: Option 5
Q9
Arguments MULTIPLE CHOICE
Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.
The lovely thing about the unsayable is that it is unsaid. As soon as it is said, it is sayable and loses all its mystery and ambiguity. Art exists so that the unsayable can be said without having to actually say it. We cloud it in secrecy and obfuscation. The mind is free to roam and all things can be imagined, under the cover of darkness. How nice that is. The unsayable. How tired we are of having things explained to us. Having things said. How nice it is when people just shut … up."
Which of the following options can be BEST inferred from the passage?
The key line is: "Art exists so that the unsayable can be said without having to actually say it." Art conveys what cannot be put into plain words, keeping its mystery. That is option 3.
Option 1: art does not "echo" unintelligible language. It expresses what words cannot.
Option 2: "any piece of art defies expression" turns it around. Art is a form of expression, just not a literal one.
Option 4: the passage dislikes explanation because it kills the mystery. It never says an explanation becomes new art.
Option 5: art keeps the mystery rather than unfolding it.
Answer: Option 3
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
No one argues that the rich should be rich because they were born to wealthy parents. Critics of inequality may complain that those who would abolish inheritance taxes, say, are implicitly endorsing hereditary privilege. But no one defends hereditary privilege outright or disputes the principle that careers should be open to talents. Most of our debates about access to jobs, education, and public office proceed from the premise of equal opportunity. Our disagreements are less about the principle itself than about what it requires. For example, critics of affirmative action in hiring and college admissions argue that such policies are inconsistent with equality of opportunity, because they judge applicants on factors other than merit. Defenders of affirmative action reply that such policies are necessary to make equality of opportunity a reality for members of groups that have suffered discrimination or disadvantage. At the level of principle at least, and political rhetoric, meritocracy has won the day. In democracies throughout the world, politicians of the center-left and center-right claim that their policies are the ones that will enable all citizens, whatever their race or ethnicity, gender or class, to compete on equal terms and to rise as far as their efforts and talents will take them. When people complain about meritocracy, the complaint is usually not about the ideal but about our failure to live up to it: The wealthy and powerful have rigged the system to perpetuate their privilege; the professional classes have figured out how to pass their advantages on to their children, converting the meritocracy into a hereditary aristocracy; colleges that claim to select students on merit give an edge to the sons and daughters of the wealthy and the well-connected. According to this complaint, meritocracy is a myth, a distant promise yet to be redeemed.
Q10
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, which of the following inferences CANNOT be drawn?
We need the statement the passage does not support.
Option 1 says wealth and privilege "cannot undermine meritocracy". The passage reports the opposite complaint: the wealthy "have rigged the system", professionals pass their advantages to their children, "converting the meritocracy into a hereditary aristocracy", and meritocracy becomes "a myth". So option 1 cannot be inferred.
Option 2 is supported: debates "proceed from the premise of equal opportunity", and the disagreement is "about what it requires".
Option 3 is supported: "a distant promise yet to be redeemed" and "give an edge to … the well-connected".
Option 4 is supported: no one defends hereditary privilege outright, yet critics say abolishing inheritance taxes implicitly endorses it.
Option 5 is supported: politicians of the centre-left and centre-right both claim it.
Answer: Option 1
Q11
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which of the following can be BEST concluded from the passage?
The passage says everyone accepts merit as an ideal. But in practice those already ahead keep winning: professionals "pass their advantages on to their children", colleges that select "on merit" favour the wealthy, and affirmative action is defended as necessary because disadvantaged groups do not start equal. Put together: when people start from unequal positions, selecting by "merit" passes on existing advantage and reproduces inequality. That is option 3.
Option 1 brings in personal hypocrisy that the passage never discusses.
Option 2 calls meritocracy "utopian" and blames only deliberate rigging. The passage calls it a promise "yet to be redeemed", which suggests it is not impossible. The problem also includes advantages passed on in ordinary ways, not just rigging.
Option 4: nothing suggests that "no one" understands meritocracy.
Option 5: the complaint comes from critics of how meritocracy is practised, not from people "rejected by it".
Answer: Option 3
Q12
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, which of the following will the defenders of affirmative action identify as the main problem in the implementation of the meritocratic system?
The passage says defenders of affirmative action argue such policies "are necessary to make equality of opportunity a reality for members of groups that have suffered discrimination or disadvantage." In their view, a merit system that ignores where people start leaves those earlier disadvantages in place. That is option 5.
Option 1 says the system is built on structural bias. The defenders object to its blindness to starting points, not to its basis.
Option 2: "intentionally" favouring the rich is the separate "rigged system" complaint, not the affirmative-action argument.
Option 3: hereditary privilege appears in the inheritance-tax example, not in the affirmative-action argument.
Option 4: rewarding results is what merit means. The defenders do not object to that.
Answer: Option 5
Read the following poem and answer the TWO questions that follow.
Look how you turned on the ceiling fan—it’s too high, see how it shakes and trembles. You walk into this room with your hot ideas and the ceiling fan has to work harder to cool down the room for us. You walk into this room with your crazy eyes and the ceiling fan wants to fly loose. It dreams of becoming a spider lily.
Q13
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which of the following statements BEST conveys the theme of the poem?
Throughout the poem the ceiling fan stands for the room's calm, and it keeps being pushed too far. It "shakes and trembles", "has to work harder to cool down the room", and finally "wants to fly loose" and "dreams of becoming a spider lily" (a flower with long, thin, spread-out petals, like a fan that has broken apart). The person's "hot ideas" and "crazy eyes" are the threat. The mood is unease and fear that things are about to come apart: anxiety over lost stability, option 4.
Option 1: there is no exchange of arguments.
Option 2: nothing is resolved. The poem ends with the fan wanting to break free.
Option 3: the spider-lily image hints at escape, but the poem does not set transformation against escapism.
Option 5: the speaker is not searching for a self.
Answer: Option 4
Q14
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
What does the author BEST mean, when she says, “You walk into this room with your hot ideas and the ceiling fan has to work harder to cool down the room for us?”
In the line, the person's "hot ideas" heat up the room, and the fan must work harder to cool it "for us". The heat is felt by everyone else present: the person brings a charged, uncomfortable atmosphere that the others need relief from. That is palpable tension, option 2.
Option 1 reads "hot ideas" as positive passion. "For us" and the struggling fan show the effect on others is unwelcome.
Option 3 goes too far. "Hostile" and "unwelcomed" are not in the poem; the room is tense, not rejecting.
Option 4: self-doubt is never suggested.
Option 5 takes the fan literally. The fan is a figure for the room's mood.
Answer: Option 2
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Recently a team of social scientists launched an experiment to test that hypothesis. They recruited 1,500 entrepreneurs in West Africa—a mix of women and men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s—who were running small startups in manufacturing, service, and commerce. They randomly assigned the founders to one of three groups. One was a control group: they went about their business as usual. The other two were training groups: they spent a week learning new concepts, analyzing them in case studies of other entrepreneurs, and applying them to their own startups through role-play and reflection exercises. What differed was whether the training focused on cognitive skills or character skills. In cognitive skills training, the founders took an accredited business course created by the International Finance Corporation. They studied finance, accounting, HR, marketing, and pricing, and practiced using what they learned to solve challenges and seize opportunities. In character skills training, the founders attended a class designed by psychologists to teach personal initiative. They studied proactivity, discipline, and determination, and practiced putting those qualities into action. Character skills training had a dramatic impact. After founders had spent merely five days working on these skills, their firms’ profits grew by an average of 30 percent over the next two years. That was nearly triple the benefit of training in cognitive skills. Finance and marketing knowledge might have equipped founders to capitalize on opportunities, but studying proactivity and discipline enabled them to generate opportunities. They learned to anticipate market changes rather than react to them. They developed more creative ideas and introduced more new products. When they encountered financial obstacles, instead of giving up, they were more resilient and resourceful in seeking loans. Along with demonstrating that character skills can propel us to achieve greater things, this evidence reveals that it’s never too late to build them…Character doesn’t set like plaster—it retains its plasticity. Character is often confused with personality, but they’re not the same. Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts. Knowing your principles doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to practice them, particularly under stress or pressure. It’s easy to be proactive and determined when things are going well. The true test of character is whether you manage to stand by those values when the deck is stacked against you. If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day. Personality is not your destiny—it’s your tendency. Character skills enable you to transcend that tendency to be true to your principles. It’s not about the traits you have—it’s what you decide to do with them. Wherever you are today, there’s no reason why you can’t grow your character skills starting now.
Q15
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which of the following views would the author BEST agree with?
We need the view the author would agree with most.
The author defines personality as "your predisposition", character as "your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts", and says "Character skills enable you to transcend that tendency to be true to your principles." So living by your principles means rising above your natural tendencies, which is option 3.
Option 1: character goes beyond personality; it does not discard it. "It's not about the traits you have—it's what you decide to do with them."
Option 2: the author says values are tested by hard situations ("when the deck is stacked against you"), and "always" is too strong.
Option 4: the author never says principles always clash with personality. Character matters most under stress.
Option 5: personality still shapes how you respond "on a typical day", so behaviour is not character alone.
Answer: Option 3
Q16
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which of the following can be BEST inferred from the passage?
Character training lifted profits about 30% over two years, nearly triple the gain from cognitive training. The founders anticipated change, kept producing new ideas and stayed resilient through financial setbacks. The author adds that character shows "on a hard day". Lasting success, through good times and bad, rests on character skills. That is option 5.
Option 1: the study compares the two trainings. It never shows character making up for weak cognitive skills.
Option 2: belief in the skills is never stated as a condition for building them.
Option 3: "always reactive" is too strong. Cognitive skills helped founders "capitalize on opportunities".
Option 4 contradicts the passage: "Knowing your principles doesn't necessarily mean you know how to practice them."
Answer: Option 5
Q17
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, why would character skills help entrepreneurs more than cognitive skills?
The question asks why character skills helped entrepreneurs more than cognitive skills.
The benefits the passage lists for character-trained founders are: they "anticipate market changes rather than react to them", they bring out new ideas and products, and they are "more resilient and resourceful" when hit by financial obstacles. All of these are about coping with an unpredictable future. The author repeats this when he says character is how you perform "on a hard day". Option 5 covers the whole set of reasons.
Option 2 is the strongest trap because the passage does say character training helped founders "generate opportunities". But "rather than capitalize on existing ones" adds an either/or the passage does not support, and it leaves out anticipation and resilience. It names one effect rather than the underlying reason.
Option 1 says being good at one does not require the other. It does not explain why character skills helped more.
Option 3: industry-agnostic use is never discussed.
Option 4: nothing suggests entrepreneurs lacked only character skills.
Answer: Option 5
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
This fluidity and situational dependence is uniquely human. In other species, in-group/out-group distinctions reflect degrees of biological relatedness, or what evolutionary biologists call “kin selection.” Rodents distinguish between a sibling, a cousin, and a stranger by smell—fixed, genetically determined pheromonal signatures—and adapt their cooperation accordingly. Those murderous groups of chimps are largely made up of brothers or cousins who grew up together and predominantly harm outsiders. Humans are plenty capable of kin-selective violence themselves, yet human group mentality is often utterly independent of such instinctual familial bonds. Most modern human societies rely instead on cultural kin selection, a process allowing people to feel closely related to what are, in a biological sense, total strangers. Often, this requires a highly active process of inculcation, with its attendant rituals and vocabularies. Consider military drills producing “bands of brothers,” unrelated college freshmen becoming sorority “sisters,” or the bygone value of welcoming immigrants into “the American family.” This malleable, rather than genetically fixed, path of identity formation also drives people to adopt arbitrary markers that enable them to spot their cultural kin in an ocean of strangers—hence the importance various communities attach to flags, dress, or facial hair. The hipster beard, the turban, and the “Make America Great Again” hat all fulfill this role by sending strong signals of tribal belonging. Moreover, these cultural communities are arbitrary when compared to the relatively fixed logic of biological kin selection. Few things show this arbitrariness better than the experience of immigrant families, where the randomness of a visa lottery can radically reshuffle a child’s education, career opportunities, and cultural predilections. Had my grandparents and father missed the train out of Moscow that they instead barely made, maybe I’d be a chain-smoking Russian academic rather than a Birkenstock-wearing American one, moved to tears by the heroism during the Battle of Stalingrad rather than that at Pearl Harbor. Scaled up from the level of individual family histories, our big-picture group identities—the national identities and cultural principles that structure our lives—are just as arbitrary and subject to the vagaries of history.
Q18
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, how are rodents and humans similar to each other?
We need what rodents and humans have in common, according to the passage.
The passage contrasts how each species forms groups. Rodents use biological relatedness detected by smell; humans use flexible "cultural kin selection". Both, however, make "in-group/out-group distinctions", sorting others into "us" and "them". That is option 1.
Option 2: rodents follow fixed genetic signals. Only humans go beyond instinct.
Option 3 is the reverse of the passage: animal groups are made up of relatives.
Option 4: violence toward outsiders is described for chimps, not rodents. Rodents simply "adapt their cooperation".
Option 5: pheromonal signatures are mentioned only for rodents.
Answer: Option 1
Q19
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
What does the author BEST mean when they say, “This fluidity and situational dependence is uniquely human?”
The opening line, "This fluidity and situational dependence is uniquely human", is explained by the rest of the passage. Human group identity is "malleable, rather than genetically fixed". It depends on circumstances: drills, college sororities, immigration. In the end it is "subject to the vagaries of history": a visa lottery, or catching a train out of Moscow. Whom humans count as "us" depends on where and when they happen to be. That is option 2.
Option 1 is true but covers only the "not instinctual" part. It misses the situational dependence the phrase stresses.
Option 3: cognitive architecture is not discussed.
Option 4: "implicit traits" is vague. The passage is about group membership, not traits.
Option 5: "progressive and ever evolving" is a value judgement the passage does not make.
Answer: Option 2
Q20
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
What does the author BEST mean when they refer to the Battle of Stalingrad and Pearl Harbour?
The author says that if his family had missed the train out of Moscow, he might have been "moved to tears by the heroism during the Battle of Stalingrad rather than that at Pearl Harbor." The example shows that which nation's history stirs us is decided by chance. The passage's next line says big-picture group identities "are just as arbitrary and subject to the vagaries of history", and earlier that cultural communities are "arbitrary when compared to the relatively fixed logic of biological kin selection". So the reference shows that our attachment to a cultural community follows no fixed logic. That points to option 2.
Option 4 (the key) is a literal reading: what we feel about an event depends on our emotional link to it. That is true of the example, but it says nothing about why the link exists, which is chance and arbitrariness, the author's actual point.
Option 1: it is history itself that is erratic, not our "interpretation" of it.
Option 3: lineage and ancestry are the biological logic the author says human identity does not follow.
Option 5: violence is not the point of this example.
Answer: Option 2 (the key gives Option 4)
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
… Work, for many on the career track, is greedy. The individual who puts in overtime, weekend time, or evening time will earn a lot more—so much more that, even on an hourly basis, the person is earning more. …The greediness of work means that couples with children or other care responsibilities would gain by doing a bit of specialization. This specialization doesn’t mean catapulting back to the world of Leave It to Beaver. Women will still pursue demanding careers. But one member of the couple will be on call at home, ready to leave the office or workplace at a moment’s notice. That person will have a position with considerable flexibility and will ordinarily not be expected to answer an e-mail or a call at ten p.m. That parent will not have to cancel an appearance at soccer practice for an M&A. The other parent, however, will be on call at work and do just the opposite. The potential impact on promotion, advancement, and earnings is obvious. The work of professionals and managers has always been greedy. Lawyers have always burned the midnight oil. Academics have always been judged for their cerebral output and are expected not to turn their brains off in the evenings. Most doctors and veterinarians were once on call 24/7. The value of greedy jobs has greatly increased with rising income inequality, which has soared since the early 1980s. Earnings at the very upper end of the income distribution have ballooned. The worker who jumps the highest gets an ever-bigger reward. The jobs with the greatest demands for long hours and the least flexibility have paid disproportionately more, while earnings in other employments have stagnated. Thus, positions that have been more difficult for women to enter in the first place, such as those in finance, are precisely the ones that have seen the greatest increases in income in the last several decades. The private equity associate who sees the deal through from beginning to end, who did the difficult modeling, and who went to every meeting and late-night dinner, will have maximum chance for a big bonus and the sought-after promotion. Rising inequality in earnings may be one important reason why the gender pay gap among college graduates has remained flat in the last several decades, despite improvements in women’s credentials and positions. It may be the reason why the gender earnings gap for college graduates became larger than that between men and women in the entire population in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Women have been swimming upstream, holding their own but going against a strong current of endemic income inequality. Greedy work also means that couple equity has been, and will continue to be, jettisoned for increased family income. And when couple equity is thrown out the window, gender equality generally goes with it, except among same-sex unions. Gender norms that we have inherited get reinforced in a host of ways to allot more of the childcare responsibility to mothers, and more of the family care to grown daughters.
Q21
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which of the following statements CANNOT be inferred from the passage?
Option 3, "the root of all problems in the world is greed", is a sweeping moral claim. The passage uses "greedy" only for work that demands long, inflexible hours, and discusses only its effects on pay, couples and the gender gap. Nothing supports a claim about "all problems in the world".
Option 1: the passage opens with "Work, for many on the career track, is greedy", and those who put in the extra hours earn more, so it can be loosely inferred.
Option 2: "Women will still pursue demanding careers", so women can take on greedy jobs just as men do.
Option 4: the flexible, on-call-at-home partner takes a hit to "promotion, advancement, and earnings".
Option 5: jobs with the "greatest demands for long hours … have paid disproportionately more".
Answer: Option 3
Q22
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Which of the following about greedy work is CORRECT, as per the passage?
We need the statement about greedy work that the passage supports.
Greedy work pays more even per hour; "jobs with the greatest demands for long hours and the least flexibility have paid disproportionately more". The private-equity associate who does everything gets "the sought-after promotion". Such jobs pay more and are therefore pursued. That is option 5.
Option 1: the passage links the growth of greedy jobs to rising income inequality, not to women entering the workforce.
Option 2 is a "must", a moral claim. The passage describes, it does not prescribe.
Option 3: "only those who surrender their everything" is extreme and not stated.
Option 4: "greedy corporations" and "greedy people" are not in the passage. "Greedy" describes the demands of the work.
Answer: Option 5
Q23
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, which of the following options BEST summarizes the author’s views?
The argument runs like this. Greedy work pays a premium, so couples specialise: one partner stays on call at work and the other at home. "Couple equity" is given up for family income. Then "gender norms that we have inherited get reinforced", with childcare going to mothers. Rising pay for greedy jobs helps explain why "the gender pay gap among college graduates has remained flat". So greedy work strengthens existing gender norms, which keeps the pay gap in place. That is option 4.
Option 1: "single most important reason" overstates. The author says it "may be one important reason".
Option 2: "must pay a price" and "rise to fame" are not the author's terms or claims.
Option 3: "most formidable enemy" is an exaggeration the passage does not make.
Option 5: women still pursue demanding careers. The passage does not say they are shut out.
Answer: Option 4
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
You may laugh at a hat, but what you are making fun of, in this case, is not the piece of felt or straw, but the shape that men have given it, -- the human caprice whose mould it has assumed. It is strange that so important a fact, and such a simple one too, has not attracted to a greater degree the attention of philosophers. Several have defined man as "an animal which laughs." They might equally well have defined him as an animal which is laughed at; for if any other animal, or some lifeless object, produces the same effect, it is always because of some resemblance to man, of the stamp he gives it or the use he puts it to. Here I would point out, as a symptom equally worthy of notice, the ABSENCE OF FEELING which usually accompanies laughter. It seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled. Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance, or even with affection, but in such a case we must, for the moment, put our affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity. In a society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no more tears, though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter. Try, for a moment, to become interested in everything that is being said and done; act, in imagination, with those who act, and feel with those who feel; in a word, give your sympathy its widest expansion: as though at the touch of a fairy wand you will see the flimsiest of objects assume importance, and a gloomy hue spread over everything. Now step aside, look upon life as a disinterested spectator: many a drama will turn into a comedy. It is enough for us to stop our ears to the sound of music, in a room where dancing is going on, for the dancers at once to appear ridiculous. How many human actions would stand a similar test? Should we not see many of them suddenly pass from grave to gay, on isolating them from the accompanying music of sentiment? To produce the whole of its effect, then, the comic demands something like a momentary anesthesia of the heart. Its appeal is to intelligence, pure and simple.
Q24
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
What does the author BEST mean when they say, “it seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled?”
The sentence means the comic works only on a mind that is emotionally still. The lines that follow explain it: "Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion," and to laugh at someone we pity "we must, for the moment, … impose silence upon our pity." Without that detachment, the comic does not work. That is option 1.
Option 2 reads "disturbing effect" as describing an "unsettling" kind of humour. The phrase refers to the comic's effect on us in general, the jolt of laughter.
Option 3: the author is not talking about the audience's knowledge of context.
Option 4 takes "disturbing" literally, as if calm people are upset by comedy. The author means calm people are the ones who can laugh.
Option 5 also misreads the phrase as being about "edgy" comedy.
Answer: Option 1
Q25
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, which of the following statements CANNOT be inferred?
The author says "the comic demands something like a momentary anesthesia of the heart". The demand comes from the comic and falls on the observer, who must set feeling aside to laugh. Option 3 turns this into "humour only springs from experiences that demand momentary anesthesia". That shifts the requirement onto the experiences and makes it the only source of humour. Neither claim is in the passage.
Option 1 is supported: "indifference is its natural environment"; "look upon life as a disinterested spectator".
Option 2 is supported: an animal or lifeless object is funny only "because of some resemblance to man".
Option 4 is supported: "laughter has no greater foe than emotion", and highly emotional souls "would neither know nor understand laughter".
Option 5 is supported: laughing at a hat is laughing at "the shape that men have given it", the human whim behind it.
Answer: Option 3
Q26
Reading Comprehension MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on the passage, which of the following statements will the author BEST agree with?
We need the statement the author would agree with most.
The author argues that if you get involved and "feel with those who feel", everything takes on "a gloomy hue". If you instead "step aside, look upon life as a disinterested spectator", then "many a drama will turn into a comedy". Up close and involved, life looks tragic; from a distance, it looks comic. That is option 2.
Option 1: the author does not say comedy is seriousness in disguise. Comedy needs emotion switched off.
Option 3: comedy as an escape from despair is about emotional relief, which goes against the author's view that the comic appeals to "intelligence, pure and simple".
Option 4: laughing at oneself is never discussed.
Option 5: "popularized for the multitude" brings in a social idea that is absent from the passage.
