Critical Reasoning
Application Sheet-2020 : Critical Reasoning Passages-2
Number of Questions : 20
Directions for questions 1 to 20: Each set of
questions in this section is based on the reasoning
and arguments set out in the preceding passage.
Please answer each question on the basis of what
is stated or implied in the corresponding passage.
Do not rely on any information or facts other than
the ones supplied to you. In some instances, more
than one option may be the answer to the question;
in such a case, please choose the option that most
accurately and comprehensively answers the
question.
Passage – 1
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps
changing directions. You change direction but the
sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm
adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some
ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why?
Because this storm isn't something that blew in from
far away, something that has nothing to do with you.
This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all
you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm,
closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the
sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by
step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction,
no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up
into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of
sandstorm you need to imagine.
1. Why does the writer compare fate with
sandstorm?
(a) Sandstorms comprise of fine white sand
swirling up into the sky like pulverized
bones.
(b) Sandstorms are uncertain like fate and
can hit you when you are least expecting
it
(c) Sandstorms are dangerous just like fate
(d) Sandstorms engulf you completely
Critical Reasoning – 9
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CEX-SUP-8934/20
2. Which of the following is most consistent with
the argument given by the writer about fate?
(a) You have to accept your fate because it
is actually a part of you
(b) You should defy the fate with all your might
(c) You need to have a good imagination about
your fate
(d) Fate can be uncertain just like sandstorm
3. Which of the following situations is similar in
nature to the intuitive decisions mentioned in
the passage?
(a) A person who go t his HIV positive results
tears down the report and proceeds with
his life as if nothing has happened
(b) A batsman who just got given out by the
umpire asks for the review
(c) The army proceeds for the battle even
though they are outnumbered
(d) A student receives her result where she
has failed and vows to do better next time
4. Which of the following is LEAST consistent
with the author's reasoning in the passage?
(a) The man blasts off his secretary because
she confronted him about his rude
behaviour
(b) A student committing suicide because he
couldn't pass a competitive exam
(c) A woman starting up a new business
venture after her start-up failed
(d) A man remarrying after his first marriage
failed
5. What is the tone of author in the passage?
(a) Introspective
(b) Regretful
(c) Laudatory
(d) Contemplative
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 Passage – 2
Strange Bedfellows!" lamented the title of a recent
letter to Museum News, in which a certain Harriet
Sherman excoriated the National Gallery of Art in
Washington for its handling of tickets to the much-
ballyhooed "Van Gogh's van Goghs" exhibit. A huge
proportion of the 200,000 free tickets were snatched
up by homeless opportunists in the dead of winter,
who then scalped those tickets at $85 apiece to
less hardy connoisseurs. Yet, Sherman's bedfellows
are far from strange. Art, despite its religious and
magical origins, very soon became a commercial
venture. From bourgeois patrons funding art they
barely understood in order to share their protégée's
prestige, to museum curators stage-managing the
cult of artists in order to enhance the market value
of museum holdings, entrepreneurs have found
validation and profit in big-name art. Speculators,
thieves, and promoters long ago created and fed a
market where cultural icons could be traded like
commodities.
This trend toward commodification of high-brow art
took an ominous, if predictable, turn in the 1980s
during the Japanese "bubble economy." At a time
when Japanese share prices more than doubled,
individual tycoons and industrial giants alike invested
record amounts in some of the West's greatest
masterpieces. Ryoei Saito, for example, purchased
van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet for a record-breaking
$82.5 million. The work, then on loan to the
Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, suddenly
vanished from the public domain. Later learning that
he owed the Japanese government $24 million in
taxes, Saito remarked that he would have the paining
cremated with him to spare his heirs the inheritance
tax. This statement, which he later dismissed as a
joke, alarmed and enraged many. A representative
of the Van Gogh museum, conceding that he had no
legal redress, made an ethical appeal to Mr. Saito,
asserting, "a work of art remains the possession of
the world at large."
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6. Which of the following is similar to the line of
reasoning in the last paragraph?
(a) Art remains the possession of the world
at large
(b) Art can be sold at a very high rate
(c) The painting should have been cremated
with Mr Saito
(d) Art can cost you huge taxes
7. Which of the following can be inferred as a
view that the author will most definitely agree
with?
(a) Art is romanticized a lot
(b) Art has become commercial in the recent
times
(c) Sherman's letter was unjustified
(d) Art is only for bourgeoisie
8. Which of the following situations is similar in
nature to the intuitive decisions mentioned in
the passage?
(a) People spend truckloads of money on
painting they have no clue about
(b) People buy artworks because they admire
art
(c) Museums don't keep a lot of artworks
(d) Van Gough was one of the best artist in
the world
9. Which one of the following is the best possible
conclusion of the passage?
(a) Mr Saito was unfaithful to his country
(b) Art though initially a bourgeoisie topic has
spread its wings in commercial sphere
as well
(c) Common people are making good use of
the art by selling it at high prices
(d) Sherman didn't like the misuse of artwork
10. The argument of the author depends on which
one the following assumptions:
(a) Art is admired and understood by everyone
(b) Art is not admired and understood by
everyone
(c) Art was made famous by Van Gough
(d) Artworks can be tricky to deal with
Critical Reasoning – 9
 Passage – 3
"When a child first catches adults out-when it first
walks into his grave little head that adults do not
always have divine intelligence, that their judgements
are not always wise, their thinking true, their
sentences just-his world falls into panic desolation.
The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is
one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall
a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into
green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again;
they never quite shine. And the child's world is never
quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing." -
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
11. Which one of the following is NOT a suitable
conclusion to the passage?
(a) The transition to adulthood is difficult
(b) Realising the flawed nature of adults can
be detrimental for the growth of the child
(c) Coming out of the flawless divine nature
of adults is not easy for a child
(d) Adults are flawed
12. Which of the following is LEAST consistent
with the author's reasoning in the passage?
(a) A child finding out that his parents are
about to have a divorce
(b) A child realising that his classmate, his
mother asks him not to talk to because
his financial condition is not good, is
actually a good friend
(c) A boy defeating his father in a cricket
match
(d) A girl realising that her mother lied to her
13. Which one of the following can be inferred
from the passage
(a) Realising that adults are not always
perfect makes their transition to adulthood
a little difficult
(b) Not being able to emulate the adults is a
difficult task.
(c) Becoming an atheist is not easy
(d) Gods eventually fall
Critical Reasoning – 9
14. Which of the following contradicts the writer's
views?
(a) Children are innocent and they believe all
what grownups say
(b) Children should be rebellious and not listen
to what adults say
(c) Children slowly begin to develop their own
understanding of right and wrong
(d) Adults should be careful in what they say
to children
15. Which of the following is the most suitable
title for this passage?
(a) Growing up
(b) Innocence of the children
(c) Parental Guidance
(d) Virtue of Children
Passage – 4
Old Major was a high-quality boar who a couple days
before he died held a meeting, where he told everyone
about his vision of a farm where animals could be
free with no humans to torment them. From this
meeting came the seven commandments of
animalism by which all animals should live with the
most important one being 'All animals are equal'.
It soon came to be, due to passing of power into the
wrong hands, that the command had been changed
into 'All animals are equal, but some are more equal
than others.
16. Which of the following can be inferred as a
view that the author will most definitely agree
with?
(a) Equality is a flawed concept
(b) Even though it may appear that there is
equality, but on the ground level there is
discrimination
(c) All animals are not equal
(d) Humans torment animal
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17. Which of following is a/are logical corollary(ies)
based on the information given above?
(a) An elite group of people enjoy more power
than the rest
(b) Humans don't understand the concept of
animalism
(c) Old major's death, had it been delayed,
would have established real equality
(d) Seven commandments were not equally
followed
19. Which of the following situations is similar in
nature to the intuitive decisions mentioned in
the passage?
(a) Corporates tend to influence governments
policies
(b) People vote for the candidate who they
thinks is the most suited for the position
(c) Religious governments don't profess
equality
(d) Every form of government is corrupt

18. Which of the following, if true, strengthens 20. Which of the following is the most suitable
the author's argument? title for the passage?
(a) Democracy is not the right way to (a) Dystopian government
establish equality (b) True equality
(b) Some elite groups have more influential (c) Corrupt animals
power (d) Flawed equality
(c) Animals are like humans in a lot of ways
(d) Animal farm was democratic

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