WILEY’S CAT VARC BOOK

ADDITIONAL MOCK CAT VARC TEST 1

Questions: 34 Time Allotted: 60 minutes

Directions: The passages given below are followed by a set of four or five questions each. Choose the best
answer to each question.

Passage 1
Beauty and morality, and ugliness and immorality, are intrinsically linked. Specifically, the moral virtues—
honesty, kindness, fairness, empathy, etc—are beautiful character traits, and the moral vices—their
contraries—are ugly. I mean this quite literally. Of course, the kind of beauty or ugliness in question is
independent of physical appearances.

Throughout history, and across different cultures, from the Ancient Greeks to the Yorubas of Africa, the
beautiful and the good have been seen as closely connected. This has been reflected in language. In Ancient
Greek, kalon meant both beautiful and good, while the Yoruba word ewa, normally translated as ‘beauty’, is
primarily used to refer to human moral qualities. In the anglophone tradition, the moral-beauty view rose to
prominence during the Enlightenment. This acknowledgement of an aesthetic dimension in morality seems
to me to have reflected ordinary experience. In other words, when people encountered others who were
morally virtuous or vicious in their everyday life or in art—in epic poetry, the theatre, and later in the novel—
they felt, respectively, the sort of pleasure and displeasure evoked by other beautiful and ugly objects, and
this phenomenon found its way into their language and thought.

But critiques of some philosophers stemming from a number of common considerations, including purported
epistemological, metaphysical and practical features of beauty and goodness, have indicated their
distinctness. For instance, beauty was thought to be mostly a matter of pleasure in the form of an object,
and ugliness of displeasure in deformity; and form was limited to the visible or aural properties of an object.
By contrast, goodness, and traits such as honesty and kindness, or selfishness and cowardice, are not like
that; they are imperceptible, psychological traits, the goodness or badness of which stems from adherence
to or violation of rational principles. So while beauty is discoverable perceptually and depends on subjective
feeling, goodness is based on principles that are objective, and discoverable a priori. Moreover, while the
good is, or should be, desirable for its own sake, the beautiful is desirable because it’s pleasurable. So linking
beauty and goodness might lead to a corruption or degeneration of moral motivation by encouraging the
pursuit of goodness for its beauty.

Philosophical skepticism about moral beauty, presumably alongside other cultural factors—such as
secularisation in the West, a rise in scientism coupled with skepticism about the value of the arts and
humanities, and a focus on physical appearance as the exclusive locus of human beauty, in part courtesy of
the so-called beauty industry—has accomplished something quite damaging. It has shaped the way
we think about beauty and goodness, and the relationship between them. So today, when we think about
goodness and beauty, morality and aesthetics, we tend to think of these as pulling in opposite directions.
Goodness or rightness is objective; beauty subjective. Goodness, especially moral goodness, is associated
with duties and obligations—a cross many of us simply feel we have to bear if we are to keep on the straight
and narrow. Beauty, on the other hand, albeit a shallow pursuit, attracts us, and is an indulgence; moreover,
it misleads and biases us in all sorts of ways.

1. Which of the following quotes capture the essence of some of the arguments in the passage,
EXCEPT?

1. Handsome is as handsome does.

2. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
3. Appearances are often deceptive.
4. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.

2. Which of the following best summarises the meaning of the penultimate sentence: “Goodness…is
associated with duties and obligations—a cross many of us simply feel we have to bear if we are to
keep on the straight and narrow”?

1. In order to perform their duties and obligations, people have to go out of their way.

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 2. Good people simply have to bear the onus of their duties and obligations.
3. Moral goodness is the reward of performing one’s duties and meeting one’s obligations.
4. People should be cross with the immorality around them and not tolerate it.

3. Which of the following is the author likely to agree with, EXCEPT?

1. Even a physically deformed person can appear attractive under certain circumstances.
2. Whether it is moral beauty or physical beauty, both give us the feeling of pleasure.
3. Moral beauty exists in its own right independent of physical appearances.
4. Ordinary experience does not bear out the morality-beauty view.

4. Which of the following are reasons why “linking beauty and goodness…lead to a corruption or
degeneration of moral motivation…”, EXCEPT?

1. Because people should pursue goodness for its intrinsic value.

2. Because beauty is only skin-deep and is not worth pursuing.
3. Because morality and beauty are intrinsically linked.
4. Because it is immoral to seek goodness because it is beautiful.

5. Which are the considerations and factors that have undermined the morality-beauty view, EXCEPT?

1. Practical features of goodness and beauty make them distinct.

2. Science and secularism have come to dominate thinking in the West.
3. Greater focus on physical appearance and the consequent rise of the beauty industry.
4. Character traits can also be beautiful or ugly as reflected in the arts and humanities.

Passage 2

In The Selfish Gene (1976), Richard Dawkins put forward the idea that genes strive for immortality, and
individuals, families, and species are merely vehicles in that quest. Before this, it had been proposed that
natural selection was honing the behaviour of living things to promote the continuance through time of the
individual creature, or family, or group or species. But Dawkins clarified that in fact the behaviour of all living
things is in service of their genes hence, metaphorically, genes are selfish. It is a paradox, however, that the
selfish gene metaphor actually explains altruism. We help others who are not directly related to us because
we share similar versions of genes with them.

Once this gene-centric view of evolution became the dominant idea in biology, in the 1990s there followed
a technological goldrush—the Human Genome Project—to find them all. Then it turned out that we didn’t
have enough genes to account for our presumed sophistication, and that the genome itself was replete with
DNA that did not make up genes. Many of these areas were genetic control switches, the on and off buttons
to tell genes where and when to function. Some were just the decaying remains of genes whose function
have been lost in time.

And what by far the larger part of the genome is doing for much of the time is still something of a mystery.
Today we can scan genomes by the hundreds and look for the signals of natural selection in DNA, regardless
of what that DNA is actually doing. It’s like knowing an animal had been there by finding its prints in the
forest. Genomics has become an industry devoted to trying to work out the immense complexities of DNA.
But, none of the complications of modern genomes erodes the central premise of the selfish gene.

It’s also an idea that permeates all biology, right back to the beginnings of life on Earth. We’ve made great
strides in understanding the process by which chemistry on Earth became biology. Life was simpler then,
and the first information encoded in a gene would probably have simply been the instruction to replicate
itself. Molecules that do just that have been created in the lab, or, more precisely, have been allowed to
create themselves by a process of chemical natural selection. A gene’s only desire is to reproduce itself, and
that the complexity of genomes makes that reproduction more efficient.

Where Dawkins places the origin of life squarely with the origin of replicators, i.e. the first gene, an emerging
view suggests otherwise. This view is that this process—genetics—followed the establishment of a system
that could host that information replication. Genes in cells rely on a metabolism that generates the power
needed for them to enact their programmes and replicate themselves. Logically, a metabolism of sorts must

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have preceded the establishment of the first selfish gene, and some of us now think that it might have
occurred deep in the geological crannies in the ocean floors some 4 billion years ago.

Life has been continuous on this planet ever since—on a sort of single evolutionary tree. We share dozens of
genes with our most distant relatives, single-celled bacteria and archaea. These are probably the most
successful—the most selfish—of any genes, since their existence spans the entire duration of life on Earth.

6. In which ways has the Human Genome Project helped us better understand the complications of
modern genomics, EXCEPT?

1. A gene’s only desire is to reproduce itself, and but it the genome that makes that reproduction
more efficient.
2. Genomes provide the signals of natural selection in DNA, regardless of what that DNA is actually
doing.
3. The human genome did not have enough genes to account for our presumed sophistication.
4. Genomes are not just the repository of genes but are replete with DNA performing multiple roles.

7. Which of the examples, if true, illustrate the paradox referred to in the first paragraph, EXCEPT?

1. Drones devote their whole lives to caring for the queen, constructing and protecting the nest,
foraging for food, and tending the larvae in a bee colony.
2. Birds help in raising the young of other birds, protecting the nest from predators and helping to
feed the fledglings.
3. Vervet monkeys give alarm calls to warn fellow monkeys of the presence of predators, even at the
risk of attracting attention to themselves.
4. Neighbour crabs join together to fend off intruder crabs in order to retain territorial control over
their area.

8. Which of the following, if true, would bolster the idea of “The Selfish Gene” as put forward by Richard
Dawkins, EXCEPT?

1. Life did not originate with genes but with the establishment of a system that could host genes.
2. Genes that are passed on are the ones whose evolutionary consequences serve their own implicit
interest in being replicated, not necessarily those of the organism.
3. The more two individuals are genetically related, the more they behave selflessly with each other.
4. Genes are not driven by any selfish motives, but their effects can be metaphorically described as
if they were.

9. “The idea of the selfish gene implies that life has no plan other than to keep chugging along.” Which
are possible implications for humans that can further emerge from this statement in the context of
the passage, EXCEPT?

1. The innate selfishness of humans can be traced to their selfish genes.

2. Humans function merely to serve the genes and do not have any free will of their own.
3. Humans aspire to transcend life on earth and become immortal.
4. If survival is the only goal, then any action or behaviour that promotes this goal is morally
justifiable.

10. Which of the following best summarises the gene-centric view of evolution?

1. Genes are at the centre of evolution starting from single-celled micro-organisms to humans and
promote selfishness in the fight for survival of the fittest.
2. Life originated with genes which were the “first replicators” found in single-celled micro-organisms
which had a metabolism that provided the power for genes to replicate themselves.
3. Natural selection and evolution operate at the level of the gene and not that of the individual
creature, or family, or group or species—they are mere vehicles for the genome which provides for
the efficient reproduction of genes.
4. Genes strive for immortality and some dozens of genes that we share with single-celled bacteria
and archaea have achieved immortality during some 4 billion years of life on Earth.

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 Passage 3

Why is it that only humans have language, the most complex of animal behaviours? Surely something must
have happened to cut us off from our nearest surviving relatives.

Our lineage, Homo, dates back around 2.5 million years. Before that, our nearest forebears were essentially
upright apes, creatures that were probably about as smart as chimpanzees. But at some point, something
in their ecological niche must have shifted. These early pre-humans moved from a fruit-based diet—like most
of today’s great apes—to meat. The new diet required novel social arrangements and a new type of
co-operative strategy (it’s hard to hunt big game alone). This in turn seems to have entailed new forms of
co-operative thought more generally: social arrangements arose to guarantee hunters an equal share of the
bounty, and to ensure that women and children who were less able to participate also got a share.

By the time the common ancestor of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis had emerged sometime
around 300,000 years ago, ancestral humans had already developed a sophisticated type of co-operative
intelligence. This much is evident from the archaeological record, which demonstrates the complex social
living and interactional arrangements among ancestral humans. They probably had symbol use—which
prefigures language—and the ability to engage in recursive thought (a consequence, on some accounts, of
the slow emergence of an increasingly sophisticated symbolic grammar). Their new ecological situation
would have led, inexorably, to changes in human behaviour. Tool-use would have been required, and
co-operative hunting, as well as new social arrangements—such as agreements to safeguard monogamous
breeding privileges while males were away on hunts.

These new social pressures would have precipitated changes in brain organisation. In time, we would see a
capacity for language. Language is, after all, the paradigmatic example of co-operative behaviour: it requires
conventions—norms that are agreed within a community—and it can be deployed to co-ordinate all the
additional complex behaviours that the new niche demanded.

This allows us to picture the emergence of language as a gradual process from many overlapping tendencies.
It might have begun as a sophisticated gestural system, for example, only later progressing to its vocal
manifestations. But surely the most profound spur on the road to speech would have been the development
of our instinct for co-operation. By this, I don’t mean to say that we always get on. But we do almost always
recognise other humans as minded creatures, like us, who have thoughts and feelings that we can attempt
to influence.

We see this instinct at work in human infants as they attempt to acquire their mother tongue. They are able
to deploy sophisticated intention-recognition abilities from a young age, perhaps as early as nine months
old, in order to begin to figure out the communicative purposes of the adults around them. And this is,
ultimately, an outcome of our co-operative minds. Which is not to belittle language: once it came into being,
it allowed us to shape the world to our will—for better or for worse. It unleashed humanity’s tremendous
powers of invention and transformation. But it didn’t come out of nowhere, and it doesn’t stand apart from
the rest of life.

11. In the context of the passage, which 5-word/phrase sequence best captures the development of
language in Homo Sapiens after the shift to meat-eating?

1. Hunting—Gestural System—Vocal System—Symbol Use—Language

2. Hunting—Tool-making— Symbol Use—Complex Societies—Language
3. Hunting—Co-operative Living—Complex Societies—Changes in Brain Organisation—Language
4. Hunting—Gestural System—Recursive Thought—Co-operative Intelligence—Language

12. Which of the following best defines and explains the term “ecological niche” in the context of the
passage?

1. An ecological niche is the role and position a species has in its environment, including all of its
interactions with its environment.
2. An ecological niche is the position of a species within the pecking order of an ecosystem that
ensures its dominance.
3. An ecological niche is the perfect match of a species to specific environmental/geographical
conditions.

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 4. The concept of ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which focuses on spatial
patterns of ecological communities.

13. The author refers to “agreements to safeguard monogamous breeding privileges”. Which of the
following were possible reasons, if true, for the need for monogamy in some early human societies,
EXCEPT?

1. Changes in roles leading to gender differentiation.

2. Prolonged dependency of human children on parental care leading to the institutions of home and
family.
3. No seasonal restrictions on reproductive receptivity in human females leading to promiscuity and
within-group conflict.
4. Innate possessiveness of mating partners in humans leading to stable relationships.

14. What can be inferred from the term “instinct for co-operation or co-operative intelligence” in the
context of the last two paragraphs, EXCEPT?

1. Humans have the capacity to influence the thoughts and feelings of others.
2. Humans have the capacity for invention and transformation.
3. Humans have the capacity to infer and understand others’ motives and actions.
4. Humans have the capacity to attribute thoughts and feelings to others.

15. Which of the following are examples of co-operative behaviour in early human societies as stated or
suggested in the passage, EXCEPT?

1. Division of labour among different activities, such as, hunting, tool-making, etc. to facilitate
organised living.
2. Foraging for food by gathering of plants, grasses, insects, etc. provided by nature.
3. Coordinating the distribution of the fair share of food in the group.
4. Hunting in groups to trap and overpower big game.

Passage 4

Life has been soaking up sunlight and storing it as a fuel source for billions of years. But scientists have just
put a new twist on this ancient process that could finally provide us with the efficiency we need to compete
with fossil fuels.

A study led by the University of Cambridge in the UK has resulted in a better way to split water into hydrogen
and oxygen by linking a photosynthesis pathway with an enzyme called hydrogenase. While there's nothing
new about breaking water apart to create a clean supply of energy, most methods to date have relied on
expensive catalysts, making it a challenge to go economy-size. This new process could change that.

Photosynthesis is the rearrangement of water and carbon dioxide into glucose, locking up light energy for
later use while releasing free oxygen. It's done a good job keeping plants, algae, and certain bacteria alive
for a few billion years, and is ultimately responsible for making the fossil fuels we now burn by the tonne.
But it's not overly efficient as far as energy capture processes go. After all, plants only need a few percent of
the energy that rains down from the sky each day. And freeing that energy now stored as coal comes with
the problem of also freeing all that carbon dioxide, which, as we know has unleashed its own problems.

Scientists have now invented a semi-artificial version of photosynthesis that improves on nature's formula,
reactivating a long-abandoned process that evolution had left behind. The key is an ancient enzyme known
as hydrogenase. Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into
hydrogen. During evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but
we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted—splitting water into
hydrogen and oxygen.

Mimicking photosynthesis in the name of collecting and storing energy is something scientists have been
experimenting with for years. More than just a potential power source, it could also help mop up carbon
dioxide in its traditional form. But most earlier technologies simply won't scale up to industrial levels, either
because they're too expensive, inefficient, or use materials that pose their own risks as pollutants. The new
approach was to create an electrochemical cell—not unlike a battery—based on the light-collecting

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biochemistry of a process called photosystem II. This provided the necessary voltage required for the
hydrogenase enzyme to do its work, reducing the hydrogen in water so it can divorce from oxygen and bubble
away as a gas. It sounds simple in principle, but connecting artificial systems with organic processes is
anything but a walk in the park.

This work overcomes many difficult challenges associated with the integration of biological and organic
components into inorganic materials for the assembly of semi-artificial devices and opens up a toolbox for
developing future systems for solar energy conversion. This process is unlikely to be the end point, with
plenty more research to be done. Finding the right balance of natural materials and human intervention
could be the ticket to inexpensive, truly clean energy.

A hydrogen fuel economy is still some way off in the future, with other challenges to overcome in storage and
transport. Though researchers are making plenty of headway there as well.

16. Which of the following can be inferred to be true from the passage, EXCEPT?

1. Carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere by photosynthesis is ultimately released back to the
atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels.
2. Photosynthesis is an efficient way to capture solar energy and store it for later use.
3. Fossil fuels are formed from the dead remains of plants, algae and other organic matter.
4. Fossil fuels are nothing but solar energy stored in the form of chemical energy.

17. What is the precise function of the process of “photosystem II” in the semi-artificial version of
photosynthesis invented by scientists?

1. To convert solar energy into chemical energy and in turn into electrical energy for splitting water
into oxygen and hydrogen.
2. To create an electrochemical cell that provides electrical energy for splitting water into oxygen and
hydrogen.
3. To store solar energy as chemical energy in an electrochemical cell that provides electrical energy
for splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
4. To replicate the process of photosynthesis in splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen and
mopping up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

18. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage, EXCEPT?

1. Large amounts of algae are available in nature to provide the quantities of the enzyme
hydrogenase needed for large-scale operation.
2. Hydrogen gas released after the splitting of water can serve as a renewable fuel.
3. Splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen is an endothermic process.
4. Photosystem II process works separately from the photosynthesis process.

19. Which one of the following would be the most suitable title for the passage among the given options?

1. Replicating Nature in the Laboratory

2. Tapping Solar Energy on a Large Scale Through Artificial Photosynthesis
3. Devising Efficient Ways to Turn Sunlight into Unlimited, Renewable Fuel
4. Photosynthesis—Nature’s Smartest Invention

Passage 5

George Orwell’s “1984” was published in 1949, but its relevance seems never to fade. One is the portrayal
of the surveillance state—Big Brother and the telescreen, an astonishingly prescient conception that Orwell
dreamed up when he had probably never seen a television. Another is Newspeak, a favourite topic of
Orwell’s: the abuse of language for political purposes.

No novel of the past century has had more influence than George Orwell’s 1984. It’s almost impossible to
talk about propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without dropping a
reference to 1984. Throughout the Cold War, the novel found avid underground readers behind the Iron
Curtain who wondered, How did he know?

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Orwell maintained that the novel was not an attack on any particular government but a satire of the
totalitarian tendencies in Western society and intellectuals: “The moral to be drawn from this dangerous
nightmare situation is a simple one: Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.” But every work of art escapes
the artist’s control—the more popular and complex, the greater the misunderstandings.

Today we are living in a new kind of totalitarian regime that didn’t exist in Orwell’s time. We pass our days
under the nonstop surveillance of a telescreen that we bought at the Apple Store, carry with us everywhere,
and tell everything to, without any coercion by the state. The problem today is too much information from
too many sources, with a resulting plague of fragmentation and division—not excessive authority but its
disappearance, which leaves ordinary people to work out the facts for themselves, at the mercy of their
own prejudices and delusions.

A different sort of doublethink has become pervasive. It’s not the claim that true is fake or that two plus
two makes five. Progressive doublethink—which has grown worse in reaction to the right-wing kind—creates
a more insidious unreality because it operates in the name of all that is good.

For example, many on the left now share an unacknowledged but common assumption that a good work of
art is made of good politics and that good politics is a matter of identity. The progressive view of a book or
play depends on its political stance, and its stance—even its subject matter—is scrutinized in light of the
group affiliation of the artist: Personal identity plus political position equals aesthetic value. This confusion
of categories guides judgments all across the worlds of media, the arts, and education, from movie reviews
to grant committees. Some people who register the assumption as doublethink might be privately troubled,
but they don’t say so publicly. Then self-censorship turns into self-deception, until the recognition itself
disappears—a lie you accept becomes a lie you forget. In this way, intelligent people do the work of
eliminating their own unorthodoxy without the Thought Police.

This willing constriction of intellectual freedom will do lasting damage. It corrupts the ability to think clearly,
and it undermines both culture and progress. Good art doesn’t come from wokeness, and social problems
starved of debate can’t find real solutions. Not much has changed since the 1940s when Orwell wrote
“1984”. The will to power still passes through hatred on the right and virtue on the left.

20. Which of the following can be inferred as features of “insidious unreality” in the statement
“Progressive doublethink—which has grown worse in reaction to the right-wing kind—creates a more
insidious unreality because it operates in the name of all that is good”, EXCEPT?

1. Aesthetic value of a work of art is related to the political stance of the artist.
2. Progressive doublethink leads to confusion of categories in the name of virtue.
3. Hatred on the right merge with virtue on the left in the will to power.
4. Political stance of an artist is related to his/her group affiliations.

21. Which of the following CANNOT be inferred as one of the “totalitarian tendencies in Western society
and intellectuals”?

1. Exercise of the will to power.

2. Use of propaganda to promote the government’s ideology.
3. Muzzling of the media to constrict intellectual freedom.
4. Use of information overload through all forms of the media.

22. Which of the following can be inferred to be harmful effects of the voluntary self-censorship and self-
deception of intelligent people, EXCEPT?

1. Social problems are not deliberated upon.

2. Art is politicised.
3. Doublethink undermines culture and progress.
4. Good art comes from wokeness.

23. Which of the following can be inferred to be some aspects of “today’s new kind of totalitarian regime”
as compared with the totalitarian regime reflected in “1984”, EXCEPT?

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 1. Big Brother and the telescreen in “1984” have been replaced by ordinary people freely watching
the screens of their smartphones for all sorts of information under the surveillance of tech giants,
such as Google, Facebook, etc.
2. Excessive authority in “1984” has been replaced by the absence of any authority that can clear the
confusion for the public.
3. Coercion by the state in “1984” has been replaced by the prejudices and delusions of ordinary
people in controlling and shaping their own thoughts.
4. Thought Police of the state in “1984” has been replaced by intelligent people themselves who
through self-deception believe lies rather than questioning them and exposing them publicly.

24. Which of the following best states the primary purpose of the author in the passage?

1. To highlight the enduring relevance of George Orwell’s novel “1984”.

2. To delineate the present manifestations of our totalitarian tendencies.
3. To suggest that we should not allow our innate totalitarian tendences to emerge.
4. To caution against the damage and harm that doublethink can do in today’s world.

25. Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a
meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your
answer and key it in.

1. This myth might teach us that autocrats who plan to rule in perpetuity don’t like to encourage the
birth of ideas that might displace them.
2. Since gods plan on sticking around for ever, they don’t want a more powerful offspring to compete
with them; so Thetis married a mortal, King Peleus, and gave birth to Achilles.
3. Mortals do like their children to outshine them.
4. Greek mythology tells that Zeus and Poseidon, two of the greatest gods, competed for the hand of
the goddess Thetis.
5. But when they heard the prophecy that Thetis would bear a son more powerful than his father,
both withdrew in alarm.

Answer: ___

26. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) given below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent
paragraph. Decide on the proper sequence of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of
the four numbers as your answer.

1. Every writer who is original is often doubtful about the value of a work.
2. A writer would think to himself: “So I’m found out and that odious rice pudding of a book is what I
thought it—a dank failure.”
3. Praise from a critic whom he respects is a treasured reassurance; and silence or blame a
confirmation of his worst fears.
4. Some writers keep up an air of stoic indifference to reviews, some avoid distress by refusing to
read them, but they all care, and for good reasons.

Answer: ______

27. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) given below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent
paragraph. Decide on the proper sequence of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of
the four numbers as your answer.

1. Indeed, the horrific Thirty Years’ War, in which, basically, Europe’s Roman Catholics killed all the
Protestants they could, and vice versa, can in some measure be laid at Luther’s door.
2. Once he had divided the Church, it could not be healed; his reforms survived to breed other
reforms, many of which he disapproved of; his church splintered and splintered.
3. Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, was one of those figures who touched off something
much larger than himself; namely, the Reformation—the sundering of the Church and a
fundamental revision of its theology.
4. Although it did not begin until decades after his death, it arose in part because he had created no
institutional structure to replace the one he walked away from.

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 Answer: ______

28. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) given below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent
paragraph. Decide on the proper sequence of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of
the four numbers as your answer.

1. Part of your humanness is your ability both to invent new sentences and to comprehend the verbal
inventions of other people.
2. Thus, it is that the manner in which you utter words, write words, and receive words throughout
your life determines how effectively and resourcefully you carry on the business of being a member
of the human race.
3. “If you fill your speech and writing with prefabricated clichés, ramshackle abstractions, and leaden
expressions, you are denying the abounding creativity that is inherent in the very nature of human
language.”
4. Linguist Noam Chomsky maintains that “when we study human language, we are approaching
what some might call ‘the human essence,’ the distinct qualities of mind that are, so far as we
know, unique to man.”

Answer: ______

29. Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a
meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your
answer and key it in.

1. It is true that social dynamics are complex and there are a variety of factors that could affect how
euthanasia legislation is received in one society as compared to another.
2. No one profits from impolitic policy and it would be a monumental blunder to enact euthanasia
legislation in a hurry.
3. But, rather than offering a glib dismissal of the arguments, we need to review the hard facts about
euthanasia creep and the social costs of assisted dying as experienced in some societies.
4. And it is also true that claims about euthanasia creep don’t constitute an argument against
euthanasia as such--they are only claims about what might happen if assisted dying is legalised in
a particular society.
5. Indeed, some proponents of assisted dying might argue that its wide adoption is a positive
development.

Answer: ___

30. The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best
captures the essence of the passage.

Voters rely on the simple heuristic of throwing out incumbents who have made them unhappy, a
technique that in political science goes by the polite name of “retrospective voting.” But to impose full
accountability on the incumbent, voters would need to know “who the incumbents are, what they did,
what they could have done, what happened when the incumbents did what they did, and whether the
challengers are likely to be any better than the incumbents.” Most don’t know all this, of course. Some
observers point out that voters have punished incumbents for droughts and shark attacks and rewarded
them for recent sports victories. Some scholars have dismissed retrospective voting as “no more
rational than killing the pharaoh when the Nile does not flood.”

1. Voters throw out incumbents who they think have not performed well and vote in their challengers
with the hope that they would perform better. This is called retrospective voting.
2. Retrospective voting is more often based on the whims and fancies of the voters than on
adequate information and is hence irrational.
3. Retrospective voting is tantamount to punishing the incumbents for their poor performance and
acts as a deterrent to performing badly.
4. Retrospective voting is a simple trial-and-error voting method employed when voters have
insufficient information.

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31. Five sentences related to a topic are given below in a jumbled order. Four of them form a coherent
and unified paragraph. Identify the odd sentence that does not go with the four. Key in the number of
the option that you choose.

1. In recent years, McCoy’s legacy was honoured when he was inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame, and when a patent office in Detroit was named after him.
2. The prolific black inventor Elijah McCoy, who may have given us the phrase “the real McCoy”, held
57 United States patents, mostly related to the railway.
3. Like many other black inventors, McCoy faced racism and exclusion in his work, but his lengthy
career was a successful one.
4. His inventions, which were not headline-making outside the field of steam engines, were so
associated with quality and good function that people at that time began using “the real McCoy” to
refer to quality products.
5. But his most widely known legacy—the "real McCoy" phrase in the English language—remains less
certain, as there are other contenders as well.

Answer: ___

32. The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best
captures the essence of the passage.

High-achieving people sometimes experience feelings of intellectual phoniness despite outstanding

academic and professional accomplishments. The defining characteristic of “imposter syndrome” is
feeling like a fraud—believing that others perceive you more favourably than is really true and
warranted. Though most of us experience imposter syndrome to some degree, imposter syndrome is
on a bell curve, with some people experiencing imposter syndrome much more frequently in their daily
lives. Those who report a high frequency of impostor tendencies are prone to constant feelings
of shame (not guilt), depression, and even suicidal ideation. These individuals tend to dismiss praise,
downplay the truth of positive evaluations. For instance, they will brush off successes to factors other
than ability, such as luck, being in the right place at the right time, or just plain hard work.

1. Most of us sometimes experience feelings of underserved praise despite our achievements and
hence tend to downplay them—the imposter syndrome. But those who experience the imposter
syndrome very frequently are prone to shame, depression and even suicidal tendencies.
2. Imposter syndrome is a tendency to feel like an imposter, a phoney or a fraud and to attribute your
achievements to luck, availability of opportunity or hard work and not to your intrinsic intelligence
and competence.
3. Some high-achieving people experience the imposter syndrome, which in its serious form can even
lead to depression and suicidal tendencies. The imposter syndrome is a feeling of intellectual
phoniness in your academic and professional accomplishments.
4. Imposter syndrome is feeling like a fraud or an imposter when others are lauding your
achievements which you feel are an outcome of luck or just hard work, and as such you do not
deserve any credit for them.

33. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) given below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent
paragraph. Decide on the proper sequence of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of
the four numbers as your answer.

1. Today revered as the father of modern physics and the inventor of calculus, Newton was
describing a recipe for the Philosophers’ Stone, a legendary substance that reputedly could turn
base metals like iron and lead into gold.
2. Holding the yellowed manuscript in his hands and studying the scribbled words, he understood
that he was looking at one of the best-kept secrets in the history of science.
3. Newton’s dabblings in alchemy are well known, but his belief that he had found the closely
guarded blueprint for the Philosophers’ Stone was astonishing indeed.
4. Any Newton manuscript is of interest, but this one was worth its weight in gold, literally—as
Lawrence Principe, a chemist and historian of science at Johns Hopkins University, recognized
immediately.

Answer: ______

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34. The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best
captures the essence of the passage.

We are repeatedly sold the same message: that individual action is the only real way to solve social
problems, so we should take responsibility. We are trapped in a neoliberal trance by what the education
scholar Henry Giroux calls a “disimagination machine”, because it stifles critical and radical thinking.
We are admonished to look inward, and to manage ourselves. Disimagination impels us to abandon
creative ideas about new possibilities. Instead of seeking to dismantle capitalism, or rein in its excesses,
we should accept its demands and use self-discipline to be more effective in the market. To change the
world, we are told to work on ourselves—to change our minds by being more mindful, non-judgmental,
and accepting of circumstances.

1. The “disimagination machine” is stifling our critical and creative thinking and forcing us to toe the
line for the smooth functioning of the system that we are part of.
2. We are just expected to shut down our critical and imaginative faculties and mould ourselves to
the system, shunning any radical thoughts of dismantling capitalism or reining in its excesses.
3. We are expected as good and responsible citizens to be self-disciplined and manage ourselves
which is the real way to solve social problems, if any, and to not use our imagination too much.
4. We are trapped in a neoliberal trance by a “disimagination machine” which does not allow us to
see the flaws of the capitalist system by directing our attention inward.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

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