RCHO0302 Reading Comprehension
Indore Centre
Approach for answering RC Passages (Part-2)
1. Description Questions: The answer to a description question must
refer directly to a statement in the passage, not to something implied
by it. However, the correct answer will paraphrase a passage
statement, not quote it exactly. In fact, exact quotes are used with
these questions to bait wrong answers.
a. When answering a description question, you must find the point in the
passage from which the question is drawn.
Always go back to the passage to where the question-root is placed and
examine the point being made. You should have a tentative answer before
looking at the answer choices.
2. Writing Technique Questions: Some writing techniques commonly
used in the RCs are
a. Compare and contrast two positions.
b. Show cause and effect.
c. State a position; then give supporting evidence.
The exercise above regarding the structure of the passage should help
you answer this question.
3. Extension /Application Questions: For extension questions, any
answer-choice that refers explicitly to or repeats a statement in the
passage will probably be wrong.
The key to this question type is the ability to identify the crux of an
argument and see how it relates to a similar situation.
To answer an application question, take the perspective of the author.
Ask yourself: what am I arguing for? what might make my argument
stronger? what might make it weaker?
4. Tone Questions: For tone questions, decide whether the writer’s tone
is positive, negative, or neutral before you look at the answer-choices.
5. While answering questions
a. Beware of answer-choices that contain extreme emotions.
b. Beware of positions that are contrary to common-sense.
Rarely will you find a passage that supports a point that is not
based on reasoning.
c. The answers must be indisputable. A correct answer will never be
controversial or grammatically questionable.
6. Reading habit:
Articles from AEON essays
Daily news editorials
Select books covering various passage types.
PASSAGE 1
From the dawn of civilization to the invention of the atomic clock, our lives
have been governed by time. Consciousness of time is so fundamental that
it’s hard to imagine how units of time, and the very process by which
temporal progress is tracked, have greatly evolved over the centuries. The
technology of timekeeping has changed the world and in turn, has been
changed by that new world, over and over again throughout history.
In the beginning, the only time that mattered was Father Time: the journey
from birth to death. Of course, there was also Mother Earth, who dictated
when to sleep, when to rise, when to reap and when to sow. Minutes and
hours were inconsequential. Our only clocks were the sun and the moon,
and time was determined by need. The closest we came to modern clock-
oriented time – and it wasn’t very close – was in the broader sectioning of
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the day into rough ideas of morning, noon and night, each demarcated by
the sun’s position in the sky.
The earliest devices for keeping time were, unsurprisingly, sundials. The
oldest existing sundial dates back to 1500 BCE in Egypt. Sundials come in
all shapes and sizes, and work in a variety of different configurations. No
matter how a sundial is designed, however, it must adhere to one basic
principle: the rotation of the heavenly bodies in a predictable, but non-fixed,
path. Drawn from a developing human understanding of the movements of
the planets, solar-based timekeeping devices employ shadows to mirror or
suggest this path. A single shadow-casting object, usually a rod or spike
called a ‘gnomon’, is fixed either vertically or horizontally to a surface
marked at equal intervals. As the sun moves from east to west across the
sky, the gnomon casts a shadowed line on the marked surface. As time
passes and the sun moves, so does the shadow, rotating around the central
point over the course of the day.
Sundials are great on a bright and sunny day. Unsurprisingly, without the
sun they don’t do much. Because of this obvious flaw, they only ever served
to track time during daylight hours. Since people in 1500 BCE mostly slept
at night, that was mostly all right. Of course, sundials had other limitations:
they were also useless inside and on overcast days.
Eventually, sundials were followed by short-span timers – the ancient
ancestors of the stopwatch: hourglasses and water clocks. Both items were
similar in design and used a predetermined quantity of water or sand that
moved from one place to another at a fixed rate. By waiting for the clock to
run out, a person could track smaller units of time, many of them task
oriented: how long to leave something in a vat of dye, for example, or how
long to let mortar cure.
Time technology, you see, has always both kept pace with and set the pace
of human endeavour, and as we moved from fields to cities, clocks became
increasingly complicated. Many thousands of years after the first standing
stone circles were used to track the sun and the seasons, real mechanical
clocks came into being. These massive, if not particularly accurate, clocks
employed complex puzzles of gears, springs, weights and levers. They still
only indicated the hour, like a sundial – but no sun was required, reflecting
both our increasingly indoor lifestyle and our newly emerging tendency to
stay up after sunset.
Q. 1 Choose a suitable title for this passage.
A. A History of Sundials
B. The Invention of Clocks
C. Timekeeping in the Past
D. Father Time and Mother Earth
Q. 2 Which of the following is true about sundials, as per this passage?
A. The earliest sundials used to include mirrors.
B. Hourglasses and water clocks were the ancestors of sundials.
C. The gnomon is a rod or spike that moves around the face of the
sundial.
D. Sundials have major limitations that constrain their usage.
Q. 3 What is the similarity between hourglasses and water clocks?
A. They were both mechanical in nature.
B. They were both useful only during certain parts of the day.
C. They allowed people to tell the time interms of minutes rather than
hours.
D. They were used to track time spans rather than tell the current time.
Q. 4 If this passage were to be continued, what would the author most likely
go on to discuss next?
A. How the advent of mechanical clocks affected society
B. What the disadvantages of the first mechanical clocks were
C. What the time technology of the modern world is like
D. How standing stone circles were used to track the sun and the
seasons
RCHO0302 Reading Comprehension
PASSAGE- 2
Gray marketing, the selling of trademarked products through channels of
distribution not authorized by the trademark holder, can involve distribution
of goods either within a market region or across market boundaries. Gray
marketing within a market region (“channel flow diversion”) occurs when
manufacturer-authorized distributors sell trademarked goods to
unauthorized distributors who then sell the goods to consumers within the
same region. For example, quantity discounts from manufacturers may
motivate authorized dealers to enter the gray market because they can
purchase larger quantities of a product than they themselves intend to stock
if they can sell the extra units through gray marketing channels.
When gray marketing occurs across market boundaries, it is typically in an
international setting and may be called “parallel importing.” Manufacturers
often produce and sell products in more than one country and establish a
network of authorized dealers in each country. Parallel importing occurs
when trademarked goods intended for one country are diverted from proper
channels (channel flow diversion) and then exported to unauthorized
distributors in another country.
Trademark owners justifiably argue against gray marketing practices since
such practices clearly jeopardize the goodwill established by trademark
owners: consumers who purchase trademarked goods in the gray market
do not get the same “extended product,” which typically includes pre- and
post-sale service. Equally important, authorized distributors may cease to
promote the product if it becomes available for much lower prices through
unauthorized channels.
Current debate over regulation of gray marketing focuses on three
disparate theories in trademark law that have been variously and
confusingly applied to parallel importation cases: universality, exhaustion,
and territoriality. The theory of universality holds that a trademark is only an
indication of the source or origin of the product. This theory does not
recognize the goodwill functions of a trademark. When the courts apply this
theory, gray marketing practices are allowed to continue because the origin
of the product remains the same regardless of the specific route of the
product through the channel of distribution. The exhaustion theory holds
that a trademark owner relinquishes all rights once a product has been sold.
When this theory is applied, gray marketing practices are allowed to
continue because the trademark owners’ rights cease as soon as their
products are sold to a distributor. The theory of territoriality holds that a
trademark is effective in the country in which it is registered. Under the
theory of territoriality, trademark owners can stop gray marketing practices
in the registering countries on products bearing their trademarks.
Since only the territoriality theory affords trademark owners any real legal
protection against gray marketing practices, I believe it is inevitable as well
as desirable that it will come to be consistently applied in gray marketing
cases.
Q. 1 Which one of the following best expresses the main point of the
passage?
A. Gray marketing is unfair to trademark owners and should be legally
controlled.
B. Gray marketing is practiced in many different forms and places, and
legislators should recognize the futility of trying to regulate it.
C. The three trademark law theories that have been applied in gray
marketing cases lead to different case outcomes.
D. Current theories used to interpret trademark laws have resulted in
increased gray marketing activity.
Q. 2 The function of the passage as a whole is to
A. criticize the motives and methods of those who practice gray
marketing
B. evaluate the effects of both channel flow diversion and parallel
importation
C. discuss the methods that have been used to regulate gray marketing
and evaluate such methods’ degrees of success
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D. describe a controversial marketing practice and evaluate several legal
views regarding it
Q. 3 Which one of the following does the author offer as an argument
against gray marketing?
A. Manufacturers find it difficult to monitor the effectiveness of
promotional efforts made on behalf of products that are gray marketed.
B. Gray marketing can discourage product promotion by authorized
distributors.
C. Gray marketing forces manufacturers to accept the low profit margins
that result from quantity discounting.
D. Gray marketing discourages competition among unauthorized dealers.
Q. 4 The author discusses the impact of gray marketing on goodwill in order
to
A. fault trademark owners for their unwillingness to offer a solution to a
major consumer complaint against gray marketing
B. indicate a way in which manufacturers sustain damage against which
they ought to be protected
C. highlight one way in which gray marketing across markets is more
problematic than gray marketing within a market
D. demonstrate that gray marketing does not always benefit the interests
of unauthorized distributors.
PASSAGE- 3
One type of violation of the antitrust laws is the abuse of monopoly power.
Monopoly power is the ability of a firm to raise its prices above the
competitive level—that is, above the level that would exist naturally if
several firms had to compete—without driving away so many customers as
to make the price increase unprofitable. In order to show that a firm has
abused monopoly power, and thereby violated the antitrust laws, two
essential facts must be established. First, a firm must be shown to possess
monopoly power, and second, that power must have been used to exclude
competition in the monopolized market or related markets.
The price a firm may charge for its product is constrained by the availability
of close substitutes for the product. If a firm attempts to charge a higher
price—a supracompetitive price—consumers will turn to other firms able to
supply substitute products at competitive prices. If a firm provides a large
percentage of the products actually or potentially available, however,
customers may find it difficult to buy from alternative suppliers.
Consequently, a firm with a large share of the relevant market of
substitutable products may be able to raise its price without losing many
customers. For this reason, courts often use market share as a rough
indicator of monopoly power.
Supracompetitive prices are associated with a loss of consumers’ welfare
because such prices force some consumers to buy a less attractive mix of
products than they would ordinarily buy. Supracompetitive prices, however,
do not themselves constitute an abuse of monopoly power. Antitrust laws
do not attempt to counter the mere existence of monopoly power, or even
the use of monopoly power to extract extraordinarily high profits. For
example, a firm enjoying economies of scale—that is, low unit production
costs due to high volume—does not violate the antitrust laws when it
obtains a large market share by charging prices that are profitable but so
low that its smaller rivals cannot survive. If the antitrust laws posed
disincentives to the existence and growth of such firms, the laws could
impair consumers’ welfare. Even if the firm, upon acquiring monopoly power,
chose to raise prices in order to increase profits, it would not be in violation
of the antitrust laws.
The antitrust prohibitions focus instead on abuses of monopoly power that
exclude competition in the monopolized market or involve leverage—the
use of power in one market to reduce competition in another. One such
forbidden practice is a tying arrangement, in which a monopolist conditions
the sale of a product in one market on the buyer’s purchase of another
product in a different market. For example, a firm enjoying a monopoly in
the communications systems market might not sell its products to a
RCHO0302 Reading Comprehension
consumer unless that customer also buys its computer systems, which are
competing with other firms’ computer systems.
The focus on the abuse of monopoly power, rather than on monopoly itself,
follows from the primary purpose of the antitrust laws: to promote
consumers’ welfare through assurance of the quality and quantity of
products available to consumers.
Q. 1 Which one of the following distinctions between monopoly power and
the abuse of monopoly power would the author say underlies the antitrust
laws discussed in the passage?
A. Monopoly power is assessed in term of market share, whereas abuse
of monopoly power is assessed in term of market control.
B. Monopoly power is easy to demonstrate, whereas abuse of monopoly
power is difficult to demonstrate.
C. Monopoly power is the ability to charge supracompetitive prices,
whereas abuse of monopoly power is the use of that ability.
D. Monopoly power does not necessarily hurt consumer welfare,
whereas abuse of monopoly power does.
Q. 2 Would the use of leverage meet the criteria for abuse of monopoly
power outlined in the first paragraph?
A. No, unless the leverage involves a tying arrangement.
B. Yes, because leverage is a characteristic of monopoly power.
C. Yes, unless the firm using leverage is charging competitive prices.
D. Yes, because leverage is used to eliminate competition in a related
market.
Q. 3 Given only the information in the passage, with which one of the
following statements about competition would those responsible for the
antitrust laws most likely agree?
A. Competition is essential to consumers’ welfare.
B. There are acceptable and unacceptable ways for firms to reduce their
competition.
C. Supracompetitive prices lead to reductions in competition.
D. Competition is necessary to ensure high-quality products at low prices.
Q. 4 Which one of the following sentences would best complete the last
paragraph of the passage?
A. By limiting consumers’ choices, abuse of monopoly power reduces
consumers’ welfare, but monopoly alone can sometimes actually
operate in the consumers’ best interest.
B. What is needed now is a set of related laws to deal with the negative
impacts that monopoly itself has on consumers’ ability to purchase
products at reasonable cost.
C. Over time, the antitrust laws have been very effective in ensuring
competition and, consequently, consumers’ welfare in the volatile
communications and computer systems industries.
D. By controlling supracompetitive prices and corresponding
supracompetitive profits, the antitrust laws have, indeed, gone a long
way toward meeting that objective.
PASSAGE 4
How does the brain know when carbohydrates have been or should be
consumed? The answer to this question is not known, but one element in
the explanation seems to be the neurotransmitter serotoninone of a class
of chemical mediators that may be released from a presynaptic neuron and
that cause the transmission of a nerve impulse across a synapse to an
adjacent postsynaptic neuron. In general, it has been found that drugs that
selectively facilitate serotonin-mediated neurotransmission tend to cause
weight loss, whereas drugs that block serotonin-mediated transmission
often have the opposite effect: they often induce carbohydrate craving and
consequent weight gain.
Serotonin is a derivative of tryptophanan amino acid that is normally
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present at low levels in the bloodstream. The rate of conversion is affected
by the proportion of carbohydrates in an individual’s diet: carbohydrates
stimulate the secretion of insulin, which facilitates the uptake of most amino
acids into peripheral tissues, such as muscles. Blood tryptophan levels,
however, are unaffected by insulin, so the proportion of tryptophan in the
blood relative to the other amino acids increases when carbohydrates are
consumed. Since tryptophan competes with other amino acids for transport
across the blood-brain barrier into the brain, insulin secretion indirectly
speeds tryptophan’s entry into the central nervous systemwhere, in a
special cluster of neurons, it is converted into serotonin.
The level of serotonin in the brain in turn affects the amount of carbohydrate
an individual chooses to eat. Rats that are allowed to choose among
synthetic foods containing different proportions of carbohydrate and protein
will normally alternate between foods containing mostly protein and those
containing mostly carbohydrate. However, if rats are given drugs that
enhance the effect of serotonin, the rats’ carbohydrate intake is reduced.
On the other hand, when rats are given drugs that interrupt serotonin-
mediated neurotransmission, their brains fail to respond when
carbohydrates are eaten, so the desire for them persists.
In human beings a serotoninlike drug, d-fenfluramine (which release
serotonin into brain synapses and then prolong its action by blocking its
reabsorption into the presynaptic neuron), selectively suppresses
carbohydrate snacking (and its associated weight gain) in people who
crave carbohydrates. In contrast, drugs that block serotonin-mediated
transmission or that interact with neurotransmitters other than serotonin
have the opposite effect: they often induce carbohydrate craving and
subsequent weight gain. People who crave carbohydrates report feeling
refreshed and invigorated after eating a carbohydrate-rich meal (which
would be expected to increase brain serotonin levels), in contrast, those
who do not crave carbohydrates become sleepy following a high-
carbohydrate meal. These findings suggest that serotonin has other effects
that may be useful indicators of serotonin levels in human beings.
Q. 1 Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage
A. The body’s need for carbohydrates varies with the level of serotonin
in the blood.
B. The body’s use of carbohydrates can be regulated by the
administration of serotoninlike drugs.
C. The role of serotonin in regulating the consumption of carbohydrates
is similar in rats and in humans.
D. The body’s desire for carbohydrates can be influenced by serotonin or
serotoninlike drugs.
Q. 2 The author’s primary purpose is to
A. defend a point of view
B. correct a misconception
C. suggest new directions for investigation
D. provide information that helps explain a phenomenon
Q. 3 It can be inferred that a person is likely to carve carbohydrates when
A. the amount of insulin produced is too high
B. the amount of serotonin in the brain is too low
C. more tryptophan than usual crosses the blood-brain barrier
D. neurotransmission by neurotransmitters other than serotonin is
interrupted
Q. 4 The primary purpose of the second paragraph in the passage is to
A. contrast the role of tryptophan in the body with that of serotonin
B. discuss the role of serotonin in the transmission of neural impulses
C. explain how the brain knows that carbohydrates should be consumed
D. establish a connection between carbohydrate intake and the
production of serotonin
RCHO0302 Reading Comprehension VARC
Indore Centre

PASSAGE- 5 B. A general principle is stated and supported by several examples; an

When catastrophe strikes, analysts typically blame some combination of
powerful mechanisms. An earthquake is traced to an immense instability
along a fault line; a stock market crash is blamed on the destabilizing effect
of computer trading. These explanations may well be correct. But systems
as large and complicated as the Earth’s crust or the stock market can break
down not only under the force of a mighty blow but also at the drop of a pin.
In a large interactive system, a minor event can start a chain reaction that
leads to a catastrophe.
exception to the rule is then considered and its importance evaluated.
C. A number of seemingly unrelated events are categorized: the
underlying processes that connect them are then detailed.
D. A traditional method of analysis is discussed and the reasons for its
adoption are explained; an alternative is then described and clarified
by means of an example.
Q. 4 In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with
A. arguing against the abandonment of a traditional approach

Traditionally, investigators have analyzed large interactive systems in the B. describing the evolution of a radical theory
same way they analyze small orderly systems, mainly because the C. reconciling conflicting points of view
methods developed for small systems have proved so successful. They D. illustrating the superiority of a new theoretical approach
believed they could predict the behavior of a large interactive system by
studying its elements separately and by analyzing its component
mechanisms individually. For lack of a better theory, they assumed that in
large interactive systems the response to a disturbance is proportional to
that disturbance.

During the past few decades, however, it has become increasingly

apparent that many large complicated systems do not yield to traditional
analysis. Consequently, theorists have proposed a “theory of self-
organized criticality”: many large interactive systems evolve naturally to a
critical state in which a minor event starts a chain reaction that can affect
any number of elements in the system. Although such systems produce
more minor events than catastrophes, the mechanism that leads to minor
events is the same one that leads to major events.

A deceptively simple system serves as a paradigm for self-organized

criticality: a pile of sand. As sand is poured one grain at a time onto a flat
disk, the grains at first stay close to the position where they land. Soon they
rest on top of one another, creating a pile that has a gentle slope. Now and
then, when the slope becomes too steep, the grains slide down, causing a
small avalanche. The system reaches its critical state when the amount of
sand added is balanced, on average, by the amount falling off the edge of
the disk.

Now when a grain of sand is added, it can start an avalanche of any size,
including a “catastrophic” event. Most of the time the grain will fall so that
no avalanche occurs. By studying a specific area of the pile, one can even
predict whether avalanches will occur there in the near future. To such a
local observer, however, large avalanches would remain unpredictable
because they are a consequence of the total history of the entire pile. No
matter what the local dynamics are, catastrophic avalanches would persist
at a relative frequency that cannot be altered: Criticality is a global property
of the sandpile.

Q. 1 The passage provides support for all of the following generalizations

about large interactive systems EXCEPT
A. They can evolve to a critical state.
B. They do not always yield to traditional analysis.
C. They make it impossible for observers to make any predictions about
them.
D. They are subject to the effects of chain reactions.

Q. 2 According to the passage, the criticality of a sandpile is determined by

the
A. number of grains of sand the sandpile contains
B. rate at which sand is added to the sandpile
C. shape of the surface on which the sandpile rests
D. balance between the amount of sand added to and the amount lost
from the sandpile

Q. 3 Which one of the following best describes the organization of the

passage?
A. A common misconception is elaborated and its consequences are
described a detailed example of one of these consequences is then
given.
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