DPM 31

A to E

A. Words along with their meaning, Pronunciation and usage

Dally /ˈdali/

[Verb] 1) act or move slowly.

2) show a casual interest in.

Usage 1) – She dallied at the doorstep as the school bus arrived.

Usage 2) – The company was dallying with the idea of opening a new store.

Origin – Middle English: from Old French dalier ‘to chat’.

Dapper /ˈdapə/

[Adjective] (of a man) neat and trim in dress and appearance.

Usage – He looked very dapper in his new suit.

Origin – late Middle English: probably from a Middle Low German or Middle Dutch word
meaning ‘strong, stout’.

Dauntless /ˈdɔːntləs/

[Adjective] showing fearlessness and determination.

Usage – The dauntless bravery of soldiers is a gift to society.

Origin – can be traced back to Latin domare, meaning "to tame" or "to subdue."
Diaphanous /dʌɪˈaf(ə)nəs/

[Adjective] (especially of fabric) light, delicate and translucent.

Usage – The actress wore a diaphanous dress to the red carpet.

Origin – early-17th century: from medieval Latin diaphanus, from Greek diaphanēs, from dia
‘through’ + phainein ‘to show’.

Dissonant /ˈdɪs(ə)nənt/

[Adjective] 1) lacking harmony.

2) unsuitable or unusual in combination; clashing.

Usage 1) – The irregular, dissonant chords of the background score added depth to the horror
movie.

Usage 2) – That designer employs both harmonious and dissonant colour choices.

Origin – late Middle English (in the sense ‘clashing’): from Old French, or from Latin dissonant-
‘being discordant’, from the verb dissonare, from dis- ‘apart’ + sonare ‘to sound’.

Dystopia /dɪsˈtəʊpɪə/

[Noun] an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one
that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.

Usage – There are now many movies and serials set in a dystopian future.

Origin – late-18th century: from dys- ‘bad’ + utopia.

Dark Horse

[Noun] a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or
succeeds.

Usage – He emerged as a dark horse in the elections.

Origin - early 19th century: originally racing slang.

Dog Days

[Noun] the hottest period of the year (reckoned in antiquity from the heliacal rising of Sirius, the
Dog Star. Also suggests a period of inactivity or decline.

Usage - These are indeed dog days for international film production crews.

Deus ex machina /ˌdeɪʊs ɛks ˈmakɪnə,ˌdiːəs ɛks məˈʃiːnə/

[Latin, Noun] an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially
as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.

Usage – What is nice is that the technology is an inherent part of the plot, rather than a handy
deus ex machina to lift our hero out of trouble.

Origin – late-17th century: modern Latin, translation of Greek theos ek mēkhanēs, ‘god from the
machinery’. In Greek theatre, actors representing gods were suspended above the stage, the
denouement of the play being brought about by their intervention.

De jure /deɪ ˈjʊəreɪ,diː ˈdʒʊəri/

[Latin, Adjective] 1) according to rightful entitlement or claim; by right.

2) existing or holding a specified position by legal right.

Usage 1) – The resolution declared that the independent state was still in existence de jure.

Usage 2) – He has been de jure king since his father’s demise.

Origin – literally ‘of law’.

B. RC Passage (with Link)

Article 1: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/04/29/none-of-us-are-normal/

Summary : Reviewing the novel Normal People by Sally Rooney, and watching the film adaptation
of Andre Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name based on it, the author notices how Rooney deals with
the fundamental tension between being independent and needing to be understood; between
wanting to be unrecognizable and wanting to belong. Navigating through the plot and characters,
the author finds herself admiring the ‘generous humanity and intension of the actors,’ the ‘beautiful
projection of the ideas’, including how Rooney saw ‘the shallowness’ in a person’s journey to
success.

Article 2: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-flawed-spin-to-indias-cotton-
story/article30627778.ece

Summary : This article argues that India’s Bt cotton hybrid seed model favours seed companies
at the expense of resource-poor farmers, negatively impacting their livelihoods and contributing
to agrarian distress. The author notes that while all other major cotton growing countries use the
compact variety—which reduces dependence on seed companies and produces higher yields—
it remains a mystery why India continues to rely on the hybrid Bt variant. This policy choice has
left cotton farmers in India at the mercy of private seed companies, which have a monopoly over
pricing. The author emphasizes that adoption of any new technology (such as Bt) is a choice and
not an imperative—so he finds it inexplicable why policy makers have persisted with the flawed
policy for decades.

Article 3: What you can learn by following the herd in Italy

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/05/what-you-learn-when-you-follow-the-
herd-in-italy-feature/

Summary : Once, friends and I followed one of our region’s transhumance pathways
(monopatia in Greek) from the seaside village of Kyparíssi to an isolated summer settlement
in the mountains. We arrived in Babala after a steep, four-hour hike. Stone kalivia—primitive
summer cottages used by shepherds—were scattered across a rocky meadow crisscrossed
by drystone walls that once enclosed vineyards and gardens. For centuries Babala was the
summer home for dozens of Kyparíssi herding families. Today just one family makes the
transhumance.

Article 4: We are Nature

https://aeon.co/essays/even-the-anthropocene-is-nature-at-work-transforming-itself

Summary : For Spinoza, the moral value of human transformations of the Earth comes from
their value for us as human beings. He defines ‘good’ as whatever we ‘certainly know to be
useful to us’ and that we therefore strive for. On this definition, the actions we’ve taken in the
Anthropocene period have been immensely good for human empowerment.

Article 5: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191113092600.htm

Summary : Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Monero -- the names of digital-based

'cryptocurrencies' are being heard more and more frequently. But despite having no physical
representation, could these new methods of exchange actually be negatively impacting our
planet? It's a question being asked by researchers who are investigating the environmental
impacts of mining cryptocurrencies.
C. RC Passage (with Questions)

The worst part of philosophy is the philosophy of science; the only people who read works by
philosophers of science are other philosophers of science. This is the view of Lawrence cross,
who is not the only physicist to be critical of the philosophy of science. These people argue that
philosophy of science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds. However, in recent
times ,we come to understand how a better understanding of one aspect of the philosophy of
science ,namely causal inference ,can help us be better scientists.

What is causal inference ?Quite simply ,it means understanding whether X causes by. For
example, the majority of people who developed lung cancer are smokers ,but does this mean
that smoking causes lung cancer? Back in the 1950s, this was a legitimate research
question :good other differences between smokers and non-smokers account for the
association, or might a third factor influence both? The causal effect of smoking on lung cancer
is now clear, but it took years to established and drive the fact home. The reason is determining
causality is notoriously difficult ,and epidemiology has a knack for throwing up supposed links
between, for example, behavior and health ,which don't turn out to reflect cause and effect
relationships stop.

In science today, there is huge interest in replicating results ,sparked by somewhat contested
evidence that a large proportion of published scientific results may be wrong , or at least
misleading. If we took more care to repeat our studies to check that we get a broadly similar
result each time, then surely our finding would be more robust. Perhaps, but a robust finding
may still be wrong : X&Y may be very reliably correlated ,but in our view of incomplete notion of
falsification (falsification being Karl Popper’s proposal that a scientific theory remains acceptable
until a time when its predictions might be proven false by future observations) at the heart of the
scientific enterprise. In fact ,this is rarely how scientists work in practice.

Many researchers will refer to Popper if pressed to explain the basis for their inferences, but
falsification is not everything. Another approach to interrogating potentially causal association is
reference to the best explanation. Peter Lipton describe this as the search for the ‘loveliest, not
simply the ‘likeliest ‘explanation ,one characterized by
‘ scope ,precision ,mechanism ,unification ,and simplicity ‘.

This process of arriving at the simplest and most likely explanation for an observation turns on
being able to address the same question from different perspectives. Each approach will have
its own biases and limitations, but if each gives the same answer, we can be more confident in
the result. Known as triangulation, it's an approach that effectively complements traditional
falsification.

Q1) In the authors view, philosophy of science can be helpful for the following reasons EXCEPT

(A) The criticism about published scientific results can be effectively countered.
(B) Causal relations can be established with utmost certainty.
(C) We can reduce the bias and limitations of one single perspective.
(D) The demerits of falsification can be taken care of.

Q2) The author uses ‘notoriously difficult ‘in the second paragraph to point out that

(A) The time taken to complete a medical research involving serious diseases is likely to be
very long.
(B) Replicating results in published scientific results is your Lee difficult.
(C) Identifying the correct causal inference from among many correlations is certainly a
difficult task.
(D) Scientists have a disinclination to follow the principle suggested by the philosophy of
science.

Q3) The central idea of the passage is that

(A) proper causal inference is essential for the reliability of a scientific theory
(B) philosophy click foundations of science are of utmost importance in progression of
science
(C) scientific theories are acceptable only for some time ,given the rapid progression of
science
(D) scientific theories generally result in observations that are likely to be controversial.
Q4) The author mentions ‘many researchers ‘in the fourth paragraph to hint at scientists who
argue that

(A) their scientific theories are correct because they are able to identify correct cause and effect
relations.

(B) their scientific theories are better than their precedents because they fill the lacunae present
in earlier theories.

(C ) their scientific theories are not open to criticism as the theories are with a sound basis for
their inferences.

(D) their scientific theories are correct because the predictions based on their theories are not
proved to be false.

Q5) The author's opinion about the triangulation approach is based on the assumption that

(A) the triangulation approach correctly replaces the falsification approach proposed by Karl
Popper.
(B) personal preferences of scientists might adversely influence the validity of theories they
propose.
(C) scientific theories are immune to bias and limitations entertained by scientists proposing
them.
(D) triangulation should get precedence over falsification approach for better scientific
theories.
D. Quantitative Aptitude

Q.1 Samanth and Saurav run a peculiar kind of race. They both run on separate rectangular
fields of dimensions 60 m X 80 m and 30 m X 40 m respectively. They agreed on the condition
that they would run at least once between every two corners of their respective tracks before
they finish. Saurav can run at a speed of 1.35 m/s. What is the minimum speed at which
Samanth must run to beat Saurav by 20 seconds.

(A) 3 m/s (B) 2.84 m/s (C) 2.7 m/s (D) 2.66 m/s

Q.2 On the planet Oz, There are 8 days in a week- Sunday to Saturday and another day called
Oz day. There are 36 hours in a day and each hour has 90 minutes while each minute has 60
second. As on earth, the hour hand covers the dial twice every day. Find the approximate angle
between the hands of a clock on Oz when the time is 16:50 am.

(A) 189° (B) 131° (C) 320° (D) 165°

Q.3 On the planet Oz, There are 8 days in a week- Sunday to Saturday and another day called
Oz day. There are 36 hours in a day and each hour has 90 minutes while each minute has 60
second. As on earth, the hour hand covers the dial twice every day. At what time between 14
O'clock and 15 O'clock will the two hands of the clock be at an angle of 60 degree?
16 13 4 5
(A) 14:5917 (B) 14:3717 (C) 14:5817 (D) 14:5517

Q.4 Madhukar packages honey which he procure from the nearby tribal areas. He marks it up
by k % over his cost. By increasing the discount from k/4 % to k/3 % his profit decreases from
k/2 % to k/3 %. If he gives a discount of 30%, what would his profit percent be?
(A) 20% (B) 40% (C) 60% (D) Cannot be determined

Q.5 Nisha wanted to calculate the number of zeros in the product of the first 10000 numbers,
excluding all those multiples of 5 in which the exponent of the highest power of 5 which divides
the number is even. How many zero's did she calculate?
Q.6 N is the 5-digit number 'abcde'. If aba- ede =384, find the difference between N and its
reverse 'edcba'.
(A) 38784 (B) 47817 (C) 38016 (D) cannot be determined

Q.7 Sirisha was asked to find out the approximate value of a proper fraction in which the
numerator was 1 more than one- fifth of the denominator. She worked out the division and got
for a quotient - a decimal number in which the decimal point was followed by one digit and then
by a pair of digits which recurred. Find the value that Sirisha got.
(A) 0.20101... (B) 0.2030303… (C) 0.31212... (D) 0.24242...

Q.8 In how many ways can the 26 letters from A to Z be categorized into three groups such that
each group has at least one letter in it?
(A) 3( 325 -226 +1) (B) 327 - 224 (C) 3( 326 -226 ) (D) ( 325 -226 +1)/2

Q.9 How many 5-digit numbers with distinct digits exist in which the first 3 digits are in
ascending order and the last 3 digits are in descending order?

Q.10 A robot works on a certain set of instructions imparted to it via a computer program. It
moves on a straight line. Initially it is at a distance of 1 cm from the origin. Command M(x)
imparted to robot makes it move away from the origin by x times the distance at which it is from
the origin. But due to a technical error, the robot moves by a distance (1/x) times the distance it
is from the origin again away from the origin. If command M(2) is given for 15 times. what
should be the16th command, so that the robot comes to the position where it should have been
after M(2) is executed 15 times correctly?
(A) M(215) (B) M (216) (C) M(1/215) (D) None of the above
E. DILR – 1 Set

Directions for Q.1 to Q.4- In a training centre, four professors- Anand, kashyap, Murugan and
Somnatah- are available to take reasoning classes. The classes will run throughout the year on
all seven days of the week and in two slots, morning and evening, every day. The faculty for any
slot on any day must be the same throughout the year i.e., for example , the professor on
Monday morning slot must be same throughout the year. No professor can take classes on
three consecutive days and no professor can take the class in same slot (morning or evening)
for two consecutive days. No professor can take classes in both the slots in a single day.
Further.

(i) Classes on Tuesday morning and Wednesday Evening are taken by Mr. Murugan.
(ii) Anand and Kahyap take the same number of classes every week.
(iii)The number of morning slots alloted to each professor is the same as the number of evening
slots alloted to him and no professor was alloted more than four classes a week.
(iv) Wednesday morning slot and Friday evening slots are alloted to Somnath and Sunday
evening and Monday morning slots are alloted to Kashyap.
(v) Each slot has just one class.

Q1. Who takes class in the Monday evening slot?

(A) Murugan (B) Kashyap (C) Somnath (D) cannot be determined

Q.2 Who takes class in the Sunday morning slot?

(A) Murugan (B) Kashyap (C) Anand (D) cannot be determined

Q.3 Who takes class in the Friday morning slot?

(A) Murugan (B) Kashyap (C) Somnath (D) cannot be determined

Q.4 How many professors take classes in two consecutive slots i.e., a class in the evening slot
and another class in the next day morning slot?
(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) cannot be determined