Direction (1-5): Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options. choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
Q1. I am sometimes attacked for imposing ‘rules’. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hate rules. All I do is report on how consumers react to different stimuli. I may say to a copywriter, — “Research shows that commercials with celebrities are below average in persuading people to buy products. Are you sure you want to use a celebrity?”. Call that a rule? Or I may say to an art director, “Research suggests that if you set the
copy in black type on a white background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black background.”
copy in black type on a white background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black background.”
(a) Guidance based on applied research can hardly qualify as ‘rules’.
(b) Thus, all my so-called ‘rules’ are rooted in applied research.
(c) A suggestion perhaps, but scarcely a rule.
(d) Such principles are unavoidable if one wants to be systematic about consumer behaviour.
(e) None of these
Q2. Relations between the factory and the dealer are distant and usually strained as the factory tries to force cars on the dealers to smooth out production. Relations between the dealer and the customer are equally strained because dealers continuously adjust prices to make deals to adjust demand with supply while maximizing profits. This becomes a system marked by a lack of long-term commitment on either side, which maximizes feelings of mistrust. In order to maximize their bargaining positions, everyone holds back information: the dealer about the product and the consumer about his true desires.
(a) As a result, ‘deal making’ becomes rampant, without concern for customer satisfaction.
(b) As a result, inefficiencies creep into the supply chain.
(c) As a result, everyone treats the other as an adversary, rather than as an ally.
(d) As a result, everyone loses in the long run.
(e) None of these
Q3. In the evolving world order, the comparative advantage of the United States lies in its military force. Diplomacy and international law have always been regarded as annoying encumbrances, unless they can be used to advantage against an enemy. Every active player in world affairs professes to seek only peace and to prefer negotiation to violence and coercion.
(a) However, diplomacy has often been used as a mask by nations which intended to use force.
(b) However, when the veil is lifted, we commonly see that diplomacy is understood as a disguise for the rule of force.
(c) However, History has shown that many of these nations do not practice what they profess.
(d) However, History tells us that peace is professed by those who intend to use violence.
(e) None of these
Q4. Age has a curvilinear relationship with the exploitation of opportunity. Initially, age will increase the likelihood that a person will exploit an entrepreneurial opportunity because people gather much of the knowledge necessary to exploit opportunities over the course of their lives, and because age provides credibility in transmitting that information to others. However, as people become older, their willingness to bear risks declines, their opportunity costs rise, and they become less receptive to new information.
(a) As a result, people transmit more information rather than experiment with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.
(b) As a result, people are reluctant to experiment with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.
(c) As a result, only people with lower opportunity costs exploit opportunity when they reach an advanced age.
(d) As a result, people become reluctant to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities when they reach an advanced age.
(e) None of these
Q5. We can usefully think of theoretical models as maps, which help us navigate unfamiliar territory. The most accurate map that it is possible to construct would be of no practical use whatsoever, for it would be an exact replica, on exactly the same scale, of the place where we were. Good maps pull out the most important features and throw away a huge amount of much less valuable information. Of course, maps can be bad as well as good witness the attempts by medieval Europe to produce a map of the world. In the same way, a bad theory, no matter how impressive it may seem in principle, does little or nothing to help us understand a problem.
(a) But good theories, just like good maps, are invaluable, even if they are simplified.
(b) But good theories, just like good maps, will never represent unfamiliar concepts in detail.
(c) But good theories, just like good maps, need to balance detail and feasibility of representation.
(d) But good theories, just like good maps, are accurate only at a certain level of abstraction.
(e) None of these
Directions (6-15): Mark the out-of-context sentence for your answer. If all the sentences are logically connected, then select option E as your answer.
Q6. A. Developed countries, however, devote most of their research funds to the diseases from which their citizens suffer, and that seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
B. On which problems should we focus research in medicine and the biological sciences?
C. People in rich countries already can expect to live about 30 years longer that people in the poorest countries.
D. There is a strong argument for tackling the diseases that kill the most people – diseases like malaria, measles, and diarrhea, which kill malaria in developing countries, but very few in the developed world.
(a) only A
(b) A and B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q7. A. Drugs with serious adverse safety profiles are used to treat potentially fatal conditions – including various forms of cancer, inflammatory arthritis, and HIV – because they ultimately help more than they hurt.
B. Moreover, drug safety is a leading factor in determining how medicines are regulated.
C. Rather than assess a medicine’s safety in isolation, its adverse effects must be considered in relation to its efficacy.
D. In other words, a benefit-risk balance must be struck.
(a) only A
(b) only B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q8. A. And one of the things that struck me as I learned more and more about HIV was how strange epidemics were.
B. The word “Tipping Point,” for example, comes from the world of epidemiology.
C. If you talk to the people who study epidemics – epidemiologists – you realize that they have a strikingly different way of looking at the world.
D. Before I went to work for The New Yorker, I was a reporter for the Washington Post and I covered the AIDS epidemic.
(a) only A
(b) only B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q9. A. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not sure that this book fits into any one category.
B. I profile three people who I think embody those types, and then I use the example of Paul Revere and his midnight ride to point out the subtle characteristics of this kind of social epidemic.
C. I think that word of mouth is something created by three very rare and special psychological types, whom I call Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.
D. There’s a whole section of the book devoted to explaining the phenomenon of word of mouth, for example.
(a) only A
(b) only B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q10. A. Much of the African surface is covered by savannas, or open grasslands, and by arid plains and deserts.
B. Africa is a continent of great size, almost 12 million square miles or about three times the size of the United States.
C. We have already noted the origins of humankind in East Africa where some of the earliest fossil remains of protohominids have been found.
D. Most of it lies in the tropics and, although we often think of Africa in terms of its rain forests, less than 10% of the continent is covered by tropical forests, and those are mostly in West Africa.
(a) only A
(b) A and B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q11. A. In these centuries, there were important advances in the aesthetics of nature, including the emergence of the concepts of disinterestedness and the picturesque, as well as the introduction of the idea of positive aesthetics.
B. Although environmental aesthetics has developed as a sub-field of philosophical aesthetics only in the last 40 years, it has historical roots in eighteenth and nineteenth century aesthetics.
C. Thus, by the end of the eighteenth century, there were three clearly distinct ideas each focusing on different aspects of nature’s diverse and often contrasting moods.
D. These notions continue to play a role in contemporary work in environmental aesthetics, especially in the context of its relationship to environmentalism.
(a) only A
(b) A and B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q12. A. But the loss is not only theirs.
B. Unless disadvantaged racial groups are integrated into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer from segregation and discrimination.
C. Current affirmative action debates have lost sight of the ideal of integration as a compelling moral and political goal.
D. It is high time that institutions of higher education forthrightly defend this ideal in its own right.
(a) only A
(b) A and B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q13. A. Not long ago the world’s main worry was that people had too little to eat.
B. In an age of plenty, individuals have the luxury of eating what they like.
C. Persuading children to eat vegetables is hardly a new struggle, nor would it seem to rank high on the list of global priorities.
D. Yet America, for all its libertarian ethos, is now worrying about how its citizens eat and how much exercise they take.
(a) only A
(b) only B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q14. A. Moreover, for most nations, government debt is projected to grow relative to income for years to come.
B. The popularity of austerity policies has waned over the past several years thanks to evidence that it may have been counterproductive.
C. It is important to remember that there is an absence of evidence that government with their own currencies are too indebted.
D. But many are still worried by the fact that, relative to national income, government debt is now larger in many countries than at any point since WWII.
(a) only A
(b) A and B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Q15. A. A thorough understanding of what civilization and culture are, requires knowledge of all the qualities that make up human nature and a full understanding of world history.
B. To be truly world history, an account of the past must not only retell what happened but must also relate events and people to each other.
C. It must inquire into causes and effects.
D. It must try to discern false hood in the old records, such as attempts of kings to make themselves look better than they really were.
(a) only A
(b) only B
(c) only C
(d) only D
(e) None of the above
Solutions
S1. Ans.(c)
Sol. Option (a) and (b) are wrong. The phrase ‘applied research’, is not mentioned anywhere in the passage. Options (d) is also wrong since no mention is made of consumer behaviour. Hence, option (c) is the answer.
S2. Ans.(d)
Sol. Option (a), (b) are definitely wrong and not directly related to the passage. Options (c) and (d) are similar but (d) presents a more definite and logical conclusion. Hence, option (d) is the answer.
S3. Ans.(b)
Sol. The word ‘professes’ in the last sentence of the passage signifies a veil or mask. The best option to use this concept is (b). Hence, option (b) is the answer.
S4. Ans.(d)
Sol. Options (a) and (b) use the phrase ‘ideas’, which is not mentioned in the passage. The passage mainly discusses ‘opportunities’, which is not the same as ‘ideas’. (c) and (d) discuss alternatives. The only option that can directly follow is (c). Hence, option (d) is the answer.
S5. Ans.(a)
Sol. All the options are similar but indirectly agree with the passage. Only option (a) is a logical follow up of the previous statement. Hence, option (a) is the answer.
S6. Ans.(c)
Sol. “On which problems should we focus … There is a strong argument for tackling the diseases that kill the most people … Developed countries, however, devote most of their research funds…” elsewhere. Hence C does not fit into this scheme of things.
S7. Ans.(b)
Sol. A, C and D in that order make perfect sense on the theme that is concluded in sentence D. From this point of view, though B makes sense, it talks about regulation.
S8. Ans.(b)
Sol. D, A and C, in that order talks about the writer’s experience and learning. When B states “for example” it has no connection with the others. Example for what?
S9. Ans.(a)
Sol. D, C and B in that order is the writer commenting about a whole section of his book. That it does not fit into any category – sentence A – has hardly any relation to the other three sentences. In D the beginning of the paragraph is rather abrupt but there is no other sentence that can begin this paragraph.
S10. Ans.(c)
Sol. The other three sentences follow the theme of the geography of Africa – the origin of humankind cannot be linked to this theme. If you try to arrange the other sentences in a sequence it could be BDA.
S11. Ans.(c)
Sol. B, A and D in that order talks about the development of environmental aesthetics – its roots in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – the emergence of the concepts of disinterestedness and the picturesque in these centuries and how these concepts still influence… C does not fit into this theme in any way – there is no place for “thus.”
S12. Ans.(d)
Sol. C, B and A is about the theme of integration with reference to affirmative action. “they will continue to suffer…” logically follows into “but the loss is not only theirs.” – There is no need to bring in institutions of higher education into all this. “this ideal” is also ambiguous. Even if we force “this ideal” to be “integration” there seems to no place for respect to the other sentences.
S13. Ans.(a)
Sol. Read the sentence in the order of C, B and A. The theme is the eating habits of Americans – children don’t eat vegetable – individuals eat what they like – their eating habit has become a national concern. Sentence A does not fit well in this scheme of things.
S14. Ans.(c)
Sol. B, D and A in that order talk about how in spite of the waning of the popularity of austerity measures government is now larger than ever and how it is projected to grow. C is a misfit and does not relate to any of the sentences.
S15. Ans.(a)
Sol. What is “truly world history” is explained in B, C and D in that order itself. It becomes impossible to relate A to this theme.
Sol. What is “truly world history” is explained in B, C and D in that order itself. It becomes impossible to relate A to this theme.
