CAT 2021 · Slot 2 — Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

Question 1

The author discusses all of the following arguments in the passage, EXCEPT:

1. sceptics believe that we can never fully know anything, if by “knowing” we mean knowledge of a reality that is
   independent of the knower.
2. if we cannot distinguish knowledge from opinion or delusion, we will not be able to justify our actions
3. the best way to deal with scepticism about the veracity of knowledge is to ignore it
4. philosophers maintain that the scandal of philosophy should be of concern to everyone

Correct answer: C · the best way to deal with scepticism about the veracity of knowledge is to ignore it

Question 2

“. . . we cannot catch a glimpse of things-in-themselves around the corner of our own eyes; we cannot form an idea of reality
that floats above the processes of our conceiving it . . .” Which one of the following statements best reflects the argument
being made in this sentence?

1. Our knowledge of reality floats above our subjective perception of it.
2. If the reality of things is independent of our eyesight, logically we cannot perceive our perception
3. Our knowledge of reality cannot be merged with our process of conceiving it.
4. If the reality of things is independent of our perception, logically we cannot perceive that reality.

Correct answer: D · If the reality of things is independent of our perception, logically we cannot perceive that reality.

Question 3

According to the last paragraph of the passage, “We hold our beliefs and presumptive knowledges more or less confidently,
usually depending on” something. Which one of the following most broadly captures what we depend on?

1. How we come to hold them; how widely they are held in our social circles
2. All of the options listed here.
3. How much of a stake we have in them; what resources there are to support them
4. Remaining outside the academy; ignoring epistemic anxieties

Correct answer: A · How we come to hold them; how widely they are held in our social circles

Question 4

It has been said that knowledge, or the problem of knowledge, is the scandal of philosophy. The scandal is philosophy’s
apparent inability to show how, when and why we can be sure that we know something or, indeed, that we know anything.
Philosopher Michael Williams writes: ‘Is it possible to obtain knowledge at all? This problem is pressing because there are
powerful arguments, some very ancient, for the conclusion that it is not . . . Scepticism is the skeleton in Western rationalism’s
closet’. While it is not clear that the scandal matters to anyone but philosophers, philosophers point out that it should matter to
everyone, at least given a certain conception of knowledge. For, they explain, unless we can ground our claims to knowledge as
such, which is to say, distinguish it from mere opinion, superstition, fantasy, wishful thinking, ideology, illusion or delusion, then
the actions we take on the basis of presumed knowledge – boarding an airplane, swallowing a pill, finding someone guilty of a
crime – will be irrational and unjustifiable.
That is all quite serious-sounding but so also are the rattlings of the skeleton: that is, the sceptic’s contention that we cannot be
sure that we know anything – at least not if we think of knowledge as something like having a correct mental representation of
reality, and not if we think of reality as something like things-as-they-are-in-themselves, independent of our perceptions, ideas
or descriptions. For, the sceptic will note, since reality, under that conception of it, is outside our ken (we cannot catch a
glimpse of things-in-themselves around the corner of our own eyes; we cannot form an idea of reality that floats above the
processes of our conceiving it), we have no way to compare our mental representations with things-as- they-are-in-themselves
and therefore no way to determine whether they are correct or incorrect. Thus the sceptic may repeat (rattling loudly), you
cannot be sure you ‘know’ something or anything at all – at least not, he may add (rattling softly before disappearing), if that is
the way you conceive ‘knowledge’.
There are a number of ways to handle this situation. The most common is to ignore it. Most people outside the academy – and,
indeed, most of us inside it – are unaware of or unperturbed by the philosophical scandal of knowledge and go about our lives
without too many epistemic anxieties. We hold our beliefs and presumptive knowledges more or less confidently, usually
depending on how we acquired them (I saw it with my own eyes; I heard it on Fox News; a guy at the office told me) and how
broadly and strenuously they seem to be shared or endorsed by various relevant people: experts and authorities, friends and
family members, colleagues and associates. And we examine our convictions more or less closely, explain them more or less
extensively, and defend them more or less vigorously, usually depending on what seems to be at stake for ourselves and/or
other people and what resources are available for reassuring ourselves or making our beliefs credible to others (look, it’s right
here on the page; add up the figures yourself; I happen to be a heart specialist).
The author of the passage is most likely to support which one of the following statements?

1. The confidence with which we maintain something to be true is usually independent of the source of the alleged truth.
2. The scandal of philosophy is that we might not know anything at all about reality if we think of reality as independent of
   our perceptions, ideas or descriptions.
3. The actions taken on the basis of presumed knowledge are rational and justifiable if we are confident that that knowledge
   is widely held.
4. For the sceptic, if we think of reality as independent of our perceptions, ideas or descriptions, we should aim to know that
   reality independently too.

Correct answer: B · The scandal of philosophy is that we might not know anything at all about reality if we think of reality as independent of
our perceptions, ideas or descriptions.

Question 5

The author lists all of the following as reasons for the decline or disappearance of a language EXCEPT:

1. a catastrophic event that entirely eliminates a people and their culture.
2. governments promoting certain languages over others
3. the focus on only a few languages as a result of widespread internet use
4. people shifting away from their own language to study or work in another language.

Correct answer: C · the focus on only a few languages as a result of widespread internet use

Question 6

We can infer all of the following about indigenous languages from the passage EXCEPT that:

1. they are repositories of traditional knowledge about the environment and culture.
2. they are in danger of being wiped out as most can only be transmitted orally.
3. people are increasingly working on documenting these languages.
4. their vocabulary and grammatical constructs have been challenging to document.

Correct answer: D · their vocabulary and grammatical constructs have been challenging to document.

Question 7

From the passage, we can infer that the author is in favour of:

1. greater multilingualism
2. “language shifts” across languages
3. cultural homogenisation
4. an expanded state role in the preservation of languages

Correct answer: A · greater multilingualism

Question 8

It’s easy to forget that most of the world’s languages are still transmitted orally with no widely established written form. While
speech communities are increasingly involved in projects to protect their languages – in print, on air and online – orality is
fragile and contributes to linguistic vulnerability. But indigenous languages are about much more than unusual words and
intriguing grammar: They function as vehicles for the transmission of cultural traditions, environmental understandings and
knowledge about medicinal plants, all at risk when elders die and livelihoods are disrupted.
Both push and pull factors lead to the decline of languages. Through war, famine and natural disasters, whole communities can
be destroyed, taking their language with them to the grave, such as the indigenous populations of Tasmania who were wiped
out by colonists. More commonly, speakers live on but abandon their language in favor of another vernacular, a widespread
process that linguists refer to as “language shift” from which few languages are immune. Such trading up and out of a speech
form occurs for complex political, cultural and economic reasons – sometimes voluntary for economic and educational reasons,
although often amplified by state coercion or neglect. Welsh, long stigmatized and disparaged by the British state, has
rebounded with vigor.
Many speakers of endangered, poorly documented languages have embraced new digital media with excitement. Speakers of
previously exclusively oral tongues are turning to the web as a virtual space for languages to live on. Internet technology offers
powerful ways for oral traditions and cultural practices to survive, even thrive, among increasingly mobile communities. I have
watched as videos of traditional wedding ceremonies and songs are recorded on smartphones in London by Nepali migrants,
then uploaded to YouTube and watched an hour later by relatives in remote Himalayan villages . . .
Globalization is regularly, and often uncritically, pilloried as a major threat to linguistic diversity. But in fact, globalization is as
much process as it is ideology, certainly when it comes to language. The real forces behind cultural homogenization are
unbending beliefs, exchanged through a globalized delivery system, reinforced by the historical monolingualism prevalent in
much of the West.
Monolingualism – the condition of being able to speak only one language – is regularly accompanied by a deep-seated
conviction in the value of that language over all others. Across the largest economies that make up the G8, being monolingual
is still often the norm, with multilingualism appearing unusual and even somewhat exotic. The monolingual mindset stands in
sharp contrast to the lived reality of most the world, which throughout its history has been more multilingual than unilingual.
Monolingualism, then, not globalization, should be our primary concern.
Multilingualism can help us live in a more connected and more interdependent world. By widening access to technology,
globalization can support indigenous and scholarly communities engaged in documenting and protecting our shared linguistic
heritage. For the last 5,000 years, the rise and fall of languages was intimately tied to the plow, sword and book. In our digital
age, the keyboard, screen and web will play a decisive role in shaping the future linguistic diversity of our species.
The author mentions the Welsh language to show that:

1. efforts to integrate Welsh speakers in the English-speaking fold have been fruitless.
2. languages can revive even after their speakers have gone through a “language shift”.
3. vulnerable languages can rebound with state effort.
4. while often pilloried, globalisation can, in fact, support linguistic revival.

Correct answer: B · languages can revive even after their speakers have gone through a “language shift”.

Question 9

Which one of the following explains the “contradictory pulls” on Indian nationalism?

1. Despite its spiritual superiority, Indian nationalism had to fight against colonial domination.
2. Despite its fight against colonial domination, Indian nationalism had to borrow from the coloniser in the spiritual sphere.
3. Despite its scientific and technological inferiority, Indian nationalism had to fight against colonial domination.
4. Despite its fight against colonial domination, Indian nationalism had to borrow from the coloniser in the material sphere

Correct answer: D · Despite its fight against colonial domination, Indian nationalism had to borrow from the coloniser in the material sphere

Question 10

I have elaborated...... a framework for analyzing the contradictory pulls on [Indian] nationalist ideology in its struggle against the
dominance of colonialism and the resolution it offered to those contradictions. Briefly, this resolution was built around a
separation of the domain of culture into two spheres—the material and the spiritual. It was in the material sphere that the
claims of Western civilization were the most powerful. Science, technology, rational forms of economic organization, modern
methods of statecraft—these had given the European countries the strength to subjugate the non-European people..... To
overcome this domination, the colonized people had to learn those superior techniques of organizing material life and
incorporate them within their own cultures.….. But this could not mean the imitation of the West in every aspect of life, for then
the very distinction between the West and the East would vanish—the self-identity of national culture would itself be
threatened.....
The discourse of nationalism shows that the material/spiritual distinction was condensed into an analogous, but ideologically
far more powerful, dichotomy: that between the outer and the inner Applying the inner/outer distinction to the matter of
concrete day-to-day living separates the social space into ghar and bāhir, the home and the world. The world is the external,
the domain of the material; the home represents one’s inner spiritual self, one’s true identity. The world is a treacherous terrain
of the pursuit of material interests, where practical considerations reign supreme. It is also typically the domain of the male. The
home in its essence must remain unaffected by the profane activities of the material world—and woman is its representation.
And so one gets an identification of social roles by gender to correspond with the separation of the social space into ghar and
bāhir.....
The colonial situation, and the ideological response of nationalism to the critique of Indian tradition, introduced an entirely new
substance to [these dichotomies] and effected their transformation. The material/spiritual dichotomy, to which the terms world
and home corresponded, had acquired…. a very special significance in the nationalist mind. The world was where the European
power had challenged the non-European peoples and, by virtue of its superior material culture, had subjugated them. But, the
nationalists asserted, it had failed to colonize the inner, essential, identity of the East which lay in its distinctive, and superior,
spiritual culture…… [I]n the entire phase of the national struggle, the crucial need was to protect, preserve and strengthen the
inner core of the national culture, its spiritual essence. . .
Once we match this new meaning of the home/world dichotomy with the identification of social roles by gender, we get the
ideological framework within which nationalism answered the women’s question. It would be a grave error to see in this, as
liberals are apt to in their despair at the many marks of social conservatism in nationalist practice, a total rejection of the West.
Quite the contrary: the nationalist paradigm in fact supplied an ideological principle of selection.
On the basis of the information in the passage, all of the following are true about the spiritual/material dichotomy of Indian
nationalism EXCEPT that it:

1. represented a continuation of age-old oppositions in Indian culture
2. constituted the premise of the ghar/bāhir dichotomy
3. was not as ideologically powerful as the inner/outer dichotomy
4. helped in safeguarding the identity of Indian nationalism.

Correct answer: A · represented a continuation of age-old oppositions in Indian culture

Question 11

Which one of the following, if true, would weaken the author’s claims in the passage?

1. Indian nationalists rejected the cause of English education for women during the colonial period.
2. Forces of colonial modernity played an important role in shaping anti-colonial Indian nationalism.
3. The colonial period saw the hybridisation of Indian culture in all realms as it came in contact with British/European culture.
4. The Industrial Revolution played a crucial role in shaping the economic prowess of Britain in the eighteenth century.

Correct answer: C · The colonial period saw the hybridisation of Indian culture in all realms as it came in contact with British/European culture.

Question 12

Which one of the following best describes the liberal perception of Indian nationalism?

1. Indian nationalism’s sophistication resided in its distinction of the material from the spiritual spheres.
2. Indian nationalist discourses reaffirmed traditional gender roles for Indian women.
3. Indian nationalism embraced the changes brought about by colonialism in Indian women’s traditional gender roles.
4. Indian nationalist discourses provided an ideological principle of selection.

Correct answer: B · Indian nationalist discourses reaffirmed traditional gender roles for Indian women.

Question 13

The central theme of the passage is about the choice between:

1. stories that unite people and those that distinguish groups from each other
2. attaining social cohesion and propagating objective truth
3. leaders who unknowingly spread fictions and those who intentionally do so
4. truth and power

Correct answer: B · attaining social cohesion and propagating objective truth

Question 14

The author would support none of the following statements about political power EXCEPT that:

1. there are definite advantages to promoting fiction, but there needs to be some limit to a pervasive belief in myths.
2. while unalloyed truth is not recommended, leaders should stay as close as possible to it.
3. manipulating people’s beliefs is politically advantageous, but a leader who propagates only myths is likely to lose power.
4. people cannot handle the unvarnished truth, so leaders retain power by deviating from it.

Correct answer: D · people cannot handle the unvarnished truth, so leaders retain power by deviating from it.

Question 15

Many people believe that truth conveys power …. Hence sticking with the truth is the best strategy for gaining power.
Unfortunately, this is just a comforting myth. In fact, truth and power have a far more complicated relationship, because in
human society, power metwo very different things.
On the one hand, power mehaving the ability to manipulate objective realities: to hunt animals, to construct bridges, to cure
diseases, to build atom bombs. This kind of power is closely tied to truth. If you believe a false physical theory, you won’t be
able to build an atom bomb. On the other hand, power also mehaving the ability to manipulate human beliefs, thereby getting
lots of people to cooperate effectively. Building atom bombs requires not just a good understanding of physics, but also the
coordinated labor of millions of humans. Planet Earth was conquered by Homo sapiens rather than by chimpanzees or
elephants, because we are the only mammals that can cooperate in very large numbers. And large-scale cooperation depends
on believing common stories. But these stories need not be true. You can unite millions of people by making them believe in
completely fictional stories about God, about race or about economics. The dual nature of power and truth results in the
curious fact that we humknow many more truths than any other animal, but we also believe in much more nonsense. . . .
When it comes to uniting people around a common story, fiction actually enjoys three inherent advantages over the truth. First,
whereas the truth is universal, fictions tend to be local. Consequently if we want to distinguish our tribe from foreigners, a
fictional story will serve as a far better identity marker than a true storyThe second huge advantage of fiction over truth has to
do with the handicap principle, which says that reliable signals must be costly to the signaler. Otherwise, they can easily be
faked by cheaters…. If political loyalty is signaled by believing a true story, anyone can fake it. But believing ridiculous and
outlandish stories exacts greater cost, and is therefore a better signal of loyalty ….. Third, and most important, the truth is often
painful and disturbing. Hence if you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you. An American presidential candidate
who tells the American public the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about American history has a 100 percent
guarantee of losing the elections. …. An uncompromising adherence to the truth is an admirable spiritual practice, but it is not a
winning political strategy. . . .
Even if we need to pay some price for deactivating our rational faculties, the advantages of increased social cohesion are often
so big that fictional stories routinely triumph over the truth in human history. Scholars have known this for thousands of years,
which is why scholars often had to decide whether they served the truth or social harmony. Should they aim to unite people by
making sure everyone believes in the same fiction, or should they let people know the truth even at the price of disunity?
The author implies that, like scholars, successful leaders:

1. today know how to create social cohesion better than in the past.
2. use myths to attain the first type of power.
3. know how to balance truth and social unity.
4. need to leverage both types of power to remain in office.

Correct answer: C · know how to balance truth and social unity.

Question 16

Regarding which one of the following quotes could we argue that the author overemphasises the importance of fiction?

1. “…. scholars often had to decide whether they served the truth or social harmony. Should they aim to unite people by
   making sure everyone believes in the same fiction, or should they let people know the truth ….?”
2. “On the one hand, power me having the ability to manipulate objective realities: to hunt animals, to construct bridges, to
   cure diseases, to build atom bombs.”
3. “Hence sticking with the truth is the best strategy for gaining power. Unfortunately, this is just a comforting myth.”
4. "In fact, truth and power have a far more complicated relationship, because in human society, power me two very
   different things."

Correct answer: A · “…. scholars often had to decide whether they served the truth or social harmony. Should they aim to unite people by
making sure everyone believes in the same fiction, or should they let people know the truth ….?”

Question 17

Biologists who publish their research directly to the Web have been labelled as “rogue”, but physicists have been routinely
publishing research digitally (“preprints”), prior to submitting in a peer-reviewed journal. Advocates of preprints argue that
quick and open dissemination of research speeds up scientific progress and allows for wider access to knowledge. But some
journals still don’t accept research previously published as a preprint. Even if the idea of preprints is gaining ground, one of the
biggest barriers for biologists is how they would be viewed by members of their conservative research community.

1. One of the advantages of digital preprints of research is they hasten the dissemination process, but these are not
   accepted by most scientific communities.
2. Compared to biologists, physicists are less conservative in their acceptance of digital pre-publication of research papers,
   which allows for faster dissemination of knowledge.
3. While digital publication of research is gaining popularity in many scientific disciplines, almost all peer-reviewed journals
   are reluctant to accept papers that have been published before.
4. Preprints of research are frowned on by some scientific fields as they do not undergo a rigourous reviewing process but
   are accepted among biologists as a quick way to disseminate information.

Correct answer: B · Compared to biologists, physicists are less conservative in their acceptance of digital pre-publication of research papers,
which allows for faster dissemination of knowledge.

Question 18

1. But today there is an epochal challenge to rethink and reconstitute the vision and practice of development as a shared
responsibility – a sharing which binds both the agent and the audience, the developed world and the developing, in a bond of
shared destiny.
2. We are at a crossroads now in our vision and practice of development.
3. This calls for the cultivation of an appropriate ethical mode of being in our lives which enables us to realize this global and
planetary situation of shared living and responsibility.
4. Half a century ago, development began as a hope for a better human possibility, but in the last fifty years, this hope has lost
itself in the dreary desert of various kinds of hegemonic applications.

Correct answer: 2413

Question 19

1. The care with which philosophers examine arguments for and against forms of biotechnology makes this an excellent primer
on formulating and assessing moral arguments.
2. Although most people find at least some forms of genetic engineering disquieting, it is not easy to articulate why: what is
wrong with re-engineering our nature?
3. Breakthroughs in genetics present us with the promise that we will soon be able to prevent a host of debilitating diseases,
and the predicament that our newfound genetic knowledge may enable us to enhance our genetic traits.
4. To grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions that verge on theology, which is why modern
philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them.
5. One argument is that the drive for human perfection through genetics is objectionable as it represents a bid for mastery that
fails to appreciate the gifts of human powers and achievements.

Correct answer: 1

Question 20

1. It has taken on a warm, fuzzy glow in the advertising world, where its potential is being widely discussed, and it is being
claimed as the undeniable wave of the future.
2. There is little enthusiasm for this in the scientific arena; for them marketing is not a science, and only a handful of studies
have been published in scientific journals.
3. The new, growing field of neuromarketing attempts to reveal the inner workings of consumer behaviour and is an extension
of the study of how choices and decisions are made.
4. Some see neuromarketing as an attempt to make the "art" of advertising into a science, being used by marketing experts to
back up their proposals with some form of real data.
5. The marketing gurus have already started drawing on psychology in developing tests and theories, and advertising people
have borrowed the idea of the focus group from social scientists.

Correct answer: 5

Question 21

1. Look forward a few decades to an invention which can end the energy crisis, change the global economy and curb climate
change at a stroke: commercial fusion power.
2. To gain meaningful insights, logic has to be accompanied by asking probing questions of nature through controlled tests,
precise observations and clever analysis.
3. The greatest of all inventions is the uber-invention that has provided the insights on which others depend: the modern
scientific method.
4. This invention is inconceivable without the scientific method; it will rest on the application of a diverse range of scientific
insights, such as the process transforming hydrogen into helium to release huge amounts of energy.

Correct answer: 3214

Question 22

Creativity is now viewed as the engine of economic progress. Various organizations are devoted to its study and promotion;
there are encyclopedias and handbooks surveying creativity research. But this proliferating success has tended to erode
creativity’s stable identity: it has become so invested with value that it has become impossible to police its meaning and the
practices that supposedly identify and encourage it. Many people and organizations committed to producing original thoughts
now feel that undue obsession with the idea of creativity gets in the way of real creativity.

1. The obsession with original thought, how it can be promoted and researched, has made it impossible for people and
   organizations to define the concept anymore.
2. The industry that has built up around researching what comprises and encourages creativity has destroyed the creative
   process itself.
3. Creativity has proliferated to the extent that is no longer a stable process, and its mutating identity has stifled the creative
   process.
4. The value assigned to creativity today has assumed such proportions that the concept itself has lost its real meaning and
   this is hampering the engendering of real creativity.

Correct answer: D · The value assigned to creativity today has assumed such proportions that the concept itself has lost its real meaning and
this is hampering the engendering of real creativity.

Question 23

1. The US has long maintained that the Northwest Passage is an international strait through which its commercial and military
vessels have the right to pass without seeking Canada’s permission.
2. Canada, which officially acquired the group of islands forming the Northwest Passage in 1880, claims sovereignty over all the
shipping routes through the Passage.
3. The dispute could be transitory, however, as scientists speculate that the entire Arctic Ocean will soon be ice-free in summer,
so ship owners will not have to ask for permission to sail through any of the Northwest Passage routes.
4. The US and Canada have never legally settled the question of access through the Passage, but have an agreement whereby
the US needs to seek Canada’s consent for any transit.

Correct answer: 2143

Question 24

The unlikely alliance of the incumbent industrialist and the distressed unemployed worker is especially powerful amid the debris
of corporate bankruptcies and layoffs. In an economic downturn, the capitalist is more likely to focus on costs of the
competition emanating from free markets than on the opportunities they create. And the unemployed worker will find many
others in a similar condition and with anxieties similar to his, which will make it easier for them to organize together. Using the
cover and the political organization provided by the distressed, the capitalist captures the political agenda.

1. In an economic downturn, the capitalists use the anxieties of the unemployed and their political organisation to set the
   political agenda to suit their economic interests.
2. The purpose of an unlikely alliance between the industrialist and the unemployed during an economic downturn is to
   stifle competition in free markets.
3. An economic downturn creates competition because of which the capitalists capture the political agenda created by the
   political organisation provided by the unemployed.
4. An unlikely alliance of the industrialist and the unemployed happens during an economic downturn in which they come
   together to unite politically and capture the political agenda.

Correct answer: A · In an economic downturn, the capitalists use the anxieties of the unemployed and their political organisation to set the
political agenda to suit their economic interests.