4
(a) Arrogance breeds mistakes: look at all the empire-building bosses
who attempt ambitious mergers despite ample evidence that such mergers
usually fail.
(b) Abraham Lincoln observed that nearly all men can stand adversity
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
(c) Clever businesspeople have a tendency to be arrogant at the best
of the times; telling them that they are masters of the universe can
only magnify it.
(d) If leadership has a secret sauce, it may well be humility; a
humble boss understands that there are things he doesn't know and he
listens to other bigwigs as well as his customers.
(e) Similar temptations afflict those who are given the title of
"young global leader."
(f) But there is still a flaw with the very notion of global leadership.
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5
In each of the following questions, there are sentences or fragments
of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or
fragments of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms of grammar and
usage, including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency, and
enter the letters corresponding to the sentence(s) or fragments of
sentence(s) in the input box provided below the question. You must
enter your answer in alphabetical order only. For example, if you
think that statements (D) and (E) are correct, then enter DE (but not
ED)
6. (A) Flies live short lives than elephants.
(B) That there is no doubt.
(C) But from a fly's point of view, does it's life actually seem that
much shorter?
(D) This in essence was the question asked by Kevin Healy of Trinity
College, Dublin, in a paper just published in the reputed journal
"Animal Behaviour".
(E) His answer is, possibly not.
6
In each of the following questions, there are sentences or fragments
of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or
fragments of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms of grammar and
usage, including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency, and
enter the letters corresponding to the sentence(s) or fragments of
sentence(s) in the input box provided below the question. You must
enter your answer in alphabetical order only. For example, if you
think that statements (D) and (E) are correct, then enter DE (but not
ED) in the input box.
6.(A) Flies live short lives than elephants.
(B) That there is no doubt.
(C) But from a fly's point of view, does it's life actually seem that
much shorter?
(D) This in essence was the question asked by Kevin Healy of Trinity
College, Dublin, in a paper just published in the reputed journal
"Animal Behaviour".
(E) His answer is, possibly not.
7
In each of the following questions, there are sentences or fragments
of sentences that form a paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or
fragments of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms of grammar and
usage, including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency, and
enter the letters corresponding to the sentence(s) or fragments of
sentence(s) in the input box provided below the question. You must
enter your answer in alphabetical order only. For example, if you
think that statements (D) and (E) are correct, then enter DE (but not
ED) in the input box.
7.(A) Of all the great novelists, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse has less
interest in the real world.
(B) Unencumbered with gravitas, he describes a Britain that never
existed, one where there was no violence
(C) or death, except in passing and the tumultous history of the early
20th century gets barely a look-in.
(D) The gravest threat is being forced to marry someone you don't like.
(E) His style walks a tightrope on patchwork and perfection.
Three out of four sentences in each of the paragraphs given below,
when correctly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Which sentence
does not fit into the context?
8.
a)
A stream of headlines about bail-outs, teetering banks and high
unemployment has repelled investors from Europe's struggling
periphery.
b)
Investindustrial's approach had been to not tar the whole of southern
Europe with the same brush.
c)
That did not stop Investindustrial, a private-equity group with a
focus on Spain and Italy, from this week buying the 50% stake it did
not already own in PortAventura, an amusement park near Barcelona and
it is now looking for other investments there.
d)
Perhaps the only thing more spine-tingling than riding a
roller-coaster is to buy one, particularly if it sits in a theme park
in Spain.
Three out of four sentences in each of the paragraphs given below,
when correctly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Which sentence
does not fit into the context?
10.
a)
Feathered dinosaurs did not go away just because they had spun off the
birds, though.
b)
And well before that, in a part of the Cretaceous called the Aptian,
120 million years ago, the whole thing happened again, in the form of
Microraptor.
c)
They persisted right up until the end of the Cretaceous period, 65
million years ago, when all non-avian dinosaurs met their ends.
d)
It is tempting to think of evolution as a process of continuous
stately progress towards better designed organisms but it is full of
blind alleys – as a fossil called Microraptor shows.
Three out of four sentences in each of the paragraphs given below,
when correctly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Which sentence
does not fit into the context?
11.
a)
Indeed, digital technologies may prove to be more ephemeral than their
predecessors.
b)
Surely, though, the more modest goal of the carbon-paperless office is
within the reach of mankind?
c)
The "paperless office" has earned a proud place on lists of
technological promises that did not come to pass.
d)
Carbon paper allows two copies of a document to be made at once but
nowadays, a couple of keystrokes can do the same thing without a lot
of fuss.
Read the following passage and answer the questions given below it.
The term "cognition" refers to all processes by which the sensory
input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and
used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in
the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations.
Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is
involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every
psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although
cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than
some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view.
Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic
psychology, which begins with motives rather than with sensory input,
is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man's actions and
experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the
dynamic psychologist asks how they follow from the subject's goals,
needs, or instincts.
The brain is a vital organ which plays a special role in cognition.
From an evolutionary-biological point of view, the function of the
brain is to exert centralized control over the other organs of the
body. The brain acts on the rest of the body either by generating
patterns of muscle activity or by driving secretion of chemicals
called hormones. This centralized control allows rapid and coordinated
responses to changes in the environment. Some basic types of
responsiveness such as reflexes can be mediated by the spinal cord or
peripheral ganglia, but sophisticated purposeful control of behavior
based on complex sensory input requires the information-integrating
capabilities of a centralized brain.
From a philosophical point of view, what makes the brain special in
comparison to other organs is that it forms the physical structure
that generates the mind. As Hippocrates put it: "Men ought to know
that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and
sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations." The
mechanisms by which brain activity gives rise to consciousness and
thought have been very challenging to understand: despite rapid
scientific progress, much about how the brain works remains a mystery.
The operations of individual brain cells are now understood in
considerable detail, but the way they cooperate in ensembles of
millions has been very difficult to decipher. The most promising
approaches treat the brain as a biological computer, very different in
mechanism from electronic computers, but similar in the sense that it
acquires information from the surrounding world, stores it, and
processes it in a variety of ways.
12. All of the following statements can be deduced from the first
paragraph EXCEPT?
(A) Men cannot do anything without cognition.
(B) All psychology is essentially cognitive.
(C) Cognitive psychology encompasses all other forms of psychology.
(D) The processes relating to our senses are covered under the broad
umbrella of cognition.
Identify all that apply and enter the corresponding letters in the
input box given below.
13.Which of the following statements could be considered logically
inconsistent with the information provided in the above passage?
a)
The philosophical point of view contradicts the
evolutionary-biological point of view.
b)
The philosophical point of view complements the
evolutionary-biological point of view.
c)
The best way to understand the functioning of the brain is to treat it
as a computer.
d)
Processing of information and generating responses is one of the
primary functions of the brain.
Few institutions have offered themselves as less promising for the
novelist than the modern office. Work of any kind is a tricky subject
for representation; office work – gray, gnomic, and unknowable – even
more so. Few people love the work they do.
In following much of the left-wing inspired (though often liberal)
social thought of the time, there was a growing fear in many of the
midcentury office novels that the very basis of American character was
being eroded, as the self-directing entrepreneurial spirit was
transmuted into the extroverted soul that sought only to be esteemed
in the eyes of society. Like The Lonely Crowd, The Organization Man,
and White Collar, the office novels of the midcentury told the story
of a new middle-class ethos of suave team-playing, which masked an
obscure panic over dwindling independence.
Some novels took up the problem by blithely showing how it wasn't so
bad after all. Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit has
been taken up in the popular imagination as a warning against the
conformist pressures of corporate life. But its actual narrative
discloses how the corporation is a flexible, caring organization that
responds well to assertions of independent-mindedness. It is perhaps
the closest the novel has ever come to being a variant of management
theory. Every attempt the eponymous "Man" makes to buck the system
rewards him: when Tom Rath refuses to take a personality test for his
job application, he gets hired; when he refuses to praise a draft
speech by his boss, he gets promoted; when he refuses a final
promotion that would make him deputy to his boss, he earns the respect
of his boss and gets more hours to spend with his family. This
medium-sized ambition threatens to diminish his (still sizable)
salary, but at the end of the novel, Rath's fortune is assured when he
manages to convince a judge to convert his grandmother's suburban
property into subdivisions, which he proceeds to sell for a tremendous
sum. In the flurry of dei ex machina at the novel's end, the notion
that any serious antagonism could exist between the individual free
spirit and the corporation is extinguished. In the end, Rath retains
his independence; in fact, it is through successfully managing his
relationship with the corporation that he earns it.
But many other midcentury novels depict a different narrative. Richard
Yates's Revolutionary Road, for example, arrives at a less happy
conclusion: corporate life can't be escaped. Assuming right from the
start that its protagonist, Frank Wheeler, is doomed to pursue an
empty and wasteful path, seeking consolations from the corporation
that he despises rather than pursuing a riskier, artistic life in
Paris (itself registered by Yates as a supreme cliché), Yates instead
intimates that one's independence can only come from writing, from
Yates's own justly famous lyricism taught in writing programs and
emulated by writers everywhere and which he contrasts with cynical
corporate plainspeak. In one passage, Yates reproduces the act of
speaking into a Dictaphone, including the directed punctuation marks,
as if to emphasize the sheer artificiality of the unadorned tone of
marketing:
After putting a new belt in the Dictaphone machine, he said, "Copy for
Veritype. Heading: Speaking of Production control, dot, dot, dot.
Paragraph. Production control is, comma, after all, comma, nothing
more or less than the job of putting the right materials in the right
place at the right time, comma, according to a varying schedule.
Period, paragraph. This is simple arithmetic, period. Given all the
variables, comma, a man can do it with a pencil and paper, period. But
the Knox '500' Electronic Computer can do it – dash – literally – dash
– thousands of times faster, period."
16. The objective of the author while writing the above passage was
most likely to
a)
explore the lost freedom in white-collar novels and expound new
mediums of office communication.
b)
counter the notion that any serious antagonism could exist between the
individual free spirit and the corporation.
c)
unmask a latent fear of dwindling independence in corporate life.
d)
denigrate small-minded, self-satisfied midcentury corporate life.
17. The author's arguments suggest all of the following conclusions EXCEPT?
a)
It's really difficult escaping from office work and one's family life
can be ruined by overwork.
b)
The American individual had lost some degree of agency in the workplace.
c)
Corporate jargon does not set limits on the literary imagination.
d)
The eponymous "Man" in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit successfully
manages his relationship with the corporation.
18. Which of the following does the author not disapprove of?
(A) The evolving middle-class ethos of suave team-playing and the
general lust for conformity all over America.
(B) The literary effort that would redeem white-collar life from its emptiness.
(C) The desperate clinging to safety and security at any price.
(D) Identifying with a mundane job and being left a hollow shell.
Identify all that apply and enter the corresponding letters in the
input box given below. You must enter your answer in alphabetical
order only. For example, if you think (A) and (B) apply, then enter AB
(but not BA) in the input box.
19. The literary works mentioned in the passage were most likely
written during the
a)
1850s.
b)
1920s.
c)
1950s.
d)
1980s.
28.The tendency toward extreme, negative, unhealthy competition has
been termed hypercompetitiveness. This concept originated in Karen
Horney's theories on neurosis; specifically, the highly aggressive
personality type which is characterized as "moving against people". In
her view, some people have a need to compete and win at all costs as a
means of maintaining their self-worth. These individuals are likely to
turn any activity into a competition, and they will feel threatened if
they find themselves losing. Researchers have found that men and women
who score high on the trait of hypercompetitiveness are more
narcissistic and less psychologically healthy than those who score low
on the trait. Hypercompetitive individuals generally believe, to the
detriment of their future performance, that "winning isn't everything;
it's the only thing".
Which of the following contradicts the ideas expressed in the paragraph?
a)
As one ascends the evolutionary hierarchy, competitiveness (the
survival instinct) becomes less innate, and more a learned behaviour.
b)
Typically, individuals who are hypercompetitive and those who are
completely averse to any sort of competition form just a small
percentage of a representative populace.
c)
Hypercompetitive individuals tend to provide extremely tough
challenges to those they seek to challenge and hence make great
sportspersons.
d)
Hypercompetiveness is not as much as a negative trait as it is
portrayed. In fact, a strong desire to compete can cause a
considerable improvement in an individual's performance in a short
time period.
Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Which of the
options best captures the essence of the text?
29.Environmental protection should not be the prime consideration
while allowing for the expansion and diversification of industry. Any
modern human activity, irrespective of whether it uses paper or
chemicals, nuclear power or electronics chips, is bound to and always
does end up degrading the environment. Therefore in the future world,
one must look at ways to combating environmental change, rather than
preventing it. One must, impliedly, look at ways to exist and prosper
in a world with no trees, little oxygen and little animal life. This
may sound ghastly, but it is the only feasible way out. And the human
being, with his infinite intelligence and an unparalleled inherent
skill-set, along with the fact that many of the Universe's secrets
remain unrevealed to him, is equipped to deal efficiently with this
situation. We just need to shed the excessively magnanimous and
so-called humanistic approach to the world around us.
a)
Environmental degradation and human progress go hand in hand.
b)
Jeopardising natural balance for the sake of human development may
seem suicidal in the short run, but it can be overcome in the long
run.
c)
Man should not focus too much on the inevitable effects of
environmental degradation and should let go of the cloak of humanism.
He should look at ways to efficiently improve his future since
irreversible natural changes are bound to occur.
d)
Just like numerous changes have occurred on the Earth's surface since
time immemorial without wiping out life, so will the environmental
changes leave human existence unaffected. Therefore one must concern
oneself only with the future and not look at the past or present.
Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Which of the
options best captures the essence of the text?
31."Our thinking about growth and decay is dominated by the image of a
single life-span, animal or vegetable: seedling, full flower, and
death. "The flower that once has bloomed forever dies". But for an
ever-renewing society, the appropriate image is a total garden, a
balanced aquarium or other ecological system. Some things are being
born, other things are flourishing, still other things are dying --
but the system lives on. Only an exceptional organization manages to
sustain growth when its core business matures. Businesses like the
metaphorical garden are born, flourish and wither. But the fact that a
company's business blossoms and then fades does not mean that the
company must die. Successful companies can and must outlive their
individual businesses.
a)
Companies need to be nurtured like gardens. Else, they, like flowers,
wither and die. Successful companies are those that have businesses
that go on forever, unlike the flowers, which bloom once and then die
forever.
b)
An individual life is subject to eventual termination but a life
system lives on. Similarly, a successful company should outlive
individual businesses by constantly reinventing itself.
c)
A society whose maturing consists simply of acquiring more firmly
established ways of doing things is headed for the graveyard – even if
it learns to do these things with greater and greater skill. In the
ever-renewing society what matures is a system or framework within
which continuous innovation, renewal and rebirth can occur.
d)
We need to change our thinking regarding growth and decay; only then
will we be able to create sustainable systems. A company should
recruit managers who can help the company to sustain growth when its
main business flourishes.
Read the following paragraph and answer the question given below it.
32.Utopia will be impossible if we hold on to our traditional vision
of perfection. In accord with this antiquated vision, Utopia in the
past has generally been conceived as an isolated commune carved out
within an otherwise imperfect world. Assets are held communally so
that members are all economically equal. While members work, the
communal culture is antibusiness. There is no hierarchy, and
consequently, no one is ever fired or excommunicated. The rules are so
effective that the society is not only stable but unchanging. Although
these rules may be considered to be divinely inspired, once in place,
there is no longer any role for God to play, any need for further
divine intervention. There are no surprises and people need not
struggle with each other towards a better future. Civility has been
legislated; hence, it is not an ongoing process but an effortless,
painless static state.
According to the paragraph, which of the following statements is not
descriptive of Utopia?
a)
There are no religious or class barriers in Utopia and there is no
movement in society. Utopia is a state arrived at and not a state of
becoming.
b)
Everything functions like clockwork and there is no need for a divine saviour.
c)
There is no competition and vying for the bigger slice of the cake.
d)
People of Utopia believe in dynamism and progress and constantly
strive for perfection.
Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Which of the
options best captures the essence of the text?
33.Science apart, the major division in Western thought today, which
affects philosophy, literature, religion, architecture, even history,
is between the post-modernists who are happy with the fragmented
disparate, 'carnival' of culture and those traditionalists who
genuinely feel this sells us short, that this approach involves an
ethical betrayal, avoids judging what is better and what is less good
in human achievement, and, in so doing, hinders people in raising
their game. Postmodernism and relativism are still in the ascendant,
but for how much longer? While the cultures of Africa, Bali and other
third world countries have been recovered, to an extent, and given a
much needed boost, none has so far found the widespread resonance that
the classical civilizations of the Middle East once enjoyed. No one
doubts that jewels of art, learning and science have occured in all
places and at all times, and the identification and extension of this
wide range has been a major achievement of twentieth century
scholarship.
a)
Science is the cause of a major schism in Western thought as it is
supplementing literature, religion, architecture and even history.
Post modernists and traditionalists are divided on the impact of
science on culture.
b)
The revival of the cultures of various third world countries has given
a new lease of life to the traditionalists who were losing out to the
post-modernists.
c)
While postmodernism is on the rise and has favoured the revival of
fragmented, disparate cultures; major achievements in art and science
have occured at all times, especially in classical civilizations.
d)
The culture today is fragmented unlike the culture of yesteryear and
old civilizations. The older cultures were far-reaching and richer.
But post-modernism and relativism are the cultures most likely to
survive in the coming years.
Read the following paragraph and answer the question given below it.
34.R. Spitz has found that infants deprived of handling over a long
period will tend at length to sink into an irreversible decline and
are prone to succumb eventually to disease. In effect, this means that
what he calls emotional deprivation can have a fatal outcome. These
observations give rise to the idea of 'stimulus hunger' and indicate
that the most favoured forms of stimuli are those provided by physical
intimacy, a conclusion not hard to accept on the basis of everyday
experience. An allied phenomenon is seen in grownups subjected to
sensory deprivation – in the past, social and sensory deprivation is
noted to have produced temporary mental disturbances in individuals
condemned to long periods of solitary imprisonment.
Which of the following choices can be inferred from the paragraph?
a)
Stimulus hunger definitely leads to death; only infants deprived of
physical intimacy are affected adversely.
b)
Handling of infants, and its symbolic equivalent in grown-ups, social
interaction, have a survival value.
c)
Physical intimacy may be an intrinsic necessity for the mental and
physical health of humans and in everyday social interaction, some
form of physical intimacy exists.
d)
Solitary confinement may turn a person into a lunatic.
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