Passage 1: Map Making

Understanding where you are in the world is a basic survival skill, which is why we, like most species come hard-wired with specialized

brain areas to create cognitive maps of our surroundings. Where humans are unique, though, with the possible exception of honeybees, is that we try to communicate this understanding the world with others. We have along history of doing this by drawing maps – the earliest version yet discovered were scrawled on cave walls 14,000 years ago. Human cultures have been drawing them on stone tablets, papyrus, paper and now computer screens ever since.

Given such a long history of human map-making, it perhaps surprising that is only within the last few hundred years that north has been consistently considered to be at the top. In fact, for much of human history, north almost never appeared at the top, according to Jerry Brotton, a map historian… “North was rarely put at the top for the simple fact that north is where darkness comes from,” he says. “West is also very unlikely o be put at the top because west is where the sun disappears.”

Confusingly, early Chinese maps seem to buck this trend. But, Brotton, says, even though they did have compasses at the time, that isn’t the reason that they placed north at the top. Early Chinese compasses were actually oriented to point south, which was considered to be more desirable than deepest darkest north. But in Chinese maps, the emperor, who lived in the north of the country was always put at the top of the map, with everyone else, his loyal subjects, looking up towards him. “In Chinese culture the Emperor looks south because it’s where the winds come from, it’s a good direction. North is not very good but you are in a position of the subjection to the emperor, so you look up to him,” says Brotton.

Given that each culture has a very different idea of who, or what, they should look upto it’s perhaps not surprising that there is very little consistency in which way early maps pointed. In ancient Egyptian times the top of the world was east, the position of sunrise. Early Islamic maps favoured south at the top because most of the early Muslim cultures were north of Mecca, so they imagined looking up (south) towards it Christian maps from the same era (called Mappa Mundi) put east at the top, towards the Garden of Eden and with Jerusalem in the centre.

So when did everyone get together and decide that north was the top? It’s tempting to put it down to European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Megellan who were navigating by the North Star. But Brotton argues that these early explorers didn’t think of the world like that at all. “When Columbus describes the world it is in accordance with east being at the top,” he says “Columbus says he is going towards paradise, so his mentality is from a medieval mappa mundi.” We’ve got to remember, adds Brotton, that at the time, “no one knows what they are doing and where they are going.”

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Which one of the following best describes what the passage is trying to do?

1. It questions on explanation about how maps are designed.
2. It corrects a misconception about the way maps are designed.
3. It critiques a methodology used to create maps.
4. It explores some myths about maps.

Explanation

Explanatory Answer
See para 2: “Given such a long history of human map-making, it is perhaps surprising that is only within the last few hundred years that north has been consistently considered to be at the top”. The passage then goes on to explain how, historically, other directions were put on the top of maps in different cultures.

Options 1, 3 and 4 are clearly wrong. The passage does not question any one explanation about how maps are designed, or critique any one methodology used to create it, or explore any ‘myths’ about maps.

The question is “Which one of the following best describes what the passage is trying to do?”

Hence, the answer is It corrects a misconception about the way maps are designed.
Choice B is the correct answer.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Early maps did NOT put north at the top for all the following reasons EXCEPT

1. North was the source of darkness
2. South was favoured by some emperors
3. East and south were more important for religious reasons for some civilisations
4. East was considered by some civilisations to be a more positive direction

Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Chinese maps put north on top.

The other options relate to why north was not put on top of maps. North is where darkness was thought to come from (see para 2). Para 4 explains that south and east were considered important for religious reasons by early Muslim and Christian cultures respectively.

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The question is “Early maps did NOT put north at the top for all the following reasons EXCEPT”

Hence, the answer is South was favoured by some emperors

Choice B is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

According to the passage, early Chinese maps placed north at the top because

1. the Chinese invented the compass and were aware of magnetic north.
2. they wanted to show respect to the emperor.
3. the Chinese emperor appreciated the winds from the south.
4. north was considered the most desirable direction.

Details

Explanatory Answer
See paragraph 3: ‘In Chinese maps, the emperor, who lived in the north of the country was always put at the top of the map, with everyone else, his loyal subjects, looking up towards him’.

The question is “According to the passage, early Chinese maps placed north at the top because “

Hence, the answer is they wanted to show respect to the emperor.
Choice B is the correct answer.

4. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

It can be inferred from the passage that European explorers like Columbus and Megellan

1. set the precedent for north-up maps.
2. navigated by the compass.
3. used an eastward orientation for religious reasons.
4. navigated with the help of early maps.

Details

See the last paragraph: ‘When Columbus describes the world it is in accordance with east being at the top…..Columbus says he is going towards paradise, so his mentality is from a medieval mappa mundi’. Note from paragraph 4 that Mappa Mundi ‘put east at the top, towards the Garden of Eden and with Jerusalem in the centre’.

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The question is “It can be inferred from the passage that European explorers like Columbus and Megellan “

Hence, the answer is used an eastward orientation for religious reasons.

Choice C is the correct answer.

5. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Which one of the following about the northern orientation of modern maps is asserted in the passage

1. The biggest contributory factor was the understanding of magnetic north
2. The biggest contributory factor was the role of European explorers
3. The biggest contributory factor was the influence of Christian maps
4. The biggest contributory factor is not stated in the passage

Details

T

The passage does not state why north came about to be on top of modern maps. In the last paragraph, the passage simply states that while it is tempting to put it down to European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Megellan who were navigating by the North Star, ‘these early explorers didn’t think of the world like that at all.’

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The question is “Which one of the following about the northern orientation of modern maps is asserted in the passage”

Hence, the answer is The biggest contributory factor is not stated in the passage

Choice D is the correct answer.

6. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The role of natural phenomena in influencing map-making conventions is seen most clearly in

1. early Egyptian maps
2. early Islamic maps
3. early Chinese maps
4. early Christian maps

Details

See paragraph 4: ‘In ancient Egyptian times the top of the world was east, the position of sunrise.’

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The question is “The role of natural phenomena in influencing map-making conventions is seen most clearly in”

Hence, the answer is early Egyptian maps

Choice A is the correct answer.

Passage 2: Impact of Printed text and iPhone

I used a smartphone GPS to find my way through the cobblestones maze of Geneva’s Old Town, in search of a handmade machine that changed the world more than any other invention. Near a 13th-century cathedral in this Swiss city on the shores of a lovely lake, I found what I was looking for: a Gutenberg printing press. “This was the Internet of its day — at least as influential as the iPhone,” said Gabriel de Montmollin, the director of the Museum of the Reformation, toying with the replica of Johann Gutenberg’s great invention. [Before the invention of the printing press] it used to take four monks…up to a year to produce a single book. With the advance in movable type in 15th- century Europe, one press could crank out 3,000 pages a day.

Before long, average people could travel to places that used to be unknown to them — with maps! Medical information passed more freely and quickly, diminishing the sway of quacks…The printing press offered the prospect that tyrants would never be able to kill a book or suppress an idea. Gutenberg’s brainchild broke the monopoly that clerics had on scripture. And later, stirred by pamphlets from a version of that same press, the American colonies rose up against a king and gave birth to a nation. So, a question in the summer of this 10th

anniversary of the iPhone: has the device that is perhaps the most revolutionary of all time given us a single magnificent idea? Nearly every advancement of the written word through new technology has also advanced humankind. Sure, you can say the iPhone changed everything. By putting the world’s recorded knowledge in the palm of a hand, it revolutionized work, dining, travel and socializing. It made us more narcissistic — here’s more of me doing cool stuff! — and it unleashed an army of awful trolls. We no longer have the patience to sit through a baseball game without that reach to the pocket. And one more casualty of Apple selling more than a billion phones in a decade’s time: daydreaming has become a lost art.

For all of that, I’m still waiting to see if the iPhone can do what the printing press did for religion and democracy…the Geneva museum makes a strong case that the printing press opened more minds than anything else…it’s hard to imagine the French or American revolutions without those enlightened voices in print…

Not long after Steve Jobs introduced his iPhone, he said the bound book was probably headed for history’s attic. Not so fast. After a period of rapid growth in e-books, something closer to the medium for Chaucer’s volumes has made a great comeback.

The hope of the iPhone, and the Internet in general, was that it would free people in closed societies. But the failure of the Arab Spring, and the continued suppression of ideas in North Korea, China and Iran, has not borne that out… The iPhone is still young. It has certainly been “one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history, “ as Apple CEO. Tim Cook said. But I’m not sure if the world changed for the better with the iPhone — as it did with the printing press — or merely, changed.

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The printing press has been likened to the Internet for which one of the following reasons?

1. It enabled rapid access to new information and the sharing of new ideas
2. It represented new and revolutionary technology compared to the past
3. It encouraged reading among people by giving them access to thousands of books
4. It gave people access to pamphlets and literature in several languages

Details

The printing press enabled rapid access to new information and the sharing of new ideas. See paragraph 2: ‘one press could crank out 3,000 pages a day…..Medical information passed more freely and quickly….The printing press offered the prospect that tyrants would never be able to kill a book or suppress an idea.’

The other options miss the main idea, as the comparison is not made because the technology was ‘new and revolutionary’, or because it encouraged reading or offered information in several languages.

The question is ” The printing press has been likened to the Internet for which one of the following reasons?”

Hence, the answer is It enabled rapid access to new information and the sharing of new ideas
Choice A is the correct answer.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

According to the passage, the invention of the printing press did all of the following EXCEPT

1. Promoted the spread of enlightened political views across countries.
2. Gave people direct access to authentic medical information and religious texts.
3. Shortened the time taken to produce books and pamphlets.
4. Enabled people to perform various tasks simultaneously.

Details

This question too is based on paragraph 2. This paragraph mentions all given points except option 4.

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The question is “According to the passage, the invention of the printing press did all of the following EXCEPT”

Hence, the answer is Enabled people to perform various tasks simultaneously.

Choice D is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Steve Jobs predicted which one’of the following with the introduction of the iPhone?

1. People would switch from reading on the Internet to reading on their iPhones.
2. People would lose interest in historical and traditional classics.
3. Reading printed books would become a thing of the past.
4. The production of e-books would eventually fall.

Details

See paragraph 5: ‘Not long after Steve Jobs introduced his iPhone, he said the bound book was probably headed for history’s attic.’

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The question is “Steve Jobs predicted which one’of the following with the introduction of the iPhone?”

Hence, the answer is Reading printed books would become a thing of the past.

Choice C is the correct answer.

4. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

“I’m still waiting to see if the iPhone can do what the printing press did for religion and democracy.” The author uses which one of the following to indicate his uncertainty?

1. The rise of religious groups in many parts of the world.
2. The expansion in trolling and narcissism among users of the Internet.
3. The continued suppression of free speech in closed societies.
4. The decline in reading habits among those who use the device.

Details

See the last paragraph: ‘The hope of the iPhone, and the Internet in general, was that it would free people in closed societies. But the failure of the Arab Spring, and the continued suppression of ideas in North Korea, China and Iran, has not borne that out…’

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The question is “”I’m still waiting to see if the iPhone can do what the printing press did for religion and democracy.” The author uses which one of the following to indicate his uncertainty?”

Hence, the answer is The continued suppression of free speech in closed societies.

Choice C is the correct answer.

5. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The author attributes the French and American revolutions to the invention of the printing press because

1. maps enabled large numbers of Europeans to travel and settle in the American continent.
2. the rapid spread of information exposed people to new ideas on freedom and democracy.
3. it encouraged religious freedom among the people by destroying the monopoly of religious leaders on the scriptures.
4. it made available revolutionary strategies and opinions to the people.

Details

See paragraph 4 : ‘the printing press opened more minds than anything else…it’s hard to imagine the French or American revolutions without those enlightened voices in print’

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The question is “The author attributes the French and American revolutions to the invention of the printing press because”

Hence, the answer is the rapid spread of information exposed people to new ideas on freedom and democracy.

Choice B is the correct answer.

6. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The main conclusion of the passage is that the new technology has

1. some advantages, but these are outweighed by its disadvantages.
2. so far not proved as successful as the printing press in opening people’s minds.
3. been disappointing because it has changed society too rapidly.
4. been more wasteful than the printing press because people spend more time daydreaming or surfing.

Details

The main argument of the passage is that while ‘the printing press opened more minds than anything else’, the iphone and the internet in general has not been free people in closed societies. The author concludes saying ‘I’m not sure if the world changed for the better with the iPhone — as it did with the printing press — or merely, changed.’

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The question is “The main conclusion of the passage is that the new technology has”

Hence, the answer is so far not proved as successful as the printing press in opening people’s minds.

Choice B is the correct answer.

Passage 3: American Malls

This year alone, more than 8,600 stores could close, according to industry estimates, many of them the brand -name anchor outlets that real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court. Already there have been 5,300 retail closings this year… Sears Holdings—which owns Kmart—said in March that there’s “substantial doubt” it can stay in business altogether, and will close 300 stores this year. So far this year, nine national retail chains have filed for bankruptcy.

Local jobs are a major casualty of what analysts are calling, with only a hint of hyperbole, the retail apocalypse. Since 2002, department stores have lost 448,000 jobs, a 25% decline, while the number of store closures this year is on pace to surpass the worst depths of the Great Recession. The growth of online retailers, meanwhile, has failed to offset those losses, with the ecommerce sector adding just 178,000 jobs over the past 15 years. Some of those jobs can be found in the massive distribution centers Amazon has opened across the country, often not too far from malls the company helped shutter.

But those are workplaces, not gathering places. The mall is both. And in the 61 years since the first enclosed one opened in suburban Minneapolis, the shopping mall has been where a huge swath of middle-class America went for far more than shopping. It was the home of first jobs and blind dates, the place for family photos and ear

piercings, where goths and grandmothers could somehow walk through the same doors and find something they all liked. Sure, the food was lousy for you and the oceans of parking lots encouraged car- heavy development, something now scorned by contemporary planners. But for better or worse, the mall has been America’s public square for the last 60 years.

So what happens when it disappears?

Think of your mall. Or think of the one you went to as a kid. Think of the perfume clouds in the department stores. The fountains splashing below the skylights. The cinnamon wafting from the food court. As far back as ancient Greece, societies have congregated around a central marketplace. In medieval Europe, they were outside cathedrals. For half of the 20th century and almost 20 years into the new one, much of America has found their agora on the terrazzo between Orange Julius and Sbarro, Waldenbooks and the Gap, Sunglass Hut and Hot Topic.

That mall was an ecosystem unto itself, a combination of community and commercialism peddling everything you needed and everything you didn’t: Magic Eye posters, wind catchers. Air Jordans….

A growing number of Americans, however, don’t see the need to go to any Macy’s at all. Our digital lives are frictionless and ruthlessly efficient, with retail and romance available at a click. Malls were designed for leisure, abundance, ambling. You parked and planned to spend some time. Today, much of that time has been given over to busier lives and second jobs and apps that let you swipe right instead of haunt the food court. ‘ Malls, says Harvard business professor Leonard Schlesinger, “were built for patterns of social interaction that increasingly don’t exist.”

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The central idea of this passage is that:

1. the closure of mails has affected the economic and social life of middle-class America.
2. the advantages of malls outweigh their disadvantages.
3. malls used to perform a social function that has been lost.
4. malls are closing down because people have found alternate ways to shop.

Details

Explanatory Answer

The last line of the passage sums up the main idea: ‘Malls, says Harvard business professor Leonard Schlesinger, “were built for patterns of social interaction that increasingly don’t exist.’

Option A is a tempting choice. But while the passage begins with facts on mall closures, the focus is on malls serving as public squares and being the hub of the social life of middle-class America. The passage doesn’t specifically detail how mall closures has affected the economic situation of middle-class Americans. Option 3 is better than option 1.

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The question is “The central idea of this passage is that:”

Hence, the answer is malls used to perform a social function that has been lost.

Choice C is the correct answer.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Why does the author say in paragraph 2, ‘the massive distribution centers Amazon has opened across the country, often not too far from malls the company helped shutter’?

1. To highlight the irony of the situation.
2. To indicate that mails and distribution centres are located in the same area.
3. To show that Amazon is helping certain brands go online.
4. To indicate that the shopping habits of the American middle class have changed.

Details

Explanatory Answer
That the new jobs are in places not too far from the old workplaces simply shows the irony of the situation.

The question is ” Why does the author say in paragraph 2, ‘the massive distribution centers Amazon has opened across the country, often not too far from malls the company helped shutter’?”

Hence, the answer is To highlight the irony of the situation.
Choice A is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

In paragraph 1, the phrase “real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court” suggests that they

1. took brand-name anchor outlets to court.
2. no longer pursue brand-name hanger outlets.
3. malls are closing down because people have found alternate ways to shop.
4. collaborated with one another to get brand- name anchor outlets.

Details

To court’ is used in the sense of ‘to woo’ or ‘to pursue’ here. Real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court the brand-name outlets. This implies they no longer do so.

Option 4 is close but ignores the fact that this was once the case and no longer true.

The question is “In paragraph 1, the phrase “real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court” suggests that they”

Hence, the answer is collaborated with one another to get brand-name anchor outlets.
Choice B is the correct answer.

4. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The author calls the mall an ecosystem unto itself because

1. people of all ages and from all walks of life went there.
2. people could shop as well as eat in one place.
3. it was a commercial space as well as a gathering place.
4. it sold things that were needed as well as those that were not.

Details

See paragraph 6: ‘That mall was an ecosystem unto itself, a combination of community and commercialism peddling everything you needed and everything you didn’t…’

The question is “The author calls the mall an ecosystem unto itself because”

Hence, the answer is it was a commercial space as well as a gathering place.
Choice C is the correct answer.

5. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Why does the author say that the mall has been America’s public square?

1. Malls did not bar anybody from entering the space.
2. Malls were a great place to shop for a huge section of the middle class.
3. Malls were a hangout place where families grew close to each other.
4. Malls were a great place for everyone to gather and interact.

Details

See paragraph 3: ‘It was the home of first jobs and blind dates, the place for family photos and ear piercings, where goths and grandmothers could somehow walk through the same doors and find something they all liked’. The point here is that malls were places of social gathering and interaction. The emphasis is not on family interactions or on the fact that malls were great places to shop or that no one was barred from entering the malls.

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The question is “Why does the author say that the mall has been America’s public square?”

Hence, the answer is Malls were a great place for everyone to gather and interact.

Choice D is the correct answer.

6. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The author describes ‘Perfume clouds in the department stores’ in order to

1. evoke memories by painting a picture of malls
2. describe the smells and sights of mails
3. emphasise that all brands were available under one roof.
4. show that malls smelt good because of the various stores and food court.

Details

Explanatory Answer
See the context of the sentence. The author describes the sights and the smells of malls to rekindle memories.

The question is “The author describes ‘Perfume clouds in the department stores’ in order to”

Hence, the answer is evoke memories by painting a. picture of mails
Choice A is the correct answer.

Passage 4: Evolutionary diversity

Scientists have long recognized the incredible diversity within a species. But they thought it reflected evolutionary changes that unfolded imperceptibly, over millions of years. That divergence between populations within a species was enforced, according to Ernst Mayr, the great evolutionary biologist of the 1940s, when a population was separated from the rest of the species by a mountain range or a desert, preventing breeding across the divide over geologic scales of time. Without the separation, gene flow was relentless. But as the separation persisted, the isolated population grew apart and speciation occurred.

In the mid-1960s, the biologist Paul Ehrlich – author of The Population Bomb (1968) – and his Stanford University colleague Peter Raven challenged Mayr’s ideas about speciation. They had studied checkerspot butterflies living in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in California, and it soon became clear that they were not examining a single population. Through years of capturing, marking and then recapturing the butterflies, they were able to prove that within the population, spread over just 50 acres of suitable checkerspot habitat, there were three groups that rarely interacted despite their very close proximity.

Among other ideas, Ehrlich and Raven argued in a now classic paper from 1969 that gene flow was not as predictable and ubiquitous as Mayr and his cohort maintained, and thus evolutionary divergence between neighbouring groups in a population was probably common. They also asserted that isolation and gene flow were less important to evolutionary divergence than natural selection (when factors such as mate choice, weather, disease or predation cause better-adapted individuals to survive and pass on their successful genetic traits). For

example, Ehrlich and Raven suggested that, without the force of natural selection, an isolated population would remain unchanged and that, in other scenarios, natural selection could be strong enough to overpower gene flow…

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Which of the following best sums up Ehrlich and Raven’s argument in their classic 1969 paper?

1. Ernst Mayr was wrong in identifying physical separation as the cause of species diversity
2. Checkerspot butterflies in the 50-acre Jasper Ridge Preserve formed three groups that rarely interacted with each other
3. While a factor, isolation was not as important to speciation as natural selection
4. Gene flow is less common and more erratic than Mayr and his colleagues claimed.

Details

See the last paragraph: Ehrlich and Raven ‘asserted that isolation and gene flow were less important to evolutionary divergence than natural selection’. This sums up the main argument of the paper.

The question is “Which of the following best sums up Ehrlich and Raven’s argument in their classic 1969 paper?”

Hence, the answer is While a factor, isolation was not as important to speciation as natural selection
Choice C is the correct answer.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

All of the following statements are true according to the passage EXCEPT

1. Gene flow contributes to evolutionary divergence.
2. The Population Bomb questioned dominant ideas about species diversity.
3. Evolutionary changes unfold imperceptibly over time.
4. Checkerspot butterflies are known to exhibit speciation while living in close proximity.

Details

Explanatory Answer
The book—The Population Bomb—only challenged Mayr’s ideas about speciation, and not all the dominant ideas about species diversity. It only argued that ‘isolation and gene flow were less important to evolutionary divergence than natural selection’, not that they were irrelevant.

Also note that the above implies that gene flow contributes to evolutionary divergence. Ehrlich and Raven do not contest the idea that evolutionary changes unfold imperceptibly over time. The passage states that there were three groups of checkerspot butterflies ‘that rarely interacted despite their very close proximity’.

The question is “All of the following statements are true according to the passage EXCEPT”

Hence, the answer is The Population Bomb questioned dominant ideas about species diversity.
Choice B is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The author discusses Mayr, Ehrlich and Raven to demonstrate that

1. evolution is a sensitive and controversial topic.
2. Ehrlich and Raven’s ideas about evolutionary divergence are widely accepted by scientists.
3. the causes of speciation are debated by scientists.
4. checkerspot butterflies offer the best example of Ehrlich and Raven’s ideas about speciation.

Details

This answer is arrived at by elimination. The passage does not describe evolution as ‘sensitive and controversial’. Neither does it state categorically that Ehrlich and Raven’s ideas about evolutionary divergence are widely accepted by scientists. There is no evidence to state that checkerspot butterflies offer the best example of Ehrlich and Raven’s ideas about speciation.

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The question is “The author discusses Mayr, Ehrlich and Raven to demonstrate that”

Hence, the answer is the causes of speciation are debated by scientists.

Choice C is the correct answer.

Passage 5: Olympics

Do sports mega events like the summer Olympic Games benefit the host city economically? It depends, but the prospects are less than rosy. The trick is converting…several billion dollars in operating costs during the 17-day fiesta of the Games into a basis for long-term economic returns. These days, the summer Olympic Games themselves generate total revenue of $4 billion to $5 billion, but the lion’s share of this goes to the International Olympics Committee, the National Olympics Committees and the International Sports Federations. Any economic benefit would have to flow from the value of the Games as an advertisement for the city, the new transportation and communications infrastructure that was created for the Games, or the ongoing use of the new facilities.

Evidence suggests that the advertising effect is far from certain. The infrastructure benefit depends on the initial condition of the city and

the effectiveness of the planning. The facilities benefit is dubious at best for buildings such as velodromes or natatoriums and problematic for 100,000-seat Olympic stadiums. The latter require a conversion plan for future use, the former are usually doomed to near vacancy. Hosting the summer Games generally requires 30-plus sports venues and dozens of training centers. Today, the Bird’s Nest in Beijing sits virtually empty, while the Olympic Stadium in Sydney costs some $30 million a year to operate.

Part of the problem is that Olympics planning takes place in a frenzied and time-pressured atmosphere of intense competition with the other prospective host cities — not optimal conditions for contemplating the future shape of an urban landscape. Another part of the problem is that urban land is generally scarce and growing scarcer. The new facilities often stand for decades or longer. Even if they have future use, are they the best use of precious urban real estate?

Further, cities must consider the human cost. Residential areas often are razed and citizens relocated (without adequate preparation or compensation). Life is made more hectic and congested. There are, after all, other productive uses that can be made of vanishing fiscal resources.

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The central point in the first paragraph is that the economic benefits of the Olympic Games

1. are shared equally among the three organising committees.
2. accrue mostly through revenue from advertisements and ticket sales.
3. accrue to host cities, if at all, only in the long term.
4. are usually eroded by expenditure incurred by the host city.

Details

Options 1 and 2 are ruled out by facts stated in the passage. Between options 3 and 4, note that the passage states whether host cities accrue economic benefits ‘…. depends, but the prospects are less than rosy’ and that the ‘trick is converting several billion dollars in operating costs during the 17-day fiesta of the Games into a basis for long-term economic return’. This helps rule out option 4, which is too negative.

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The question is “The central point in the first paragraph is that the economic benefits of the Olympic Games”

Hence, the answer is accrue to host cities, if at all, only in the long term.

Choice C is the correct answer.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

Sports facilities built for the Olympics are not fully utilised after the Games are over because

1. their scale and the costs of operating them are large.
2. their location away from the city centre usually limits easy access.
3. the authorities do not adapt them to local conditions.
4. they become outdated having being built with little planning and under time pressure.

Details

See paragraph 2: ‘Hosting the summer Games generally requires 30-plus sports venues and dozens of training centres. Today, the Bird’s Nest in Beijing sits virtually empty, while the Olympic Stadium in Sydney costs some $30 million a year to operate’

There is no evidence in the passage to suggest all Olympic avenues are far from the city centre and without easy access. The passage mentions that the facilities ‘require a conversion plan for future use’ but does not categorically rule that the authorities do not adapt them to local conditions. The point about facilities becoming outdated is not mentioned in the passage.

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The question is “Sports facilities built for the Olympics are not fully utilised after the Games are over because”

Hence, the answer is their scale and the costs of operating them are large.

Choice A is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

The author feels that the Games place a burden on the host city for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that

1. they divert scarce urban land from more productive uses.
2. they involve the demolition of residential structures to accommodate sports

facilities and infrastructure.

3. the finances used to fund the Games could be better used for other purposes.
4. the influx of visitors during the Games places a huge strain on the urban infrastructure.

Details

Explanatory Answer
There is no mention of the pressure visitors place the local infrastructure under in the passage. Options A, B and C can be noted in the last paragraph.

The question is “The author feels that the Games place a burden on the host city for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that”

Hence, the answer is the influx of visitors during the Games places a huge strain on the urban infrastructure.
Choice D is the correct answer.

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) given below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequence of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC
   1. The process of handing down implies not a passivetransfer, but some contestation in defining what exactly is to be handed down.
2. Wherever Western scholars have worked on the Indian past, the selection is even more apparent and the inventing of a tradition much more recognizable.
3. Every generation selects what it requires from the past and makes its innovations, some more than others.
4. It is now a truism to say that traditions are not handed down unchanged, but are invented.
5. Just as life has death as its opposite, so is tradition by default the opposite of innovation.

Details

Explanatory Answer

41 is a link: 4 states that traditions are not handed down unchanged; 1 explains what that ‘handing down’ involves.

Similarly, 32 is a link: 3 states that every generation selects what is required from the past to make innovations; 2 adds to this, stating that the selection is apparent when Western scholars have worked on the Indian past.

In terms of flow of ideas, 41 leads on to 32.

5 is a general statement and it conveys the overarching idea of the paragraph. It is a good opening sentence. So, 54132 is the right order.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

1. Scientists have for the first time managed to edit genes in a human embryo to repair a genetic mutation, fuelling hopes that such procedures may one day be available outside

laboratory conditions.

2. The cardiac disease causes sudden death in otherwise healthy young athletes and affects about one in 500 people overall.
3. Correcting the mutation in the gene would not only ensure that the child is healthy but also prevents transmission of the mutation to future generations.
4. It is caused by a mutation in a particular gene and a child will suffer from the condition even if it inherits only one copy of the mutated gene.
5. In results announced in Nature this week, scientists fixed a mutation that thickens the heart muscle, a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Details

Explanatory Answer
1 is the best opening sentence. 15 is a link: 5 adds to 1, naming the specific genetic mutation that scientists have fixed.

2, which starts with ‘the cardiac disease’ immediately follows 5, as 5 is the only sentence that names the disease.

4 relates to the cause of the disease and starts off with the pronoun ‘it’. So, 4 follows 2.

3, which explains the effect of the correction of this genetic mutation, is a good concluding sentence for the paragraph. So, 15243 is the right order.

15243 is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC
   1. The study suggests that the disease did not spread with

such intensity, but that it may have driven human migrations across Europe and Asia.

2. The oldest sample came from an individual who lived in southeast Russia about 5,000 years ago.
3. The ages of the skeletons correspond to a time of mass exodus from today’s Russia and Ukraine into western Europe and central Asia, suggesting that a pandemic could have driven these migrations.
4. In the analysis of fragments of DNA from 101 Bronze Age skeletons for sequences from Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the disease, seven tested positive.
5. DNA from Bronze Age human skeletons indicate that the black plague could have emerged as early as 3,000 BCE, long before the epidemic that swept through Europe in the mid-

1300s.

Details

5 is the best opening sentence. 5 talks about a DNA study and 4 explains the findings of the study. So, 4 follows 5. Sentence 1 also relates to the study—its conclusion. So, 1 follows 4. Both 2 and 3 relate to the ages of the skeletons tested. 3 is more general and a better concluding sentence than 2, so 3 follows 2.

54123 is the correct answer.

4. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC
   1. This visual turn in social media has merely accentuated this announcing instinct of ours, enabling us with easy-to- create, easy-to-share, easy-to-store and easy-to-consume platforms, gadgets and apps.
   2. There is absolutely nothing new about us framing the vision of who we are or what we want, visually or otherwise, in our Facebook page, for example.
   3. Turning the pages of most family albums, which belong to a period well before the digital dissemination of self-createdand self-curated moments and images, would reconfirm the basic instinct of documenting our presence in a particularspace, on a significant occasion, with others who matter.
   4. We are empowered to book our faces and act as celebrities within the confinement of our respective friend lists, and communicate our activities, companionship and locations with minimal clicks and touches.
   5. What is unprecedented is not the desire to put out news feeds related to the self, but the ease with which this broadcast operation can now be executed, often provoking (un)anticipated responses from beyond one’s immediate location.

Details

Explanatory Answer
3 is the best opening sentence and it leads on to 2, which mentions Facebook as an example for our instinct to document our presence. 2 talks of framing the vision of ourselves, visually or otherwise. 1 carries forward this, talking of the visual turn in social media. 4 explains how Facebook has accentuated our announcing instinct; so, 4 follows 1. Sentence 5 is a good concluding sentence.

32145 is the correct answer.

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

To me, a “classic” means precisely the opposite of what my predecessors understood: a work is classical by reason of its resistance to contemporaneity and supposed universality, by reason of its capacity to indicate human particularity and difference in that past epoch. The classic is not what tells me about shared humanity—or, more truthfully put, what lets me recognize myself as already present in the past, what nourishes in me the illusion that everything has been like me and has existed only to prepare the way for me. Instead, the classic is what gives access to radically different forms of human consciousness for any given generation of readers, and thereby expands for them the range of possibilities of what it means to be a human being.

1. A classic is able to focus on the contemporary human condition and a

unified experience of human consciousness.

2. A classical work seeks to resist

particularity and temporal difference even as it focuses on a common humanity

3. A classic is a work exploring the new., going beyond the universal, the

contemporary, and the notion of a unified human consciousness

4. A classic is a work that provides access to a universal experience of the human race as opposed to radically different forms of human consciousness

Details

Explanatory Answer

The paragraph states that the classic is not about shared humanity but about ‘radically different forms of human consciousness for any given generation of readers’. Only option 3 is in line with this.

All other options mention ‘unified experience’, ‘common humanity’ and ‘universal experience of the human race’ as the main idea of the classic.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

A translator of literary works needs a secure hold upon the two languages involved, supported by a good measure of

familiarity with the two cultures. For an Indian translating works in an Indian language into English, finding satisfactory equivalents in a generalized western culture of practices and symbols in the original would be less difficult than gaining fluent control of contemporary English. When a westerner works on texts in Indian languages the interpretation of

cultural elements will be the major challenge, rather than control over the grammar and essential vocabulary of the language concerned. It is much easier to remedy lapses in language in a text translated into English, than flaws of

content. Since it is easier for an Indian to learn the English language than it is for a Briton or American to comprehend Indian culture, translations of Indian texts is better left to

Indians.

1. While translating, the Indian and the westerner face the same challenges but they have different skill profiles and the former has the advantage.
2. As preserving cultural meanings is the essence of literary translation Indians’

knowledge of the local culture outweighs the initial disadvantage of lower fluency in English.

3. Indian translators should translate Indian

texts into English as their work is less likely to pose cultural problems which are harder to address than the quality of language.

4. Westerners might be good at gaining

reasonable fluency in new languages, but as understanding the culture reflected in literature is crucial, Indians remain better placed.

Details

The paragraph argues that in translations, the interpretation of cultural elements is the major challenge, not the quality of the language. And since it is easier for an Indian to learn the English language than it is for a Briton or American to comprehend Indian culture, translation of Indian texts is better left to Indians. Option 3 sums up the paragraph best.

Option 1 mentions ‘different skill profiles’, which is imprecise. Option 2 does not touch on the idea that Indians should translate Indian texts. Option 4 does not mention translation. And the paragraph does not say that westerners are be good at gaining reasonable fluency in new languages.

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Choice C is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC

For each of the past three years, temperatures have hit peaks not seen since the birth of meteorology, and probably not for more than 110,000 years. The amount of carbon dioxide in

the air is at its highest level in 4 million years. This does not cause storms like Harvey – there have always been storms and hurricanes along the Gulf of Mexico – but it makes them wetter and more powerful. As the seas warm, they evaporate more easily and provide energy to storm fronts. As the air above them warms, it holds more water vapour. For every half a degree Celsius in warming, there is about a 3% increase in atmospheric moisture content. Scientists call this the

Clausius-Clapeyron equation. This means the skies fill more quickly and have more to dump. The storm surge was greater because sea levels have risen 20 cm as a result of more than 100 years of human -related global warming which has

melted glaciers and thermally expanded the volume of sea water.

1. The storm Harvey is one of the regular., annual ones from the Gulf of Mexico;

global warming and Harvey are unrelated phenomena.

2. Global warming does not breed storms but makes them more destructive; the

Clausius-Clapeyron equation, though it

predicts potential increase in atmospheric moisture content, cannot predict the scale of damage storms might wreck.

3. Global warming melts glaciers, resulting in sea water volume expansion; this enables more water vapour to fill the air above

faster. Thus, modern storms contain more destructive energy.

4. It is naive to think that rising sea levels and the force of tropical storms are unrelated; Harvey was destructive as global warming has armed it with more moisture content, but this may not be true of all storms.

Details

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Choice 3 is the correct answer.

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.

1. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC
   1. People who study children’s language spend a lot of time watching how babies react to the speech they hear around them.
   2. They make films of adults and babies interacting, and examine them very carefully to see whether the babies show any signs of understanding what the adults say.
   3. They believe that babies begin to react to language from the very moment they are born.
   4. Sometimes the signs are very subtle – slight movements of the baby’s eyes or the head or the hands.
   5. You’d never notice them if you were just sitting with the child, but by watching a recording over and over, you can spot them.

Details

While all other sentences relate to the signs of understanding babies show while reacting to speech, 3 talks of when babies begin to show understanding, which is a slightly different idea. 1245 is a coherent paragraph.

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3 is the correct answer.

2. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC
   1. Neuroscientists have just begun studying exercise’s impact within brain cells — on the genes themselves.
   2. Even there, in the roots of our biology, they’ve found signs of the body’s influence on the mind.
   3. It turns out that moving our muscles produces proteinsthat travel through the bloodstream and into the brain, where they play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highestthought processes.
   4. In today’s technology-driven, plasma-screened-in world,it’s easy to forget that we are born movers — animals, in fact because we’ve engineered movement right out of our lives.
   5. It’s only in the past few years that neuroscientists have begun to describe these factors and how they work, and each new discovery adds awe-inspiring depth to the picture

Details

ll sentences except 4 relate to the impact of exercise on the brain. 4 makes a general observation that we have “engineered movement out of our lines” due to technology. None of the other statements develop on this idea.

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4 is the correct answer.

3. CAT Previous year paper – CAT Exam VA RC
   1. The water that made up ancient lakes and perhaps an ocean was lost.
   2. Particles from the Sun collided with molecules in the atmosphere, knocking them into space or giving them an electric charge that caused them to be swept away by the solar wind.
   3. Most of the planet’s remaining water is now frozen or buried, but clues over the past decade suggested that some liquid water, a presumed necessity for life, might survive in underground aquifers.
   4. Data from NASA’s MAVEN orbiter show that solar stormsstripped away most of Mars’s once-thick atmosphere.
   5. A recent study reveals how Mars lost much of its early water, while another indicates that some liquid water remains.

Details

Explanatory Answer
Sentence 5, which talks of two studies related to Mars, one revealing how Mars lost much of its early water, and another indicating that some liquid water remains, is clearly the opening sentence that conveys the main idea of the paragraph. Sentences 4 and 2 relate to how Mars lost most of its early water, while sentence 3 explains where the liquid water remains. 5423 makes a cogent paragraph. 1 is the odd one out.