The passages below is accompanied by Similarity based CAT questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Cultural Instruments CAT 2025 Slot 2 RC Reading Comprehension
Different sciences exhibit different science cultures and practices. For example, in astronomy, observation – until what is today called the new astronomy – had always been limited to what could be seen within the limits of optical light. Indeed, until early modernity the limits to optical light were also limits of what humans could themselves see within their limited and relative perceptual spectrum of human vision. With early modernity and the invention of lensed optical instruments – telescopes – astronomers could begin to observe phenomena never seen before. Magnification and resolution began to allow what was previously imperceptible to be perceived – but within the familiar limits of optical vision. Galileo, having learned of the Dutch invention of a telescope by Hans Lippershey, went on to build some hundred of his own, improving from the Dutch 3x to nearly 30x telescopes – which turn out to be the limit of magnificational power without chromatic distortion. And it was with his own telescopes that he made the observations launching early modern astronomy (phases of Venus, satellites of Jupiter, etc.). Isaac Newton’s later improvement with reflecting telescopes expanded upon the magnificational-resolution capacity of optical observation; and, from Newton to the twentieth century, improvement continued on to the later very large array of light telescopes today – following the usual technological trajectory of “more-is-better” but still remaining within the limits of the light spectrum. Today’s astronomy has now had the benefit of some four centuries of optical telescopy. The “new astronomy,” however, opens the full known electromagnetic spectrum to observation, beginning with the accidental discovery of radio astronomy early in the twentieth century, and leading today to the diverse variety of EMS telescopes which can explore the range from gamma to radio waves. Thus, astronomy, now outfitted with new instruments, “smart” adaptive optics, very large arrays, etc., illustrates one style of instrumentally embodied science – a technoscience. Of course astronomy, with the very recent exceptions of probes to solar system bodies (Moon, Mars, Venus, asteroids), remains largely a “receptive” science, dependent upon instrumentation which can detect and receive emissions.
Contemporary biology displays a quite different instrument array and, according to Evelyn Fox-Keller, also a different scientific culture. She cites her own experience, coming from mathematical physics into microbiology, and takes account of the distinctive instrumental culture in her Making Sense of Life (2002). Here, particularly with the development of biotechnology, instrumentation is far more interventional than in the astronomy case. Microscopic instrumentation can be and often is interventional in style: “gene-splicing” and other techniques of biotechnology, while still in their infancy, are clearly part of the interventional trajectory of biological instrumentation. Yet, in both disciplines, the sciences involved are today highly instrumentalized and could not progress successfully without constant improvements upon the respective instrumental trajectories. So, minimalistically, one may conclude that the sciences are technologically, instrumentally embodied. But the styles of embodiment differ, and perhaps the last of the scientific disciplines to move into such technical embodiment is mathematics, which only contemporarily has come to rely more and more upon the computational machinery now in common use.
To which one of the following instruments would the characterisations of instruments in the passage be least applicable? Easy
1. Saxophone
2. Milestone
3. Kitchen oven
4. Scalpel
Answer
Correct Option: 2
Rationale: The passage characterizes scientific instruments as technological devices that extend human perception (telescopes), manipulate matter (gene-splicing), or process data (computational machinery). They are described as having a “trajectory” of improvement and being part of “technoscience.” A milestone is a static, passive marker used for reference, not a complex tool for observation, intervention, or data processing. It lacks the dynamic, technological, and functional characteristics attributed to instruments in the text.
Why other options wrong: A saxophone (Option 1), while musical, is still a complex “instrument” requiring manipulation and technology, sharing more mechanical characteristics with scientific tools than a rock. A kitchen oven (Option 3) and a scalpel (Option 4) involve intervention and manipulation of materials, aligning closer to the “interventional” nature of biological instruments described in the passage.
Difficulty: Easy
Income Inequality and Economic Growth Passage CAT 2025 Slot 1 Verbal Reading Comprehension
Studies showing that income inequality plays a positive role in economic growth are largely based on three arguments. The first argument focuses on investment indivisibilities wherein large sunk costs are required when implementing new fundamental innovations. Without stock markets and financial institutions to mobilize large sums of money, a high concentration of wealth is needed for individuals to undertake new industrial activities accompanied by high sunk costs . . . [One study] shows the relation between economic growth and income inequality for 45 countries during 1966-1995. [It was found] that the increase in income inequality has a significant positive relationship with economic growth in the short and medium term. Using system GMM, [another study estimated] the relation between income inequality and economic growth for 106 countries during 1965–2005 period. The results show that income inequality has a positive impact on economic growth in the short run, but the two are negatively correlated in the long run. The second argument is related to moral hazard and incentives . . . Because economic performance is determined by the unobservable level of effort that agents make, paying compensations without taking into account the economic performance achieved by individual agents will fail to elicit optimum effort from the agents. Thus, certain income inequalities contribute to growth by enhancing worker motivation . . . and by giving motivation to innovators and entrepreneurs . . . Finally, [another study] point[s] out that the concentration of wealth or stock ownership in relation to corporate governance contributes to growth. If stock ownership is distributed and owned by a large number of shareholders, it is not easy to make quick decisions due to the conflicting interests among shareholders, and this may also cause a free-rider problem in terms of monitoring and supervising managers and workers. . . .
Various studies have examined the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and most of these assert that a negative correlation exists between the two. . . . Analyzing 159 countries for 1980–2012, they conclude that there exists a negative relation between income inequality and economic growth; when the income share of the richest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP decreases by 0.08%, whereas when the income share of the poorest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP increases by 0.38%. Some studies find that inequality has a negative impact on growth due to poor human capital accumulation and low fertility rates . . . while [others] point out that inequality creates political instability, resulting in lower investment. . . . [Some economists] argue that widening income inequality has a negative impact on economic growth because it negatively affects social consensus or social capital formation. One important research topic is the correlation between democratization and income redistribution. [Some scholars] explain that social pressure for income redistribution rises as income inequality increases in a democratic society. In other words, when democratization extends suffrage to a wider class of people, the increased political power of low- and middle-income voters results in broader support for income redistribution and social welfare expansion. However . . . if the rich have more political influence than the poor, the democratic system actually worsens income inequality rather than improving it.
The passage refers to “democratization”. Choose the one option below that comes closest to the opposite of this process. MEDIUM
1. The coalition imposed term limits and strengthened judicial review in order to further entrench autocratic rule.
2. After the emergency decree, the regime shifted toward authoritarianism as suffrage narrowed and opposition parties were deregistered.
3. Municipalities adopted participatory budgeting and recall elections which a press release called totalitarianism.
4. Corporate donations were capped and parties received public funding which was portrayed as establishing an oligarchy.
Solution
Correct Option: 2
Rationale:
The passage explicitly defines “democratization” as a process that “extends suffrage to a wider class of people,” thereby increasing the political power of low- and middle-income voters. The opposite of this process would involve reducing the number of people who can vote (narrowing suffrage) and concentrating power rather than distributing it.
Option 2 describes a scenario where “suffrage narrowed” and the regime shifted toward “authoritarianism.” This directly contradicts the passage’s description of democratization (extending suffrage and empowering the broader population). Therefore, it represents the closest conceptual opposite.
Wrong Options:
Option 1 is incorrect because imposing term limits and strengthening judicial review are typically mechanisms used to prevent autocracy, not entrench it. While the sentence claims the goal is autocratic, the actions described are generally democratic checks and balances, making the scenario logically inconsistent as a clear opposite to democratization.
Option 3 is incorrect because participatory budgeting and recall elections are examples of direct democracy (increasing people’s power). Even though the sentence says they were called “totalitarianism,” the actual process described is an increase in democratization, not its opposite.
Option 4 is incorrect because capping corporate donations and providing public funding are measures usually taken to reduce the influence of wealth in politics, which aligns with democratic principles of fairness. The label “oligarchy” is applied in the sentence, but the action itself promotes democratic equality, so it is not the opposite of the process described in the text.
Difficulty: Medium
Chinese Passage 3 CAT 2022 Slot 1 Verbal Reading Comprehension
The Chinese have two different concepts of a copy. Fangzhipin . . . are imitations where the difference from the original is obvious. These are small models or copies that can be purchased in a museum shop, for example. The second concept for a copy is fuzhipin . . . They are exact reproductions of the original, which, for the Chinese, are of equal value to the original. It has absolutely no negative connotations. The discrepancy with regard to the understanding of what a copy is has often led to misunderstandings and arguments between China and Western museums. The Chinese often send copies abroad instead of originals, in the firm belief that they are not essentially different from the originals. The rejection that then comes from the Western museums is perceived by the Chinese as an insult. . . .
The Far Eastern notion of identity is also very confusing to the Western observer. The Ise Grand Shrine [in Japan] is 1,300 years old for the millions of Japanese people who go there on pilgrimage every year. But in reality this temple complex is completely rebuilt from scratch every 20 years. . . .
The cathedral of Freiburg Minster in southwest Germany is covered in scaffolding almost all year round. The sandstone from which it is built is a very soft, porous material that does not withstand natural erosion by rain and wind. After a while, it crumbles. As a result, the cathedral is continually being examined for damage, and eroded stones are replaced. And in the cathedral’s dedicated workshop, copies of the damaged sandstone figures are constantly being produced. Of course, attempts are made to preserve the stones from the Middle Ages for as long as possible. But at some point they, too, are removed and replaced with new stones.
Fundamentally, this is the same operation as with the Japanese shrine, except in this case the production of a replica takes place very slowly and over long periods of time. . . . In the field of art as well, the idea of an unassailable original developed historically in the Western world. Back in the 17th century [in the West], excavated artworks from antiquity were treated quite differently from today. They were not restored in a way that was faithful to the original. Instead, there was massive intervention in these works, changing their appearance. . . .
It is probably this intellectual position that explains why Asians have far fewer scruples about cloning than Europeans. The South Korean cloning researcher Hwang Woo-suk, who attracted worldwide attention with his cloning experiments in 2004, is a Buddhist. He found a great deal of support and followers among Buddhists, while Christians called for a ban on human cloning. . . . Hwang legitimised his cloning experiments with his religious affiliation: ‘I am Buddhist, and I have no philosophical problem with cloning. And as you know, the basis of Buddhism is that life is recycled through reincarnation. In some ways, I think, therapeutic cloning restarts the circle of life.’
Question 1:
Which one of the following statements does not correctly express the similarity between the Ise Grand Shrine and the cathedral of Freiburg Minster?
- Both can be regarded as very old structures.
- Both are continually undergoing restoration.
- Both were built as places of worship.
- Both will one day be completely rebuilt.
Answer
Option: 2. We know from the passage that both the structures are quite old, and that one day both will be completely rebuilt, and that both are places of worship. As far as the idea of continual restoration is concerned, it is quite true for Freiburg, but not for the Grand Shrine. Option 2 is the right choice.
Question 2
Based on the passage, which one of the following copies would a Chinese museum be unlikely to consider as having less value than the original?
- Pablo Picasso’s painting of Vincent van Gogh’s original painting, bearing Picasso’s signature.
- Pablo Picasso’s miniaturised, but otherwise faithful and accurate painting of Vincent van Gogh’s original painting.
- Pablo Picasso’s photograph of Vincent van Gogh’s original painting, printed to exactly the same scale.
- Pablo Picasso’s painting of Vincent van Gogh’s original painting, identical in every respect.
Answer
Option: 4. We have to pick a choice that a Chinese museum would consider as valuable because ‘unlikely to consider having less value’ means to find something valuable. From the first paragraph, anything that is not the exact replica of the original would be considered of less value. Option 1 looks good but since Van Gogh’s painting contains Picasso’s signature, its value is diminished. Option 2 goes out because the painting is miniaturized. Option 3 goes out because it is a photograph taken by Picasso, whereas option 4, which is the right answer, is Picasso’s painting of Van Gogh’s original painting, identical in every respect. Thus 4 is the best choice because a painting is always better than photograph and is likely to have higher value.
Octopuses Passage 3 CAT 2022 Slot 1 Verbal Reading Comprehension
[Octopuses are] misfits in their own extended families . . . They belong to the Mollusca class Cephalopoda. But they don’t look like their cousins at all. Other molluscs include sea snails, sea slugs, bivalves – most are shelled invertebrates with a dorsal foot. Cephalopods are all arms, and can be as tiny as 1 centimetre and as large at 30 feet. Some of them have brains the size of a walnut, which is large for an invertebrate. . . .
It makes sense for these molluscs to have added protection in the form of a higher cognition; they don’t have a shell covering them, and pretty much everything feeds on cephalopods, including humans. But how did cephalopods manage to secure their own invisibility cloak? Cephalopods fire from multiple cylinders to achieve this in varying degrees from species to species. There are four main catalysts – chromatophores, iridophores, papillae and leucophores. . . .
[Chromatophores] are organs on their bodies that contain pigment sacs, which have red, yellow and brown pigment granules. These sacs have a network of radial muscles, meaning muscles arranged in a circle radiating outwards. These are connected to the brain by a nerve. When the cephalopod wants to change colour, the brain carries an electrical impulse through the nerve to the muscles that expand outwards, pulling open the sacs to display the colours on the skin. Why these three colours? Because these are the colours the light reflects at the depths they live in (the rest is absorbed before it reaches those depths). . . .
Well, what about other colours? Cue the iridophores. Think of a second level of skin that has thin stacks of cells. These can reflect light back at different wavelengths. . . . It’s using the same properties that we’ve seen in hologram stickers, or rainbows on puddles of oil. You move your head and you see a different colour. The sticker isn’t doing anything but reflecting light – it’s your movement that’s changing the appearance of the colour. This property of holograms, oil and other such surfaces is called “iridescence”. . . .
Papillae are sections of the skin that can be deformed to make a texture bumpy. Even humans possess them (goosebumps) but cannot use them in the manner that cephalopods can. For instance, the use of these cells is how an octopus can wrap itself over a rock and appear jagged or how a squid or cuttlefish can imitate the look of a coral reef by growing miniature towers on its skin. It actually matches the texture of the substrate it chooses.
Finally, the leucophores: According to a paper, published in Nature, cuttlefish and octopuses possess an additional type of reflector cell called a leucophore. They are cells that scatter full spectrum light so that they appear white in a similar way that a polar bear’s fur appears white. Leucophores will also reflect any filtered light shown on them . . . If the water appears blue at a certain depth, the octopuses and cuttlefish can appear blue; if the water appears green, they appear green, and so on and so forth.
Based on the passage, it can be inferred that camouflaging techniques in an octopus are most dissimilar to those in:
- polar bears
- cuttlefish
- squids
- sea snails
Answer
Option: 4. For this too we must go the part of the passage where ‘camouflaging’ has been discussed. The second last paragraph compares octopuses with squids and cuttlefish. So, both 2 and 3 go out. The last paragraph discusses polar bears with octopuses. With respect of camouflaging, there is no any comparison between sea snails and octopuses. 4 is the right answer.
Languages Passage CAT 2022 Slot 2 Verbal Reading Comprehension
We begin with the emergence of the philosophy of the social sciences as an arena of thought and as a set of social institutions. The two characterisations overlap but are not congruent. Academic disciplines are social institutions. . . . My view is that institutions are all those social entities that organise action: they link acting individuals into social structures. There are various kinds of institutions. Hegelians and Marxists emphasise universal institutions such as the family, rituals, governance, economy and the military. These are mostly institutions that just grew. Perhaps in some imaginary beginning of time they spontaneously appeared. In their present incarnations, however, they are very much the product of conscious attempts to mould and plan them. We have family law, established and disestablished churches, constitutions and laws, including those governing the economy and the military. Institutions deriving from statute, like joint-stock companies are formal by contrast with informal ones such as friendships. There are some institutions that come in both informal and formal variants, as well as in mixed ones. Consider the fact that the stock exchange and the black market are both market institutions, one formal one not. Consider further that there are many features of the work of the stock exchange that rely on informal, noncodifiable agreements, not least the language used for communication. To be precise, mixtures are the norm . . . From constitutions at the top to by-laws near the bottom we are always adding to, or tinkering with, earlier institutions, the grown and the designed are intertwined.
It is usual in social thought to treat culture and tradition as different from, although alongside, institutions. The view taken here is different. Culture and tradition are sub-sets of institutions analytically isolated for explanatory or expository purposes. Some social scientists have taken all institutions, even purely local ones, to be entities that satisfy basic human needs – under local conditions . . . Others differed and declared any structure of reciprocal roles and norms an institution. Most of these differences are differences of emphasis rather than disagreements. Let us straddle all these versions and present institutions very generally . . . as structures that serve to coordinate the actions of individuals. . . . Institutions themselves then have no aims or purpose other than those given to them by actors or used by actors to explain them . . .
Language is the formative institution for social life and for science . . . Both formal and informal language is involved, naturally grown or designed. (Language is all of these to varying degrees.) Languages are paradigms of institutions or, from another perspective, nested sets of institutions. Syntax, semantics, lexicon and alphabet/character-set are all institutions within the larger institutional framework of a written language. Natural languages are typical examples of what Ferguson called ‘the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design’[;] reformed natural languages and artificial languages introduce design into their modifications or refinements of natural language. Above all, languages are paradigms of institutional tools that function to coordinate.
Question 4:
In the first paragraph of the passage, what are the two ” characterisations” that are seen as overlapping but not congruent?
- ” an arena of thought” and ” academic disciplines” .
- ” individuals” and ” social structures” .
- ” academic disciplines” and ” institutions” .
- ” the philosophy of the social sciences” and ” a set of social institutions” .
Answer
Option: 3. The answer to this question can be found at the start of the first paragraph, though we need to look closely as to what those two overlapping things are. The author in the first paragraph says “We begin with the emergence of the philosophy of the social sciences as an arena of thought and as a set of social institutions. The two characterizations overlap but are not congruent”…from this sentence one thing is clear that one of the characterizations is “social institutions”…this helps us eliminate 1 and 2 because neither has the word ‘institutions’ or ‘social institutions’. Out of 3 and 4, we can choose 3 because if one characterization is ‘social institutions’, the other is ‘an arena of thought’. What does the author mean by ‘an arena of thought’? It is not philosophy but academic study. Hence 3 is the best answer. We have to understand that it is the philosophy of social sciences that has two things: an arena of thought (academic discipline) and a set of social institutions.
Engineering Passage CAT 2022 Slot 2 Verbal Reading Comprehension
When we teach engineering problems now, we ask students to come to a single ” best” solution defined by technical ideals like low cost, speed to build, and ability to scale. This way of teaching primes students to believe that their decision-making is purely objective, as it is grounded in math and science. This is known as technical-social dualism, the idea that the technical and social dimensions of engineering problems are readily separable and remain distinct throughout the problem-definition and solution process.
Nontechnical parameters such as access to a technology, cultural relevancy or potential harms are deemed political and invalid in this way of learning. But those technical ideals are at their core social and political choices determined by a dominant culture focused on economic growth for the most privileged segments of society. By choosing to downplay public welfare as a critical parameter for engineering design, we risk creating a culture of disengagement from societal concerns amongst engineers that is antithetical to the ethical code of engineering.
In my field of medical devices, ignoring social dimensions has real consequences. . . . Most FDA-approved drugs are incorrectly dosed for people assigned female at birth, leading to unexpected adverse reactions. This is because they have been inadequately represented in clinical trials.
Beyond physical failings, subjective beliefs treated as facts by those in decision-making roles can encode social inequities. For example, spirometers, routinely used devices that measure lung capacity, still have correction factors that automatically assume smaller lung capacity in Black and Asian individuals. These racially based adjustments are derived from research done by eugenicists who thought these racial differences were biologically determined and who considered nonwhite people as inferior. These machines ignore the influence of social and environmental factors on lung capacity.
Many technologies for systemically marginalized people have not been built because they were not deemed important such as better early diagnostics and treatment for diseases like endometriosis, a disease that afflicts 10 percent of people with uteruses. And we hardly question whether devices are built sustainably, which has led to a crisis of medical waste and health care accounting for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Social justice must be made core to the way engineers are trained. Some universities are working on this. . . . Engineers taught this way will be prepared to think critically about what problems we choose to solve, how we do so responsibly and how we build teams that challenge our ways of thinking.
Individual engineering professors are also working to embed societal needs in their pedagogy. Darshan Karwat at the University of Arizona developed activist engineering to challenge engineers to acknowledge their full moral and social responsibility through practical self-reflection. Khalid Kadir at the University of California, Berkeley, created the popular course Engineering, Environment, and Society that teaches engineers how to engage in place-based knowledge, an understanding of the people, context and history, to design better technical approaches in collaboration with communities. When we design and build with equity and justice in mind, we craft better solutions that respond to the complexities of entrenched systemic problems.
Question 5:
All of the following are examples of the negative outcomes of focusing on technical ideals in the medical sphere EXCEPT the:
- continuing calibration of medical devices based on past racial biases that have remained unadjusted for changes.
- incorrect assignment of people as female at birth which has resulted in faulty drug interventions.
- neglect of research and development of medical technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that typically afflict marginalised communities.
- exclusion of non-privileged groups in clinical trials which leads to incorrect drug dosages.
Answer
Option: 2. Option 2 goes out because it misquotes what is given in the passage. There is no incorrect assignment of people as female at birth. The passage says that because females have been inadequately represented in clinical trials, the drugs assigned to them at birth are not correctly dosed. Option 2 is a comical distortion of what is given in the passage. All the other options can be found in the passage.
Orientalism Passage CAT 2022 Slot 3 Verbal Reading Comprehension
Interpretations of the Indian past . . . were inevitably influenced by colonial concerns and interests, and also by prevalent European ideas about history, civilization and the Orient. Orientalist scholars studied the languages and the texts with selected Indian scholars, but made little attempt to understand the world-view of those who were teaching them. The readings therefore are something of a disjuncture from the traditional ways of looking at the Indian past. . . .
Orientalism [which we can understand broadly as Western perceptions of the Orient] fuelled the fantasy and the freedom sought by European Romanticism, particularly in its opposition to the more disciplined Neo-Classicism. The cultures of Asia were seen as bringing a new Romantic paradigm. Another Renaissance was anticipated through an acquaintance with the Orient, and this, it was thought, would be different from the earlier Greek Renaissance. It was believed that this Oriental Renaissance would liberate European thought and literature from the increasing focus on discipline and rationality that had followed from the earlier Enlightenment. . . . [The Romantic English poets, Wordsworth and Coleridge,] were apprehensive of the changes introduced by industrialization and turned to nature and to fantasies of the Orient.
However, this enthusiasm gradually changed, to conform with the emphasis later in the nineteenth century on the innate superiority of European civilization. Oriental civilizations were now seen as having once been great but currently in decline. The various phases of Orientalism tended to mould European understanding of the Indian past into a particular pattern. . . . There was an attempt to formulate Indian culture as uniform, such formulations being derived from texts that were given priority. The so-called ‘discovery’ of India was largely through selected literature in Sanskrit. This interpretation tended to emphasize non-historical aspects of Indian culture, for example the idea of an unchanging continuity of society and religion over 3,000 years; and it was believed that the Indian pattern of life was so concerned with metaphysics and the subtleties of religious belief that little attention was given to the more tangible aspects.
German Romanticism endorsed this image of India, and it became the mystic land for many Europeans, where even the most ordinary actions were imbued with a complex symbolism. This was the genesis of the idea of the spiritual east, and also, incidentally, the refuge of European intellectuals seeking to distance themselves from the changing patterns of their own societies. A dichotomy in values was maintained, Indian values being described as ‘spiritual’ and European values as ‘materialistic’, with little attempt to juxtapose these values with the reality of Indian society. This theme has been even more firmly endorsed by a section of Indian opinion during the last hundred years.
It was a consolation to the Indian intelligentsia for its perceived inability to counter the technical superiority of the west, a superiority viewed as having enabled Europe to colonize Asia and other parts of the world. At the height of anti-colonial nationalism it acted as a salve for having been made a colony of Britain.
Question 8:
Which one of the following styles of research is most similar to the Orientalist scholars’ method of understanding Indian history and culture?
- Reading about the life of early American settlers and later waves of migration to understand the evolution of American culture.
- Reading 18th century accounts by travellers to India to see how they viewed Indian life and culture of the time.
- Studying artefacts excavated at a palace to understand the lifestyle of those who lived there.
- Analysing Hollywood action movies that depict violence and sex to understand contemporary America.
Answer
Option: 4. This is question is challenging. We have to look for an evidence that reflects the author’s opinion pertaining to this. The passage says “Orientalist scholars studied the languages and the texts with selected Indian scholars, but made little attempt to understand the world-view of those who were teaching them.” This sentence suggests that the Orientalist scholars did little to understand the world-view of the people. In options 1,2, and 3 there is an attempt to understand the life of early Americans, but in 4 you are using select things to understand America, the way Orientalists read selected Indian literature to understand about India. This makes 4 correct.
Software Passage CAT 2022 Slot 3 Verbal Reading Comprehension
As software improves, the people using it become less likely to sharpen their own know-how. Applications that offer lots of prompts and tips are often to blame; simpler, less solicitous programs push people harder to think, act and learn.
Ten years ago, information scientists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands had a group of people carry out complicated analytical and planning tasks using either rudimentary software that provided no assistance or sophisticated software that offered a great deal of aid. The researchers found that the people using the simple software developed better strategies, made fewer mistakes and developed a deeper aptitude for the work. The people using the more advanced software, meanwhile, would often ” aimlessly click around” when confronted with a tricky problem. The supposedly helpful software actually short-circuited their thinking and learning.
[According to] philosopher Hubert Dreyfus . . . . our skills get sharper only through practice, when we use them regularly to overcome different sorts of difficult challenges. The goal of modern software, by contrast, is to ease our way through such challenges. Arduous, painstaking work is exactly what programmers are most eager to automate-after all, that is where the immediate efficiency gains tend to lie. In other words, a fundamental tension ripples between the interests of the people doing the automation and the interests of the people doing the work.
Nevertheless, automation’s scope continues to widen. With the rise of electronic health records, physicians increasingly rely on software templates to guide them through patient exams. The programs incorporate valuable checklists and alerts, but they also make medicine more routinized and formulaic-and distance doctors from their patients . . . . Harvard Medical School professor Beth Lown, in a 2012 journal article . . . warned that when doctors become ” screen-driven,” following a computer’s prompts rather than ” the patient’s narrative thread,” their thinking can become constricted. In the worst cases, they may miss important diagnostic signals. . . .
In a recent paper published in the journal Diagnosis, three medical researchers . . . examined the misdiagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the U.S., at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. They argue that the digital templates used by the hospital’s clinicians to record patient information probably helped to induce a kind of tunnel vision. ” These highly constrained tools,” the researchers write, ” are optimized for data capture but at the expense of sacrificing their utility for appropriate triage and diagnosis, leading users to miss the forest for the trees.” Medical software, they write, is no ” replacement for basic history-taking, examination skills, and critical thinking.” . . .
There is an alternative. In ” human-centered automation,” the talents of people take precedence . . . . In this model, software plays an essential but secondary role. It takes over routine functions that a human operator has already mastered, issues alerts when unexpected situations arise, provides fresh information that expands the operator’s perspective and counters the biases that often distort human thinking. The technology becomes the expert’s partner, not the expert’s replacement.
Question 12:
In the context of the passage, all of the following can be considered examples of human-centered automation EXCEPT:
- a smart-home system that changes the temperature as instructed by the resident.
- software that offers interpretations when requested by the human operator.
- medical software that provides optional feedback on the doctor’s analysis of the medical situation.
- software that auto-completes text when the user writes an email.
Answer
Option: 4.
Firstly, we have to understand the question. What does the author mean by ‘human-centered automation’? It means an automation in which humans do play some active role. Options 1 and 2 clearly have human element in them. In the first there is instruction by the resident, in the second there is a human operator. In the third option, the doctor is doing the analysis and the feedback form is optional (the doctor himself is involved in the analysis). Option 4 is totally automated because there is auto-completion without human intervention. 4 is the best example of a case in which there is no human intervention.
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