Para Jumbles (CAT Questions)
DIRECTIONS for Questions 1 to 7: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph. 1. A. By reasoning we mean the mental process of drawing an inference from two or more statements or going from the inference to the statements, which yield that inference. B. So logical reasoning covers those types of questions, which imply drawing an inference from the problems. C. Logic means, if we take its original meaning, the science of valid reasoning. D. Clearly, for understanding arguments and for drawing the inference correctly, it is necessary that we should understand the statements first. (a) ACBD (b) CABD (c) ABCD (d) DBCA CAT - 1998 A. In rejecting the functionalism in positivist organization theory, either wholly or partially, there is often a move towards a political model of organization theory. B. Thus, the analysis would shift to the power resources possessed by different groups in the organization and the way they use these resources in actual power plays to shape the organizational structure. C. At the extreme, in one set of writings, the growth of administrators in the organization is held to be completely unrelated to the work to be done and to be caused totally by the political pursuit of self-interest. D. The political model holds that individual interests are pursued in organizational life through the exercise of power and influence. (a) ADBC (b) CBAD (c) DBCA (d) ABDC CAT - 1999 A. Group decision-making, however, does not necessarily fully guard against arbitrariness and anarchy, for individual capriciousness can get substituted by collusion of group members. B. Nature itself is an intricate system of checks and balances, meant to preserve the delicate balance between various environmental factors that affect our ecology. C. In institutions also, there is a need to have in place a system of checks and balances which inhibits the concentration of power in the hands of only some individuals. D. When human interventions alter this delicate balance, the outcomes have been seen to be disastrous. (a) CDAB (b) BCAD (c) CABD (d) BDCA CAT - 1999 4. A. He was bone-weary and soul-weary, and found himself muttering, “Either I can’t manage this place, or it’s unmanageable.” B. To his horror, he realized that he had become the victim of an amorphous, unwitting, unconscious conspiracy to immerse him in routine work that had no significance. C. It was one of those nights in the office when the office clock was moving towards four in the morning and Bennis was still not through with the incredible mass of paper stacked before him. D. He reached for his calendar and ran his eyes down each hour, half-hour, and quarter-hour, to see where his time had gone that day, the day before, the month before. (a) ABCD (b) CADB (c) BDCA (d) DCBA CAT - 1999 A. With that, I swallowed the shampoo, and obtained the most realistic results almost on the spot. B. The man shuffled away into the back regions to make up a prescription, and after a moment I got through on the shop-telephone to the Consulate, intimating my location. C. Then, while the pharmacist was wrapping up a six-ounce bottle of the mixture, I groaned and inquired whether he could give me something for acute gastric cramp. D. I intended to stage a sharp gastric attack, and entering an old-fashioned pharmacy, I asked for a popular shampoo mixture, consisting of olive oil and flaked soap. (a) DCBA (b) DACB (c) BDAC (d) BCDA CAT - 1999

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A. The likelihood of an accident is determined by how carefully the motorist drives and how carefully the pedestrian crosses the street. B. An accident involving a motorist and a pedestrian is such a case. C. Each must decide how much care to exercise without knowing how careful the other is. D. The simplest strategic problem arises when two individuals interact with each other, and each must decide what to do without knowing what the other is doing. (a) ABCD (b) ADCB (c) DBCA (d) DBAC CAT - 2000 A. The situations in which violence occurs and the nature of that violence tends to be clearly defined at least in theory, as in the proverbial Irishman’s question: “Is this a private fight or can anyone join in?” B. So the actual risk to outsiders, though no doubt higher than our societies, is calculable. C. Probably the only uncontrolled applications of force are those of social superiors to social inferiors and even here there are probably some rules. D. However, binding the obligation to kill, members of feuding families engaged in mutual massacre will be genuinely appalled if by some mischance a bystander or outsider is killed. (b) ACDB (a) DABC (c) CBAD (d) DBAC CAT - 2001

D. Binet developed the first set of such tests in the early 1900s to find out which children in school needed special attention. E. Intelligence can be measured by tests. (a) CDABE (b) DECAB (c) EDACB (d) CBADE CAT - 1999 9. A. If caught in the act, they were punished, not for the crime, but for allowing themselves to be caught another lash of the whip. B. The bellicose Spartans sacrificed all the finer things in life for military expertise. C. Those fortunate enough to survive babyhood were taken away from their mothers at the age of seven to undergo rigorous military training. D. This consisted mainly of beatings and deprivations of all kinds like going around barefoot in winter, and worse, starvation so that they would be forced to steal food to survive. E. Male children were examined at birth by the city council and those deemed too weak to become soldiers were left to die of exposure. (a) BECDA (b) ECADB (c) BCDAE (d) ECDAB CAT - 2000 A. This very insatiability of the photographing eye changes the terms of confinement in the cave, our world. B. Humankind lingers unregenerately in Plato’s cave, still revelling, its age-old habit, in mere images of truth. C. But being educated by photographs is not like being educated by older images drawn by hand; for one thing, there are a great many more images around, claiming our attention. D. The inventory started in 1839 and since then just about everything has been photographed, or so it seems. E. In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. (a) EABCD (b) BDEAC (c) BCDAE (d) ECDAB CAT - 2000

7.

10.

DIRECTIONS for Questions 8 to 38: The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph. 8. A. Since then, intelligence tests have been mostly used to separate dull children in school from average or bright children, so that special education can be provided to the dull. B. In other words, intelligence tests give us a norm for each age. C. Intelligence is expressed as intelligence quotient, and tests are developed to indicate what an average child of a certain age can do …. What a five-year-old can answer, but a four-yearold cannot, for instance.

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A. To be culturally literate is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world. B. Nor is it confined to one social class; quite the contrary. C. It is by no means confined to ‘culture’ narrowly understood as an acquaintance with the arts. D. Cultural literacy constitutes the only sure avenue of opportunity for disadvantaged children, the only reliable way of combating the social determinism that now condemns them. E. The breadth of that information is great, extending over the major domains of human activity from sports to science. (a) AECBD (b) DECBA (c) ACBED (d) DBCAE CAT - 2000 A. Both parties use capital and labour in the struggle to secure property rights. B. The thief spends time and money in his attempt to steal (he buys wire cutters) and the legitimate property owner expends resources to prevent the theft (he buys locks). C. A social cost of theft is that both the thief and the potential victim use resources to gain or maintain control over property. D. These costs may escalate as a type of technological arms race unfolds. E. A bank may purchase more and more complicated and sophisticated safes, forcing safecrackers to invest further in safecracking equipment. (a) ABCDE (b) CABDE (c) ACBED (d) CBEDA CAT - 2000 A. Michael Hofman, a poet and translator, accepts this sorry fact without approval or complaint. B. But thanklessness and impossibility do not daunt him. C. He acknowledges too — in fact, he returns to the point often — that best translators of poetry always fail at some level. D. Hofman feels passionately about his work and this is clear from his writings. E. In terms of the gap between worth and rewards, translators come somewhere near nurses and street-cleaners. (a) EACDB (b) ADEBC (c) EACBD (d) DCEAB CAT - 2001

14.

A. Passivity is not, of course, universal. B. In areas where there are no lords or laws, or in frontier zones where all men go armed, the attitude of the peasantry may well be different. C. So indeed it may be on the fringe of the unsubmissive. D. However, for most of the soil-bound peasants the problem is not whether to be normally passive or active, but when to pass from one state to another. E. This depends on an assessment of the political situation. (a) BEDAC (b) CDABE (c) EDBAC (d) ABCDE CAT - 2001 A. As officials, their vision of a country shouldn’t run too far beyond that of the local people with whom they have to deal. B. Ambassadors have to choose their words. C. To say what they feel they have to say, they appear to be denying or ignoring part of what they know. D. So, with ambassadors as with other expatriates in black Africa, there appears at a first meeting a kind of ambivalence. E. They do a specialized job and it is necessary for them to live ceremonial lives. (a) BCEDA (b) BEDAC (c) BEADC (d) BCDEA CAT - 2002 A. “This face-off will continue for several months given the strong convictions on either side,” says a senior functionary of the high-powered task force on drought. B. During the past week-and-half, the Central Government has sought to deny some of the earlier apprehensions over the impact of drought. C. The recent revival of the rains had led to the emergence of a line of divide between the two. D. The state governments, on the other hand, allege that the Centre is downplaying the crisis only to evade its full responsibility of financial assistance that is required to alleviate the damage. E. Shrill alarm about the economic impact of an inadequate monsoon had been sounded by the Centre as well as most of the states, in late July and early August. (a) EBCDA (b) DBACE (c) BDCAE (d) ECBDA CAT - 2002

15. 12.

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A. This fact was established in the 1730s by French survey expeditions to Equador near the Equator and Lapland in the Arctic, which found that around the middle of the earth the arc was about a kilometer shorter. B. One of the unsettled scientific questions in the late 18th century was that of exact nature of the shape of the earth. C. The length of one-degree arc would be less near the equatorial latitudes than at the poles. D. One way of doing that is to determine the length of the arc along a chosen longitude or meridian at one degree latitude separation. E. While it was generally known that the earth was not a sphere but an ‘oblate spheroid’, more curved at the equator and flatter at the poles, the question of ‘how much more’ was yet to be established. (a) BECAD (b) BEDCA (c) EDACB (d). EBDCA CAT - 2002 A. A few months ago I went to Princeton University to see what the young people who are going to be running our country in a few decades are like. B. I would go to sleep in my hotel room around midnight each night, and when I awoke, my mailbox would be full of replies—sent at 1:15 a.m., 2:59 a.m., 3:23 a.m. C. One senior told me that she went to bed around two and woke up each morning at seven; she could afford that much rest because she had learned to supplement her full day of work by studying in her sleep. D. Faculty members gave me the names of a few dozen articulate students, and I sent them emails, inviting them out to lunch or dinner in small groups. E. As she was falling asleep she would recite a math problem or a paper topic to herself; she would then sometimes dream about it, and when she woke up, the problem might be solved. (a) DABCE (b) DACEB (c) ADBCE (d) AECBD CAT - 2003(L)

19.

A. Four days later, Oracle announced its own bid for PeopleSoft, and invited the firm’s board to a discussion. B. Furious that his own plans had been endangered, PeopleSoft’s boss, Craig Conway, called Oracle’s offer “diabolical”, and its boss, Larry Ellison, a “sociopath”. C. In early June, PeopleSoft said that it would buy J.D. Edwards, a smaller rival. D. Moreover, said Mr. Conway, he “could imagine no price nor combination of price and other conditions to recommend accepting the offer.” E. On June 12th, PeopleSoft turned Oracle down. (a) CABDE (b) CADBE (c) CEDAB (d) CAEBD CAT - 2003(L) A. Surrendered, or captured, combatants cannot be incarcerated in razor wire cages; this ‘war’ has a dubious legality. B. How can then one characterize a conflict to be waged against a phenomenon as war? C. The phrase ‘war against terror’, which has passed into the common lexicon, is a huge misnomer. D. Besides, war has a juridical meaning in international law, which has codified the laws of war, imbuing them with a humanitarian content. E. Terror is a phenomenon, not an entity—either State or non-State. (a) ECDBA (b) BECDA (c) EBCAD (d) CEBDA CAT - 2003(L) A. I am much more intolerant of a human being’s shortcomings than I am of an animal’s, but in this respect I have been lucky, for most of the people I have come across have been charming. B. Then you come across the unpleasant human animal—the District Officer who drawled, ‘We chaps are here to help you chaps,’ and then proceeded to be as obstructive as possible. C. In these cases of course, the fact that you are an animal collector helps; people always seem delighted to meet someone with such an unusual occupation and go out of their way to assist you. D. Fortunately, these types are rare, and the pleasant ones I have met more than compensated for them—but even so, I think I will stick to animals. E. When you travel round the world collecting animals you also, of necessity, collect human beings.

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(a) EACBD (c) ECBDA

(b) ABDCE (d) ACBDE CAT - 2003(L)

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A. To avoid this, the QWERTY layout put the keys most likely to be hit in rapid succession on opposite sides. This made the keyboard slow, the story goes, but that was the idea. B. A different layout, which had been patented by August Dvorak in 1936, was shown to be much faster. C. The QWERTY design (patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to Remington in 1873) aimed to solve a mechanical problem of early typewriters. D. Yet the Dvorak layout has never been widely adopted, even though (with electric typewriters and then PCs) the anti-jamming rational for QWERTY has been defunct for years. E. When certain combinations of keys were struck quickly, the type bars often jammed. (a) BDACE (b) CEABD (c) BCDEA (d) CAEBD CAT - 2003(L) A. The wall does not simply divide Israel from a putative Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders. B. A chilling omission from the road map is the gigantic ‘separation wall’ now being built in the West Bank by Israel. C. It is surrounded by trenches, electric wire and moats; there are watchtowers at regular intervals. D. It actually takes new tracts of Palestinian and, sometimes five or six kilometres at a stretch. E. Almost a decade after the end of South African apartheid this ghastly racist wall is going up with scarcely a peep from Israel’s American allies who are going to pay for most of it. (a) EBCAD (b) BADCE (c) AEDCB (d) ECADB CAT - 2003(R) A. Luckily the tide of battle moved elsewhere after the American victory at Midway and an Australian victory over Japan at Milne Bay. B. It could have been no more than a delaying tactic. C. The Australian military, knowing the position was hopeless, planned to fall back to the south-east in the hope of defending the main cities. D. They had captured most of the Solomon Islands and much of New Guinea, and seemed poised for an invasion.

E. Not many people outside Australia realize how close the Japanese got. (a) EDCBA (b) ECDAB (c) ADCBE (d) CDBAE CAT - 2003(R) 25. A. Call it the third wave sweeping the Indian media. B. Now they are starring in a new role, as suave dealmakers who are in a hurry to strike alliances and agreements. C. Look around and you will find a host of deals that have been inked or are ready to be finalized. D. Then the media barons wrested back control from their editors, and turned marketing warriors with the brand as their missile. E. The first came with those magnificent men in their mahogany chambers who took on the world with their mighty fountain pens. (a) ACBED (b) CEBDA (c) CAEBD (d) AEDBC CAT - 2003(R) A. The celebrations of economic recovery in Washington may be as premature as that ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner hung on the USS Abraham Lincoln to hail the end of the Iraq war. B. Meanwhile, in the real world, the struggles of families and communities continue unabated. C. Washington responded to the favourable turn in economic news with enthusiasm. D. The celebrations and high-fives up and down Pennsylvania Avenue are not to be found beyond the Beltway. E. When the third quarter GDP showed growth of 7.2% and the monthly unemployment rate dipped to six per cent euphoria gripped the US capital. (a) ACEDB (b) CEDAB (c) ECABD (d) ECBDA CAT - 2003(R) A. To much of the Labour movement, it symbolises the brutality of the upper classes. B. And to everybody watching, the current mess over foxhunting symbolises the government’s weakness. C. To foxhunting’s supporters, Labour’s 1991 manifesto commitment to ban it symbolises the party’s metropolitan roots and hostility to the countryside. D. Small issues sometimes have large symbolic power. E. To those who enjoy thundering across the countryside in red coats after foxes, foxhunting

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symbolises the ancient roots of rural lives. (a) DEACB (b) ECDBA (c) CEADB (d) DBAEC CAT - 2003(R) A. In the case of King Merolchazzar’s courtship of the Princess of the Outer Isles, there occurs a regrettable hitch. B. She acknowledges the gifts, but no word of a meeting date follows. C. The monarch, hearing good reports of a neighbouring princess, dispatches messengers with gifts to her court, beseeching an interview. D. The princess names a date, and a formal meeting takes place; after that everything buzzes along pretty smoothly. E. Royal love affairs in olden days were conducted on the correspondence method. (a) ACBDE (b) ABCDE (c) ECDAB (d) ECBAD CAT - 2003(R) A. Who can trace to its first beginnings the love of Damon for Pythias, of David for Jonathan, of Swan for Edgar? B. Similarly with men. C. There is about great friendships between man and man a certain inevitability that can only be compared with the age-old association of ham and eggs. D. One simply feels that it is one of the things that must be so. E. No one can say what was the mutual magnetism that brought the deathless partnership of these wholesome and palatable foodstuffs about. (a) ACBED (b) CEDBA (c) ACEBD (d) CEABD CAT - 2003(R) A. Events intervened, and in the late 1930s and 1940s, Germany suffered from ‘over-branding’. B. The British used to be fascinated by the home of Romanticism. C. But reunification and the federal government’s move to Berlin have prompted Germany to think again about its image. D. The first foreign package holiday was a tour of Germany organized by Thomas Cook in 1855. E. Since then Germany has been understandably nervous about promoting itself abroad. (a) ACEBD (b) DECAB (c) BDAEC (d) DBAEC CAT - 2003(R)

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A. The two neighbours never fought each other. B. Fights involving three male fiddler crabs have been recorded, but the status of the participants was unknown C. They pushed or grappled only with the intruder. D. We recorded 17 cases in which a resident that was fighting an intruder was joined by an immediate neighbour, an ally. E. We therefore tracked 268 intruder males until we saw them fighting a resident male. (a) BEDAC (b) DEBAC (c) BDCAE (d) BCEDA CAT - 2004 A. In the west, Allied Forces had fought their way through southern Italy as far as Rome. B. In June 1944 Germany’s military position in World War too appeared hopeless C. In Britain, the task of amassing the men and materials for the liberation of northern Europe had been completed. D. Red Army was poised to drive the Nazis back through Poland. E. The situation on the eastern front was catastrophic. (a) EDACB (b) BEDAC (c) BDECA (d) CEDAB CAT - 2004 A. He felt justified in bypassing Congress altogether on a variety of moves. B. At times he was fighting the entire Congress. C. Bush felt he had a mission to restore power to the presidency. D. Bush was not fighting just the democrats. E. Representatives democracy is a messy business, and a CEO of the white House does not like a legislature of second guessers and time wasters. (a) CAEDB (b) DBAEC (c) CEADB (d) ECDBA CAT - 2004 A. But this does not mean that death was the Egyptians’ only preoccupation. B. Even papyri come mainly from pyramid temples. C. Most of our traditional sources of information about the Old Kingdom are monuments of the rich like pyramids and tombs. D. Houses in which ordinary Egyptian lived have not been preserved, and when most people died they were buried in simple graves.

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E. We know infinitely more about the wealthy people of Egypt than we do about the ordinary people, as most monuments were made for the rich. (a) CDBEA (b) ECDAB (c) EDCBA (d) DECAB CAT - 2004 35. A. Experts such as Larry Burns, head of research at GM, reckon that only such a full hearted leap will allow the world to cope with the mass motorization that will one day come to China or India. B. But once hydrogen is being produced from biomass or extracted from underground coal or made from water, using nuclear or renewable electricity, the way will be open for a huge reduction in carbon emissions from the whole system. C. In theory, once all the bugs have been sorted out, fuel cells should deliver better total fuel economy than any existing engines. D. That is twice as good as the internal combustion engine, but only five percentage points better than a diesel hybrid. E. Allowing for the resources needed to extract hydrogen from hydrocarbon, oil coal or gas, the fuel cell has an efficiency of 30%. (a) CEDBA (b) CEBDA (c) AEDBC (d) ACEBD CAT - 2004 A. Similarly, turning to caste, even though being lower caste is undoubtedly a separate cause of disparity, its impact is all the greater when the lower-caste families also happen to be poor. B. Belonging to a privileged class can help a woman to overcome many barriers that obstruct women from less thriving classes. C. It is the interactive presence of these two kinds of deprivation – being low class and being female – that massively impoverishes women from the less privileged classes. D. A congruence of class deprivation and gender discrimination can blight the lives of poorer women very severely. E. Gender is certainly a contributor to societal inequality, but it does not act independently of class. (a) EABDC (b) EBDCA (c) DAEBC (d) BECDA CAT - 2005

37.

A. What identity is thus ‘defined by contrast’, divergence with the West becomes central. B. Indian religious literature such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Tantric texts, which are identified as differing from secular writings seen as ‘western’, elicits much greater interest in the West than do other Indian writings, including India’s long history of heterodoxy. C. There is a similar neglect of Indian writing on non-religious subjects, from mathematics, epistemology and natural science to economics and linguistics. D. Through selective emphasis that point up differences with the West, other civilizations can, in this way, be redefined in alien terms, which can be exotic and charming, or else bizarre and terrifying, or simply strange and engaging. E. The exception is the Kamasutra in which western readers have managed to cultivate an interest. (a) BDACE (b) DEABC (c) BDECA (d) BCEDA CAT - 2005 A. This is now orthodoxy to which I subscribe – up to a point. B. It emerged from the mathematics of chance and statistics. C. Therefore the risk is measurable and manageable. D. The fundamental concept: Prices are not predictable, but the mathematical laws of chance can describe their fluctuations. E. This is how what business schools now call modern finance was born. (a) ADCBE (b) EBDCA (c) ABDCE (d) DCBEA CAT - 2005

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DIRECTIONS for Questions 39 to 42: In each question, there are five sentences/paragraphs. The sentence/ paragraph labelled A is in its correct place. The four that follow are labelled B, C, D and E, and need to be arranged in the logical order to form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the most appropriate one. 39. A. In America, highly educated women, who are in stronger position in the labour market than less qualified ones, have higher rates of marriage than other groups. B. Some work supports the Becker thesis, and some appears to contradict it.

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C. And, as with crime, it is equally inconclusive. D. But regardless of the conclusion of any particular piece of work, it is hard to establish convincing connections between family changes and economic factors using conventional approaches. E. Indeed, just as with crime, an enormous academic literature exists on the validity of the pure economic approach to the evolution of family structures. (a) BCDE (b) DBEC (c) BDCE (d) ECBD (e) EBCD CAT - 2007 40. A. Personal experience of mothering and motherhood are largely framed in relation to two discernible or “official” discourses: the “medical discourse and natural childbirth discourse”. Both of these tend to focus on the “optimistic stories” of birth and mothering and underpin stereotypes of the “good mother”. B. At the same time, the need for medical expert guidance is also a feature for contemporary reproduction and motherhood. But constructions of good mothering have not always been so conceived - and in different contexts may exist in parallel to other equally dominant discourses. C. Similarly, historical work has shown how what are now taken-for-granted aspects of reproduction and mothering practices result from contemporary “pseudoscientific directives” and “managed constructs”. These changes have led to a reframing of modern discourses that pattern pregnancy and motherhood leading to an acceptance of the need for greater expert management. D. The contrasting, overlapping, and ambiguous strands within these frameworks focus to varying degrees on a woman’s biological tie to her child and predisposition to instinctively know and be able to care for her child. E. In addition, a third, “unofficial popular discourse” comprising “old wives” tales and based on maternal experiences of childbirth has also been noted. These discourses have also been acknowledged in work exploring the experiences of those who apparently do not “conform” to conventional stereotypes of the “good mother”. (a) EDBC (b) BCED (c) DBCE (d) EDCB (e) BCDE CAT - 2007

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A. Indonesia has experienced dramatic shifts in its formal governance arrangements since the fall of President Soeharto and the close of his centralized, authoritarian “New Order” regime in 1997. B. The political system has taken its place in the nearly 10 years since Reformasi began. It has featured the active contest for political office among a proliferation of parties at central, provincial and district levels; direct elections for the presidency (since 2004); and radical changes in centre-local government relations towards administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization. C. The mass media, once tidily under Soeharto’s thumb, has experienced significant liberalization, as has the legal basis for non-governmental organizations, including many dedicated to such controversial issues as corruption control and human rights. D. Such developments are seen optimistically by a number of donors and some external analysts, who interpret them as signs of Indonesia’s political normalization. E. A different group of analysts paint a picture in which the institutional forms have changed, bitt power relations have not. Vedi Hadiz argues that Indonesia’s “democratic transition” has been anything but linear. (a) BDEC (b) CBDE (c) CEBD (d) DEBC (e) BCDE CAT - 2007 A. I had six thousand acres of land, and had thus got much spare land besides the coffee plantation. Part of the farm was native forest, and about one thousand acres were squatters’ land, what [the Kikuyu] called their shambas. B. The squatters’ land was more intensely alive than the rest of the farm, and was changing with the seasons the year round. The maize grew up higher than your head as you walked on the narrow hard-trampled footpaths in between the tall green rustling regiments. C. The squatters are Natives, who with their families hold a few acres on a white man’s farm, and in return have to work for him a certain number of days in the year. My squatters, I think, saw the relationship in a different light, for many of them were born on the farm, and their fathers before them, and they very likely regarded me as a sort of superior squatter on their estates.

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D. The Kikuyu also grew the sweet potatoes that have a vine like leaf and spread over the ground like a dense entangled mat, and many varieties of big yellow and green speckled pumpkins. E. The beans ripened in the fields, were gathered and thrashed by the women, and the maize stalks and coffee pods were collected and burned, so that in certain seasons thin blue columns of smoke rose here and there all over the farm. (a) CBDE (b) BCDE (c) CBED (d) DBCE (e) EDBC CAT - 2007 DIRECTIONS for Questions 43 to 45: The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph. 43. A. Although there are large regional variations, it is not infrequent to find a large number of people sitting here and there and doing nothing. B. Once in office, they receive friends and relatives who feel free to call any time without prior appointment. C. While working, one is struck by the slow and clumsy actions and reactions, indifferent attitudes,procedure rather than outcome orientation, and the lack of consideration for others. D. Even those who are employed often come late to the office and leave early unless they are forced to be punctual. E. Work is not intrinsically valued in India. F. Quite often people visit ailing friends and relatives or go out of their way to help them in their personal matters even during office hours. (a) ECADBF (b) EADCFB (c) EADBFC (d) ABFCBE CAT - 2001 A. But in the industrial era destroying the enemy’s productive capacity means bombing the factories which are located in the cities. B. So in the agrarian era, if you need to destroy the enemy’s productive capacity, what you want to do is burn his fields, or if you’re really vicious, salt them. C. Now in the information era, destroying the enemy’s productive capacity means destroying the information infrastructure.

D. How do you do battle with your enemy? E. The idea is to destroy the enemy’s productive capacity, and depending upon the economic foundation, that productive capacity is different in each case. F. With regard to defence, the purpose of the military is to defend the nation and be prepared to do battle with its enemy. (a) FDEBAC (b) FCABED (c) DEBACF (d) DFEBAC CAT - 2001 45. A. Branded disposable diapers are available at many supermarkets and drug stores. B. If one supermarket sets a higher price for a diaper, customers may buy that brand elsewhere. C. By contrast, the demand for private-label products may be less price sensitive since it is available only at a corresponding supermarket chain. D. So the demand for branded diapers at any particular store may be quite price sensitive. E. For instance, only SavOn Drugs stores sell SavOn Drugs diapers. F. Then stores should set a higher incremental margin percentage for private label diapers. (a) ABCDEF (b) ABCEDF (c) ADBCEF (d) AEDBCF CAT - 2002

DIRECTIONS for Questions 46 to 54: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. The first and last sentences are 1 and 6, and the four in between are labelled A, B, C and D. Choose the most logical order of these four sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph from sentences 1 to 6. 46. 1. Making people laugh is tricky. A. At times, the intended humour may simply not come off. B. Making people laugh while trying to sell them something is a tougher challenge, since the commercial can fall flat on two grounds. C. There are many advertisements which do amuse but do not even begin to set the cash registers ringing. D. Again, it is rarely sufficient for an advertiser simply to amuse the target audience in order to reap the sales benefit.

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6. There are indications that in substituting the hardsell for a more entertaining approach, some agencies have rather thrown out the baby with the bath-water. (a) CDBA (b) ABCD (c) BADC (d) DCBA CAT - 1999 47. 1. Picture a termite colony, occupying a tall mud hump on an African plain. A. Hungry predators often invade the colony and unsettle the balance. B. The colony flourishes only if the proportion of soldiers to workers remains roughly the same, so that the queen and workers can be protected by the soldiers, and the queen and soldiers can be serviced by the workers. C. But its fortunes are presently restored, because the immobile queen, walled in well below the ground level, lays eggs not only in large enough numbers, but also in the varying proportions required. D. The hump is alive with worker termites and soldier termites going about their distinct kinds of business. 6. How can we account for a mysterious ability to respond like this to events on the distant surface? (a) BADC (b) DBAC (c) ADCB (d) BDCA CAT - 1999 1. According to recent research, the critical period for developing language skills is between the age of three and five years. A. The read-to child already has a large vocabulary and a sense of grammar and sentence structure. B. Children who are read to in these years have a far better chance of reading well in school, indeed, of doing well in all their subjects. C. And the reason is actually quite simple. D. This correlation is far and away the highest yet found between home influences and school success. 6. Their comprehension of language is therefore very high. (a) DACD (b) ADCB (c) ABCD (d) BDCA CAT - 1999

49.

1. High-powered outboard motors were considered to be one of the major threats to the survival of the Beluga whales. A. With these, hunters could approach Belugas within hunting range and profit from its inner skin and blubber. B. To escape an approaching motor, Belugas have learnt to dive to the ocean bottom and stay there for up to 20 min, by which time the confused predator has left. C. Today, however, even with much more powerful engines, it is difficult to come close, because the whales seem to disappear suddenly just when you thought you had them in your sights. D. When the first outboard engines arrived in the early 1930s, one came across 4 HP and 8 HP motors. 6. Belugas seem to have used their well-known sensitivity to noise to evolve an ‘avoidance’ strategy to outsmart hunters and their powerful technologies. (a) DACB (b) ACDB (c) ADCB (d) DBAC CAT - 1999 1. The reconstruction of history by postrevolutionary science texts involves more than a multiplication of historical misconstructions. A. Because they aim quickly to acquaint the student with what the contemporary scientific community thinks it knows, textbooks treat the various experiments, concepts, laws and theories of the current normal science as separately and as nearly seriatim as possible. B. Those misconstructions render revolutions invisible; the arrangement of the still visible material in science texts implies a process that, if it existed, would deny revolutions a function. C. But when combined with the generally unhistorical air of science writing and with the occasional systematic misconstruction, one impression is likely to follow. D. As pedagogy, this technique of presentation is unexceptionable. 6. Science has reached its present state by a series of individual discoveries and inventions that, when gathered together, constitute the modern body of technical knowledge. (a) BADC (b) ADCB (c) DACB (d) CBDA CAT - 1999

50.

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51.

1. Security inks exploit the same principle that causes the vivid and constantly changing colours of a film of oil on water. A. When two rays of light meet each other after being reflected from these different surfaces, they have each travelled slightly different distances. B. The key is that the light is bouncing off two surfaces, that of the oil and that of the water layer below it. C. The distance the two rays travel determines which wavelengths, and hence colours, interfere constructively and look bright. D. Because light is, an electromagnetic wave, the peaks and troughs of each ray then interfere either constructively, to appear bright, or destructively, to appear dim. 6. Since the distance the rays travel changes with the angle as you look at the surface, different colours look bright from different viewing angles. (a) ABCD (b) BADC (c) BDAC (d) DCAB CAT - 2000 1. Commercially reared chicken can be unusually aggressive, and are often kept in darkened sheds to prevent them pecking at each other. A. The birds spent far more of their time — up to a third — pecking at the inanimate objects in the pens, in contrast to birds in other pens which spent a lot of time attacking others. B. In low light conditions, they behave less belligerently, but are more prone to ophthalmic disorders and respiratory problems. C. In an experiment, aggressive head-pecking was all but eliminated among birds in the enriched environment. D. Altering the birds’ environment, by adding bales of wood-shavings to their pens, can work wonders. 6. Bales could diminish aggressiveness and reduce injuries; they might even improve productivity, since a happy chicken is a productive chicken. (a) DCAB (b) CDBA (c) DBAC (d) BDCA CAT - 2000

53.

1. The concept of a ‘nation-state’ assumes a complete correspondence between the boundaries of the nation and the boundaries of those who live in a specific state. A. Then there are members of national collectivities who live in other countries, making a mockeryof the concept. B. There are always people living in particular states who are not considered to be (and often do not consider themselves to be) members of the hegemonic nation. C. Even worse, there are nations which never had a state or which are divided across several states. D. This, of course, has been subject to severe criticism and is virtually everywhere a fiction. 6. However, the fiction has been, and continues to be, at the basis of nationalist ideologies. (a) DBAC (b) ABCD (c) BACD (d) DACB CAT - 2000 1. In the sciences, even questionable examples of research fraud are harshly punished. A. But no such mechanism exists in the humanities — much of what humanities researchers call research does not lead to results that are replicable by other scholars. B. Given the importance of interpretation in historical and literary scholarship, humanities researchers are in a position where they can explain away deliberate and even systematic distortion. C. Mere suspicion is enough for funding to be cut off; publicity guarantees that careers can be effectively ended. D. Forgeries which take the form of pastiches in which the forger intersperses fake and real parts can be defended as mere mistakes or aberrant misreading. 6. Scientists fudging data have no such defences. (a) BDCA (b) ABDC (c) CABD (d) CDBA CAT - 2000

54.

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Answer Key
1 11 21 31 41 51 b a a a e b 2 12 22 32 42 52 a b b b c d 3 13 23 33 43 53 d c b d c a 4 14 24 34 44 54 b d a c a c 5 15 25 35 45 a c d a c 6 16 26 36 46 d d d b c 7 17 27 37 47 a b a d b 8 18 28 38 48 c c c b d 9 19 29 39 49 a a c d a 10 20 30 40 50 c d c a a

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