Reading Comprehension for CAT Practice PDF set-3 consists of one set of RC and 5 question and answers for CAT Reading comprehension. This RC Practice for CAT PDF will be helpful for all other MBA exams also including XAT, SNAP, IIFT, CMAT, GMAT, GRE, NMAT, TISS etc.,
You can download the RC Test-3 PDF or you can go through the Reading comprehension passage given below
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Reading Comprehension for CAT Practice:
RC Practice Questions
Instructions : Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term “instinct”. It conveys the idea that people know how to talk in more or less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some unsung spider genius and does not depend on having had the right education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spider brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to succeed. Although there are differences between webs and words, I will encourage you to see language in this way, for it helps to make sense of the phenomena we will explore.
Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom, especially as it has been passed down in the canon of the humanities and social sciences. Language is no more a cultural invention than is upright posture. It is not a manifestation of a general capacity to use symbols: a three-year-old, we shall see, is a grammatical genius, but is quite incompetent at the visual arts, religious iconography, traffic signs, and the other staples of the semiotics curriculum.
Though language is a magnificent ability unique to Homo sapiens among living species, it does not call for sequestering the study of humans from the domain of biology, for a magnificent ability unique to a particular living species is far from unique in the animal kingdom. Some kinds of bats home in on flying insects using Doppler sonar. Some kinds of migratory birds navigate thousands of miles by calibrating the positions of the constellations against the time of day and year. In nature’s talent show, we are simply a species of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating information about who did what to whom by modulating the sounds we make when we exhale.
Once you begin to look at language not as the ineffable essence of human uniqueness hut as a biological adaptation to communicate information, it is no longer as tempting to see language as an insidious shaper of thought, and, we shall see, it is not. Moreover, seeing language as one of nature’s engineering marvels — an organ with “that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which justly excites our admiration,” in Darwin’s words – gives us a new respect for your ordinary Joe and the much-maligned English language (or any language). The complexity of language, from the scientist’s point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not something that parents teach their children or something that must be elaborated in school — as Oscar Wilde said, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
A preschooler’s tacit knowledge of grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest style manual or the most state- of-the-art computer language system, and the same applies to all healthy human beings, even the notorious syntaxfracturing professional athlete and the, you know, like, inarticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is the product of a wellengineered biological instinct, we shall see that it is not the nutty barrel of monkeys that entertainercolumnists make it out to be.
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Reading Comprehension for CAT Practice Questions
Question 1:
According to the passage, which of the following does not stem from popular wisdom on language?
A. Language is a cultural artifact.
B. Language is a cultural invention.
C. Language is learnt as we grow.
D. Language is unique to Homo sapiens.
E. Language is a psychological faculty.
Question 2:
Which of the following can be used to replace the “spiders know how to spin webs” analogy as used by the author?
A. A kitten learning to jump over a wall
B. Bees collecting nectar
C. A donkey carrying a load
D. A horse running a Derby
E. A pet clog protecting its owner’s property
Question 3:
According to the passage, which of the following is unique to human beings?
A. Ability to use symbols while communicating with one another.
B. Ability to communicate with each other through voice modulation.
C. Ability to communicate information to other members of the species.
D. Ability to use sound as means of communication. E. All of the above.
Question 4:
According to the passage, complexity of language cannot be taught by parents or at school to children because
A. children instinctively know language.
B. children learn the language on their own.
C. language is not amenable to teaching.
D. children know language better than their teachers or parents.
E. children are born with the knowledge of semiotics.
Question 5:
Which of the following best summarizes the passage?
A. Language is unique to Homo sapiens.
B. Language is neither learnt nor taught.
C. Language is not a cultural invention or artifact as it is made out.
D. Language is instinctive ability of human beings.
E. Language is use of symbols unique to human beings.
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Solutions:
1) Answer (E)
Refer to the lines “Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module”
The author says that popular wisdom considers Language to be a cultural artifact or invention or something that is learnt in school or from your parents. However, this is not the case. Throughout the passage, the author makes the case for it being a “psychological faculty” or instinct. Hence, option E does not stem from popular wisdom like the other options. It instead is suggested by cognitive scientists (and the author) as a view contrary to popular wisdom.
Hence option E is correct
2) Answer (B)
This analogy of spider suggests the inherent activities. Only option B comes close. Rest of the qualities mentioned in other options are developed over a period of time.
3) Answer (B)
Refer to the last line of the para 2 “Innature’s talent show, we are simply a species of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating information about who did what to whom by modulating the sounds we make when we exhale.”
4) Answer (A)
Refer to the lines of the last para “The complexity of language, from the scientist’s point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not something that parents teach their children or something that must be elaborated in school — as Oscar Wilde said, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
5) Answer (D)
Throughout the para, the author talks about the language being the instinctive ability.Moreover refer to the line of 1st para”But I prefer the admittedly quaint term “instinct”. This shows the correct option to be D
