91- 6303239042
Which one of the following statements is not true about migration in the Indian Ocean world?
Sign in
Please select an account to continue using cracku.in
↓ →
CAT WhatsApp Group
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually [concerned with] national questions. Sometimes the whole story of the novel was taken as an allegory of the nation, whether India or Tanzania. This was important for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also be limiting - land-focused and inward-looking.
My new book “Writing Ocean Worlds” explores another kind of world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the Indian Ocean world. The book describes a set of novels in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad [who have] centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels. . . . Their work reveals a world that is outward-looking - full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. They are all very different - from colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of remapping the world in the reader’s mind, as centred in the interconnected global south. . . .
The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were made possible by the geography of the Indian Ocean. For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that what we now call globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean. This is the interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book. . . .
For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. The novels in [my] book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, feature characters of colour and centralise the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay. . . . It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world.
This remapping is particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European. . . . African, as well as Indian and Arab characters, are traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, villains, missionaries and activists. This does not mean that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure, freedoms are kept from women and slavery is rife. What it does mean is that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history and therefore in that of the wider world.
Which one of the following statements is not true about migration in the Indian Ocean world?
The passage focuses on the interconnectedness within the global south in the context of the Indian Ocean world's migration networks. It emphasizes historical connections between the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. The passage does not specifically highlight migration networks connecting the Indian Ocean world with the global north. Instead, it underscores the significance of geographical location, religious histories, and commercial interactions within the region, pointing to a more localized and regional perspective on migration. Therefore, Option A is not true according to the passage. Additionally, the passage mentioned the Indian Ocean as “a term used to describe the very long-lasting connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia.” and not north and south.
Option B is correct as the passage mentions that for much of history, travel by sea in the Indian Ocean was easier than by land, emphasizing the importance of geographical location.
Option C is correct as the passage indicates that the novels in the book draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors, and language, including religious and commercial aspects.
Option D is correct as the passage notes that migration is often portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure, indicating a complex and ambivalent nature of the migration experience in the Indian Ocean world.
On the basis of the nature of the relationship between the items in each pair below, choose the odd pair out:
Options A, C and D have the following format World/Novels : Characteristic of that particular world/novel. Option B is the odd one out as the characteristic of Border-crossing does not belong to the Postcolonial novels world.
From the passage, we can infer that the Indian Ocean novels were "outward-looking - full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection". At the same time, they showcased elements of the global south like Slavery, Forced Migration etc. Hence, A and C showcase valid elements of the Indian Ocean Novels World.
On the other hand, postcolonial novels were usually [concerned with] national questions, land-focused and inward-looking. They featured anti-colonial nationalism. Hence, option D is also a valid Theme:Characteristic combination.
However, we note that Border-crossing is an element of the Indian Ocean novel world and not the Postcolonial novel world. Hence, option B is not a valid combination and thus is the odd one out.
All of the following statements, if true, would weaken the passage’s claim about the relationship between mainstream English-language fiction and Indian Ocean novels EXCEPT:
“For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. “
The passage argues that the novels discussed in "Writing Ocean Worlds" diverge from the common representations found in English fiction, which often center on Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. If Option D were true, it would support the passage's claim rather than weaken it. Therefore, Option D is the correct answer.
Through the passage, the author claims that the Indian Ocean novels provide a more realistic picture of the Indian Ocean space, particularly in the representation of Africa. The author claims that the depiction is more authentic and free from Eurocentricity that is seen in other novels.
Option A weakens the passage by contradicting these claims and suggesting that the depiction of Africa is influenced by postcolonial nostalgia.
Option B weakens the passage by suggesting a potential bias or negative stereotyping in the portrayal of Africa in Indian Ocean novels.
Option C weakens the author's claim by disputing that there is eurocentric perspective in other novels.
All of the following claims contribute to the “remapping” discussed by the passage,
EXCEPT:
Option C is the correct answer because it contradicts the idea of "remapping" discussed in the passage. The passage emphasizes that the novels under consideration challenge the common representations found in English fiction, particularly those centered in the West. Option C, suggesting that cosmopolitanism originated in the West and traveled to the East through globalization, aligns with the conventional Western-centric narrative rather than the passage's argument of reshaping perspectives and centralizing the interconnected global south, particularly the Indian Ocean world, as a key space in the reimagined literary landscape.
Option A aligns with the passage's discussion of the novels focusing on the Indian Ocean world, contributing to the "remapping" beyond national concerns.
Option B aligns with the passage's emphasis on the interconnected Indian Ocean world, challenging the Eurocentric perspective on trade and commerce.
Option D supports the passage's claim that historical evidence suggests that globalization first appeared in the Indian Ocean, contributing to the "remapping" of the world's historical and geographical perspectives.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Many human phenomena and characteristics - such as behaviors, beliefs, economies, genes, incomes, life expectancies, and other things - are influenced both by geographic factors and by non-geographic factors. Geographic factors mean physical and biological factors tied to geographic location, including climate, the distributions of wild plant and animal species, soils, and topography. Non-geographic factors include those factors subsumed under the term culture, other factors subsumed under the term history, and decisions by individual people. . . .
[T]he differences between the current economies of North and South Korea . . . cannot be attributed to the modest environmental differences between [them] . . . They are instead due entirely to the different [government] policies . . . At the opposite extreme, the Inuit and other traditional peoples living north of the Arctic Circle developed warm fur clothes but no agriculture, while equatorial lowland peoples around the world never developed warm fur clothes but often did develop agriculture. The explanation is straightforwardly geographic, rather than a cultural or historical quirk unrelated to geography. . . . Aboriginal Australia remained the sole continent occupied only by hunter/gatherers and with no indigenous farming or herding . . . [Here the] explanation is biogeographic: the Australian continent has no domesticable native animal species and few domesticable native plant species. Instead, the crops and domestic animals that now make Australia a food and wool exporter are all non-native (mainly Eurasian) species such as sheep, wheat, and grapes, brought to Australia by overseas colonists.
Today, no scholar would be silly enough to deny that culture, history, and individual choices play a big role in many human phenomena. Scholars don’t react to cultural, historical, and individual-agent explanations by denouncing “cultural determinism,” “historical determinism,” or “individual determinism,” and then thinking no further. But many scholars do react to any explanation invoking some geographic role, by denouncing “geographic determinism” . . .
Several reasons may underlie this widespread but nonsensical view. One reason is that some geographic explanations advanced a century ago were racist, thereby causing all geographic explanations to become tainted by racist associations in the minds of many scholars other than geographers. But many genetic, historical, psychological, and anthropological explanations advanced a century ago were also racist, yet the validity of newer non-racist genetic etc. explanations is widely accepted today.
Another reason for reflex rejection of geographic explanations is that historians have a tradition, in their discipline, of stressing the role of contingency (a favorite word among historians) based on individual decisions and chance. Often that view is warranted . . . But often, too, that view is unwarranted. The development of warm fur clothes among the Inuit living north of the Arctic Circle was not because one influential Inuit leader persuaded other Inuit in 1783 to adopt warm fur clothes, for no good environmental reason.
A third reason is that geographic explanations usually depend on detailed technical facts of geography and other fields of scholarship . . . Most historians and economists don’t acquire that detailed knowledge as part of the professional training.
All of the following are advanced by the author as reasons why non-geographers disregard geographic influences on human phenomena EXCEPT their:
Option D is not explicitly presented by the author as a reason why non-geographers disregard geographic influences. The author suggests that scholars often react negatively to explanations involving a geographic role by denouncing "geographic determinism." However, the specific idea of dismissal is not explicitly outlined in the passage.
The other options on the other hand, can be inferred from the passage:
Option A can be inferred from the following lines: “ One reason is that some geographic explanations advanced a century ago were racist, thereby causing all geographic explanations to become tainted.”
Option B can be inferred from the following lines: “Another reason for reflex rejection of geographic explanations is that historians have a tradition, in their discipline, of stressing the role of contingency (a favorite word among historians) based on individual decisions and chance.”
Option C can be inferred from the last paragraph of the passage:” Geographic explanations usually depend on detailed technical facts of geography and other fields of scholarship . . . Most historians and economists don’t acquire that detailed knowledge as part of the professional training.”
The author criticises scholars who are not geographers for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
The passage does not explicitly mention the criticism of scholars for having outdated interpretations of past cultural and historical phenomena. The primary focus of the author's criticism, as discussed in the passage, centers on scholars' tendencies to dismiss geographic factors, label geographic explanations as deterministic, and associate geographic analyses with past racism.Therefore Option B is the correct answer.
All of the following can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT:
Option C cannot be directly inferred from the passage. The passage does discuss the influence of both geographic factors (such as biogeography) and non-geographic factors (culture, history, individual decisions) on human phenomena. However, the passage does not explicitly quantify or compare the prevalence of these influences by stating that "most human phenomena result from culture and individual choice."
Option A: The author discusses the development of warm fur clothes among the Inuit living north of the Arctic Circle and asserts that it was not due to a specific individual decision or historical contingency in 1783 but rather a response to environmental factors.
Option B: The author discusses the current state of agricultural practices in Australia, stating that the crops and domestic animals that make Australia a food and wool exporter today are all non-native species (mainly Eurasian) brought to Australia by overseas colonists. The use of the term "non-native" implies a change in agricultural practices from what was originally present in the Australian continent.
Option D: The author mentions that some geographic explanations advanced a century ago were racist, causing all geographic explanations to become tainted by racist associations in the minds of many scholars.
The examples of the Inuit and Aboriginal Australians are offered in the passage to show:
Option B is the correct answer because the passage uses examples like the Inuit and Aboriginal Australians to illustrate the influence of physical circumstances, particularly environmental factors, on human behavior and cultural practices. The discussion about the development of warm fur clothes among the Inuit due to the Arctic environment and the absence of indigenous farming in Aboriginal Australia because of the lack of domesticable native species underscores how physical circumstances dictate certain aspects of human behavior and shape cultural adaptations. Therefore, Option B accurately captures the main idea conveyed by the examples provided in the passage.
Option A is not explicitly emphasized in the passage; the focus is more on how environmental factors influence behavior and cultures.
Option C: The passage doesn't explicitly highlight self-sufficiency but rather the impact of specific environmental factors on the development of societies.
Option D is not entirely incorrect, but Option B more precisely captures the emphasis on physical circumstances dictating human behavior and cultures in the context of the examples provided in the passage.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
RESIDENTS of Lozère, a hilly department in southern France, recite complaints familiar to many rural corners of Europe. In remote hamlets and villages, with names such as Le Bacon and Le Bacon Vieux, mayors grumble about a lack of local schools, jobs, or phone and internet connections. Farmers of grazing animals add another concern: the return of wolves. Eradicated from France last century, the predators are gradually creeping back to more forests and hillsides. “The wolf must be taken in hand,” said an aspiring parliamentarian, Francis Palombi, when pressed by voters in an election campaign early this summer. Tourists enjoy visiting a wolf park in Lozère, but farmers fret over their livestock and their livelihoods. .
. .
As early as the ninth century, the royal office of the Luparii—wolf-catchers—was created in France to tackle the predators. Those official hunters (and others) completed their job in the 1930s, when the last wolf disappeared from the mainland. Active hunting and improved technology such as rifles in the 19th century, plus the use of poison such as strychnine later on, caused the population collapse. But in the early 1990s the animals reappeared. They crossed the Alps from Italy, upsetting sheep farmers on the French side of the border. Wolves have since spread to areas such as Lozère, delighting environmentalists, who see the predators’ presence as a sign of wider ecological health. Farmers, who say the wolves cause the deaths of thousands of sheep and other grazing animals, are less cheerful. They grumble that green activists and politically correct urban types have allowed the return of an old enemy.
Various factors explain the changes of the past few decades. Rural depopulation is part of the story. In Lozère, for example, farming and a once-flourishing mining industry supported a population of over 140,000 residents in the mid-19th century. Today the department has fewer than 80,000 people, many in its towns. As humans withdraw, forests are expanding. In France, between 1990 and 2015, forest cover increased by an average of 102,000 hectares each year, as more fields were given over to trees. Now, nearly one-third of mainland France is covered by woodland of some sort. The decline of hunting as a sport also means more forests fall quiet. In the mid-to-late 20th century over 2m hunters regularly spent winter weekends tramping in woodland, seeking boars, birds and other prey. Today the Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs, the national body, claims 1.1m people hold hunting licences, though the number of active hunters is probably lower. The mostly protected status of the wolf in Europe—hunting them is now forbidden, other than when occasional culls are sanctioned by the state—plus the efforts of NGOs to track and count the animals, also contribute to the recovery of wolf populations.
As the lupine population of Europe spreads westwards, with occasional reports of wolves seen closer to urban areas, expect to hear of more clashes between farmers and those who celebrate the predators’ return. Farmers’ losses are real, but are not the only economic story. Tourist venues, such as parks where wolves are kept and the animals’ spread is discussed, also generate income and jobs in rural areas.
Which one of the following has NOT contributed to the growing wolf population in Lozère?
The passage mentions that as early as the ninth century, the royal office of the Luparii, or wolf-catchers, was created in France to tackle the predators. However, this office became redundant as it had finished it’s job (kill the last wolf). So the resurgence of the wolfs can’t be attributed to it shutting down. The other options on the other hand, can be clearly inferred.
Option A: “Various factors explain the changes of the past few decades. Rural depopulation is part of the story. In Lozère, for example, farming and a once-flourishing mining industry supported a population of over 140,000 residents in the mid-19th century. Today the department has fewer than 80,000 people, many in its towns. “
Option B: “As humans withdraw, forests are expanding. In France, between 1990 and 2015, forest cover increased by an average of 102,000 hectares each year, as more fields were given over to trees. Now, nearly one-third of mainland France is covered by woodland of some sort. “
Option D: “The mostly protected status of the wolf in Europe—hunting them is now forbidden, other than when occasional culls are sanctioned by the state—plus the efforts of NGOs to track and count the animals, also contribute to the recovery of wolf populations.”
The inhabitants of Lozère have to grapple with all of the following problems, EXCEPT:
Considering the first paragraph: “RESIDENTS of Lozère, a hilly department in southern France, recite complaints familiar to many rural corners of Europe. In remote hamlets and villages, with names such as Le Bacon and Le Bacon Vieux, mayors grumble about a lack of local schools, jobs, or phone and internet connections. Farmers of grazing animals add another concern: the return of wolves. Eradicated from France last century, the predators are gradually creeping back to more forests and hillsides. “The wolf must be taken in hand,” said an aspiring parliamentarian, Francis Palombi, when pressed by voters in an election campaign early this summer. Tourists enjoy visiting a wolf park in Lozère, but farmers fret over their livestock and their livelihoods. .”
Options A, B and C can be clearly inferred from the highlighted part.
The passage mentions that the number of people holding hunting licenses is still high but the number of people who still actively hunt is low. So Option D which states that there is decline in the number of hunting licences is incorrect.
Which one of the following statements, if true, would weaken the author’s claims?
The author's claims seem to be focused on the conflicts between farmers and the return of wolves, the economic implications, and the coexistence challenges. If wolf attacks on tourists were on the rise, it might shift the narrative and suggest a broader safety concern beyond the impact on farmers, potentially weakening the author's emphasis on the positive economic aspects of wolf-related tourism. Therefore Option C, if true, would weaken the author’s argument.
Option A supports the author's claims about the return of wolves to Lozère.
Option B is not directly related to the author's claims about conflicts between farmers and wolves or the economic implications of wolf-related tourism.
Option D , if true, would not necessarily weaken the author's claims but might be seen as providing additional information about land use in Lozère.
The author presents a possible economic solution to an existing issue facing Lozère that takes into account the divergent and competing interests of:
“As the lupine population of Europe spreads westwards, with occasional reports of wolves seen closer to urban areas, expect to hear of more clashes between farmers and those who celebrate the predators’ return. Farmers’ losses are real, but are not the only economic story. Tourist venues, such as parks where wolves are kept and the animals’ spread is discussed, also generate income and jobs in rural areas.”
The passage mentions that farmers in Lozère are concerned about the return of wolves causing losses in livestock. On the other hand, environmentalists view the presence of wolves as a sign of wider ecological health. The suggested economic solution involves tourist venues related to wolves, such as parks, which not only address the economic concerns of farmers by generating income but also align with the interests of environmentalists who appreciate the return of the predators. Therefore, Option C accurately captures the collaboration between farmers and environmentalists in the proposed solution.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
[Fifty] years after its publication in English [in 1972], and just a year since [Marshall] Sahlins himself died—we may ask: why did [his essay] “Original Affluent Society” have such an impact, and how has it fared since? . . . Sahlins’s principal argument was simple but counterintuitive: before being driven into marginal environments by colonial powers, hunter-gatherers, or foragers, were not engaged in a desperate struggle for meager survival. Quite the contrary, they satisfied their needs with far less work than people in agricultural and industrial societies, leaving them more time to use as they wished. Hunters, he quipped, keep bankers’ hours. Refusing to maximize, many were “more concerned with games of chance than with chances of game.” . . . The so-called Neolithic Revolution, rather than improving life, imposed a harsher work regime and set in motion the long history of growing inequality . . .
Moreover, foragers had other options. The contemporary Hadza of Tanzania, who had long been surrounded by farmers, knew they had alternatives and rejected them. To Sahlins, this showed that foragers are not simply examples of human diversity or victimhood but something more profound: they demonstrated that societies make real choices. Culture, a way of living oriented around a distinctive set of values, manifests a fundamental principle of collective self-determination. . . .
But the point [of the essay] is not so much the empirical validity of the data—the real interest for most readers, after all, is not in foragers either today or in the Paleolithic—but rather its conceptual challenge to contemporary economic life and bourgeois individualism. The empirical served a philosophical and political project, a thought experiment and stimulus to the imagination of possibilities.
With its title’s nod toward The Affluent Society (1958), economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s famously skeptical portrait of America’s postwar prosperity and inequality, and dripping with New Left contempt for consumerism, “The Original Affluent Society” brought this critical perspective to bear on the contemporary world. It did so through the classic anthropological move of showing that radical alternatives to the readers’ lives really exist. If the capitalist world seeks wealth through ever greater material production to meet infinitely expansive desires, foraging societies follow “the Zen road to affluence”: not by getting more, but by wanting less. If it seems that foragers have been left behind by “progress,” this is due only to the ethnocentric self-congratulation of the West. Rather than accumulate material goods, these societies are guided by other values: leisure, mobility, and above all, freedom. . . .
Viewed in today’s context, of course, not every aspect of the essay has aged well. While acknowledging the violence of colonialism, racism, and dispossession, it does not thematize them as heavily as we might today. Rebuking evolutionary anthropologists for treating present-day foragers as “left behind” by progress, it too can succumb to the temptation to use them as proxies for the Paleolithic. Yet these characteristics should not distract us from appreciating Sahlins’s effort to show that if we want to conjure new possibilities, we need to learn about actually inhabitable worlds.
We can infer that Sahlins's main goal in writing his essay was to:
The passage emphasizes that Marshall Sahlins's main goal in writing his essay was to hold a mirror to an acquisitive society (contemporary economic life and bourgeois individualism). The essay accomplishes this by providing examples of foraging societies that made real choices to prioritize values such as leisure, mobility, and freedom over material accumulation. Sahlins contrasts the Zen road to affluence, where affluence is achieved by wanting less, with the capitalist pursuit of wealth through material production and consumerism. Therefore, Sahlins's goal, as portrayed in the passage, aligns with the idea of presenting examples of communities that have successfully chosen non-materialistic paths as a critique of acquisitive societies. So, Option C is the correct answer.
Option A: While Sahlins's essay acknowledges growing inequality and social hierarchies resulting from the Neolithic Revolution, it is more focused on contrasting foraging societies with contemporary economic life.
Option B: The primary emphasis is on showcasing foraging societies' choices and values rather than asserting a progressive degeneration of society.
Option D: Even though Sahlins's essay critiques aspects of contemporary economic views, its primary focus is not explicitly countering Galbraith's pessimistic view but rather presenting alternative possibilities through examples of non-materialistic societies.
The author mentions Tanzania’s Hadza community to illustrate:
Option C is the correct answer because the passage uses the example of Tanzania's Hadza community to illustrate that forager communities, like the Hadza, do not conform to a simple narrative of human diversity or victimhood. Instead, they actively make choices about their way of life. The passage mentions that the Hadza, despite being surrounded by farmers, knew they had alternatives and consciously rejected them. This example serves to emphasize that forager communities are not constrained by ignorance about alternatives; rather, their lifestyles derive from their own choices. Therefore, Option C accurately captures the essence of the Hadza illustration in the passage.
Option A: The passage doesn't specifically highlight the survival techniques of hunter-gatherer communities into contemporary times, but rather emphasizes their choices and values.
Option B: The passage doesn't discuss the Hadza community in the context of agrarian practices in contiguous communities, making this option irrelevant to the illustration.
Option D: The passage does not suggest that the Hadza community coexisted with vastly different ways of living and working for centuries
The author of the passage mentions Galbraith’s “The Affluent Society” to:
The passage explicitly mentions that Sahlins's essay, "The Original Affluent Society," brought a critical perspective to contemporary consumerism and inequality, echoing the themes found in John Kenneth Galbraith's work, "The Affluent Society." The passage notes that Sahlins's essay contrasts the values of foraging societies with the capitalist pursuit of wealth, and it suggests that the essay complements Galbraith's skeptical portrait of postwar prosperity and inequality. Therefore, Option D accurately reflects the information presented in the passage regarding the relationship between Sahlins's views and Galbraith's criticism of contemporary society.
The passage does not suggest that Galbraith’s theories refute Sahlins’s thesis but rather highlights their complementarity (Option A) nor does it focus on contrasting foragers' ways of living with Galbraith's views on contemporary growth paths (Option B).
The passage does not document the influence of Galbraith’s views on Sahlins’s analysis; instead, it emphasizes how Sahlins's essay complements Galbraith’s critical perspective on contemporary society. Therefore Option C is incorrect too.
The author of the passage criticises Sahlins’s essay for its:
"Viewed in today’s context, of course, not every aspect of the essay has aged well. While acknowledging the violence of colonialism, racism, and dispossession, it does not thematize them as heavily as we might today."
Option A is the correct answer because the passage explicitly mentions that, when viewed in today's context, not every aspect of Sahlins's essay has aged well, and it acknowledges that the essay does not thematize issues like racism, colonialism, and dispossession as heavily as might be expected today. The term "cursory treatment" suggests that the essay provides only a brief or superficial examination of the effects of racism and colonialism on societies, and the passage criticizes this aspect of the essay for not giving these important issues more comprehensive attention.
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: The discovery helps to explain archeological similarities between the Paleolithic peoples of China, Japan, and the Americas.
Paragraph: The researchers also uncovered an unexpected genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people. ___(1)___. During the deglaciation period, another group branched out from northern coastal China and travelled to Japan. ___(2)___. "We were surprised to find that this ancestral source also contributed to the Japanese gene pool, especially the indigenous Ainus," says Li. ___(3)___. They shared similarities in how they crafted stemmed projectile points for arrowheads and spears. ___(4)___. "This suggests that the Pleistocene connection among the Americas, China, and Japan was not confined to culture but also to genetics," says senior author Qing-Peng Kong, an evolutionary geneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The sentence best fits in Blank 3 because it logically follows the mention of the unexpected genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people mentioned in the sentence preceding Blank 3. After establishing this genetic connection, the sentence provides additional context by explaining the archaeological implications of the discovery. It suggests that the shared genetic link has archaeological manifestations, leading to similarities in the Paleolithic peoples of China, Japan, and the Americas. Placing the sentence here helps to connect the genetic findings to broader archaeological and cultural aspects.
Blank 1: The sentence before Blank 1 introduces the unexpected genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people. Placing this sentence in Blank 1 would disrupt the logical progression of information, as Blank 1 should provide information that directly connects with or follows from the mention of the unexpected genetic link, and the sentence is more relevant to explaining the broader context after the genetic link has been introduced.
Blank 2: Putting the sentence here makes no sense as there has been no mention of any discovery before.
Blank 4: Placing the sentence here would disrupt the flow of the passage as before Blank 4 the passage mentions how there were similarities between them and After Blank 4, the passage states “ This suggests..”. “This” clearly refers to the similarities mentioned before Blank 4.
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: This philosophical cut at one’s core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.
Paragraph: The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting. When reading philosophy, the values around which one has heretofore organised one’s life may come to look provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. ___(1)___. When beliefs previously held as truths are rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and ways of living may be required. ___(2)___. What’s worse, philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes, philosophical writing is even strictly critical in that it does not even attempt to provide an alternative after tearing down a cultural or conceptual citadel. ___(3)___. The reader of philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of this experience. While reading philosophy can help one clarify one’s values, and even make one self-conscious for the first time of the fact that there are good reasons for believing what one believes, it can also generate unremediated doubt that is difficult to live with. ___(4)___.
The sentence best fits in Blank 2 because it provides a continuation and elaboration on the disquieting experience mentioned before Blank 2. Before Blank 2, the passage introduces the disquieting nature of reading philosophy, and the sentence builds on that by explaining that the philosophical examination challenges the values around which one has organized their life, making them appear provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. The sentence in question serves to articulate the difficulty and discomfort associated with this profound philosophical scrutiny, logically following the initial statement about the disquieting experience of reading philosophy.
We can also see that the sentence ends with “...and way of life is difficult enough.” This is immediately followed by the passage highlighting what’s worse “What’s worse, philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed.”. So we can see that Sentence 2 serves as a preceding sentence to this.
Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. Having an appreciation for the workings of another person’s mind is considered a prerequisite for natural language acquisition, strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, and moral judgment.
2. It is a ‘theory of mind’ though some scholars prefer to call it ‘mentalizing’ or ‘mindreading’, which is important for the development of one's cognitive abilities.
3. Though we must speculate about its evolutionary origin, we do have indications that the capacity evolved sometime in the last few million years.
4. This capacity develops from early beginnings in the first year of life to the adult’s fast and often effortless understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
5. One of the most fascinating human capacities is the ability to perceive and interpret other people’s behaviour in terms of their mental states.
Sentence 2 is the odd one out because it introduces a term, "theory of mind," and discusses scholars' preferences for alternative terms like "mentalizing" or "mindreading." Unlike the other sentences, which focus on explaining and elaborating on the concept of understanding others' mental states, sentence 2 provides more of a meta-discussion about the terminology used to describe this capacity rather than directly contributing to the explanation of the topic. The other sentences contribute to the substantive discussion of the capacity to perceive and interpret other people's behavior in terms of their mental states, making sentence 2 the odd one out in the context of forming a coherent paragraph.
Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. In English, there is no systematic rule for the naming of numbers; after ten, we have "eleven" and "twelve" and then the teens: "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen" and so on.
2. Even more confusingly, some English words invert the numbers they refer to: the word "fourteen" puts the four first, even though it appears last.
3. It can take children a while to learn all these words, and understand that "fourteen" is different from "forty".
4. For multiples of 10, English speakers switch to a different pattern: "twenty", "thirty", "forty" and so on.
5. If you didn't know the word for "eleven", you would be unable to just guess it - you might come up with something like "one-teen".
Sentence 3 is the odd one out because it introduces a different topic compared to the other sentences. While the other sentences focus on the naming patterns of numbers in English, especially the irregularities and variations in the system, sentence 3 shifts the focus to the learning process of children and their understanding of the differences between numbers like "fourteen" and "forty." The other sentences contribute to the discussion about the intricacies of English number naming, making sentence 3 less aligned with the central theme of the paragraph.
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. What precisely are the “unusual elements” that make a particular case so attractive to a certain kind of audience?
2 . It might be a particularly savage or unfathomable level of depravity, very often it has something to do with the precise amount of mystery involved.
3. Unsolved, and perhaps unsolvable cases offer something that “ordinary” murder doesn’t.
4. Why are some crimes destined for perpetual re-examination and others locked into permanent obscurity?
The correct order is 4-1-2-3.
Sentence 4 introduces the central question about the enduring fascination with certain crimes and the perpetual re-examination of some cases.
Sentence 1 builds on this question by specifically asking about the "unusual elements" that make a particular case attractive to a certain audience, providing a more focused inquiry.
Sentence 2 follows by suggesting possible reasons, such as a particularly savage or unfathomable level of depravity, and the role of mystery in drawing attention to these cases.
Sentence 3 then generalizes the idea, stating that unsolved and perhaps unsolvable cases offer something unique that "ordinary" murder cases don't, emphasizing the enduring allure of unresolved mysteries in the realm of crime.
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. Algorithms hosted on the internet are accessed by many, so biases in AI models have resulted in much larger impact, adversely affecting far larger groups of people.
2. Though “algorithmic bias” is the popular term, the foundation of such bias is not in algorithms, but in the data; algorithms are not biased, data is, as algorithms merely reflect persistent patterns that are present in the training data.
3. Despite their widespread impact, it is relatively easier to fix AI biases than human-generated biases, as it is simpler to identify the former than to try to make people unlearn behaviors learnt over generations.
4. The impact of biased decisions made by humans is localised and geographically confined, but with the advent of AI, the impact of such decisions is spread over a much wider scale.
4-1-2-3 is the correct order.
Sentence 4 introduces the idea that biased decisions made by humans have a localized impact, but with AI's emergence, the impact scale becomes much broader. This sets the context for the discussion to be followed.
Now, if we consider Sentences 1 and 2 we can see that Sentence 1 is expanding on the impact of biased decisions in the context of AI, highlighting that algorithms hosted on the internet, accessed by many, result in more significant adverse effects on larger groups of people.Sentence 2 is providing a clarification on the term "algorithmic bias," emphasizing that the foundation of bias lies in the data rather than the algorithms themselves. It explains that algorithms reflect persistent patterns present in the training data. Therefore we can say that Sentence 2 must be following 1.
Sentence 3 is pointing out that despite the widespread impact of AI biases, it is comparatively easier to fix them than human-generated biases, as it is simpler to identify and address biases in algorithms than to make people unlearn behaviors learned over generations. This logically follows the point made in Sentence 2. Therefore Sentence 3 must be following Sentence 2.
Therefore the correct order is 4-1-2-3.
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Manipulating information was a feature of history long before modern journalism established rules of integrity. A record dates back to ancient Rome, when Antony met Cleopatra and his political enemy Octavian launched a smear campaign against him with “short, sharp slogans written upon coins.” The perpetrator became the first Roman Emperor and “fake news had allowed Octavian to hack the republican system once and for all”. But the 21st century has seen the weaponization of information on an unprecedented scale. Powerful new technology makes the fabrication of content simple, and social networks amplify falsehoods peddled by States, populist politicians, and dishonest corporate entities. The platforms have become fertile ground for computational propaganda, ‘trolling’ and ‘troll armies’.
The passage discusses the historical use of misinformation for political purposes, dating back to ancient Rome with Octavian's smear campaign against Antony. It then highlights how the 21st century has seen an unprecedented scale of information weaponization, facilitated by powerful technology and amplified through social networks. Option C effectively conveys the continuity of using misinformation for power throughout history, now fueled by modern technology. Therefore, Option C is the correct answer.
Option A: While the passage acknowledges the historical aspect of disinformation, it emphasizes the unprecedented scale in the 21st century, which is not captured in this option.
Option B focuses on the need for critical reading without explicitly highlighting the historical context and the weaponization of information for power.
Option D does not emphasize the broader historical and contemporary context of misinformation for political purposes.
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. In the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. The modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political control in spite of geographical dispersion. The term colonialism is used to describe the process of European settlement, violent dispossession and political
domination over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.
Option C is the correct answer because it accurately captures the main idea of the passage. It highlights how technological advancements in navigation during the sixteenth century transformed colonialism by enabling Europeans to establish settlements and exert political dominance over distant regions, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.
Option A focuses on the displacement of indigenous populations, which is not the central point of the passage.
While Option B mentions the expansion of territories and political power, it does not emphasize the technological advancements in navigation.
Option D introduces the concept of British settlements, which is narrower than the broader context of European colonialism discussed in the passage.
Educational materials for CAT preparation
Share
