Previous years’ questions from CAT
Section 4: Paragraph Jumbles
Part 2: Verbal Ability

1.

1.

What does the state do in a country where tax morality is very low?

(A)

It tries to spy upon the taxpayers.

(B)

It investigates income sources and spending patterns.

(C)

Exactly what the tax authority tries to do now, even if inconsistently.

(D)

It could also encourage people to denounce to the tax authorities any conspicuously prosperous neighbours who may be suspected of not paying their taxes properly.

6.

The ultimate solution would be an Orwellian system.

(a) BACD

(b) DBAC

(c) ABCD

(c) DCBA

2.

1.

The fragile Yugoslav state has an uncertain future.

(A)

Thus, there will surely be chaos and uncertainty if the people fail to settle their differences.

(B)

Sharp ideological differences already exist in the country.

(C)

Ethnic, regional, linguistic and material disparities are profound.

(D)

The country will also lose the excellent reputation it enjoyed in the international arena.

6.

At worst, it will once more become vulnerable to international conspiracy and intrigue.

(a) BCAD

(b) ADCB

(c) ACBD

(d) DBCA

3.

1.

India’s experience of industrialization is characteristic of the difficulties faced by a newly independent developing country.

(A)

In 1947, India was undoubtedly an under-developed country with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world.

(B)

Indian industrialization was the result of a conscious deliberate policy of growth by an indigenous political elite.

(C)

Today India ranks fifth in the international community of nations if measured in terms of purchasing power.

(D)

Even today, however, the benefits of Indian industrialization since independence have not reached the masses.

6.

Industrialisation in India has thus been a limited success: One more example of growth without development.

(a) CDAB

(b) DCBA

(c) CABD

(d) BACD

4.

1.

The new Economic Policy comprises the various policy measures and changes introduced since July 1991.

(A)

There is a common thread running through all these measures.

(B)

The objective is simple—to improve the efficiency of the system.

(C)

The regulatory mechanism involving multitude of controls has fragmented the capacity and reduced competition even in the private sector.

(D)

The thrust of the new policy is towards creating a more competitive environment as a means to improving the productivity and efficiency of the economy.

6.

This is to be achieved by removing the barriers and restrictions on the entry and growth of firms.

(a) DCAB

(b) ABCD

(c) BDAC

(d) CDBA

5.

1.

It is significant that one of the most common objections to competition is that it is blind.

(A)

This is important because in a system of free enterprise based on private property, chances are not equal and there is indeed a strong case for reducing that inequality of opportunity.

(B)

Rather it is a choice between a system where it is the will of a few persons that decides which is to get what and one where it depends at least partly, on the ability and the enterprise of the people concerned.

(C)

Although competition and justice may have little else in common, it is as much a commendation of competition as of justice that it is no respecter of persons.

(D)

The choice today is not between a system in which everybody will get what he deserves according to some universal standard and one where individual shares are determined by chance or goodwill.

6.

The fact that opportunities open to the poor in a competitive society are much more restricted than those open to the rich, does not make it less true that in such a society, the poor are more free than a person commanding much greater material comfort in a different type of society.

(a) CDBA

(b) DCBA

(c) ABCD

(c) BADC

6.

1.

The necessity for regional integration in South Asia is underlined by the very history of the last 45 years since the liquidation of the British Empire in this part of the world.

(A)

After the partition of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan was formed in that very area which the imperial powers had always marked out as the potential base for operations against the Russian power in Central Asia.

(B)

Because of the disunity and ill-will among the South Asian neighbours, particularly India and Pakistan, great powers from outside the area could meddle into their affairs and thereby keep neighbours apart.

(C)

It needs to be added that it was the bountiful supply of sophisticated arms that emboldened Pakistan to go for warlike bellicosity toward India.

(D)

As part of the cold war strategy of the US, Pakistan was sucked into Washington’s military alliance spreading over the years.

6.

Internally too, it was the massive induction of American arms into Pakistan which empowered the military junta of that country to snuff out the civilian government and destroy democracy in Pakistan.

(a) ACBD

(b) ABDC

(c) CBAD

(d) DCAB

7.

1.

Commercial energy consumption shows an increasing trend and poses the major challenge for the future.

(A)

The demand, for petroleum, during 1996—97 and 2006—07 is anticipated to be 81 million tonnes and 125 million tonnes respectively.

(B)

According to the projections of the 14^th Power Survey Committee Report, the electricity generation requirements from utilities will be about 416 billion units by 1996—97 and 824 billion units by 2006—07.

(C)

The production of coal should reach 303 million tonnes by 1996—97 to achieve Plan targets and 460 million tonnes by 2006—07.

(D)

The demand for petroleum products has already rapidly outstripped indigenous production.

6.

Electricity is going to play a major role in the development of infrastructural facilities.

(a) DACB

(b) CADB

(c) BADC

(d) ABCD

8.

1.

The success of any unit in a competitive environment depends on prudent management of resources.

(A)

In this context, it would have been more appropriate if the concept of accelerated depreciation, together with additional incentives towards capital allowances for recouping a portion of the cost of replacements out of the current generations had been accepted.

(B)

Added to this are the negligible retention of profits because of inadequate capital allowances and artificial disallowances of genuine outflows.

(C)

One significant cause for the poor generation of surpluses is the high cost of capital and its servicing cost.

(D)

The lack of mechanism in Indian tax laws for quick recovery of capital costs has not received its due attention.

6.

While this may apparently look costly from the point of view of the exchequer, the ultimate cost to the Government and the community in the form of losses suffered through poor viability will be prohibitive.

(a) ADBC

(b) BCDA

(c) CBDA

(d) DBAC

9.

(A)

Realists believe that there is an objective reality out there independent of ourselves.

(B)

This reality exists solely by virtue of how the world is, and it is in principle discoverable by application of the methods of science.

(C)

They believe in the possibility of determining whether or not a theory is indeed really true or false.

(D)

I think it is fair to say that this is the position to which most working scientists subscribe.

(a) ABCD

(b) CDBA

(c) DCBA

(d) BCAD

10.

(A)

There is a strong manufacturing base for a variety of products.

(B)

India has come a long way on the technology front.

(C)

But the technology adopted has been largely of foreign origin.

(D)

There are, however, areas such as atomic energy, space, agriculture and defence where significant strides have been made in evolving relevant technologies within the country.

(a) ADCB

(b) DBAC

(c) BACD

(d) CBAD

11.

(A)

In emission trading, the government fixes the total amount of pollution that is acceptable to maintain a desired level of air quality.

(B)

Economists argue that this approach makes air pollution control more cost effective than the current practice of fixing air pollution standards and expecting all companies to pollute below these standards.

(C)

USA uses emission trading to control air pollution.

(D)

It then distributes emission permits to all companies in the region, which add up to the overall acceptable level of emission.

(a) BADC

(b) ACBD

(c) CBAD

(d) DBAC

12.

(A)

The individual companies vary in size, from the corner grocery to the industrial giant.

(B)

Policies and management methods within firms range from formal, well-planned organizations and controls to slipshod day-to-day operations.

(C)

Various industries offer a wide array of products or services through millions of firms largely independent of each other.

(D)

Variation in the form of ownership contributes to diversity in capital investment, volume of business, and financial structure.

(a) DBCA

(b) CADB

(c) BADC

(d) ADCB

13.

(A)

All levels of demand, whether individual, aggregate, local, national, or international are subject to change.

(B)

At the same time, science and technology add new dimensions to products, their uses and the methods used to market them.

(C)

Aggregate demand fluctuates with changes in the level of business activity, GNP, and national income.

(D)

The demand of individuals tend to vary with changing need and rising income.

(a) CBDA

(b) DCAB

(c) BCAD

(d) ADCB

14.

(A)

Secret persons shall strike with weapons, fire or poison.

(B)

Clans, mutually supporting each other, shall be made to strike at the weak points.

(C)

He shall destroy their caravans, herds, forests and troop reinforcements.

(D)

The conqueror shall cause enemy kingdom to be destroyed by neighbouring kings, jungle tribes, pretenders or unjustly treated princes.

(a) DCBA

(b) ABCD

(c) BDCA

(d) ADCB

15.

1.

That was the day that Walter Alva made the boldest decision of his career.

(A)

He had believed that somehow the situation would resolve itself.

(B)

First, he apologized to his teammates for putting them in danger.

(C)

He now encouraged anyone who wished to leave to do so without delay.

(D)

Until recently, he explained, his fascination with the tomb had blinded him to the peril of their position.

6.

None did.

(a) BACD

(b) DBAC

(c) BDAC

(d) DCBA

16.

1.

During this summer, I spent blissfully long days with my friend.

(A)

In the afternoons, we would retire to the cottage, and she would talk about her husband—what a fine man he’d been.

(B)

I discovered she made the finest shortbread (a kind of biscuit) in the universe.

(C)

Once or twice she seemed about to cry and left the room quickly to make more tea.

(D)

We could explore Bear Wood, munching happily and discussing the books she had lent me.

6.

But she always came back smiling.

(a) BCAD

(b) ADCB

(c) ACBD

(d) BDAC

17.

1.

The chainsaw howled as I finished cutting through the branch.

(A)

The branch crashed to the ground, taking my spectacles with it.

(B)

I almost dropped the saw as I shielded my face from the twigs that brushed by.

(C)

Howard retrieved my glasses and handed them up to me.

(D)

I pulled the saw away, and my husband tugged against the other end of the rope that I had tied just above the cut.

6.

Are you okay? He asked.

(a) BCAD

(b) DBAC

(c) DCAB

(d) BDAC

Directions for Questions 18 to 19: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.

18.

(A)

One reason can be that the total investment allocated to power was deficient.

(B)

However, it may also be that the demand for power was based on incorrect information.

(C)

The question arises as to why the planning of the power sector in Indian plans turned out to be faulty, as widely alleged.

(D)

In that case, obviously the plan was bad even on paper.

(a) DABC

(b) CBAD

(c) CADB

(d) DBAC

19.

(A)

Children need to be loved, and in a sense they cannot have too much of it.

(B)

She herself doesn’t want to grow up and attempts to make time stand still.

(C)

Fortunately, she cannot succeed.

(D)

But it is not because of love that a mother prevents her child from growing up.

(a) ACDB

(b) DABC

(c) CADB

(d) ADBC

20.

1.

The market mechanism is the natural coordinator of private sector activities.

(A)

It is also linked to the centrality of the notion of a free contract for both the operation of the market mechanism and the safeguarding of private property.

(B)

This is linked to the autonomy of the decision maker under the market mechanism.

(C)

It is futile to expect the State unit to behave as if it were privately owned.

(D)

It is time to get rid of this vain hope once and for all.

6.

There is no reason to be astonished by the fact that the State ownership permanently recreates the bureaucracy because it is but an organic part of the bureaucratic hierarchy.

(a) BADC

(b) ACDB

(c) DCBA

(d) BACD

21.

1.

A manager is faced with innumerable situations in which he has to make a choice.

(A)

These are not the only kind of decisions that managers take.

(B)

As a seller, he has to decide what to sell.

(C)

As a producer, he has to decide what to produce, how to produce, how much to produce and where to produce.

(D)

As a buyer, he has to decide what to buy.

6.

They generally face a wide range of situations involving choice.

(a) ABCE

(b) DCBA

(c) CDAB

(d) BDAC

22.

1.

Operating a small motel, I tried to avoid answering the doorbell before 6:30 a.m.

(A)

One morning at about five o’clock, the doorbell rang.

(B)

So I had a box put up next to the door and placed a sign on it saying, Deposit keys here.

(C)

But some guests continued to summon me as early as 4:30 a.m.

(D)

Customers were told to leave their keys in the rooms when checking out.

6.

When I opened the office door, a smiling guest greeted me with: I just wanted you to know, I put my key in the box.

(a) DCBA

(b) DACD

(c) BADC

(d) ABDC

23.

(A)

Widely publicized tables of income levels of all countries indicate that when incomes are higher, the greater is the contribution made by the manufacturing industry.

(B)

Countries which have little or no industry are almost invariably poor.

(C)

The lesson is clear: to overcome poverty and backwardness, a country must industrialize.

(D)

Industrialization is seen as the key to growth and a prerequisite for development.

(a) CBAD

(b) DCBA

(c) DABC

(d) CABD

24.

(A)

A wife may not be sure that what her husband is saying means the end.

(B)

She has found that people’s voices often get higher or shriller when they lie, and they are more likely to stumble over words.

(C)

According to De Paulo, changes in voice can be significant.

(D)

She should listen closely, not only to what he says, but how he says it.

(a) ADCB

(b) ACDB

(c) ADBC

(d) ABCD

25.

(A)

He pulled popcorn dipped in ketchup out of her mouth with a pair of pliers.

(B)

Soon Steven was making horror pictures, using his sisters as victims.

(C)

A few years later, Steven borrowed hid dad’s eight-millimeter movie camera to film ’The Last Train Wreck’ using his own electric train set.

(D)

In one, he played a dentist, with his sister Ann as the patient.

(a) CBAD

(b) DACB

(c) DABC

(d) CBDA

26.

(A)

In bulk processing, a set of standard prices typically emerge.

(B)

Competing therefore means keeping products flowing, trying to improve quality, getting costs down.

(C)

Let us look at the two cultures of competition.

(D)

Production tends to be repetitive—much the same from day to day or even from year to year.

(a) CDBA

(b) ABDC

(c) CADB

(d) DCBA

27.

(A)

A moment later, my prospective fiancée reappeared and shoved a ticket to Jiuquan through the hatch.

(B)

The queue gazed at me dumbstruck, then broke into a little ripple of applause.

(C)

The station master and clerk retreated into the back room.

(D)

I lifted it like a trophy.

(a) CABD

(b) ACDB

(c) ACBD

(d) CADB

28.

1.

So now, let’s sum it up.

(A)

We can call this the material of knowledge.

(B)

According to Kant, there are two elements that contribute to man’s knowledge of the world.

(C)

The other is the internal conditions in man himself.

(D)

One is the external conditions that we cannot know of before we have perceived them through the sense.

6.

We can call this the form of knowledge.

(a) BDAC

(b) BADC

(c) CADB

(d) CBDA

29.

1.

I may have a strong desire for a fresh ripe peach, but no peaches may be available.

(A)

I am about to take a bite when news arrives of an accident injuring someone dear to me.

(B)

The hay fever passes.

(C)

On the other hand, I buy some peaches but a sudden attack of hay fever prevents me from enjoying their fragrance or taste.

(D)

My interest in the peach vanishes.

6.

I no longer have any appetite.

(a) DCBA

(b) CBAD

(c) ABCD

(d) ACBD

30.

1.

A nation, like an individual, has many personalities and many approaches to life.

(A)

If there is a strong organic bond between different personalities, it is well.

(B)

Otherwise, this could lead to disintegration and trouble.

(C)

Normally, some kind of equilibrium is eventually established.

(D)

If normal development is arrested, then conflict arises between different personalities.

6.

In the mind and spirit of India, there has been this fundamental conflict due to a long period of arrested growth.

(a) ABCD

(b) BDCA

(c) CABD

(d) DBCA

31.

(A)

Because negotiations had been delayed until the last moment, he was at a tremendous disadvantage.

(B)

Only then did the truth dawn on him.

(C)

He broke off talks and returned home.

(D)

My friend was under intense pressure to make concessions.

(a) DBAC

(b) ACBD

(c) ABCD

(d) DBCA

32.

(A)

“Son, why are you reading that sissy magazine?” he asked.

(B)

“There’s an article that tells women where to meet men” I responded; pointing to the magazine’s cover.

(C)

“I need to know where I’m supposed to be.”

(D)

When I was a teenager, my father caught me reading one of my older sister’s magazines.

(a) DCAB

(b) ADCB

(c) DABC

(d) DACB

33.

(A)

“Actually,” Ronnie replied, “I asked my wife.”

(B)

One day, a man named Ronnie answered a difficult one correctly to put the men in front.

(C)

Impressed, the host kept Ronnie on the line and asked how he knew the answer to such a tough question.

(D)

Occasionally, a local radio station airs “Battle of the sexes,” in which listeners phone in to answer trivial questions.

(a) BCAD

(b) ACDB

(c) CABD

(d) DBCA

34.

1.

Why are horses the same?

(A)

It may be old and lame, and in time, it will die.

(B)

A particular horse ’flows’, naturally.

(C)

But there is something all horses have in common.

(D)

You probably don’t think they are at all.

6.

But the ’form’ of the horse is eternal and immutable.

(a) DCAB

(b) CABD

(c) CBDA

(d) DCBA

35.

1.

Buddhism is a way to salvation.

(A)

But Buddhism is more severely analytical.

(B)

In the Christian tradition, there is also a concern for the fate of human society conceived as a whole, rather than merely as a sum or network of individuals.

(C)

Salvation is a property, or achievement, of individuals.

(D)

Not only does it dissolve society into individuals; the individual in turn is dissolved into component parts and instants, a stream of events.

6.

In modern terminology, Buddhist doctrine is reductionism.

(a) BCAD

(b) ADBC

(c) CBAD

(d) CDAB

36.

1.

Matrilineal systems of land inheritance advantaged women in many respects, especially in granting them economic and social security.

(A)

Women, in particular; were profoundly affected by these changes.

(B)

The large joint family estates came to be partitioned; there was an increasing penetration of market forces and patriarchal ideologies spread in influence.

(C)

These systems, however, did not remain fixed over time.

(D)

Interventions by the colonial and post-colonial states, and the processes of social change which these set in motion, eroded customary practices.

6.

At the same time, their customary exclusion from major authority in public bodies meant that they were unlikely to be the ones directing the changes.

(a) BDCA

(b) CDBA

(c) CDAB

(d) CADB

37.

(A)

However, the real challenge today is unlearning, which is much harder.

(B)

But the new world of business behaves differently from the world in which we grew up.

(C)

Learning is important for both people and organizations.

(D)

Each of us has a ’mental model’ that we’ve used over the years to make sense.

(a) DBCA

(b) CADB

(c) DACB

(d) CBDA

38.

(A)

A large number of intellectuals believe that the North is using its military and economic powers to force unequal contracts on the South.

(B)

The make-believe ethical issue of the sanctity of law camouflages the unethicality of the entire transaction, which is a travesty of the ethical concept of the greatest good for the greatest number.

(C)

Once these contracts are made, the North uses the façade of legality and ethics to pin down the South.

(D)

Thus, it suffers from the flaw that the law—one of the useful means to implement ethics—has fouled the ethicality of the ends.

(a) DACB

(b) CBDA

(c) ACBD

(d) BDAC

39.

(A)

The fact that he could find absolutely nothing to substantiate their wild claims made no difference.

(B)

We always gave the poor man a cup of tea, and he grew quite fond of some of the animals.

(C)

The neighbors, now thoroughly indignant, kept bombarding the local health authorities.

(D)

On an average, twice a week, the poor inspector was forced to come up to the house.

(a) DBAC

(b) CDAB

(c) ADBC

(d) CADB

CAT 1999

Directions for Questions 40 to 44: Sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.

40.

(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

41.

(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 only some individuals.

(D)

When human interventions alter this delicate balance, the outcome have been seen to be disastrous.

(a) CDAB

(b) BCAD

(c) CABD

(d) BDCA

42.

(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

43.

(A)

With that I swallowed the shampoo, and obtained 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

44.

(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 5-year-old can answer, but a 4-year-old cannot, for instance.

(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

45.

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 traveled 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, interface constructively and look bright.

(D)

Because light is an electromagnetic wave, the peaks and troughs of each ray then interface 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

46.

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 bird’s 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

47.

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 mockery of 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

48.

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 practices 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 defenses.

(a) BDCA

(b) ABDC

(c) CABD

(d) CDBA

49.

1.

Horses and communism were, on the whole, a poor match.

(A)

Fine horses bespoke the nobility the party was supposed to despise.

(B)

Communist leaders, when they visited villages, preferred to see cows and pigs.

(C)

Although a working horse was just about tolerable, the communists were right to be wary.

(D)

Peasants from Poland to the Hungarian Pustza preferred their horses to party dogma.

6.

’A farmer’s pride is his horse, his cow may be thin but his horse must be fat,’ went a Slovak saying.

(a) ACDB

(b) DBCA

(c) ABCD

(d) DCBA

50.

(A)

If caught in the act, they were punished, not for the crime, but for allowing themselves to be caught, with 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 deprivation 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

51.

(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 reveling, 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) EABCE

(b) BDEAC

(c) BCDAE

(d) ECDAB

52.

(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

53.

(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

54.

(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

55.

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 tills ringing.

(D)

Again, it is rarely sufficient for an advertiser simply to amuse the target audience in order to reap the sales benefit.

6.

There are indications that in substituting the hard sell 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

56.

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 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 her mysterious ability to respond like this to events on the distant surface?

(a) BADC

(b) DBAC

(c) ADCB

(d) BDCA

57.

1.

According to recent research, the critical period of developing language skills is between the ages of three and five and a half 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.

Her comprehension of language is therefore very high.

(a) DACB

(b) ADCB

(c) ABCD

(d) BDCA

58.

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 learned to dive to the ocean bottom and stay there for up to 20 minutes, by which time the confused predator has left.

(C)

Today, however; even with much 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 and 8HP 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) CDAB

(c) ADBC

(d) BDAC

59.

1.

The reconstruction of history by post-revolutionary 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, law 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

60.

(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

61.

(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

62.

(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

63.

(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

64.

(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.

(a) DABC

(b) ACDB

(c) CBAD

(d) DBAC

65.

(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 in new tracts of Palestinian land, sometimes five or six kilometers 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

66.

(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

67.

(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

68.

(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 favorable 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 6%, euphoria gripped the US capital.

(a) ACEDB

(b) CEDAB

(c) ECABD

(d) ECBDA

69.

(A)

To much of the Labour movement, it symbolises the brutality of the upper classes.

(B)

And to everybody watching, the current mess over fox hunting symbolises the government’s weakness.

(C)

To fox hunting’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 symbolises the ancient roots of rural lives.

(a) DEACB

(b) ECDBA

(c) CEADB

(d) DBAEC

70.

(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

71.

(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

72.

(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

73.

(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)

Representative 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

74.

(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

75.

(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 Two appeared hopeless.

(C)

In Britain, the task of amassing the men and materials for the liberation of northern Europe had been completed.

(D)

The 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

76.

(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 Egyptians lived have not been preserved, and when most people died, they were buried in simple graves.

(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

77.

(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 motorisation 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 1994

1. (c)

2. (a)

3. (d)

4. (c)

5. (a)

6. (b)

7. (a)

8. (d)

9. (a)

10. (c)

11. (c)

12. (d)

13. (b)

14. (c)

CAT 1995

15. (c)

16. (d)

17. (b)

18. (a)

19. (d)

CAT 1996

20. (a)

21. (c)

22. (c)

23. (b)

24. (d)

25. (d)

26. (c)

27. (c)

CAT 1997

28. (a)

29. (d)

30. (a)

31. (b)

32. (d)

33. (d)

CAT 1998

34. (d)

35. (c)

36. (b)

37. (a)

38. (c)

39. (b)

CAT 1999

40. (a)

41. (d)

42. (b)

43. (a)

44. (c)

45. (b)

46. (d)

47. (a)

48. (c)

49. (c)

50. (a)

51. (d)

52. (a)

53. (b)

54. (d)

CAT 2000

55. (c)

56. (b)

57. (d)

58. (a)

59. (a)

CAT 2001

60. (c)

61. (d)

62. (c)

63. (d)

64. (b)

CAT 2003

65. (b)

66. (a)

67. (d)

68. (d)

69. (a)

70. (c)

71. (b)

72. (c)

CAT 2004

73. (d)

74. (a)

75. (b)

76. (b)

77. (a)