Passage 1
E
The complexity of modern problems often precludes any one person from fully understanding them. Factors contributing to rising obesity levels, for example, include transportation systems and infrastructure, media,convenience foods, changing social norms, human biology and psychological factors. . . . The multidimensional or layered character of complex problems also undermines the principle of meritocracy:the idea that the ‘best person’ should be hired. There is no best person. When putting together an on cological research team, a biotech company such as Gilead or Genentech would not construct a multiple-choice test and hire the top scorers, or hire people whose resumes score highest according to some performance criteria.Instead, they would seek diversity. They would build a team of people who bring diverse knowledge bases,tools and analytic skills. . . .
Believers in a meritocracy might grant that teams ought to be diverse but then argue that meritocratic principles should apply within each category. Thus the team should consist of the ‘best’ mathematicians, the‘best’ oncologists, and the ‘best’ bio statisticians from within the pool. That position suffers from a similar flaw. Even with a knowledge domain, no test or criteria applied to individuals will produce the best team.Each of these domains possesses such depth and breadth, that no test can exist. Consider the field of neuroscience. Upwards of 50,000 papers were published last year covering various techniques, domains of enquiry and levels of analysis, ranging from molecules and synapses up through networks of neurons. Given that complexity, any attempt to rank a collection of neuro scientists from best to worst, as if they were competitors in the 50-metre butterfly, must fail. What could be true is that given a specific task and the composition of a particular team, one scientist would be more likely to contribute than another. Optimal hiring depends on context. Optimal teams will be diverse.
Evidence for this claim can be seen in the way that papers and patents that combine diverse ideas tend to rank as high-impact. It can also be found in the structure of the so-called random decision forest, a state-of the-art machine-learning algorithm. Random forests consist of ensembles of decision trees. If classifying pictures, each tree makes a vote: is that a picture of a fox or a dog? A weighted majority rules. Random forests can serve many ends. They can identify bank fraud and diseases, recommend ceiling fans and predict online dating behaviour. When building a forest, you do not select the best trees as they tend to make similar classifications. You want diversity. Programmers achieve that diversity by training each tree on different data, a technique known as bagging. They also boost the forest ‘cognitively’ by training trees on the hardest cases – those that the current forest gets wrong. This ensures even more diversity and accurate forests.
Yet the fallacy of meritocracy persists. Corporations, non-profits, governments, universities and even preschools test, score and hire the ‘best’. This all but guarantees not creating the best team. Ranking people by common criteria produces homogeneity. . . . That’s not likely to lead to breakthroughs.
Q. 1: Which of the following conditions, if true, would invalidate the passage’s main argument?
Options:
1. If top-scorers possessed multidisciplinary knowledge that enabled them to look at a problem from several perspectives.
2. If assessment tests were made more extensive and rigorous.
3. If it were proven that teams characterised by diversity end up being conflicted about problems andtake a long time to arrive at a solution.
4. If a new machine-learning algorithm were developed that proved to be more effective than therandom decision forest.
OA:1 If top-scorers possessed multidisciplinary knowledge that enabled them to look at aproblem from several perspectives.
Approach: the main argument sticks to the principle of meritocracy: the idea that the ‘best person’should be hired.
Q. 2:The author critiques meritocracy for all the following reasons EXCEPT that:
Options:
1. an ideal team comprises of best individuals from diverse fields of knowledge.
2. modern problems are multifaceted and require varied skill-sets to be solved.
3. criteria designed to assess merit are insufficient to test expertise in any field of knowledge.
4. diversity and context-specificity are important for making major advances in any field.
OA: 1 An ideal team comprises of best individuals from diverse fields of knowledge.
Approach: In the second paragraph it is stated that meritocratic principles should apply within each category and hence the team should consist of the ‘best’ mathematicians, the ‘best’ oncologists, and the‘best’ bio statisticians from within the pool, which the author supports primarily.
Q. 3: Which of the following conditions would weaken the efficacy of a random decision forest?
Options:
1. If a large number of decision trees in the ensemble were trained on data derived from easy cases.
2. If the types of decision trees in each ensemble of the forest were doubled.
3. If a large number of decision trees in the ensemble were trained on data derived from easy and hardcases.
4. If the types of ensembles of decision trees in the forest were doubled.
OA: 1If a large number of decision trees in the ensemble were trained on data derived from easy cases.
Approach:
Stated in the third paragraph that random forests which consist of ensembles of decision trees.Programmers train each tree on different data and also boost the forest ‘cognitively’ by training trees onthe HARDEST cases – those that the current forest gets wrong
Q. 4: On the basis of the passage, which of the following teams is likely to be most effective in solving the problem of rising obesity levels?
Options:
1. A team comprised of nutritionists, psychologists, urban planners and media personnel, who have eachscored a distinction in their respective subject tests.
2. A team comprised of nutritionists, psychologists, urban planners and media personnel, who have each performed well in their respective subject tests.
3. A specialised team of nutritionists from various countries, who are also trained in the machine learning algorithm of random decision forest.
4. A specialised team of top nutritionists from various countries, who also possess some knowledge ofpsychology.
OA:2 A team comprised of nutritionists, psychologists, urban planners and media personnel, who have each performed well in their respective subject tests.Discussed in the 1st paragraph, the problem of rising obesity levels are most effectively solved by the contribution of each and every one discussed in option 2.
Q. 5:Which of the following best describes the purpose of the example of neuroscience?
Options:
1. Unlike other fields of knowledge, neuroscience is an exceptionally complex field, making ameaningful assessment of neuroscientists impossible.
2. In narrow fields of knowledge, a meaningful assessment of expertise has always been possible.
3. Neuroscience is an advanced field of science because of its connections with other branches of science like oncology and bio statistics.
4. In the modern age, every field of knowledge is so vast that a meaningful assessment of merit is impossible.
OA:4 In the modern age, every field of knowledge is so vast that a meaningful assessment of merit is impossible.
Approach: It is stated that Each of these domains possesses such depth and breadth, that no test can exist and hence the assessment of merit is close to impossible.
Passage 2
E
Grove snails as a whole are distributed all over Europe, but a specific variety of the snail, with a distinctive white-lipped shell, is found exclusively in Ireland and in the Pyrenees mountains that lie on the border between France and Spain. The researchers sampled a total of 423 snail specimens from 36 sites distributed across Europe, with an emphasis on gathering large numbers of the white-lipped variety. When the ysequenced genes from the mitochondrial DNA of each of these snails and used algorithms to analyze the genetic diversity between them, they found that. . . a distinct lineage (the snails with the white-lipped shells)was indeed endemic to the two very specific and distant places in question.
Explaining this is tricky. Previously, some had speculated that the strange distributions of creatures such as the white-lipped grove snails could be explained by convergent evolution—in which two populations evolve the same trait by coincidence—but the underlying genetic similarities between the two groups rules that out.Alternately, some scientists had suggested that the white-lipped variety had simply spread over the whole continent, then been wiped out everywhere besides Ireland and the Pyrenees, but the researchers say their sampling and subsequent DNA analysis eliminate that possibility too. “If the snails naturally colonized Ireland, you would expect to find some of the same genetic type in other areas of Europe, especially Britain.We just don’t find them,” Davidson, the lead author, said in a press statement.
Moreover, if they’d gradually spread across the continent, there would be some genetic variation within the white-lipped type, because evolution would introduce variety over the thousands of years it would have taken them to spread from the Pyrenees to Ireland. That variation doesn’t exist, at least in the genes sampled.This means that rather than the organism gradually expanding its range, large populations instead were somehow moved en mass to the other location within the space of a few dozen generations, ensuring a lack of genetic variety.
“There is a very clear pattern, which is difficult to explain except by involving humans,” Davidson said.Humans, after all, colonized Ireland roughly 9,000 years ago, and the oldest fossil evidence of grove snails in Ireland dates to roughly the same era. Additionally, there is archaeological evidence of early sea trade between the ancient peoples of Spain and Ireland via the Atlantic and even evidence that humans routine lyate these types of snails before the advent of agriculture, as their burnt shells have been found in Stone Age trash heaps.
The simplest explanation, then? Boats. These snails may have inadvertently travelled on the floor of the small, coast-hugging skiffs these early humans used for travel, or they may have been intentionally carried to Ireland by the seafarers as a food source. “The highways of the past were rivers and the ocean–as the river that flanks the Pyrenees was an ancient trade route to the Atlantic, what we’re actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride…as humans travelled from the South of France to Ireland 8,000 years ago,” Davidson said.
Q. 6:All of the following evidence supports the passage’s explanation of sea travel/trade EXCEPT:
Options:
1. Archaeological evidence of early sea trade between the ancient peoples of Spain and Ireland via theAtlantic Ocean.
2. The oldest fossil evidence of white-lipped grove snails in Ireland dates back to roughly 9,000 years ago, the time when humans colonised Ireland.
3. Absence of genetic variation within the white-lipped grove snails of Ireland and the Pyrenees, whose genes were sampled.
4. The coincidental existence of similar traits in the white-lipped grove snails of Ireland and thePyrenees because of convergent evolution.
OA: 4 The coincidental existence of similar traits in the white-lipped grove snails of Ireland andthe Pyrenees because of convergent evolution.
Approach: Some scientists had suggested that the white-lipped variety had simply spread over the whole continent,then been wiped out everywhere besides Ireland and the Pyrenees, but the researchers say their samplingand subsequent DNA analysis eliminate that possibility. Hence it negates the explanation of sea trade.
Q. 7: In paragraph 4, the evidence that “humans routinely ate these types of snails before the advent of agriculture” can be used to conclude that:
Options:
1. 9,000 years ago, during the Stone Age, humans traveled from the South of France to Ireland via theAtlantic Ocean.
2. white-lipped grove snails may have inadvertently traveled from the Pyrenees to Ireland on the floor ofthe small, coast-hugging skiffs that early seafarers used for travel.
3. the seafarers who traveled from the Pyrenees to Ireland might have carried white-lipped grove snailswith them as edibles.
4. rivers and oceans in the Stone Age facilitated trade in white-lipped grove snails.
OA: 3 the seafarers who traveled from the Pyrenees to Ireland might have carried white-lipped grove snailswith them as edibles.
Approach: It is clearly mentioned in the last paragraph that “These snails may have inadvertently travelled on the floor of the small, coast-hugging skiffs these early humans used for travel, or they may have been intentionally carried to Ireland by the seafarers as a food source”.
Q. 8: Which one of the following makes the author eliminate convergent evolution as a probable explanation for why white-lipped grove snails are found in Ireland and the Pyrenees?
Options:
1. The absence of genetic similarities between white-lipped grove snails of Ireland and snails from otherparts of Europe, especially Britain.
2. The distinct lineage of white-lipped grove snails found specifically in Ireland and the Pyrenees.
3. The absence of genetic variation between white-lipped grove snails of Ireland and the Pyrenees.
4. The coincidental evolution of similar traits (white-lipped shell) in the grove snails of Ireland and thePyrenees.
OA:3 The absence of genetic variation between white-lipped grove snails of Ireland and the Pyrenees.
Approach: The author does so because there were no genetic variation found in the sampled genes of white lipped grove snails and he somehow inferred that they might have displaced from their land.
Q. 9: The passage outlines several hypotheses and evidence related to white-lipped grove snails to arrive at the most convincing explanation for: Options:
1. how the white-lipped variety of grove snails independently evolved in Ireland and the Pyrenees.
2. how the white-lipped variety of grove snails might have migrated from the Pyrenees to Ireland.
3. why the white-lipped variety of grove snails are found only in Ireland and the Pyrenees.
4. why the white-lipped variety of grove snails were wiped out everywhere except in Ireland and thePyrenees.
OA: 3 why the white-lipped variety of grove snails are found only in Ireland and the Pyrenees.
Approach: As the genes or genetic variation in sampled genes of White lipped grove snails was nowhere to be found except for Ireland and Pyrenees.1 and 2 are clearly eliminated because there is no HOW in the passage.4th eliminated because the snails weren’t exhausted because the genetic variation wasn’t found.
Passage 3
E
More and more companies, government agencies, educational institutions and philanthropic organisations are today in the grip of a new phenomenon: ‘metric fixation’. The key components of metric fixation are the belief that it is possible – and desirable – to replace professional judgement (acquired through personal experience and talent) with numerical indicators of comparative performance based upon standardised data(metrics); and that the best way to motivate people within these organisations is by attaching rewards and penalties to their measured performance.
The rewards can be monetary, in the form of pay for performance, say, or reputational , in the form of college rankings, hospital ratings, surgical report cards and so on. But the most dramatic negative effect of metric fixation is its propensity to incentivise gaming: that is, encouraging professionals to maximise the metrics in ways that are at odds with the larger purpose of the organisation. If the rate of major crimes in a district becomes the metric according to which police officers are promoted, then some officers will respond by simply not recording crimes or downgrading them from major offences to misdemeanours. Or take the case of surgeons. When the metrics of success and failure are made public – affecting their reputation and income– some surgeons will improve their metric scores by refusing to operate on patients with more complex problems, whose surgical outcomes are more likely to be negative. Who suffers? The patients who don’t get operated upon.
When reward is tied to measured performance, metric fixation invites just this sort of gaming. But metric fixation also leads to a variety of more subtle unintended negative consequences. These include goal displacement, which comes in many varieties: when performance is judged by a few measures, and these takes are high (keeping one’s job, getting a pay rise or raising the stock price at the time that stock options are vested), people focus on satisfying those measures – often at the expense of other, more important organisational goals that are not measured. The best-known example is ‘teaching to the test’, a widespread phenomenon that has distorted primary and secondary education in the United States since the adoption of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Short-termism is another negative. Measured performance encourages what the US sociologist Robert KMerton in 1936 called ‘the imperious immediacy of interests … where the actor’s paramount concern with the foreseen immediate consequences excludes consideration of further or other consequences’. In short,advancing short-term goals at the expense of long-range considerations. This problem is endemic to publicly traded corporations that sacrifice long-term research and development, and the development of their staff, to the perceived imperatives of the quarterly report.To the debit side of the ledger must also be added the transactional costs of metrics: the expenditure of employee time by those tasked with compiling and processing the metrics in the first place – not to mention the time required to actually read them. . . .
Q. 10: What main point does the author want to convey through the examples of the police officer and the surgeon?
Options:
1. Some professionals are likely to be significantly influenced by the design of performancemeasurement systems.
2. Metrics-linked rewards may encourage unethical behaviour among some professionals.
3. The actions of police officers and surgeons have a significantly impact on society.
4. Critical public roles should not be evaluated on metrics-based performance measures.
OA: 2 Metrics-linked rewards may encourage unethical behavior among some professionals.
Approach: As stated in the paragraph the most dramatic negative effect of metric fixation is its propensity toincentivize gaming: that is, encouraging professionals to maximize the metrics in WAYS THAT AREAT ODDS with the larger purpose of the organization.
Q. 11: Which of the following is NOT a consequence of the ‘metric fixation’ phenomenon mentioned in the passage?
Options:
1. Improving cooperation among employees leading to increased organisational effectiveness in the longrun.
2. Short-term orientation induced by frequent measurement of performance.
3. Finding a way to show better results without actually improving performance.
4. Deviating from organisationally important objectives to measurable yet less important objectives.
OA:1 Improving cooperation among employees leading to increased organizational effectiveness in the long run.
Approach: Metric fixation is in itself a biased processes which cannot result in positive consequences (as inferredby the passage). Option 1 is discussing about the increased organizational effectiveness which certainlycannot be the consequence of Metric Fixation.
Q. 12:Of the following, which would have added the least depth to the author’s argument?
Options:
1. An analysis of the reasons why metrics fixation is becoming popular despite its drawbacks.
2. More real-life illustrations of the consequences of employees and professionals gaming metrics-basedperformance measurement systems.
3. A comparative case study of metrics- and non-metrics-based evaluation, and its impact on the maingoals of an organisation.
4. Assessment of the pros and cons of a professional judgment-based evaluation system.
OA: 2 More real-life illustrations of the consequences of employees and professionals gaming metrics-based performance measurement system.
Q. 13:All of the following can be a possible feature of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, EXCEPT:
Options:
1. standardised test scores can be critical in determining a student’s educational future.
2. the focus is more on test-taking skills than on higher order thinking and problem-solving.
3. school funding and sanctions are tied to yearly improvement shown on tests.4. assessment is dependent on the teacher’s subjective evaluation of students’ class participation.
OA: 4 assessment is dependent on the teacher’s subjective evaluation of students’ class participation.
Approach: This can be achieved by elimination of all other options which are positive whereas the 4th one is dependent upon the subjective evaluation of students’ class participation.
Q. 14: What is the main idea that the author is trying to highlight in the passage?
Options:
1. All kinds of organisations are now relying on metrics to measure performance and to give rewards and punishments.
2. Long-term organisational goals should not be ignored for short-term measures of organisational success.
3. Performance measurement needs to be precise and cost-effective to be useful for evaluating organisational performance.
4. Evaluating performance by using measurable performance metrics may misguide organisational goal achievement.
OA: 4 Evaluating performance by using measurable performance metrics may misguide organisational goal achievement
Approach: As stated in the 2nd last paragraph metric fixation leads to a variety of more subtle unintended negative consequences. Hence it is evident from the fact that the organizational goals are misguided if evaluation is done on the basis of metrics.
Passage 4
E
NOT everything looks lovelier the longer and closer its inspection. But Saturn does. It is gorgeous through Earthly telescopes. However, the 13 years of close observation provided by Cassini, an American spacecraft,showed the planet, its moons and its remarkable rings off better and better, revealing finer structures, striking novelties and greater drama. . . .
By and large the big things in the solar system—planets and moons—are thought of as having been around since the beginning. The suggestion that rings and moons are new is, though, made even more interesting by the fact that one of those moons, Enceladus, is widely considered the most promising site in the solar systemon which to look for alien life. If Enceladus is both young and bears life, that life must have come into being quickly. This is also believed to have been the case on Earth. Were it true on Enceladus, that would encourage the idea that life evolves easily when conditions are right.
One reason for thinking Saturn’s rings are young is that they are bright. The solar system is suffused with comet dust, and comet dust is dark. Leaving Saturn’s ring system (which Cassini has shown to be more than 90% water ice) out in such a mist is like leaving laundry hanging on a line downwind from a smokestack: it will get dirty. The lighter the rings are, the faster this will happen, for the less mass they contain, the less celestial pollution they can absorb before they start to discolour. . . . Jeff Cuzzi, a scientist at America’s space agency, NASA, who helped run Cassini, told the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston that combining the mass estimates with Cassini’s measurements of the density of comet-dust near Saturn suggests the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them—that is, they are somewhere between 200 m and 70 m years old.
That timing fits well with a theory put forward in 2016, by Matija Cuk of the SETI Institute, in California and his colleagues. They suggest that at around the same time as the rings came into being an old set of moons orbiting Saturn destroyed themselves, and from their remains emerged not only the rings but also the planet’s current suite of inner moons—Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas. . . .
Dr Cuk and his colleagues used computer simulations of Saturn’s moons’ orbits as a sort of time machine. Looking at the rate at which tidal friction is causing these orbits to lengthen they extrapolated backwards to find out what those orbits would have looked like in the past. They discovered that about 100 m years ago the orbits of two of them, Tethys and Dione, would have interacted in a way that left the planes in which they orbit markedly tilted. But their orbits are untilted. The obvious, if the unsettling, conclusion was that this interaction never happened—and thus that at the time when it should have happened, Dione and Tethys were simply not there. They must have come into being later. . . .
Q. 15: Data provided by Cassini challenged the assumption that:
Options:
1. Saturn’s ring system is composed mostly of water ice.
2. there was life on earth when Saturn’s rings were being formed.
3. new celestial bodies can form from the destruction of old celestial bodies.
4. all big things in the solar system have been around since the beginning.
OA: 4all big things in the solar system have been around since the beginning.
Approach: By and large the big things in the solar system—planets and moons—are thought of as having been around since the beginning But Cassini’s observations suggest the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them—that is, they are somewhere between 200m and 70m years old.
Q. 16:The main objective of the passage is to:
Options:
1. establish that Saturn’s rings and inner moons have been around since the beginning of time.
2. demonstrate how the orbital patterns of Saturn’s rings and moons change over time.
3. highlight the beauty, finer structures and celestial drama of Saturn’s rings and moons.
4. provide evidence that Saturn’s rings and moons are recent creations.
OA: 4 provide evidence that Saturn’s rings and moons are recent creations
Approach: Again in the 3rd para last line, Cassini’s observations about measurements of density suggests the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them—that is, they are some where between 200 m and 70 m years old.
Q. 17: Based on information provided in the passage, we can infer that, in addition to water ice, Saturn’s rings might also have small amounts of:
Options:
1. methane and rock particles.
2. helium and methane.
3. helium and comet dust.
4. rock particles and comet dust.
OA:4 rock particles and comet dust.As discussed in the initial lines of 3rd paragraph.
Q. 18: The phrase “leaving laundry hanging on a line downwind from a smokestack” is used to explain how the ringed planet’s:
Options:
1. atmosphere absorbs comet dust.
2. rings discolour and darken over time.
3. rings lose mass over time.
4. moons create a gap between the rings.
OA: 2 rings discolour and darken over time.
Approach: Leaving Saturn’s ring system out in such a mist is like LEAVING LAUNDRY HANGING ON A LINEDOWNWIND FROM A SMOKESTACK: it will get dirty. The lighter the rings are, the faster this will happen, for the less mass they contain, the less celestial pollution they can absorb before they start to discolour.
Q. 19:Based on information provided in the passage, we can conclude all of the following EXCEPT:
Options:
1. Saturn’s lighter rings discolour faster than rings with greater mass.
2. Saturn’s rings were created from the remains of older moons.
3. none of Saturn’s moons ever had suitable conditions for life to evolve.
4. Thethys and Dione are less than 100 million years old.
OA: 3 none of Saturn’s moons ever had suitable conditions for life to evolve.
This is achieved through elimination as all other options are explicitly mentioned in the passage.
Passage 5
E
Will a day come when India’s poor can access government services as easily as drawing cash from an ATM?. . . [N]o country in the world has made accessing education or health or policing or dispute resolution as easy as an ATM, because the nature of these activities requires individuals to use their discretion in a positive way. Technology can certainly facilitate this in a variety of ways if it is seen as one part of an overall approach, but the evidence so far in education, for instance, is that just adding computers alone doesn’t make education any better. . . .
The dangerous illusion of technology is that it can create stronger, top down accountability of service providers in implementation-intensive services within existing public sector organisations. One notion is that electronic management information systems (EMIS) keep better track of inputs and those aspects of personnel that are ‘EMIS visible’ can lead to better services. A recent study examined attempts to increase attendance of Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANMs) at clinics in Rajasthan, which involved high-tech time clocks to monitor attendance. The study’s title says it all: Band-Aids on a Corpse . . . e-governance can be just as bad as any other governance when the real issue is people and their motivation.
For services to improve, the people providing the services have to want to do a better job with the skills they have. A study of medical care in Delhi found that even though providers, in the public sector had much better skills than private sector providers their provision of care in actual practice was much worse.In implementation-intensive services the key to success is face-to-face interactions between a teacher, a nurse, a policeman, an extension agent and a citizen. This relationship is about power. Amartya Sen’s . . .report on education in West Bengal had a supremely telling anecdote in which the villagers forced the teacher to attend school, but then, when the parents went off to work, the teacher did not teach, but forced the children to massage his feet. . . . As long as the system empowers providers over citizens, technology is irrelevant.
The answer to successfully providing basic services is to create systems that provide both autonomy and accountability. In basic education for instance, the answer to poor teaching is not controlling teachers more . . . The key . . . is to hire teachers who want to teach and let them teach, expressing their professionalism and vocation as a teacher through autonomy in the classroom. This autonomy has to be matched with accountability for results—not just narrowly measured through test scores, but broadly for the quality of the education they provide.
A recent study in Uttar Pradesh showed that if, somehow, all civil service teachers could be replaced with contract teachers, the state could save a billion dollars a year in revenue and double student learning. Just the additional autonomy and accountability of contracts through local groups—even without complementary system changes in information and empowerment—led to that much improvement. The first step to being part of the solution is to create performance information accessible to those outside of the government. . . .
Q. 20: The main purpose of the passage is to:
Options:
1. argue that some types of services can be improved by providing independence and requiring accountability.
2. find a solution to the problem of poor service delivery in education by examining different strategies.
3. analyse the shortcomings of government-appointed nurses and their management through technology.
4. critique the government’s involvement in educational activities and other implementation-intensive services.
OA: 1 argue that some types of services can be improved by providing independence and requiring accountability.
Approach: In the 2nd last paragraph it is stated that “The answer to successfully providing basic services is to create systems that provide both autonomy and accountability.” This implies to the 1st statement.
Q. 21: In the context of the passage, we can infer that the title “Band Aids on a Corpse” (in paragraph 2)suggests that:
Options:
1. the nurses who attended the clinics were too poorly trained to provide appropriate medical care.
2. the electronic monitoring system was a superficial solution to a serious problem.
3. the clinics were better funded, but performance monitoring did not result in any improvement.
4. the nurses attended the clinics, but the clinics were ill-equipped.
OA: 2 the electronic monitoring system was a superficial solution to a serious problem.
Q. 22: The author questions the use of monitoring systems in services that involve face-to-face interaction between service providers and clients because such systems:
Options:
1. are ineffective because they are managed by the government.
2. are not as effective in the public sector as they are in the private sector.
3. do not improve services that need committed service providers.
4. improve the skills but do not increase the motivation of service providers.
OA:3 do not improve services that need committed service providers.
Q. 23: According to the author, service delivery in Indian education can be improved in all of the following ways EXCEPT through:
Options:
1. use of technology.
2. access to information on the quality of teaching.
3. recruitment of motivated teachers.
4. elimination of government involvement.
OA: 4elimination of government involvement.Approach: The author wants input from the government all through the passage so that the services provided are better implemented.
Q. 24: Which of the following, IF TRUE, would undermine the passage’s main argument?
Options:
1. Empowerment of service providers leads to increased complacency and rigged performance results.
2. If absolute instead of moderate technological surveillance is exercised over the performance ofservice providers.
3. If it were proven that service providers in the private sector have better skills than those in the public sector.
4. If it were proven that increase in autonomy of service providers leads to an exponential increase in their work ethic and sense of responsibility.
OA: 1 Empowerment of service providers leads to increased complacency and rigged performance results.
Approach: The author clearly states “As long as the system empowers providers over citizens, technology is irrelevant”. Nothing will be relevant if we don’t empower the service providers. No service would be implemented in it’s best form.
Q. 25: Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
Options:
1. Much has been recently discovered about the development of songs in birds.
2. Some species are restricted to a single song learned by all individuals, others have a range of songs.
3. The most important auditory stimuli for the birds are the sounds of other birds.
4. For all bird species there is a prescribed path to development of the final song.
5. A bird begins with the subsong, passes through plastic song until it achieves the species song.
OA:2 Some species are restricted to a single song learned by all individuals, others have a range of songs.
Approach: Sentences 1,3, 4 and 5 talk about the discovery of songs in birds and how they get stimuli, their path todevelopment of final song and finally the flow they follow.
Q. 26: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, forma coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.
1. It was his taxpayers who had to shell out as much as $1.6bn over 10 years to employees of failedcompanies.
2. Companies in many countries routinely engage in such activities which means that the employees areleft with unpaid entitlements
3. Deliberate and systematic liquidation of a company to avoid liabilities and then restarting the businessis called phoenixing.
4. The Australian Minister for Revenue and Services discovered in an audit that phoenixing had cost theAustralian economy between $2.9bn and $5.1bn last year .
OA: 3241
Approach: 3 gives introduction to Phoenixing and is followed by 2nd where “such activities” connects tophoenixing. 4 and 1 are connected as in 4th the cost imposed by phoenixing is discovered and discussedand in 1st the taxpayers who shelled out money over 10 years to the employees of failed companies.
Q. 27:The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.
The early optimism about sport’s deterrent effects on delinquency was premature as researchers failed to find any consistent relationships between sports participation and deviance. As the initial studies were based upon cross-sectional data and the effects captured were short-term, it was problematic to test and verify the temporal sequencing of events suggested by the deterrence theory. The correlation between sport and delinquency could not be disentangled from class and cultural variables known. Choosing individuals to play sports in the first place was problematic, which became more acute in the subsequent decades as researchers began to document just how closely sports participation was linked to social class indicators.
Options:
1. Sports participation is linked to class and cultural variables such as education, income, and social capital.
2. Contradicting the previous optimism, latter researchers have proved that there is no consistent relationship between sports participation and deviance.
3. Statistical and empirical weaknesses stand in the way of inferring any relationship between sports participation and deviance.
4. There is a direct relationship between sport participation and delinquency but it needs more empiricalevidence.
OA: 3 Statistical and empirical weaknesses stand in the way of inferring any relationshipbetween sports participation and deviance.
Reason:
As stated in the paragraph “the initial studies were based upon cross-sectional data and the effectscaptured were short-term, it was problematic to test and verify the temporal sequencing of events”.Also moving towards the end we find that choosing individuals to play sports in the first place wasproblematic, which became more acute in the subsequent decades. 3 Captures everything and hence isan apt summary.
Q. 28: The four sentences (labelled 1,2,3,4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a number. Decide on the proper sequence of order of the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer:
1. They would rather do virtuous side projects assiduously as long as these would not compel them intodoing their day jobs more honourably or reduce the profit margins.
2. They would fund a million of the buzzwordy programs rather than fundamentally question the rulesof their game or alter their own behavior to reduce the harm of the existing distorted, inefficient andunfair rules.
3. Like the dieter who would rather do anything to lose weight than actually eat less, the business elitewould save the world through social-impact-investing and philanthro-capitalism.
4. Doing the right thing — and moving away from their win-win mentality — would involve realsacrifice; instead, it’s easier to focus on their pet projects and initiatives.
OA: 3241
3 introduces the comparison between the dieter and the business elite which continues in 2 as it incorporates “rather than” phrase which was found in 3. 4 and 1 are connected as 4th brings in their focus on pet projects which is then explicitly discussed in 1. 1st is also an apt choice for conclusion.
Q. 29: Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
Options:
1. As India looks to increase the number of cities, our urban planning must factor in potential naturaldisasters and work out contingencies in advance.
2. Authorities must revise data and upgrade infrastructure and mitigation plans even if their local areahasn’t been visited by a natural calamity yet.
3. Extreme temperatures, droughts, and forest fires have more than doubled since 1980.
4. There is no denying the fact that our baseline normal weather is changing.
OA: 4
Reason:
1st, 2nd, and 3rd talk about urbanization which should include the potential natural disasters, theiroutcomes and measures to work out plans in case of any calamity. Whereas 4th has slight change in it’sdirection and is more oriented towards changing normal weather.
Q. 30: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, forma coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.
1. Self-management is thus defined as the ‘individual’s ability to manage the symptoms, treatment,physical and psychosocial consequences and lifestyle changes inherent in living with a chroniccondition’.
2. Most people with progressive diseases like dementia prefer to have control over their own lives andhealth-care for as long as possible.
3. Having control means, among other things, that patients themselves perform self-managementactivities.
4. Supporting people in decisions and actions that promote self-management is called self-managementsupport requiring a cooperative relationship between the patient, the family, and the professionals.
OA: 2314
Reason:
2 clearly initiates the paragraph by introducing the theme of self-management which connects to the 3rdstatement as it explains the meaning of having control and hence takes the statement forward. 1st is aconclusion to what is discussed above and 4th is supporting statement provided in lieu of the conclusion.
Q. 31:The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position:
A Japanese government panel announced that it recommends regulating only genetically modifiedorganisms that have had foreign genes permanently introduced into their genomes and not those whoseendogenous genes have been edited. The only stipulation is that researchers and businesses will have toregister their modifications to plants or animals with the government, with the exception of microbescultured in contained environments. Reactions to the decision are mixed. While lauding the potentialbenefits of genome editing, an editorial opposes across-the-board permission. Unforeseen risks in geneediting cannot be ruled out. All genetically modified products must go through the same safety andlabeling processes regardless of method.
Options:
1. A government panel in Japan says transgenic modification and genome editing are not the same.
2. Excepting microbes cultured in contained environments from the regulations of genome editing ispremature.
3. Exempting from regulations the editing of endogenous genes is not desirable as this procedure mightbe risk-prone.
4. Creating categories within genetically modified products in terms of transgenic modification andgenome editing advances science but defies laws.
OA:3 Exempting from regulations the editing of endogenous genes is not desirable as this procedure might be risk-prone.
Reason:
As stated In the first line, the Japanese government panel recommends regulating only genetically modified organisms that have had foreign genes permanently introduced into their genomes AND NOT those whose ENDOGENOUS genes have been edited. Later in the paragraph it is also discussed that gene editing is prone to risks and this factor can not be undermined. Option 3 best captures it all and hence is an apt choice.
Q. 32: The four sentences (labelled 1,2,3,4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a number. Decide on the proper sequence of order of the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer:
1. In the era of smart world, however, ‘Universal Basic Income’ is an ineffective instrument whichcannot address the potential breakdown of the social contract when large swathes of the populationwould effectively be unemployed.
2. In the era of industrial revolution, the abolition of child labour, poor laws and the growth of tradeunions helped families cope with the pressures of mechanised work.
3. Growing inequality could be matched by a creeping authoritarianism that is bolstered by technologythat is increasingly able to peer into the deepest vestiges of our lives.
4. New institutions emerge which recognise ways in which workers could contribute to and benefit byeconomic growth when, rather than if, their jobs are automated.
OA:2413
Reason:
2nd initiates the paragraph by introducing the era of industrial revolution and the same idea is continuedin 4th. “However” in 1st recounts the contrast ( hence couldn’t be the one to initiate) and discusses therepercussions of the above mentioned.
Q. 33: Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key the number in:
Options:
1. Our smartphones can now track our diets, our biological cycles, even our digestive systems and sleep patterns.
2. Researchers have even coined a new term, “orthosomnia”, to describe insomnia brought on bypaying too much attention to smartphones and sleep-tracking apps
.3. Sleep, nature’s soft nurse, is a blissful, untroubled state all too easily disturbed by earthly worries or aguilty conscience.
4. The existence of a market for such apps is unsurprising: shift work, a long-hours culture and bluelight from screens have conspired to rob many of us of sufficient rest.
OA:1 Our smartphones can now track our diets, our biological cycles, even our digestivesystems and sleep-patterns.
Reason:
The other statements are oriented towards sleep, disturbances in sleep and insomnia, however the 1ststatement is oriented towards the smartphones, their usages.
Q. 34: The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.
Should the moral obligation to rescue and aid persons in grave peril, felt by a few, be enforced by thecriminal law? Should we follow the lead of a number of European countries and enact bad Samaritanlaws? Proponents of bad Samaritan laws must overcome at least three different sorts of obstacles. First,they must show the laws are morally legitimate in principle, that is, that the duty to aid others is a propercandidate for legal enforcement. Second, they must show that this duty to aid can be defined in a waythat can be fairly enforced by the courts. Third, they must show that the benefits of the laws are worththeir problems, risks and costs.
Options:
1. A number of European countries that have successfully enacted bad Samaritan laws may serve asmodel statutes.
2. Everyone agrees that people ought to aid others, the only debate is whether to have a law on it.
3. If bad Samaritan laws are found to be legally sound and enforceable they must be enacted.
4. Bad Samaritan laws may be desirable but they need to be tested for legal soundness.
OA:4
Bad Samaritan laws may be desirable but they need to be tested for legal soundness.
Reason:
Although 3 and 4 both are more or less showcasing the same thing, but 4 looks more like a statement,hence apt for summary. 3 is more like a condition and hence surreal as summary.
