NinetynineCAT 2017 Slot 1 VARC RC Passage 6 Q29–Q31
A reading comprehension passage from the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of CAT 2017 Slot 1, with 3 questions (RC · Arts & Culture). Answers are CAT's official key.
The passage
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Question 29
To me, a "classic" means precisely the opposite of what my predecessors understood: a work is classical by reason of its resistance to contemporaneity and supposed universality, by reason of its capacity to indicate human particularity and difference in that past epoch. The classic is not what tells me about shared humanity—or, more truthfully put, what lets me recognize myself as already present in the past, what nourishes in me the illusion that everything has been like me and has existed only to prepare the way for me. Instead, the classic is what gives access to radically different forms of human consciousness for any given generation of readers, and thereby expands for them the range of possibilities of what it means to be a human being.
- AA classic is able to focus on the contemporary human condition and a unified experience of human consciousness.
- BA classical work seeks to resist particularity and temporal difference even as it focuses on a common humanity
- CA classic is a work exploring the new., going beyond the universal, the contemporary, and the notion of a unified human consciousness
- DA classic is a work that provides access to a universal experience of the human race as opposed to radically different forms of human consciousness
Answer: (C) A classic is a work exploring the new., going beyond the universal, the contemporary, and the notion of a unified human consciousness RC · Arts & Culture MCQ
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Question 30
A translator of literary works needs a secure hold upon the two languages involved, supported by a good measure of familiarity with the two cultures. For an Indian translating works in an Indian language into English, finding satisfactory equivalents in a generalized western culture of practices and symbols in the original would be less difficult than gaining fluent control of contemporary English. When a westerner works on texts in Indian languages the interpretation of cultural elements will be the major challenge, rather than control over the grammar and essential vocabulary of the language concerned. It is much easier to remedy lapses in language in a text translated into English, than flaws of content. Since it is easier for an Indian to learn the English language than it is for a Briton or American to comprehend Indian culture, translations of Indian texts is better left to Indians.
- AWhile translating, the Indian and the westerner face the same challenges but they have different skill profiles and the former has the advantage.
- BAs preserving cultural meanings is the essence of literary translation Indians' knowledge of the local culture outweighs the initial disadvantage of lower fluency in English.
- CIndian translators should translate Indian texts into English as their work is less likely to pose cultural problems which are harder to address than the quality of language.
- DWesterners might be good at gaining reasonable fluency in new languages, but as understanding the culture reflected in literature is crucial, Indians remain better placed.
Answer: (C) Indian translators should translate Indian texts into English as their work is less likely to pose cultural problems which are harder to address than the quality of language. RC · Arts & Culture MCQ
A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.
Question 31
For each of the past three years, temperatures have hit peaks not seen since the birth of meteorology, and probably not for more than 110,000 years. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is at its highest level in 4 million years. This does not cause storms like Harvey - there have always been storms and hurricanes along the Gulf of Mexico - but it makes them wetter and more powerful. As the seas warm, they evaporate more easily and provide energy to storm fronts. As the air above them warms, it holds more water vapour. For every half a degree Celsius in warming, there is about a 3% increase in atmospheric moisture content. Scientists call this the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. This means the skies fill more quickly and have more to dump. The storm surge was greater because sea levels have risen 20 cm as a result of more than 100 years of human -related global warming which has melted glaciers and thermally expanded the volume of sea water.
- AThe storm Harvey is one of the regular., annual ones from the Gulf of Mexico; global warming and Harvey are unrelated phenomena.
- BGlobal warming does not breed storms but makes them more destructive; the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, though it predicts potential increase in atmospheric moisture content, cannot predict the scale of damage storms might wreck.
- CGlobal warming melts glaciers, resulting in sea water volume expansion; this enables more water vapour to fill the air above faster. Thus, modern storms contain more destructive energy.
- DIt is naive to think that rising sea levels and the force of tropical storms are unrelated; Harvey was destructive as global warming has armed it with more moisture content, but this may not be true of all storms.
Answer: (C) Global warming melts glaciers, resulting in sea water volume expansion; this enables more water vapour to fill the air above faster. Thus, modern storms contain more destructive energy. RC · Arts & Culture MCQ
A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.