CAT 2019 Slot 2 VARC RC Passage 6 Q29–Q31

A reading comprehension passage from the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of CAT 2019 Slot 2, with 3 questions (RC · Society, History & Politics). 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

Language is an autapomorphy found only in our lineage, and not shared with other branches of our group such as primates. We also have no definitive evidence that any species other than Homo sapiens ever had language. However, it must be noted straightaway that ‘language’ is not a monolithic entity, but rather a complex bundle of traits that must have evolved over a significant time frame.... Moreover, language crucially draws on aspects of cognition that are long established in the primate lineage, such as memory: the language faculty as a whole comprises more than just the uniquely linguistic features.
  1. A
    Language, a derived trait found only in humans, has evolved over time and involves memory.
  2. B
    Language is a distinctively human feature as there is no evidence of the existence of language in any other species.
  3. C
    Language evolved with linguistic features building on features of cognition such as memory.
  4. D
    Language is not a single, uniform entity but the end result of a long and complex process of linguistic evolution.

Answer: (C) Language evolved with linguistic features building on features of cognition such as memory. RC · Society, History & Politics MCQ

A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.

Question 30

Social movement organizations often struggle to mobilize supporters from allied movements in their efforts to achieve critical mass. Organizations with hybrid identities—those whose organizational identities span the boundaries of two or more social movements, issues, or identities—are vital to mobilizing these constituencies. Studies of the post-9/11 U.S. antiwar movement show that individuals with past involvement in non-anti-war movements are more likely to join hybrid organizations than are individuals without involvement in non-anti-war movements. In addition, they show that organizations with hybrid identities occupy relatively more central positions in inter-organizational contact networks within the antiwar movement and thus recruit significantly more participants in demonstrations than do nonhybrid organizations.
  1. A
    Post 9/11 studies show that people who are involved in non anti-war movements are likely to join hybrid organizations.
  2. B
    Hybrid organizations attract individuals that are deeply involved in anti-war movements.
  3. C
    Movements that work towards social change often find it difficult to mobilize a critical mass of supporters.
  4. D
    Organizations with hybrid identities are able to mobilize individuals with different points of view.

Answer: (D) Organizations with hybrid identities are able to mobilize individuals with different points of view. RC · Society, History & Politics 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

Privacy-challenged office workers may find it hard to believe, but open-plan offices and cubicles were invented by architects and designers who thought that to break down the social walls that divide people, you had to break down the real walls, too. Modernist architects saw walls and rooms as downright fascist. The spaciousness and flexibility of an open plan would liberate homeowners and office dwellers from the confines of boxes. But companies took up their idea less out of a democratic ideology than a desire to pack in as many workers as they could. The typical open-plan office of the first half of the 20th century was a white-collar assembly line. Cubicles were interior designers’ attempt to put some soul back in.
  1. A
    Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out as desired and therefore cubicles came into being.
  2. B
    Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out the way their utopian inventors intended, as they became tools for exploitation of labor.
  3. C
    Wall-free office spaces could have worked out the way their utopian inventors intended had companies cared for workers' satisfaction.
  4. D
    Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out as companies don’t believe in democratic ideology.

Answer: (B) Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out the way their utopian inventors intended, as they became tools for exploitation of labor. RC · Society, History & Politics MCQ

A worked solution for this question is being written. Meanwhile, practise it in a timed mock and see how other aspirants did.

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