(Paper) CAT 2006 Exam Paper
CAT Exam Paper 2006
Answer questions 6 to 10 on the basis of the
information given below. Mathematicians are assigned a number called Erdös
number, (named after the famous mathematician, Paul Erdös). Only Paul Erdös
himself has an Erdös number of zero. Any mathematician who has written a
research paper with Erdös has an Erdös number of 1. For other mathematicians,
the calculation of his/her Erdös number is illustrated below: Suppose that a
mathematician X has co-authored papers with several other mathematicians. From
among them, mathematician Y has the smallest Erdös number. Let the Erdös number
of Y be y. Then X has an Erdös number of y + 1. Hence any mathematician with no
co-authorship chain connected to Erdös has an Erdös number of infinity. In a
seven day long mini-conference organized in memory of Paul Erdös, a close group
of eight mathematicians, call them A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H, discussed some
research problems. At the beginning of the conference, A was the only
participant who had an infinite Erdös number. Nobody had an Erdös number less
than that of F. On the third day of the conference F co-authored a paper jointly
with A and C. This reduced the average Erdös number of the group of eight
mathematicians to 3. The Erdös numbers of B, D, E, G and H remained unchanged
with the writing of this paper. Further, no other co-authorship among any three
members would have reduced the average Erdös number of the group of eight to as
low as 3. At the end of the third day, five members of this group had identical
Erdös numbers while the other three had Erdös numbers distinct from each other.
On the fifth day, E co-authored a paper with F which reduced the group‘s average
Erdös number by 0.5. The Erdös numbers of the remaining six were unchanged with
the writing of this paper. No other paper was written during the conference.
6. The person having the largest Erdös number at the end of the conference
must have had Erdös number (at that time):
(1) 5
(2) 7
(3) 9
(4) 14
(5) 15
7. How many participants in the conference did not change their Erdös number
during the conference?
(1) 2
(2) 3
(3) 4
(4) 5
(5) Cannot be determined
8. The Erdös number of C at the end of the conference was:
(1) 1
(2) 2
(3) 3
(4) 4
(5) 5
9. The Erdös number of E at the beginning of the conference was:
(1) 2
(2) 5
(3) 6
(4) 7
(5) 8
10. How many participants had the same Erdös number at the beginning of the
conference?
(1) 2
(2) 3
(3) 4
(4) 5
(5) Cannot be determined
Answer the questions 11 to 15 on the basis of the information given
below.
Two traders, Chetan and Michael, were involved in the buying and selling of MCS
shares over five trading days. At the beginning of the first day, the MCS share
was priced at Rs. 100, while at the end of the fifth day it was priced at Rs.
110. At the end of each day, the MCS share price either went up by Rs. 10, or
else, it came down by Rs. 10. Both Chetan and Michael took buying and selling
decisions at the end of each trading day. The beginning price of MCS share on a
given day was the same as the ending price of the previous day. Chetan and
Michael started with the same number of shares and amount of cash, and had
enough of both. Below are some additional facts about how Chetan and Michael
traded over the five trading days. Each day if the price went up, Chetan sold 10
shares of MCS at the closing price. On the other hand, each day if the price
went down, he bought 10 shares at the closing price. If on any day, the closing
price was above Rs. 110, then Michael sold 10 shares of MCS, while if it was
below Rs. 90, he bought 10 shares, all at the closing price.
11. If Chetan sold 10 shares of MCS on three consecutive days, while Michael
sold 10 shares only once during the five days, what was the price of MCS at the
end of day 3?
(1) Rs. 90
(2) Rs. 100
(3) Rs. 110
(4) Rs. 120
(5) Rs. 130
12. If Michael ended up with Rs. 100 less cash than Chetan at the end of day
5, what was the difference in the number of shares possessed by Michael and
Chetan (at the end of day 5)?
(1) Michael had 10 less shares than Chetan.
(2) Michael had10 more shares than Chetan.
(3) Chetan had 10 more shares than Michael.
(4) Chetan had 20 more shares than Michael.
(5) Both had the same number of shares.
13. If Chetan ended up with Rs. 1300 more cash than Michael at the end of day
5, what was the price of MCS share at the end of day 4?
(1) Rs. 90
(2) Rs. 100
(3) Rs. 110
(4) Rs. 120
(5) Not uniquely determinable
14. What could have been the maximum possible increase in combined cash
balance of Chetan and Michael at the end of the fifth day?
(1) Rs. 3700
(2) Rs. 4000
(3) Rs. 4700
(4) Rs. 5000
(5) Rs. 6000
15. If Michael ended up with 20 more shares than Chetan at the end of day 5,
what was the price of the share at the end of day 3?
(1) Rs. 90
(2) Rs. 100
(3) Rs. 110
(4) Rs. 120
(5) Rs. 130
Answer questions 16 to 20 on the basis of the information given below.
A significant amount of traffic flows from point S to point T in the one-way
street network shown below. Points A, B, C, and D are junctions in the network,
and the arrows mark the direction of traffic flow. The fuel cost in rupees for
travelling along a street is indicated by the number adjacent to the arrow
representing the street.
Motorists travelling from point S to point T would obviously take the route for
which the total cost of travelling is the minimum. If two or more routes have
the same least travel cost, then motorists are indifferent between them. Hence,
the traffic gets evenly distributed among all the least cost routes. The
government can control the flow of traffic only by levying appropriate toll at
each junction. For example, if a motorist takes the route S-A-T (using junction
A alone), then the total cost of travel would be Rs. 14 (i.e. Rs. 9 + Rs. 5)
plus the toll charged at junction A.
16. If the government wants to ensure that all motorists travelling from S to
T pay the same amount (fuel costs and toll combined) regardless of the route
they choose and the street from B to C is under repairs (and hence unusable),
then a feasible set of toll charged (in rupees) at junctions A, B, C, and D
respectively to achieve this goal is:
(1) 2, 5, 3, 2
(2) 0, 5, 3, 1
(3) 1, 5, 3, 2
(4) 2, 3, 5, 1
(5) 1, 3, 5, 1
17. If the government wants to ensure that no traffic flows on the street
from D to T, while equal amount of traffic flows through junctions A and C, then
a feasible set of toll charged (in rupees) at junctions A, B, C, and D
respectively to achieve this goal is:
(1) 1, 5, 3, 3
(2) 1, 4, 4, 3
(3) 1, 5, 4, 2
(4) 0, 5, 2, 3
(5) 0, 5, 2, 2
18. If the government wants to ensure that all routes from S to T get the
same amount of traffic, then a feasible set of toll charged (in rupees) at
junctions A, B, C, and D respectively to achieve this goal is:
(1) 0, 5, 2, 2
(2) 0, 5, 4, 1
(3) 1, 5, 3, 3
(4) 1, 5, 3, 2
(5) 1, 5, 4, 2
19. If the government wants to ensure that the traffic at S gets evenly
distributed along streets from S to A, from S to B, and from S to D, then a
feasible set of toll charged (in rupees) at junctions A, B, C, and D
respectively to achieve this goal is:
(1) 0, 5, 4, 1
(2) 0, 5, 2, 2
(3) 1, 5, 3, 3
(4) 1, 5, 3, 2
(5) 0, 4, 3, 2
20. The government wants to devise a toll policy such that the total cost to
the commuters per trip is minimized. The policy should also ensure that not more
than 70 per cent of the total traffic passes through junction B. The cost
incurred by the commuter travelling from point S to point T under this policy
will be:
(1) Rs. 7
(2) Rs. 9
(3) Rs. 10
(4) Rs. 13
(5) Rs. 14
Answer questions 21 to 25 on the basis of the information given below.
K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, U and W are the only ten members in a department. There
is a proposal to form a team from within the members of the department, subject
to the following conditions: A team must include exactly one among P, R, and S.
A team must include either M or Q, but not both. If a team includes K, then it
must also include L, and vice versa. If a team includes one among S, U, and W,
then it must also include the other two. L and N cannot be members of the same
team. L and U cannot be members of the same team. The size of a team is defined
as the number of members in the team.
21. What could be the size of a team that includes K?
(1) 2 or 3
(2) 2 or 4
(3) 3 or 4
(4) Only 2
(5) Only 4
22. In how many ways a team can be constituted so that the team includes N?
(1) 2
(2) 3
(3) 4
(4) 5
(5) 6
23. What would be the size of the largest possible team?
(1) 8
(2) 7
(3) 6
(4) 5
(5) Cannot be determined
24. Who can be a member of a team of size 5?
(1) K
(2) L
(3) M
(4) P
(5) R
25. Who cannot be a member of a team of size 3?
(1) L
(2) M
(3) N
(4) P
(5) Q
Section II Directions for Questions 26 to 30: Each of the questions below
has a set of sequentially ordered statements. Each statement can be classified
as one of the following:
A. Facts, which deal with the pieces of information that one has heard, seen or
read, and which are open to discovery or verification (the answer option
indicates such a statement with an ‘F’)
B. Inferences, which are conclusions drawn about the unknown, on the basis of
the known (the answer option indicates such a statement with an ‘I’)
C. Judgements, which are opinions that imply approval or disapproval of persons,
objects, situations and occurrences in the past, the present or the future (the
answer option indicates such a statement with a ‘J’) Select the answer option
that best describes the set of statements.
26.
1. So much of our day-to-day focus seems to be on getting things done, trudging
our way through the tasks of living - it can feel like a treadmill that gets you
nowhere; where is the childlike joy?
2. We are not doing the things that make us happy; that which brings us joy; the
things that we cannot wait to do because we enjoy them so much.
3. This is the stuff that joyful living is made of – identifying your calling
and committing yourself wholeheartedly to it.
4. When this happens, each moment becomes a celebration of you; there is a rush
of energy that comes with feeling completely immersed in doing what you love
most.
(1) IIIJ
(2) IFIJ
(3) JFJJ
(4) JJJJ
(5) JFII
27.
1. Given the poor quality of service in the public sector, the HIV/AIDS affected
should be switching to private initiatives that supply anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs)
at a low cost.
2. The government has been supplying free drugs since 2004, and 35000 have
benefited up to now - though the size of the affected population is 150 times
this number.
3. The recent initiatives of networks and companies like AIDSCare Network,
Emcure, Reliance-Cipla-CII, would lead to availability of much-needed drugs to a
larger number of affected people.
4. But how ironic it is that we should face a perennial shortage of drugs when
India is one of the world‘s largest suppliers of generic drugs to the developing
world.
(1) JFIJ
(2) JIIJ
(3) IFIJ
(4) IFFJ
(5) JFII
28.
1. According to all statistical indications, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has
managed to keep pace with its ambitious goals.
2. The Mid-day Meal Scheme has been a significant incentive for the poor to send
their little ones to school, thus establishing the vital link between healthy
bodies and healthy minds.
3. Only about 13 million children in the age group of 6 to 14 years are out of
school.
4. The goal of universalisation of elementary education has to be a
pre-requisite for the evolution and development of our country.
(1) IIFJ
(2) JIIJ
(3) IJFJ
(4) IJFI
(5) JIFI
29.
1. We should not be hopelessly addicted to an erroneous belief that corruption
in India is caused by the crookedness of Indians.
2. The truth is that we have more red tape - we take eighty-nine days to start a
small business, Australians take two.
3. Red tape leads to corruption and distorts a people‘s character.
4. Every red tape procedure is a point of contact with an official, and such
contacts have the potential to become opportunities for money to change hands.
(1) JFIF
(2) JFJJ
(3) JIJF
(4) IFJF
(5) JFJI
30.
1. Inequitable distribution of all kinds of resources is certainly one of the
strongest and most sinister sources of conflict.
2. Even without war, we know that conflicts continue to trouble us - they only
change in character.
3. Extensive disarmament is the only insurance for our future; imagine the
amount of resources that can be released and redeployed.
4. The economies of the industrialized western world derive 20% of their income
from the sale of all kinds of arms.
(1) IJJI
(2) JIJF
(3) IIJF
(4) JIIF
(5) IJIF
Directions for Questions 31 to 35: Each of the following questions has a
paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options,
choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
31. I am sometimes attacked for imposing 'rules‘. Nothing could be further
from the truth. I hate rules. All I do is report on how consumers react to
different stimuli. I may say to a copywriter, “Research shows that commercials
with celebrities are below average in persuading people to buy products. Are you
sure you want to use a celebrity?” Call that a rule? Or I may say to an art
director, “Research suggests that if you set the copy in black type on a white
background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black
background.”
(1) Guidance based on applied research can hardly qualify as ‘rules’.
(2) Thus, all my so called ‘rules’ are rooted in applied research.
(3) A suggestion perhaps, but scarcely a rule.
(4) Such principles are unavoidable if one wants to be systematic about consumer
behaviour.
(5) Fundamentally it is about consumer behaviour - not about celebrities or type
settings.
32. Relations between the factory and the dealer are distant and usually
strained as the factory tries to force cars on the dealers to smooth out
production. Relations between the dealer and the customer are equally strained
because dealers continuously adjust prices - make deals - to adjust demand with
supply while maximizing profits. This becomes a system marked by a lack of
long-term commitment on either side, which maximize feelings of mistrust. In
order to maximize their bargaining positions, everyone holds back information -
the dealer about the product and the consumer about his true desires.
(1) As a result, ‘deal making’ becomes rampant, without concern for customer
satisfaction.
(2) As a result, inefficiencies creep into the supply chain.
(3) As a result, everyone treats the other as an adversary, rather than as an
ally.
(4) As a result, fundamental innovations are becoming scarce in the automobile
industry.
(5) As a result, everyone loses in the long run.
33. In the evolving world order, the comparative advantage of the United
States lies in its military force. Diplomacy and international law have always
been regarded as annoying encumbrances, unless they can be used to advantage
against an enemy. Every active player in world affairs professes to seek only
peace and to prefer negotiation to violence and coercion.
(1) However, diplomacy has often been used as a mask by nations which
intended to use force.
(2) However, when the veil is lifted, we commonly see that diplomacy is
understood as a disguise for the rule of force.
(3) However, history has shown that many of these nations do not practice what
they profess.
(4) However, history tells us that peace is professed by those who intend to use
violence.
(5) However, when unmasked, such nations reveal a penchant for the use of force.
34. Age has a curvilinear relationship with the exploitation of opportunity.
Initially, age will increase the likelihood that a person will exploit an
entrepreneurial opportunity because people gather much of the knowledge
necessary to exploit opportunities over the course of their lives, and because
age provides credibility in transmitting that information to others. However, as
people become older, their willingness to bear risks declines, their opportunity
costs rise, and they become less receptive to new information.
(1) As a result, people transmit more information rather than experiment
with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.
(2) As a result, people are reluctant to experiment with new ideas as they reach
an advanced age.
(3) As a result, only people with lower opportunity costs exploit opportunity
when they reach an advanced age.
(4) As a result, people become reluctant to exploit entrepreneurial
opportunities when they reach an advanced age.
(5) As a result, people depend on credibility rather than on novelty as they
reach an advanced age.
35. We can usefully think of theoretical models as maps, which help us
navigate unfamiliar territory. The most accurate map that it is possible to
construct would be of no practical use whatsoever, for it would be an exact
replica, on exactly the same scale, of the place where we were. Good maps pull
out the most important features and throw away a huge amount of much less
valuable information. Of course, maps can be bad as well as good - witness the
attempts by medieval Europe to produce a map of the world. In the same way, a
bad theory, no matter how impressive it may seem in principle, does little or
nothing to help us understand a problem.
(1) But good theories, just like good maps, are invaluable, even if they are
simplified.
(2) But good theories, just like good maps, will never represent unfamiliar
concepts in detail.
(3) But good theories, just like good maps, need to balance detail and
feasibility of representation.
(4) But good theories, just like good maps, are accurate only at a certain level
of abstraction.
(5) But good theories, just like good maps, are useful in the hands of a user
who knows their limitations.
Directions for Questions 36 to 40: The passage given below is followed by
a set of questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
Fifteen years after communism was officially pronounced dead, its spectre seems
once again to be haunting Europe. Last month, the Council of Europe‘s
parliamentary assembly voted to condemn the crimes of totalitarian communist
regimes,“ linking them with Nazism and complaining that communist parties are
still legal and active in some countries.“Now Goran Lindblad, the conservative
Swedish MP behind the resolution, wants to go further. Demands that European
Ministers launch a continent-wide anti-communist campaign - including school
textbook revisions, official memorial days, and museums - only narrowly missed
the necessary two-thirds majority. Mr. Lindblad pledged to bring the wider plans
back to the Council of Europe in the coming months. He has chosen a good year
for his ideological offensive: this is the 50th anniversary of Nikita
Khrushchev‘s denunciation of Josef Stalin and the subsequent Hungarian uprising,
which will doubtless be the cue for further excoriation of the communist record.
Paradoxically, given that there is no communist government left in Europe
outside Moldova, the attacks have if anything, become more extreme as time has
gone on. A clue as to why that might be can be found in the rambling report by
Mr. Lindblad that led to the Council of Europe declaration. Blaming class
struggle and public ownership, he explained different elements of communist
ideology such as equality or social justice still seduce many “and a sort of
nostalgia for communism is still alive.” Perhaps the real problem for Mr.
Lindblad and his right-wing allies in Eastern Europe is that communism is not
dead enough - and they will only be content when they have driven a stake
through its heart. The fashionable attempt to equate communism and Nazism is in
reality a moral and historical nonsense. Despite the cruelties of the Stalin
terror, there was no Soviet Treblinka or Sorbibor, no extermination camps built
to murder millions. Nor did the Soviet Union launch the most devastating war in
history at a cost of more than 50 million lives - in fact it played the decisive
role in the defeat of the German war machine. Mr. Lindblad and the Council of
Europe adopt as fact the wildest estimates of those killed by communist regimes
(mostly in famines) from the fiercely contested Black Book of Communism, which
also underplays the number of deaths attributable to Hitler. But, in any case,
none of this explains why anyone might be nostalgic in former communist states,
now enjoying the delights of capitalist restoration. The dominant account gives
no sense of how communist regimes renewed themselves after 1956 or why Western
leaders feared they might overtake the capitalist world well into the 1960s. For
all its brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe,
and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialization, mass education, job security,
and huge advances in social and gender equality. Its existence helped to drive
up welfare standards in the West, and provided a powerful counterweight to
Western global domination.
It would be easier to take the Council of Europe‘s condemnation of communist
state crimes seriously if it had also seen fit to denounce the far bloodier
record of European colonialism - which only finally came to an end in the 1970s.
This was a system of racist despotism, which dominated the globe in Stalin‘s
time. And while there is precious little connection between the ideas of fascism
and communism, there is an intimate link between colonialism and Nazism. The
terms lebensraum and konzentrationslager were both first used by the German
colonial regime in south-west Africa (now Namibia), which committed genocide
against the Herero and Nama peoples and bequeathed its ideas and personnel
directly to the Nazi party. Around 10 million Congolese died as a result of
Belgian forced labour and mass murder in the early twentieth century; tens of
millions perished in avoidable or enforced famines in British-ruled India; up to
a million Algerians died in their war for independence, while controversy now
rages in France about a new law requiring teachers to put a positive spin on
colonial history. Comparable atrocities were carried out by all European
colonialists, but not a word of condemnation from the Council of Europe.
Presumably, European lives count for more. No major twentieth century political
tradition is without blood on its hands, but battles over history are more about
the future than the past. Part of the current enthusiasm in official Western
circles for dancing on the grave of communism is no doubt about relations with
today‘s Russia and China. But it also reflects a determination to prove there is
no alternative to the new global capitalist order - and that any attempt to find
one is bound to lead to suffering. With the new imperialism now being resisted
in the Muslim world and Latin America, growing international demands for social
justice and ever greater doubts about whether the environmental crisis can be
solved within the existing economic system, the pressure for alternatives will
increase.
36. Among all the apprehensions that Mr. Goran Lindblad expresses against
communism, which one gets admitted, although indirectly, by the author?
(1) There is nostalgia for communist ideology even if communism has been
abandoned by most European nations.
(2) Notions of social justice inherent in communist ideology appeal to critics
of existing systems.
(3) Communist regimes were totalitarian and marked by brutalities and large
scale violence.
(4) The existing economic order is wrongly viewed as imperialistic by proponents
of communism.
(5) Communist ideology is faulted because communist regimes resulted in economic
failures.
37. What, according to the author, is the real reason for a renewed attack
against communism?
(1) Disguising the unintended consequences of the current economic order
such as social injustice and environmental crisis.
(2) Idealising the existing ideology of global capitalism.
(3) Making communism a generic representative of all historical atrocities,
especially those perpetrated by the European imperialists.
(4) Communism still survives, in bits and pieces, in the minds and hearts of
people.
(5) Renewal of some communist regimes has led to the apprehension that communist
nations might overtake the capitalists.
38. The author cites examples of atrocities perpetrated by European colonial
regimes in order to
(1) compare the atrocities committed by colonial regimes with those of
communist regimes.
(2) prove that the atrocities committed by colonial regimes were more than those
of communist regimes.
(3) prove that, ideologically, communism was much better than colonialism and
Nazism.
(4) neutralise the arguments of Mr.Lindblad and to point out that the atrocities
committed by colonial regimes were more than those of communist regimes.
(5) neutralise the arguments of Mr. Lindblad and to argue that one needs to go
beyond and look at the motives of these regimes.
39. Why, according to the author, is Nazism closer to colonialism than it is
to communism?
(1) Both colonialism and Nazism were examples of tyranny of one race over
another.
(2) The genocides committed by the colonial and the Nazi regimes were of similar
magnitude.
(3) Several ideas of the Nazi regime were directly imported from colonial
regimes.
(4) Both colonialism and Nazism are based on the principles of imperialism.
(5) While communism was never limited to Europe, both the Nazis and the
colonialists originated in Europe.
40. Which of the following cannot be inferred as a compelling reason for the
silence of the Council of Europe on colonial atrocities?
(1) The Council of Europe being dominated by erstwhile colonialists.
(2) Generating support for condemning communist ideology.
(3) Unwillingness to antagonize allies by raking up an embarrassing past.
(4) Greater value seemingly placed on European lives.
(5) Portraying both communism and Nazism as ideologies to be condemned.
Directions for Questions 41 to 45: The passage given below is followed by
a set of five questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
My aim is to present a conception of justice which generalizes and carries to a
higher level of abstraction the familiar theory of the social contract. In order
to do this we are not to think of the original contract as one to enter a
particular society or to set up a particular form of government. Rather, the
idea is that the principles of justice for the basic structure of society are
the object of the original agreement. They are the principles that free and
rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an
initial position of equality. These principles are to regulate all further
agreements; they specify the kinds of social cooperation that can be entered
into and the forms of government that can be established. This way of regarding
the principles of justice, I shall call justice as fairness. Thus, we are to
imagine that those who engage in social cooperation choose together, in one
joint act, the principles which are to assign basic rights and duties and to
determine the division of social benefits. Just as each person must decide by
rational reflection what constitutes his good, that is, the system of ends which
it is rational for him to pursue, so a group of persons must decide once and for
all what is to count among them as just and unjust. The choice which rational
men would make in this hypothetical situation of equal liberty determines the
principles of justice. In ‘justice as fairness’, the original position is not an
actual historical state of affairs. It is understood as a purely hypothetical
situation characterized so as to lead to a certain conception of justice. Among
the essential features of this situation is that no one knows his place in
society, his class position or social status, nor does anyone know his fortune
in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence, strength,
and the like. I shall even assume that the parties do not know their conceptions
of the good or their special psychological propensities. The principles of
justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance. This ensures that no one is
advantaged or disadvantaged in the choice of principles by the outcome of
natural chance or the contingency of social circumstances. Since all are
similarly situated and no one is able to design principles to favor his
particular condition, the principles of justice are the result of a fair
agreement or bargain. Justice as fairness begins with one of the most general of
all choices which persons might make together, namely, with the choice of the
first principles of a conception of justice which is to regulate all subsequent
criticism and reform of institutions. Then, having chosen a conception of
justice, we can suppose that they are to choose a constitution and a legislature
to enact laws, and so on, all in accordance with the principles of justice
initially agreed upon. Our social situation is just if it is such that by this
sequence of hypothetical agreements we would have contracted into the general
system of rules which defines it. Moreover, assuming that the original position
does determine a set of principles, it will then be true that whenever social
institutions satisfy these principles, those engaged in them can say to one
another that they are cooperating on terms to which they would agree if they
were free and equal persons whose relation with respect to one another were
fair. They could all view their arrangements as meeting the stipulations which
they would acknowledge in an initial situation that embodies widely accepted and
reasonable constraints on the choice of principles. The general recognition of
this fact would provide the basis for a public acceptance of the corresponding
principles of justice. No society can, of course, be a scheme of cooperation
which men enter voluntarily in a literal sense; each person finds himself placed
at birth in some particular position in some particular society, and the nature
of this position materially affects his life prospects. Yet a society satisfying
the principles of justice as fairness comes as close as a society can to being a
voluntary scheme, for it meets the principles which free and equal persons would
assent to under circumstances that are fair.
41. A just society, as conceptualized in the passage, can be best described
as:
(1) A Utopia in which everyone is equal and no one enjoys any privilege
based on their existing positions and powers.
(2) A hypothetical society in which people agree upon principles of justice
which are fair.
(3) A society in which principles of justice are not based on the existing
positions and powers of the individuals.
(4) A society in which principles of justice are fair to all.
(5) A hypothetical society in which principles of justice are not based on the
existing positions and powers of the individuals.
42. The original agreement or original position in the passage has been used
by the author as:
(1) A hypothetical situation conceived to derive principles of justice which
are not influenced by position, status and condition of individuals in the
society.
(2) A hypothetical situation in which every individual is equal and no
individual enjoys any privilege based on the existing positions and powers.
(3) A hypothetical situation to ensure fairness of agreements among individuals
in society.
(4) An imagined situation in which principles of justice would have to be fair.
(5) An imagined situation in which fairness is the objective of the principles
of justice to ensure that no individual enjoys any privilege based on the
existing positions and powers.
43. Which of the following best illustrates the situation that is equivalent
to choosing "the principles of justice" behind a "veil of ignorance"?
(1) The principles of justice are chosen by businessmen, who are marooned on
an uninhabited island after a shipwreck, but have some possibility of returning.
(2) The principles of justice are chosen by a group of school children whose
capabilities are yet to develop.
(3) The principles of justice are chosen by businessmen, who are marooned on an
uninhabited island after a shipwreck and have no possibility of returning.
(4) The principles of justice are chosen assuming that such principles will
govern the lives of the rule makers only in their next birth if the rule makers
agree that they will be born again.
(5) The principles of justice are chosen by potential immigrants who are unaware
of the resources necessary to succeed in a foreign country.
44. Why, according to the passage, do principles of justice need to be based
on an original agreement?
(1) Social institutions and laws can be considered fair only if they conform
to principles of justice.
(2) Social institutions and laws can be fair only if they are consistent with
the principles of justice as initially agreed upon.
(3) Social institutions and laws need to be fair in order to be just.
(4) Social institutions and laws evolve fairly only if they are consistent with
the principles of justice as initially agreed upon.
(5) Social institutions and laws conform to the principles of justice as
initially agreed upon.
45. Which of the following situations best represents the idea of justice as
fairness, as argued in the passage?
(1) All individuals are paid equally for the work they do.
(2) Everyone is assigned some work for his or her livelihood.
(3) All acts of theft are penalized equally.
(4) All children are provided free education in similar schools.
(5) All individuals are provided a fixed sum of money to take care of their
health.
Directions for Questions 46 to 50: The passage given below is followed by
a set of five questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
Our propensity to look out for regularities, and to impose laws upon nature,
leads to the psychological phenomenon of dogmatic thinking or, more generally,
dogmatic behaviour: we expect regularities everywhere and attempt to find them
even where there are none; events which do not yield to these attempts we are
inclined to treat as a kind of ‘background noise‘; and we stick to our
expectations even when they are inadequate and we ought to accept defeat. This
dogmatism is to some extent necessary. It is demanded by a situation which can
only be dealt with by forcing our conjectures upon the world. Moreover, this
dogmatism allows us to approach a good theory in stages, by way of
approximations: if we accept defeat too easily, we may prevent ourselves from
finding that we were very nearly right. It is clear that this dogmatic attitude,
which makes us stick to our first impressions, is indicative of a strong belief;
while a critical attitude, which is ready to modify its tenets, which admits
doubt and demands tests, is indicative of a weaker belief. Now according to
Hume‘s theory, and to the popular theory, the strength of a belief should be a
product of repetition; thus it should always grow with experience, and always be
greater in less primitive persons. But dogmatic thinking, an uncontrolled wish
to impose regularities, a manifest pleasure in rites and in repetition as such,
is characteristic of primitives and children; and increasing experience and
maturity sometimes create an attitude of caution and criticism rather than of
dogmatism. My logical criticism of Hume‘s psychological theory, and the
considerations connected with it, may seem a little removed from the field of
the philosophy of science. But the distinction between dogmatic and critical
thinking, or the dogmatic and the critical attitude, brings us right back to our
central problem. For the dogmatic attitude is clearly related to the tendency to
verify our laws and schemata by seeking to apply them and to confirm them, even
to the point of neglecting refutations, whereas the critical attitude is one of
readiness to change them - to test them; to refute them; to falsify them, if
possible. This suggests that we may identify the critical attitude with the
scientific attitude, and the dogmatic attitude with the one which we have
described as pseudo-scientific. It further suggests that genetically speaking
the pseudo-scientific attitude is more primitive than, and prior to, the
scientific attitude: that it is a pre-scientific attitude. And this primitivity
or priority also has its logical aspect. For the critical attitude is not so
much opposed to the dogmatic attitude as super-imposed upon it: criticism must
be directed against existing and influential beliefs in need of critical
revision - in other words, dogmatic beliefs. A critical attitude needs for its
raw material, as it were, theories or beliefs which are held more or less
dogmatically. Thus, science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of
myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of
experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical
techniques and practices. The scientific tradition is distinguished from the
pre-scientific tradition in having two layers. Like the latter, it passes on its
theories; but it also passes on a critical attitude towards them. The theories
are passed on, not as dogmas, but rather with the challenge to discuss them and
improve upon them. The critical attitude, the tradition of free discussion of
theories with the aim of discovering their weak spots so that they may be
improved upon, is the attitude of reasonableness, of rationality. From the point
of view here developed, all laws, all theories, remain essentially tentative, or
conjectural, or hypothetical, even when we feel unable to doubt them any longer.
Before a theory has been refuted we can never know in what way it may have to be
modified.
46. In the context of science, according to the passage, the interaction of
dogmatic beliefs and critical attitude can be best described as:
(1) A duel between two warriors in which one has to die.
(2) The effect of a chisel on a marble stone while making a sculpture.
(3) The feedstock (natural gas) in fertilizer industry being transformed into
fertilizers.
(4) A predator killing its prey.
(5) The effect of fertilizers on a sapling.
47. According to the passage, the role of a dogmatic attitude or dogmatic
behaviour in the development of science is
(1) critical and important, as, without it, initial hypotheses or
conjectures can never be made.
(2) positive, as conjectures arising out of our dogmatic attitude become
science.
(3) negative, as it leads to pseudo-science.
(4) neutral, as the development of science is essentially because of our
critical attitude.
(5) inferior to critical attitude, as a critical attitude leads to the attitude
of reasonableness and rationality.
48. Dogmatic behaviour, in this passage, has been associated with primitives
and children. Which of the following best describes the reason why the author
compares primitives with children?
(1) Primitives are people who are not educated, and hence can be compared
with children, who have not yet been through school.
(2) Primitives are people who, though not modern, are as innocent as children.
(3) Primitives are people without a critical attitude, just as children are.
(4) Primitives are people in the early stages of human evolution; similarly,
children are in the early stages of their lives.
(5) Primitives are people who are not civilized enough, just as children are
not.
49. Which of the following statements best supports the argument in the
passage that a critical attitude leads to a weaker belief than a dogmatic
attitude does?
(1) A critical attitude implies endless questioning, and, therefore, it
cannot lead to strong beliefs.
(2) A critical attitude, by definition, is centred on an analysis of anomalies
and “noise”.
(3) A critical attitude leads to questioning everything, and in the process
generates “noise” without any conviction.
(4) A critical attitude is antithetical to conviction, which is required for
strong beliefs.
(5) A critical attitude leads to questioning and to tentative hypotheses.
50. According to the passage, which of the following statements best
describes the difference between science and pseudo-science?
(1) Scientific theories or hypothesis are tentatively true whereas
pseudo-sciences are always true.
(2) Scientific laws and theories are permanent and immutable whereas
pseudo-sciences are contingent on the prevalent mode of thinking in a society.
(3) Science always allows the possibility of rejecting a theory or hypothesis,
whereas pseudo-sciences seek to validate their ideas or theories.
(4) Science focuses on anomalies and exceptions so that fundamental truths can
be uncovered, whereas pseudo-sciences focus mainly on general truths.
(5) Science progresses by collection of observations or by experimentation,
whereas pseudo-sciences do not worry about observations and experiments.
51. If x = −0.5, then which of the following has the smallest value?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
52. Which among 2 1/2, 3 1/3, 4 1/4 , 6 1/6 and 12 1/12 is the largest ?
(1) 21/2
(2) 31/3
(3) 41/4
(4) 61/6
(5) 121/12
53.
(1) 3/8
(2) 27/8
(3) 3/4
(4) 27/4
(5) 1/4
54. The length, breadth and height of a room are in the ratio 3 : 2 : 1. If
the breadth and height are halved while the length is doubled, then the total
area of the four walls of the room will
(1) remain the same
(2) decrease by 13.64%
(3) decrease by 15%
(4) decrease by 18.75%
(5) decrease by 30%
55.
(1)2/495
(2) 2/477
(3) 12/55
(4) 1/1485
(5)1/2970
56. A group of 630 children is arranged in rows for a group photograph
session. Each row contains three fewer children than the row in front of it.
What number of rows is not possible?
(1) 3
(2) 4
(3) 5
(4) 6
(5) 7
57. What are the values of x and y that satisfy both the equations?
2 0.7x × 3−1. 25y = 8√6/27 40.3x × 90.2y = 8 × (81)1/5
(1) x = 2, y = 5
(2) x = 2.5, y = 6
(3) x = 3, y = 5
(4) x = 3, y = 4
(5) x = 5, y = 2
58. The number of solutions of the equation 2x + y = 40 where both x and y
are positive integers and x ≤ y is:
(1) 7
(2) 13
(3) 14
(4) 18
(5) 20
59. A survey was conducted of 100 people to find out whether they had read
recent issues of Golmal, a monthly magazine. The summarized information
regarding readership in 3 months is given below:Only September: 18; September
but not August: 23; September and July: 8; September: 28; July: 48; July and
August: 10; None of the three months: 24. What is the number of surveyed people
who have read exactly two consecutive issues (out of the three)?
(1) 7
(2) 9
(3) 12
(4) 14
(5) 17
60. The sum of four consecutive two digit odd numbers, when divided by 10,
becomes a perfect square. Which of the following can possibly be one of these
four numbers?
(1) 21
(2) 25
(3) 41
(4) 67
(5) 73
61. The graph of y – x against y + x is as shown below.
(All graphs in this question are drawn to scale and the same scale has been used
on each axis). Then, which of the options given shows the graph of y against x.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
62. Consider the set S = {1, 2, 3, …, 1000}. How many arithmetic progressions
can be formed from the elements of S that start with 1 and end with 1000 and
have at least 3 elements?
(1) 3
(2) 4
(3) 6
(4) 7
(5) 8
Answer Questions 63 and 64 on the basis of the information given below:
A punching machine is used to punch a circular hole of diameter two units from a
square sheet of aluminum of width 2 units, as shown below. The hole is punched
such that circular hole touches one corner P of the square sheet and the
diameter of the hole originating at P is in line with a diagonal of the square.
63. The proportion of the sheet area that remains after punching is:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
64. Find the area of the part of the circle (round punch) falling outside the
square sheet.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
65.
(1) –8 ≤ x ≤ 1
(2) –1 ≤ x ≤ 8
(3) 1 < x < 8
(4) 1 ≤ x ≤ 8
(5) –8 ≤ x ≤ 8
66. Let f(x) = max (2x + 1, 3 − 4x), where x is any real number. Then the
minimum possible value of (x) is:
(1) 1/3
(2) 1/2
(3) 2/3
(4) 4/3
(5) 5/3
67. What is the weight of Praja‘s luggage?
(1) 20 kg
(2) 25 kg
(3) 30 kg
(4) 35 kg
(5) 40 kg
68. What is the free luggage allowance?
(1) 10 kg
(2) 15 kg
(3) 20 kg
(4) 25 kg
(5) 30 kg
69. Arun, Barun and Kiranmala start from the same place and travel in the
same direction at speeds of 30 km/hr, 40 km/hr and 60 km/hr respectively. Barun
starts two hours after Arun. If Barun and Kiranmala overtake Arun at the same
instant, how many hours after Arun did Kiranmala start?
(1) 3
(2) 3.5
(3) 4
(4) 4.5
(5) 5
70. When you reverse the digits of the number 13, the number increases by 18.
How many other two digit numbers increase by 18 when their digits are reversed?
(1) 5
(2) 6
(3) 7
(4) 8
(5) 10
71. A semicircle is drawn with AB as its diameter. From C, a point on AB, a
line perpendicular to AB is drawn meeting the circumference of the semicircle at
D. Given that AC = 2 cm and CD = 6 cm, the area of the semicircle (in sq. cm.)
will be:
(1) 32π
(2) 50π
(3) 40.5π
(4) 81π
(5) undeterminable
72. There are 6 tasks and 6 persons. Task 1 cannot be assigned either to
person 1 or to person 2; task 2 must be assigned to either person 3 or person 4.
Every person is to be assigned one task. In how many ways can the assignment be
done?
(1) 144
(2) 180
(3) 192
(4) 360
(5) 716
73. The number of employees in Obelix Menhir Co. is a prime number and is
less than 300. The ratio of the number of employees who are graduates and above,
to that of employees who are not, can possibly be:
(1) 101 : 88
(2) 87 : 100
(3) 110 : 111
(4) 85 : 98
(5) 97 : 84
74.
then which of the following pairs of values for (a, b) is not possible?
(1)
(2) 1, 1
(3) 0.4, 2.5
(4)
(5) 2, 2
75. An equilateral triangle BPC is drawn inside a square ABCD. What is the
value of the angle APD in degrees?
(1) 75
(2) 90
(3) 120
(4) 135
(5) 150
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