CDC 07 2022 VARC

Direction (1-4): Study the following information and answer the questions that follow:

Sana Aiyar’s book is essentially a political history. Its main theme is the relations between the three major communities: Indians,
Africans, and European. Africans is defined narrowly — there is little on Somalis or Arabs who constitute important components of
Kenya’s population. Nor does the book say much about the social or theological history of Indians, which is of considerable interest. In a
short time Indians achieved great success as scholars, teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, and business people. Like Africans, who
were divided into numerous ‘‘tribes,’’ Indians were divided by language, religion, and tradition. Just as Africans found it difficult to mount
a united political front, so did the Indians, especially after the partition of India in 1947. Something of this is captured by Aiyar, but
without sufficient background to the diversity within the Indian community — nor indeed among the Africans.

The tensions between the different communities would have been easier to understand if the author had explained the colonial policy of
divide and rule, and not only between the races, but also among the races (particularly Africans but also Indians). This is a major
weakness in this political history, which in other respects is quite detailed. The scheme of the book is to examine the relations between
European settlers, Indians, and Africans at different periods. Their interests varied over different periods. In the early years of
colonialism, the European hegemony was unchallenged, but with the access of the Indians to education, they staked their own claims to
recognition. Africans did not stake their claim for several years; and when they did they found support from an unlikely source, the newly
independent government of India, assisted by Kenyan Indians. The Indian community was by no means united, certainly not after the
partition of India leading to the formation of Pakistan — though this did not affect their support for Africans. The best part of the book is
the author’s examination of the changing interests of the different communities (though perhaps the best manifestation of this, at
independence conferences in London, is not discussed in this work). For a period of time, Indian politicians supported African claims to
independence (though large sections of the Indian community were less enthusiastic). With the imminence of independence, African
politicians could dispense with Indian support. The British policy of differential entitlements to races did not help in development of
common interests between African and Asians — though by this time Indian politicians were for the most part committed to
independence. Many Indians believed that the disregard by the Africans, particularly its leader Jomo Kenyatta (1891–1978), in favour of
Europeans, as the ultimate betrayal by Africans, despite considerable support over the years from Indian leaders. Aiyar discusses very
well the tensions between Indian traders and Africans aspiring to advancement in commerce, and finding Indians as obstacles.

This conflict of interests was never resolved and got worse after independence with the Indian exodus. The book closes at this point.
Thus, it is missing a detailed account of how the Indian entrepreneurs adjusted to it by shifting their attention to manufacturing and
construction industries, which allowed them to become billionaires — an opportunity that would not have come from their small dukas,
while competing with African traders.
Q 1. The author of the book review is least likely to support the view that:
1) The Africans were never united because they followed different religious practices.

2) Indian politicians were not averse to the African aspiration for freedom.

3) The Africans considered the Indians as rivals when it came to trade and commerce.

4) The Indian trading community in Africa diversified their trade practices after independence.

Q 2. According to the book review, the book mentioned in the passage:

1) explores the historicity of the social positioning of Indians.

2) examines the upward mobility of Indians post-independence.

3) aims to examine the interracial relationship among the Europeans, Africans and the Indians.

4) provides a comprehensive background analysis of the assorted Indian community.

Q 3. The author’s observation, “The British policy of differential entitlements to races did not help in development of common
interests between African and Asians ...” indicates that:
1) The British were not concerned about the aesthetic interests of the African and Asian community.

2) The British wanted to build a harmonious relationship between the Asian and African community.

3) The British wanted to oust the Indians from the African countries.
4) The British followed a divide and rule policy.

Q 4. All of the following statements can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT that:

1) The African and the Indian traders never cooperated with each other.

2) As the hour of independence drew near, Indian support was crucial for the Africans.

3) The religious history of the Indians can evoke a sense of wonder among the readers.

4) A counter hegemony to the Europeans developed when the Indians received education.

Direction (5-8): Study the following information and answer the questions that follow:

I draw from this experience, a pretty typical example of me attempting to do research, several morals, most of them basically having to
do with the virtue of humility. First of all, it is all very well to have ‘a project’, a fixed centre for research and a steady eye on what these
days is known as ‘a research outcome’. But however hard you choose to go at it, you should never let it consume or absorb you. That
happens when you keep your eye on ‘outcome’ — and keep your eye only there. If you determine in advance what your goal is, you will
certainly achieve it — and you will achieve only it alone. You’re in the position of saying, ‘OK, I am now an expert on X. I said I would
produce this quantum of X-related material, and now I have done so. Q.E.D.’. The argumentative gambit of announcing ‘a project’ and
then concluding it simply puts you within a closed circle. And consider all the things outside it you haven’t addressed — plate-tectonics
or astrophysics, for example — and measure what you might guess about them against what you do know.

Many basic projects are conceived in such a way as to occlude or render others impossible. Many of you may be involved in one or
another form of editorial project, perhaps with ancient languages with reasonably fixed spelling systems. When dealing with vernacular
texts, the rules are different; one reports only what are conventionally designated ‘substantive variants’, those affecting sense. But
vernaculars have no fixed spelling and are thus localizable, as written reproductions of spoken dialect forms — in the case of medieval
English within about a fifteen-mile radius. Reporting only ‘substantives’ does illuminate the textual transmission; copies that share the
same errors must be linked to one another, since they are drawing on the same exemplar, a physical object that had to travel
somewhere. Yet the editorial regimen for vernacular texts entirely obscures the data that would actually localize any copy, since it is
suppressed as non-substantive spelling variation — and thus one loses exactly that detail from which one might speculate about
patrons, their connections, projected use of the book, etc. Productive things happen either when you interrogate what you think your goal
is, or when you are prepared to modify it (because it no longer suits), or when you are distracted from it and have to ask what your
distraction means about the goal you originally had. One of the worst enemies to scholarship is a clear sense that you know what you
are doing, that you actually control the data, as it were. The great lesson I learned from my undergraduate mentors was not, for example,
‘What is Dickens’s novel Great Expectations about?’ The question they always asked was, bizarrely enough, ‘Who are you when you are
reading Dickens?’ or ‘Are you now the same person as you were when you were reading Wuthering Heights last week?’ The questions
were supposed to make you think about the entire educational project in which you were engaged, how it interfaced with being the
person you are (or were or might become), what it exposed about your limitations.
Q 5. From the passage, we can infer that the author is in favour of:

1) The idea that conducting research is akin to detective work.

2) The notion of open-endedness while conducting any research work.

3) Maintaining a single-minded, goal-oriented orientation about research projects.

4) Being cognizant to changes in the researcher while undertaking a research project.

Q 6. Which of the following would the author disagree with about research work?
1) Research projects are often announced on a foundation of exclusion.

2) Successful research entails modifications of research proposals.

3) Data in research more often than not is likely to function independently.

4) Measuring elements beyond the scope of the project is inconsequential to research.

Q 7. “Yet the editorial regimen for vernacular texts entirely obscures the data that would actually localize any copy, since it is
suppressed as non-substantive spelling variation . . .” Which one of the following statements best reflects the argument being made in
this sentence?
1) Regimental mindset among editors often suppresses the rise of dialects.

2) Since data are not fixed it is essential that a regimental approach be avoided.

3) The regimentation will obscure local cultural histories that gave rise to the work.

4) Editors should be careful about choosing standardised spellings to avoid hindering scholars from understanding dialects.

Q 8. The author would support none of the following statements about scholarship EXCEPT that:
1) Good scholarships should potentially reveal aspects of the scholar to themselves.
2) Scholarships should be made completely full-proof by the use of fixed data.

3) A scholarship is made successful by routinely dismissing other possibilities.

4) Scholarships that are outcome-based in their approach are progressive in nature.

Direction (9-12): Study the following information and answer the questions that follow:

On 18 April 1938, Superman was born out of comics, and the action strip set out the story of his extraterrestrial origins, arrival on Earth,
and acquisition of superhuman powers ... Superman spawned an eponymous comic of his own, devoted to his feats and achievements,
as well as a succession of competitors. The original ‘Man of Steel’ was simply superhumanly strong but, before long, he’d acquired
bullet-proof skin, X-ray vision and an ability to fly.

Superman and his contemporaries launched a fascination with technological superism that continues today. Here were individuals
whose bodies and their capacities were somehow warped through being exposed to technology. There is an underlying narrative in all
their stories that treats technology as a source of powers that would traditionally have been described as divine. But, like Prometheus’
theft of fire from the gods, this has often been seen as a double-edged desire, appealing yet dangerous for humans.

Superheroes were invented during an era of eugenic speculation, when dreams of Übermenschen – machine-men, aerialists and space-
bound conquistadors – tantalized philosophers and beguiled fascists...The imagined capacity of technology to transfigure and augment
our bodies is not only a feature of popular fiction. Increasingly, it is a key feature of technological futures currently being generated.
Google Glass might have been a flop, but it is a sign of things to come…

…One way of reading the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son, Icarus, is as a cautionary tale about the perils of using human craft to
transcend human limitations… It was a fable about hubris and the consequences of human over-reach. Greek philosophers and their
medieval successors had their own concerns about technologies of the kind produced by Daedalus. They were technologies that
mimicked rather than transposed the divine property of creation. They were deceptive and bordered on impiety…

During the 19th century, the relationship between technology and divinity took a new turn. In his Letters on Natural Magic (1832), the
Scottish natural philosopher David Brewster suggested that technological know-how was an integral aspect of ancient priest craft. This
was how idolaters had fooled their congregations into believing in false gods. There were other classical descriptions of gods and
goddesses who ‘exhibited themselves to mortals’. These were all products of a duplicitous priesthood’s superior knowledge of the
technology of light and shadow. …

Inventor-entrepreneurs of the 19th-century were often cast (and often by themselves) as latter-day Prosperos, with the important
qualification that they really could do what they claimed. For instance, upon seeing Charles Wheatstone– the telegraph’s inventor – put
his instrument to work, Edward Copleston, bishop of Llandaff, rhapsodised how it ‘exceeds even the feats of pretended magic and the
wildest fictions of the East’. Telegraphy was touted as extending the reach of human sensation, offering individuals the power to
manipulate invisible forces and act instantaneously at a distance…

By the beginning of the 20th century, a new and distinctive view of what technology meant was emerging from the world of scientific
spectacle and futuristic imagining in both fact and fiction. And it revolved around the question of what the future technologies might do
to humans and their bodies. Technology seemed to offer a new way of being modern and a vision of transforming human bodies to
become even more human. Tesla (and he was not the only one) speculated that electricity might be used to make humans more
intelligent. Humans would be faster, stronger, cleverer. Their bodies would be immune to disease; they would live longer.
Q 9. Which of the following is the primary purpose of the author of the passage?

1) To present arguments explaining why contemporary superism takes the form it does.

2) To recount what history says about how we think of technology’s potentials and limitations.

3) To prove that technological advancements have significantly shaped popular fiction.

4) To explain what history says about how we think of superheroes’ potentials and limitations.

Q 10. All of the following statements may be considered valid inferences from the passage, EXCEPT:

1) Tesla accurately predicted the technology that would unleash a greater potential for humans.

2) The idea that we might become more human through technology has moved from fiction to fact for well over a century.

3) During ancient times, technology could confer divinity, but most probably only by deception.

4)
The telegraph’s example suggests how, in the 19th century, technology’s promise became more and more entangled with the future of
the human body.

Q 11. Which one of the following sets of words is closest to mapping the main arguments of the passage?
1) Superman; Übermenschen; divine; Inventor-entrepreneurs

2) Technology; mimicry; god and goddesses; Google glass

3) Superhuman; technology; mimicry; scientific spectacle

4) Superman; Übermenschen; divine; priesthood

Q 12. Which of the following most suitably captures the main idea of the second paragraph of the passage?

1) In nineteenth-century, technology promised ‘a thousand times more than what all the preternatural powers.

2) Superman, which was based on technological might, is the mother of all the popular superheroes fiction.

3) Superhuman fiction, based on technological might, defied the past apprehensions about capabilities of technology.

4) Superhuman fiction, based on technological might, defied the traditional apprehensions about divine power.

Direction (13-16): Study the following information and answer the questions that follow:

Despite the possible role of biological factors in predisposing women to developing eating disorders, it seems virtually impossible to
account for the gendered psychological features of these conditions without taking into account social and cultural influences. For
example, anorexic patients have an enormous drive to be thin and an equally intense fear of becoming fat. It is difficult to understand the
centrality of these concerns without taking into account the social and cultural pressures on women to achieve thinness, as well as the
specific stigma attached to fat women. These pressures have increased significantly throughout the twentieth century, and the particular
meanings that they have for women are centrally involved in understanding the eating disorders epidemic. But in addition, there are more
subtle features of the psychology of eating disorders that demand an interpretation in social terms. These revolve around the nearly
universal concerns of eating-disordered patients with issues of autonomy, self-esteem, achievement, and control. And this spectrum of
psychological issues can be broadly understood as relating to the larger problem of the development of psychosocial identity.

The concept of identity is critical in understanding the central problems confronted by women with eating disorders. Erik Erikson
suggests that the notion of identity is related to the individual’s experience of self-cohesion, or has the sense of continuity and
sameness in time. The development of a cohesive or “viable” identity depends on many individual and social factors, but among the
most important is the individual’s ability to synthesize or bring together the divergent and conflicting aspects of his or her social
experience. The development of identity is a dynamic process, which unfolds throughout a person’s life, and is influenced by a host of
factors. However, the most critical period for the formation of an identity is during adolescence, the period in which the individual must
put together the foundations of the self laid down in childhood experience with the new demands and challenges posed by the personal
and social experiences of that period. The process of identity formation is particularly susceptible to disruption by radical changes in
social roles or cultural expectations. This is one reason why individuals suddenly exposed to a radically different culture – say, in a
situation of migration – seem particularly vulnerable to psychological problems. But it also suggests that even within the same culture, a
particular group, which is exposed to dramatic change in social role – will also be highly susceptible to epidemic symptoms of identity
confusion.

Here, I propose that eating disorders are the extreme expression of radically altered social expectations on women that have emerged
on a mass scale since about the mid-twentieth century, particularly since the 1960s. Over a relatively short period of time, young women
have encountered a new set of pressures, demanding an orientation towards achievement, competitiveness, and independence, a set of
values that conflict sharply with traditional Western definitions of the female role. In a period of increased opportunities but also
intensified pressures, many have found it difficult to synthesize a “viable” and “workable” identity, and suffer inwardly from a sense of
fragmentation, confusion and self-doubt. The central psychological problems experienced by patients with eating disorders, which
center on issues of self-esteem, autonomy, and achievement, are magnified reflections of much more pervasive conflicts in the wider
culture about the female role.
Q 13. Which of these statements is the author most likely to agree with?
1) Since the 1950s, women have adopted extreme expressions of radically altered social expectations.

2) The presence of disorders related to eating among women is essentially an indicator of a cultural crisis.

3) Eating disorders among men have not received attention as society does not acknowledge them.

4) The Western definitions of the female role have collided head-on with the eastern definitions of the same.

Q 14. With which of these statements is the author least likely to agree with?
1) The individual’s ability to assimilate conflicting aspects of social experience is important to the development of a cohesive identity.

2) The development of identity is an ongoing and continuous process and does not terminate until the death of the individual.

3) The period of adolescence is the final stage for the formation of cohesive identity and after that it is only affirmed/reaffirmed.

4)
The period of adolescence can be considered as being not only crucial but also the most critical in the process of identity formation.

Q 15. Which one of these situations would most radically disrupt the process of identity formation?
1) A teenage girl is left to provide for her siblings once the parents pass away.

2) An NRI family comes to India for the duration of a vacation.

3) A small-town boy moves to a slightly bigger school in his city.

4) A big businessman leaves his company and heads for the Himalayas.

Q 16. Which set of keywords most closely captures the ideas discussed in the passage?

1) factors contributing to eating disorders – Erik Erikson’s theory – debates around a woman’s role.
2) factors contributing to eating disorders – the concept of identity – impact of social expectations.

3) women and eating disorders – the changing notions of a woman’s role – society’s demands.

4) the biological basis of eating disorders – the concept of identity – impact of social expectations.

Q 17. Directions for question (17): The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a
coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.

1. A robot's mode of learning from humans is via the use of algorithms and in order to make a computer do anything, one must first
write a computer program.
2. The computer then "executes" the program, automatically completing each step in order to accomplish the ultimate goal set by the
user.
3. Therefore, it can be observed that machine learning is used in a variety of applications, including data mining and pattern
identification.
4. To write a computer program, one should tell the computer exactly what needs to be done and how it needs to be done step by step.

Q 18. Directions for question (18): The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a
coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.

1. With seismic data only available for the Earth and Mars, geodetic measurements, including the observation of the tidal response,
have become valuable and therefore, played an important role in understanding the history of several Solar system bodies.
2. Our Solar system harbours a very diverse population of planetary bodies, including those composed of rock, ice, gas, or a mixture of
all.
3. While a rich arsenal of geophysical methods has been developed over years to infer knowledge about the interior of the Earth, the
inventory of tools to investigate the interiors of other Solar-system bodies remains limited.
4. Bodily tides provide key information on the interior structure, evolution, and origin of the planetary bodies.
Q 19. Directions for question (19): The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the
author’s position.

It seems that the modification of the education system of 19th Century to the 21st century education system has brought a new angle
into the productivity and usefulness of the two forms of education. The rapid advancement of Information Technology has occasioned
the new adaptation and it is observed that the utilization and impact has extended from industrial production to virtually all aspects of
life. The e-learning environment in a higher education institution is a learning system that combines emerging technology with teaching
and learning processes as a major educational development.
1) The transition of the education system from the 19th century into the 21st century and its impact on nation building and policies

2) Exploring the possibilities of academic engagement in the delivery of online classes in today’s education scenario

3) The rapidly changing contours of e-learning in the domain of elementary education and its impact on school kids

4) Examining the holistic development of Information Technology around the world and how it has changed the course of our lives

Q 20. Directions for question (20): 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.

1. The amoeba lives in warm, fresh water and can enter the body through the nose, where it travels to the brain and starts to destroy
tissue.
2. The death of a child in Nebraska this summer put the rare but deadly Naegleria fowleri – more commonly known as brain-eating
amoeba – back in the headlines.
3. Naegleria grows best in warm waters – temperatures above 30C, and can tolerate temperatures of up to 46C, says Charles Gerba, a
microbiologist at the University of Arizona. That makes it well-suited to spread in a warming climate.
4. It’s possible that young boys are more likely to participate in activities like diving into the water and playing in the sediment at the
bottom of lakes and rivers, where the pathogen is likely to reside.
5. The case underscored a troubling new reality – climate change is encouraging the amoeba to pop up in parts of the US where it isn’t
typical, such as the north and west.

Q 21. Directions for question (21): The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a
coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.

1. As manufacturers around the globe integrate automation and new technology into their operations, the results have been promising.
2. Workforce changes are creating new and more exciting jobs, rather than merely eliminating positions.
3. And for employees, the mix of their work is changing to be less repetitive and more judgment-intensive.
4. The bottom line is improving for companies with higher efficiency and greater employee productivity.
Q 22. Directions for question (22): The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the
author’s position.

In “The Spirit Level”, a bestselling book of 2009, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett argue that inequality “gets under the skin” and
makes everyone worse off, not just the poor. They mean “gets under the skin” literally. The argument is that inequality causes chronic
stress, and makes people secrete too much of a hormone called cortisol. This normally has benign metabolic and other functions.
Produced in large quantities, it can harm, among other things, the brain and the immune system. So cortisol may be a direct link
between inequality and bad health.
1)
As per Wilkinson and Pickett, poverty is the main cause behind chronic stress which is caused by excessive production of cortisol and
results in brain and immune system damage.

2) Wilkinson and Pickett have argued that chronic stress affects the production of cortisol in poor people causing some harm.

3)
Two economists have postulated that just like beauty, poverty is skin deep and can be treated by controlling the secretion of cortisol.
4) As per Wilkinson and Pickett, poverty is exacerbated by cortisol which causes chronic stress.

Q 23. Directions for question (23): Five jumbled up sentences related to a topic is given below. Four of them can be put together to
form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer.

1. Pakistan has set ambitious targets for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, as well as afforestation, but we insist on a just energy
transition for cutting greenhouse gases by 50% by 2030.
2. Scientific modelling now attributes the extreme flooding in our country to the climate crisis, and the catastrophe presents a clear
warning to all those who have set their climate clocks to another few decades.
3. The climate crisis has accelerated at pace.
4. But nothing prepared the country for the biblical flooding that saw a third of Pakistan inundated by an ocean of water, surpassing
even the 2010 disaster in magnitude and frequency.
5. When temperatures crossed 53C in Pakistan, the summer of 2022 turned our southern towns into the hottest places on the planet,
melting our glaciers, burning our forests, and scorching our crops.

Q 24. Directions for question (24): The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the
author’s position.

Symbolic logic is essentially concerned with inference in general, and is distinguished from various special branches of mathematics
mainly by its generality. Neither mathematics nor symbolic logic will study such special relations like temporal priority, but
mathematics will deal explicitly with the class of relations possessing the formal properties which are summed up in the notion of
continuity. But symbolic logic will not investigate what inferences are possible in respect of continuous relations; this investigation
belongs to mathematics. What symbolic logic does investigate is the general rules by which inferences are made.
1)
Symbolic logic is a special branch of mathematics that studies general rules for making inferences, whereas mathematics deals with
formal properties summed up in the notion of continuity.
2)
Symbolic logic and mathematics are alike, in that they both don’t study special relations like temporal priority, but they differ in the way
they study inferences as symbolic logic is centered on properties summed up in the notion of continuity whereas maths deals with
general rules.
3)
The commonality between symbolic logic and maths is that they both don’t study special relations but they study inferences using
different methods.
4)
Both symbolic logic and maths don’t study certain special relations; however, they differ in the way they study inferences, as symbolic
logic is centered on general rules whereas maths deals with formal properties summed up in the notion of continuity.