VARC Mock 18 Aug 24

Passage 1

Have ever wondered that where do languages come from? This question is as old as human beings' ability to pose it. But
it has two varieties of answer. The first is evolutionary which to when and where human banter was first heard. The
obvious place to look for the evolutionary origin of language is the cradle of humanity, Africa. One of the lines of
evidence which show humanity's African origins is that the farther you get from the continent, the less diverse, generally
speaking, people are. Being descended from small groups of relatively recent migrants, they are more inbred than their
African forebears. It has also been known for a while that the less widely spoken a language is, the fewer the phonemes
it has. (Phonemes are the smallest sounds which differentiate meaning- like the "th" in thin: replace it with ― “f” or "s"
and the result is a different word.) So, as groups of people ventured even farther from their African homeland, their
phonemic repertoires should have dwindled, just as their genetic ones did. A study of 504 languages plotted the number
of phonemes in each against the distance between the place where the language is spoken and 2,500 putative points of
origin, scattered across the globe. The relationship that emerges suggests the actual point of origin is in central or
southern Africa and that all modern languages do, indeed, have a common root. This answers the evolutionary question.

Now to the ontological question. Cognitive scientists have hypothesized that being able to speak and be spoken to is a
specific adaptation a virtual organ. The human brain comes equipped with a hard-wired universal grammar- a language
instinct. That is, if you like, humanity's killer app in the struggle for biological dominance.

The problem with this hypothesis is that languages differ not just in their vocabularies, which are learned, but also in
their grammatical rules, which are the sort of thing that might be expected to be instinctive. Cognitive scientists
maintain that grammar is a collection of modules, each containing assorted features. Switching on a module activates all
these features at a stroke. You cannot pick and choose within a module. For instance, languages in which verbs precede
objects will always have relative clauses after nouns; a language cannot have one but not the other.

To confirm whether this hypothesis is tenable, a study of the four large language families was undertaken. These are
Indo-European, Bantu, Austronesian (from South-East Asia and the Pacific) and Uto-Aztecan (the native vernaculars of
the Americas). These four groups account for more than a third of the 7,000 or so tongues spoken around the world
today. The study revealed that not one correlation between grammatical features persisted across all language families,
and only two were found in more than one family. It looks, then, as if the correlations between grammatical features
noticed by previous researchers were mere coincidences and that the hypothesis of the language instinct was
questionable

Q1. The hypothesis of the evolutionary origin of languages basically boils down to:

A. the farther a group of people settled from their African homeland, the narrower the phonemic repertoire of
their language
B. the origin of language is the cradle of humanity, Africa
C. the less diverse the genes, the less widely spoken a language
D. the less widely spoken a language is, the fewer the phonemes it has

Q2. The study related to the evolutionary origin of languages revealed that:

A. 504 languages originated from 2,500 putative points scattered across the globe
B. the number of phonemes in a language decreased based on distance of the place where the language was
spoken from central or southern Africa
C. the hypothesis of common origin was questionable
D. there are four large language families
Q3. Which of the following can be inferred from the expression "...humanity's killer app in the struggle for
biological dominance" :

A. As humans evolved, they became hunter-gatherers in order to survive

B. Killing was the name of the game in the survival of the fittest
C. The language instinct gave an advantage to humans who could communicate in order to coordinate their actions
when hunting in groups
D. Humans acquired the language instinct as a specific adaptation which gave humans the ability to share and
accumulate knowledge; this gave humans an overwhelming superiority over other species

Q4. Which of the following would cognitive scientists agree with, EXCEPT :

A. Children are born with an instinct for the grammar of language

B. The grammar is a set of modules; switching on a module activates all its features
C. The grammar of different languages is different, but the vocabulary has common roots
D. A language cannot have one feature of a grammar module and not the others

Passage 2

The United Nations General Assembly has described intervention as dictatorial interference in the political
independence and territorial integrity of a sovereign state. Traditionally, intervention was prohibited by international
law. Non-intervention has been an especially important principle for liberal statesmen and moralists with a commitment
to universal human rights. On the one hand, liberals have provided some of the strongest reasons to abide by a strict
form of the non-intervention doctrine. On the other hand, those same principles of universal human dignity have
provided justifications for overriding the principle of non-intervention.

Arguments against intervention have taken the form of both direct principles and indirect, or procedural, considerations.
The most important direct consideration for the liberals was that non-intervention reflected and protected human
dignity. According to Kant, non-intervention could enable a polity the necessary territorial space and political
independence in which free and equal citizens could work out what their own way of life would be. A free government
achieved by means of intervention would not be authentic or self-determining but determined by others and not one
that local citizens had themselves defined through their own actions.

Secondly, as argued by John Stuart Mill, intervention undermines the authenticity of domestic struggles for liberty. A
people given freedom by a foreign intervention would not, he argued, be able to hold on to it. Intervention, therefore,
would have produced not freedom and progress, but a civil war with all its attendant violence or the interveners would
have to continually send in foreign support.

argument against intervention was difficulties of transparency. Historically, it has proven difficult to identify authentic
"freedom fighters." Particular national regimes of liberty and oppression are difficult for foreigners to "unpack,"
reflecting, sometimes, complicated historical compromises and contracts of a Burkean sort among the dead, the living
and the yet to be born. Michael Walzer, as did Mill, acknowledges that sovereignty and non-intervention ultimately
depend upon consent. If the people welcome an intervention or refuse to resist an intervention, something less than
aggression has occurred. But since we cannot make those judgments reliably in advance, domestic revolutions need to
be left to domestic citizens.

Fourth, the necessary "dirty hands" of violent means often become "dangerous hands" in international interventions.
International history is rife with interventions justified by high-sounding principles-ending the slave trade or suttee or
introducing law and order and civilized behaviour-turning into self-serving, imperialist "rescues" in which the intervener
stays to profit and control. Requiring that the intervener be impartial, looking for something more than a unilateral
decision, and respecting the multilateral processes of international law are important procedural considerations in
weighing the justice of an intervention The indirect reasons for non-intervention are the rules of international law
among sovereign civilized states prohibiting intervention. These rules were painstakingly achieved compromises among
diverse moralities. The mere process of achieving consent made them legitimate.
Q5. Which of the following is the primary purpose of the author?

A. To show that the very arguments in favour of non-intervention in the political independence and territorial
integrity of a sovereign state hold true for intervention as well.
B. To delineate the various arguments in favour of non-intervention in the political independence and territorial
integrity of a sovereign state.
C. To highlight the importance of the thinking of Kant and Mill in evaluating international laws on non intervention
in the political independence and territorial integrity of a sovereign state.
D. To persuade nation-states desist from intervention in the political independence and territorial integrity of a
sovereign state on the specious argument that intervention is necessary to protect universal human dignity.

Q6. Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from the second and third arguments in favour of non intervention?

A. Domestic struggles for liberty should be allowed to take their natural course-be it a revolution or civil war.
B. It is difficult for foreign powers to make a judgment of the authenticity of a struggle for liberty.
C. Foreign intervention is to some extent justifiable if the people welcome it.
D. People don't value the freedom that they get through foreign intervention.

Q7. Which of the following will the author disagree with, EXCEPT?

A. Intervention under the authorization of the United Nations General Assembly is defined as dictatorial
interference in the political independence and territorial integrity of a sovereign state.
B. Liberals agree that principles of universal human dignity provide justifications for overriding the principle of non-
intervention.
C. A people given freedom by a foreign intervention would not be able to hold on to it without the intervener's
continual foreign support.
D. Liberals agree that sovereignty and non-intervention ultimately depend upon consent of the people.

Q8. What is the overall style of the passage?

1. analytical
2. informative
3. descriptive
4. partly (1) and partly (3)

Passage 3

Protagonists in the so-called Science Wars differ most markedly in their views about the role of values in science and
what makes science valuable. Scientists have traditionally considered the principal aims of science to
be Explanation and Application. Only cognitive values should influence what is taken to be explanatory. Social and
political values affect the priority assigned to various scientific problems and the ways in which scientific results are
applied. Ethical considerations may be brought to bear on the treatment of human and animal subjects and the manner
in which scientific results are communicated.

Recent critiques of science allege that the content of scientific explanations reflects the dominant ideology and interests
of scientists and their patrons. Instead of calling for more value neutrality, some now urge that science take as a principal
aim the emancipation of oppressed subcultures. Not only should progressive political values be allowed to set the
problems attempted, but they should also be used to constrain the types of answers pursued. Since we construct
scientific knowledge, we should take responsibility for its content. . . .

In his poem, "Choose Something Like a Star," Robert Frost urges us to be staid "when at times the mob is swayed to carry
praise or blame too far." Reacting to the polemical tone found in the writings on both or all sides of the Science Wars,
there is now a rush towards what used to be thought of as "the marginalized middle." I think that the search for a middle
way on questions about realism/antirealism or investigations of the interactions between individual scientists, scientific
communities, and the larger society makes very good sense. There is a need to build more sophisticated models of the
structure of scientific theories/research programs that show the relationship between mathematical formalisms,
technical scientific terminology, and the metaphors and analogies that guide scientific creativity and communicate
scientific results to the public. On many issues, it makes sense to heed the plea to "just be friends."

But the vehemence of the debate suggests that the divides go deeper. . . . [The] most fundamental dispute reflects a
divergence in values. I have tried to articulate the difference by setting up antithetical normative models of scientific
inquiry. One account sees the telos of science as Explanation; the other would make Emancipation the prime directive. . .
. [On] this issue, no middle way is possible. Because there is no algorithm for evaluating the explanatory power of
scientific theories, it is tempting to throw social values into the grab bag of desiderata that guide all aspects of scientific
decision-making. But to do so is to jeopardize seriously the very features of science that make it so valuable in the first
place. We want scientific results that have withstood the highest levels of empirical criticism and theoretical scrutiny.
When political considerations are used to limit the questions that can be raised, the hypotheses that can be tested, or
the alternative explanations that can be brought forward, that area of inquiry ceases to have scientific value, regardless
of whether the political motivations are good ones or bad ones. Scientific norms are not negotiable, and scientific values
are not fungible.

Q9. What is the primary contention in the Science Wars, as described in the passage?

A. the role of social and political values in influencing scientific problems

B. the importance of ethical considerations in scientific communication
C. the influence of cognitive values on scientific explanations
D. the prioritization of Explanation versus Emancipation in scientific inquiry

Q10. The author quotes Robert Frost primarily in order to:

A. suggest that scientists should focus on ethical considerations in the Science war.
B. emphasize the importance of maintaining a balanced approach in the Science war.
C. highlight the deviations in values within the political discourse in scientific debates.
D. propose that science should aim for the emancipation of oppressed subcultures.

Q11. The author would likely endorse each of the following views EXCEPT:

A. if social values are included in the criteria for evaluating scientific theories, then the objectivity and reliability of
science will be compromised.
B. if we compromise scientific norms to accommodate political or social values, then we risk undermining the
features that make science valuable.
C. if scientific norms are treated as negotiable and scientific values as interchangeable with political values, then
the fundamental integrity of science will be jeopardized.
D. if political considerations dictate the hypotheses that can be tested, then the scientific field will be undermined
unless these motivations are well-intentioned.

Q12. An Emancipationist would most likely:

A. wish to interject politically progressive values into scientific enquiry.

B. support the idea that cognitive values should determine the direction of scientific research.
C. values the integrity of scientific inquiry through a disinterested approach.
D. view that ethical considerations should be incorporated in scientific research.

Passage 4

David Hume famously defined a miracle as “a violation of the laws of nature,” and this definition has been the focus of
lively discussion ever since. Hume evidently means to denote something beyond mere changes in the regular course of
nature, raising the bar higher for something to qualify as a miracle but also raising the potential epistemic significance of
such an event if it could be authenticated.
Bringing the concept of natural laws into the definition of “miracle” is, however, problematic, and for a variety of reasons
many writers have found it untenable. First, the concept of a miracle predates any modern concept of a natural law by
many centuries. While this does not necessarily preclude Hume’s concept, it does raise the question of what concept or
concepts earlier thinkers had in mind and why the Humean concept should be thought preferable. One benefit of
defining miracles in terms of violations of natural law is that this definition entails that a miracle is beyond the
productive power of nature. But if that is the key idea, then it is hard to see why we should not simply use that as the
definition and leave out the problematic talk of laws.

Second, it becomes difficult to say in some cases just which natural laws are being violated by the event in question. That
dead men stay dead is a widely observed fact, but it is not, in the ordinary scientific use of the term, a law of nature that
dead men stay dead. The laws involved in the decomposition of a dead body are all at a much more fundamental level,
at least at the level of biochemical and thermodynamic processes and perhaps at the level of interactions of
fundamental particles.

Third, there are deep philosophical disagreements regarding the nature and even the existence of natural laws. On
Hume’s own “regularity” view of natural laws, it is difficult to see what it would mean for a natural law to be violated. If
the natural laws are simply compendious statements of natural regularities, an apparent “violation” would most
naturally be an indication, not that a supernatural intervention in the course of nature had occurred, but rather that
what we had thought was a natural law was, in fact, not one. On metaphysically rich conceptions of natural laws,
violations are problematic since the laws involve relations of necessity among universals. And on the view that there are
no natural laws whatsoever, the set of events satisfying the Humean definition of a miracle is, trivially, empty.

Speaking of miracles as violations of the laws of nature also raises questions about the nature of violation. Richard
Swinburne has suggested that a miracle might be defined as a non-repeatable counter-instance to a law of nature. If a
putative law has broad scope, great explanatory power, and appealing simplicity, it may be more reasonable, Swinburne
argues, to retain the law (defined as a regularity that virtually invariably holds) and to accept that the event in question
is a non-repeatable counter-instance of that law than to throw out the law and create a vastly more complex law that
accommodates the event.

Q13. Each of the following is a critique of Hume’s definition of miracle EXCEPT:

A. it's unclear which laws miracles violate.

B. miracles don't follow the usual patterns and regularities of nature.
C. miracles existed before natural laws were defined.
D. different views on natural laws make defining violations difficult.

Q14. "If the natural laws are simply compendious statements of natural regularities, an apparent 'violation' would
most naturally be an indication, not that a supernatural intervention in the course of nature had occurred, but rather
that what we had thought was a natural law was, in fact, not one." Which one of the following is the most accurate
interpretation of this sentence?

A. When a natural law appears to be violated, it indicates that our understanding of the law was flawed, not that a
supernatural event took place.
B. If an apparent violation of a natural law occurs, it does not imply that a supernatural event has taken place, but
that a higher force has superseded the natural law.
C. Unless natural laws are flawless, any apparent violation of law must not be interpreted as a supernatural event
but rather as a compendious statement of natural regularities.
D. If an event appears to violate natural laws, then it shows that our current scientific explanations are flawed and
that supernatural events occur.
Q15. Which of the following, if true, would most effectively counter the criticism against Hume's definition of
miracle, as mentioned in the passage?

A. New scientific discoveries have established that certain phenomena previously considered violations of natural
laws can now be explained within the framework of natural laws.
B. Philosophers have agreed on a unified definition of natural laws that accommodates the possibility of miracles.
C. Empirical evidence has confirmed that some events can be reliably classified as violations of known natural laws.
D. Advances in metaphysical studies have proven that natural laws are inviolable and that any apparent violations
are due to errors in human understanding.

Q16. Which of the following best captures Richard Swinburne's argument about miracles and natural laws as
described in the passage?

A. A miracle should be defined as a rare exception to a natural law rather than evidence of a new, more complex
law.
B. A miracle might be defined as a non-repeatable counter-instance to a law of nature, suggesting that the law
should be discarded.
C. A law with broad scope and appealing simplicity should be considered unreliable if any non-repeatable event
occurs.
D. A miracle should lead to the development of a more complex law that can explain the event within natural laws.

Para Summary

Q17. Nehru tried to build a modern, democratic India by combining the growth of capitalism with the equity of
socialism without the violence of communism. In the end, India fell between two stools. India neither got the
dynamic growth of capitalism nor the equity of socialism. It was all very well to proclaim the 'modern' ideas of the
French Revolution, but by the late 1950s it was apparent that 'liberty' was degenerating into indiscipline, all-powerful
bureaucrat-politician class was rising in the name of 'equality' for the poor, and 'fraternity' existed mainly between
the giver and taker of bribes. Observers wondered whether India could modernize without a violent communist
revolution.

1. Nehru tried to build a modern, democratic India by combining the growth of capitalism with the equity of
socialism without the violence of communism. Instead, India got mired in corruption and got neither. Observers
wondered whether India could modernize without a violent communist revolution.
2. Nehru tried an innovative model of fast growth with equitable distribution but failed on both fronts.
3. After Independence, India adopted a mixed economy model to get high growth rates associated with capitalism
and equitable distribution of wealth associated with socialism. It failed to achieve either objective, and instead
got a corrupt bureaucrat-politician class governing the country.
4. Combining capitalism with socialism did not work in India. A corrupt bureaucrat-politician class looted the
country in the name of equality for the poor.

Q18. Democratic politics is always going to involve compromises and it is always going to be a laborious process
involving talking to and negotiating with people you think are exceptionally condescending and routinely ill-informed.
But politics, if it is going to make a difference, has to be about getting things done. This means designing and
implementing policies and that is something that it is really hard to get right consistently. Good policy ideas fail for all
sorts of reasons-a lack of resources, a lack of clarity about objectives, a pressure to achieve immediate results and a
reluctance to pilot new policies and learn lessons from early mistakes. Policies fail because the people called on to
implement them don't always agree with them-and for many other reasons.
 1. Politics is all about designing and implementing good policies to get things done on the ground, not just
indulging in discussions and deliberations. But even good policies fail for a number of reasons, which should be
taken into account at the designing and implementing stages.
2. Democratic politics involve compromises and negotiations to arrive at good policies, but policies can fail during
implementation for many reasons including the reluctance to learn lessons from earlier mistakes.
3. Politics, if it is going to make a difference, has to be about getting things done. This means designing and
implementing policies and that is something that it is really hard to get right consistently.
4. Democratic politics is a messy I business and decision-making is a long drawn-out process. But politics is mainly
about getting things done.

Para Jumble

Q19.

1. What's more, as well as being a word that is overused, over-stretched and hotly disputed, Orwellian is further
complicated because it has two contradictory strands of meaning-it is both a compliment and an insult.
2. 'Orwellian' is a word that no less than the New York Times has declared "the most widely used adjective derived from
the name of a modern writer ... It's more common than 'Kafkaesque, 'Hemingwayesque' and Dickensian' put together.
3. If you call a person an Orwellian, they generally take it as a compliment-one who turned political writing into an art or
one who stood up to fascism.
4. It even noses out the rival political reproach 'Machiavellian', which had a 500-year head start."
5. If, however, you refer to something they're doing as Orwellian-and by extension a bit like all that dystopian stuff in
Nineteen Eighty-Four-odds are you aren't aiming for their Christmas card list.
Q20.

1. Particle physics explained the ghostly forces at work within atoms, whereas astrophysics made sense of massive
effects like gravity that operated at the level of galaxies and star systems.
2. More importantly, it continues to make generations of readers aware of the ongoing quest to come up with the
Grand Unified Theory of Everything.
3. As Stephen would so poetically put it, if scientists could come up with a grand unified theory that explained both
these fields we would truly understand everything: we would finally "know the mind of God."
4. A Brief History of Time sold out its first US printing in a matter of days, became a #1 bestseller around the world,
was translated into more than 35 languages, and went on to sell more than 10 million copies.
5. It is the holy grail of science-one theory that could unite two separate fields that worked individually but wholly
independent of each other.

Q21. Directions: Five sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) related to a topic are given in each question. Four of them
can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in your
answer (TITA-Type-In-The-Answer) for each question.

1. Very few malls turned into engines of smart development, with people working, learning and living in addition to
shopping, as envisioned by him.

2. He had a point.

3 Late in life, Victor Gruen, the Southdale architect who invented the mall, became disillusioned with his creation, which
never lived up to his vision.

4. The locations tended to promote sprawl, not reduce it; and as a private space devoted to consumption, it placed
disposable income at the centre of things.

5. "I would like to take this opportunity to disclaim paternity once and for all," he said in 1978. "I refuse to pay alimony
for those bastard developments. "
Q22. Identify the odd one out and key in your answer (TITA-Type-In-The-Answer) for each question.

1. "The disturbing element is a single unconscious thought, which comes to light through the special blunder," he wrote.
2. According to Freud, unacceptable thoughts or beliefs are withheld from conscious awareness, and these slips help
reveal what is hidden in the unconscious.
3. "Almost invariably I discover a disturbing influence from something outside of the intended speech."
4. According to Freud, these errors reveal unconscious thoughts or beliefs.
5. It was the famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud who described a variety of different types and examples of Freudian
slips in his 1901 book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
Q 23. " Choose the Sentence that completes the Paragraph "
We would do better to worry about what humans might do with Artificial Intelligence (AI), rather than what it might do
by itself. We humans are far more likely to deploy intelligent systems against each other, or to become over-reliant on
them. As in the fable of the sorcerer’s apprentice, if AIs do cause harm, it’s more likely to be because we give them well-
meaning but ill-thought-through goals – not because they wish to conquer us. -------------------
A. Natural stupidity, rather than artificial intelligence, remains the greatest risk.
B. Indeed, the greatest danger of artificial intelligence is that it is likely to fuel natural stupidity.
C. Artificial intelligence is, more often than not, laced with natural stupidity.
D. Natural stupidity, it seems, eclipses artificial intelligence at every instance.

Q24. " Choose the Sentence that completes the Paragraph "
Violence is akin to infectious disease. One event leads to another : just as flu causes more flu, violence causes more
violence. To contain infectious diseases, public health officials try to get people to change their behaviour so that a rapid
effect can be seen even when larger structural factors can’t be tackled. Yet, when it comes to violence, the discussion is
often underpinned by an assumption that this behaviour is innate and immutable, and that people engaging in it are
beyond redemption.____________________

A. Violence is best treated by a three- pronged approach: interrupt transmission, prevent future spread, and
change group norms.
B. In fact, penal measures such as increased stop-and-search and stricter sentencing are most effective in
containing outbreaks of violence.
C. Solutions to violence prevention are sought in the criminal justice system rather than in public health measures.
D. Across much of the world, being ‘tough on crime’ is a vote winner, which makes the public health approach to
preventing violence a hard sell.