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CAT 2025 VARC Questions — Slot 1

The actual Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension section from CAT 2025, Slot 1 — 24 questions in original paper order, each with a full worked solution. Tap an option (or type your answer) to check yourself before reading the solution.

24 questions20 MCQ · 4 TITA40 min section0/24 attempted
Q1Para CompletionMCQ

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph. Sentence: “Everything is old-world, traditional techniques from Mexico,” Ava emphasizes. Paragraph: The sisters embrace the ways their great-grandfather built and repaired instruments. ____(1) ____. When crafting a Mexican guitarron used in mariachi music, they use tacote wood for the top of the instrument. Once the wood is cut, they carve the neck and heel from a single block using tools like hand saws, chisels and sandpaper rather than modern power tools — and believe that this traditional method improves the tone of the instrument. ____(2) ____. Their store has a three-year waitlist for instruments that take months to create. ____(3) ____. The family’s artisanship has attracted stars like Los Lobos, who own custom guitars made by all three generations of the Delgado family. ____(4) ____. For the sisters, involvement in the family business started at an early age. They each built their first instruments at age 9.

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Correct answer: A

Type: Para-completion (sentence insertion). Drop the sentence into each gap and keep the one where it both fits what comes before and is picked up by what comes after.

The sentence to place is a quote: "Everything is old-world, traditional techniques from Mexico," Ava emphasizes. Its content is a claim about traditional Mexican craft.

Why blank 1 works. Just before blank 1 the paragraph says the sisters "embrace the ways their great-grandfather built and repaired instruments" — i.e. old, inherited craft. The quote names exactly that: "old-world, traditional techniques from Mexico." And the very next sentence gives a concrete example of it — the Mexican guitarrón, tacote wood, hand saws and chisels "rather than modern power tools." So the quote sits perfectly between a general statement of the theme and its illustration.

Why the others break the flow:

  • Blank 2 would merely repeat the "traditional method improves the tone" idea already stated right before it.
  • Blank 3 sits among the store/waitlist material, and blank 4 among the famous-clients material — both about the business, not the technique. Inserting a line about traditional craft there interrupts the flow.

Answer: Option 1

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Passage · Literature & Arts
Often the well intentioned music lover or the traditionally-minded professional composer asks two basic questions when faced with the electronic music phenomena: (1) . . . is this type of artistic creation music at all? and, (2) given that the product is accepted as music of a new type or order, is not such music “inhuman”? . . . As Lejaren Hiller points out in his book Experimental Music (coauthor Leonard M. Isaacson), two questions which often arise when music is discussed are: (a) the substance of musical communication and its symbolic and semantic significance, if any, and (b) the particular processes, both mental and technical, which are involved in creating and responding to musical composition. The ever-present popular concept of music as a direct, open, emotional expression and as a subjective form of communication from the composer, is, of course still that of the nineteenth century, when composers themselves spoke of music in those terms . . . But since the third decade of our century many composers have preferred more objective definitions of music, epitomized in Stravinsky’s description of it as “a form of speculation in terms of sound and time”. An acceptance of this more characteristic twentieth-century view of the art of musical composition will of course immediately bring the layman closer to an understanding of, and sympathetic response to, electronic music, even if the forms, sounds and approaches it uses will still be of a foreign nature to him. A communication problem however will still remain. The principal barrier that electronic music presents at large, in relation to the communication process, is that composers in this medium are employing a new language of forms . . . where terms like ‘densities’, ‘indefinite pitch relations’, ‘dynamic serialization’, ‘permutation’, etc., are substitutes (or remote equivalents) for the traditional concepts of harmony, melody, rhythm, etc. . . . When the new structural procedures of electronic music are at last fully understood by the listener the barriers between him and the work he faces will be removed. . . . The medium of electronic music has of course tempted many kinds of composers to try their hand at it . . . But the serious-minded composer approaches the world of electronic music with a more sophisticated and profound concept of creation. Although he knows that he can reproduce and employ melodic, rhythmic patterns and timbres of a traditional nature, he feels that it is in the exploration of sui generis languages and forms that the aesthetic magic of the new medium lies. And, conscientiously, he plunges into this search. The second objection usually levelled against electronic music is much more innocent in nature. When people speak—sometimes very vehemently—of the ‘inhuman’ quality of this music they seem to forget that the composer is the one who fires the machines, collects the sounds, manipulates them, pushes the buttons, programs the computer, filters the sounds, establishes pitches and scales, splices tape, thinks of forms, and rounds up the over-all structure of the piece, as well as every detail of it.
Q2Reading ComprehensionMCQ

The goal of the author over the course of this passage is to:

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Correct answer: D

This asks for the author's overall goal across the whole passage, so trace the argument from start to finish rather than fixing on one paragraph.

The passage opens by naming the two objections critics raise against electronic music: (1) is it "music at all?" and (2) is it "inhuman?" The rest of the passage answers both. The first is met through the Stravinsky/Hiller discussion — music can be redefined as "a form of speculation in terms of sound and time," and the only real barrier is an unfamiliar "language of forms" a listener can learn. The second is met by insisting the composer "fires the machines, collects the sounds, manipulates them, pushes the buttons" — hardly inhuman. So the author's purpose is to defend electronic music from these charges.

Why the others fall short

  • Differentiate the modern from the 19th-century composer is only a side-comparison — a means, not the goal.
  • Differentiate electronic music from other music is not the aim; he is not drawing a distinction for its own sake.
  • Defend the "serious-minded composer" from Hiller and Stravinsky is wrong — those two are cited favourably, not as attackers.

Answer: D

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Q3Reading ComprehensionMCQ

What relation does the “communication problem” mentioned in paragraph 2 have to the questions that the author recounts at the beginning of the passage?

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Correct answer: A

The question asks how the paragraph-2 "communication problem" relates to the opening questions. Link the two directly.

One opening question was whether electronic music "is... music at all?" The "communication problem" is exactly what makes people doubt it: electronic music uses "a new language of forms," with unfamiliar terms like "densities" and "dynamic serialization" instead of the traditional harmony, melody and rhythm. Crucially, the passage says this barrier can be overcome — "when the new structural procedures... are at last fully understood by the listener the barriers... will be removed." So the communication problem is the very thing that gets in the way of seeing electronic music as music, yet it can be surmounted. That is option A.

Why the others fail

  • The "we cannot see it as music" option overstates — the passage says the barriers can be removed.
  • The "they are unrelated" option is wrong — the two are directly connected.
  • The "difficulty is what makes something music" option reverses the logic.

Answer: A

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Q4Reading ComprehensionMCQ

The mention of Stravinsky’s description of music in the first paragraph does all of the following EXCEPT:

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Correct answer: A

An EXCEPT question about what Stravinsky's description of music does in paragraph 1. Three options name real effects; one does not.

Stravinsky calls music "a form of speculation in terms of sound and time." In context this does three things: it responds to and expands on the older 19th-century view of music as emotional, subjective expression; it complicates what music communicates, shifting it from "direct emotional expression" to "speculation"; and accepting this 20th-century view is what lets us classify electronic music as music.

Why A is the exception

It does not give us a way to sort individual sounds into "musical" versus "non-musical." Stravinsky redefines music as an activity — a kind of speculation — not as a filter for which sounds qualify. So "help us determine which sounds are musical and which are not" is the thing his description does not do.

Answer: A

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Q5Reading ComprehensionMCQ

From the context in which it is placed, the phrase “sui generis” in paragraph 3 suggests which one of the following?

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Correct answer: A

A vocabulary-in-context question. Even if the Latin is unfamiliar, the sentence around it fixes the meaning.

"Sui generis" literally means "of its own kind; unique." The context confirms it: the serious composer could reproduce traditional melodic and rhythmic patterns, but believes the "aesthetic magic" of the new medium lies in exploring languages and forms that are unique to that medium. So here "sui generis" means particular to itself / unique — option A ("Particular").

Why the others fail

  • Generic is the opposite of unique.
  • Unaesthetic contradicts the sentence, which locates the "aesthetic magic" in these forms.
  • Indescribable is simply not the sense here.

Answer: A

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Passage · Science & Technology
Understanding the key properties of complex systems can help us clarify and deal with many new and existing global challenges, from pandemics to poverty . . . A recent study in Nature Physics found transitions to orderly states such as schooling in fish (all fish swimming in the same direction), can be caused, paradoxically, by randomness, or ‘noise’ feeding back on itself. That is, a misalignment among the fish causes further misalignment, eventually inducing a transition to schooling. Most of us wouldn’t guess that noise can produce predictable behaviour. The result invites us to consider how technology such as contact-tracing apps, although informing us locally, might negatively impact our collective movement. If each of us changes our behaviour to avoid the infected, we might generate a collective pattern we had aimed to avoid: higher levels of interaction between the infected and susceptible, or high levels of interaction among the asymptomatic. Complex systems also suffer from a special vulnerability to events that don’t follow a normal distribution or ‘bell curve’. When events are distributed normally, most outcomes are familiar and don’t seem particularly striking. Height is a good example: it’s pretty unusual for a man to be over 7 feet tall; most adults are between 5 and 6 feet, and there is no known person over 9 feet tall. But in collective settings where contagion shapes behaviour - a run on the banks, a scramble to buy toilet paper - the probability distributions for possible events are often heavy-tailed. There is a much higher probability of extreme events, such as a stock market crash or a massive surge in infections. These events are still unlikely, but they occur more frequently and are larger than would be expected under normal distributions. What’s more, once a rare but hugely significant ‘tail’ event takes place, this raises the probability of further tail events. We might call them second-order tail events; they include stock market gyrations after a big fall and earthquake aftershocks. The initial probability of second-order tail events is so tiny it’s almost impossible to calculate - but once a first-order tail event occurs, the rules change, and the probability of a second-order tail event increases. The dynamics of tail events are complicated by the fact that they result from cascades of other unlikely events. When COVID-19 first struck, the stock market suffered stunning losses followed by an equally stunning recovery. Some of these dynamics are potentially attributable to former sports bettors, with no sports to bet on, entering the market as speculators rather than investors. The arrival of these new players might have increased inefficiencies and allowed savvy long-term investors to gain an edge over bettors with different goals. . . . One reason a first-order tail event can induce further tail events is that it changes the perceived costs of our actions and changes the rules that we play by. This game-change is an example of another key complex systems concept: nonstationarity. A second, canonical example of nonstationarity is adaptation, as illustrated by the arms race involved in the coevolution of hosts and parasites [in which] each has to ‘run’ faster, just to keep up with the novel solutions the other one presents as they battle it out in evolutionary time.
Q6Reading ComprehensionMCQ

All of the following inferences are supported by the passage EXCEPT that:

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Correct answer: D

An EXCEPT question: three inferences are supported by the passage, one is not. Test each against the text, watching for absolute language.

  • A is supported: the bank-run and toilet-paper examples show contagion amplifying local choices into system-wide cascades that surprise participants.
  • B is supported: a shock "changes the rules we play by" (nonstationarity), raising the odds of further disturbances — the second-order tail idea.
  • C is supported: heavy-tailed distributions make extreme events "more frequent and larger" than a bell curve predicts, which complicates forecasting in contagion settings.

Why D is the exception

The passage says the COVID market rebound was "potentially attributable" to former sports bettors and that their entry "might have" increased inefficiencies — hedged, partial language. Option D inflates this into the rebound being attributed "solely" to them as the "overriding cause." That absolutism has no basis in the text, so D is the unsupported inference.

Answer: D

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Q7Reading ComprehensionMCQ

Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?

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Correct answer: B

A best-summary question. A correct summary must cover every major movement of the passage without distortion.

The passage has three pillars: (1) "noise" (randomness) can produce orderly transitions — the fish-schooling study, with a contact-tracing-app illustration; (2) complex systems with contagion are vulnerable to heavy-tailed cascades — extreme events that are more frequent and larger than a bell curve predicts, illustrated by the COVID market gyrations; and (3) nonstationarity — an early tail event "changes the rules," raising the probability of further tail events. Option B names all three accurately.

Why the others fail

  • The "outcomes follow normal distributions, extremes negligible" option asserts the exact opposite of the passage.
  • The "speculative entrants always produce inefficiency... investors invariably profit" option turns a hedged, partial point into an absolute law.
  • The "nonstationarity is exclusive to biology and rejected for markets" option contradicts the passage, which applies nonstationarity to markets explicitly.

Answer: B

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Q8Reading ComprehensionMCQ

Which one of the following observations would most strengthen the passage’s claim that a first-order tail event raises the probability of further tail events in complex systems?

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Correct answer: C

A strengthen question. The claim is that a first big ("first-order") tail event raises the probability of further tail events. To strengthen it, find evidence of a large shock being followed by more frequent or larger extremes than usual.

Option C does exactly that: after a major equity crash, researchers find "dense clusters of large daily moves for several weeks," with extreme days "occurring far more often than in normal circumstances" — even for assets that are usually calm. A first shock is followed by a burst of further extremes, which is precisely the mechanism the passage describes (second-order tail events, market gyrations after a big fall).

Why the others don't help

  • The epidemic-network option and the earthquake option both show activity returning to baseline with no later rise — they weaken the claim.
  • The river-discharge option (levels fit a thin-tailed normal distribution) is irrelevant to tail-event clustering.

Answer: C

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Q9Reading ComprehensionMCQ

The passage suggests that contact tracing apps could inadvertently raise risky interactions by altering local behaviour. Which one of the assumptions below is most necessary for that suggestion to hold?

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Correct answer: B

A necessary-assumption question. The suggestion is that contact-tracing apps could inadvertently raise risky interactions by changing local behaviour. Ask: what must be true for that to be possible?

The passage's point is that if each person changes behaviour to avoid the infected, the interaction of all those local choices can produce a collective pattern nobody intended — more risky contacts, not fewer. For that to happen, individual local responses must feed into and shape one another, aggregating into a large-scale pattern. That interdependence is exactly what option B states: people react to observed infections and to each other, so "local responses interact," turning many small adjustments into large-scale patterns that can defeat the intended risk reduction.

Why the others fail

Options A, C and D each describe conditions — mass uninstalls, perfect data accuracy, uniform traffic — that would make aggregate behaviour predictable or independent. Each of those removes the very interdependence the argument depends on, so none can be the necessary assumption.

Answer: B

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Q10Odd One OutTITA

Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer. 1. Developments both technological and sociocultural have afforded us far greater freedom over death than we had in the past, and while we are still adapting ourselves to that freedom, we now appreciate the moral importance of this freedom. 2. But I believe that a type of freedom we can call freedom over death - that is, a freedom in which we shape the timing and circumstances of how we die - should be central to this conversation. 3. Legalising assisted dying is but a further step in realising this freedom over death. 4. Many people endorse, through their opinions or their choices, our freedom over death, encompassing a right to medical assistance in hastening our deaths. 5. Freedom is a notoriously complex and contested philosophical notion, and I won’t pretend to settle any of the big controversies it raises.

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Correct answer: 4

An odd-sentence-out set. Four sentences build one first-person argument; one sentence stands apart.

The coherent paragraph (read 5 → 2 → 1 → 3):

  • S5 opens on the abstract idea: freedom is a "contested" philosophical notion, and the author won't try to settle the big debates around it.
  • S2 narrows to the actual claim: a "freedom over death" — shaping the timing and circumstances of how we die — "should be central to this conversation."
  • S1 grounds it: technological and social developments have given us greater freedom over death, and we now grasp its moral importance.
  • S3 lands the application: legalising assisted dying is "a further step in realising this freedom over death."

The thread is clean: general freedom → freedom over death → we now have it → assisted dying realises it. Notice the consistent first-person voice — "I believe," "we now appreciate," "a further step."

Why S4 is the odd one: it is a third-person observation about public opinion ("Many people endorse... a right to medical assistance in hastening our deaths") that simply duplicates the assisted-dying point already carried by S3, and it breaks the author's own arguing voice. It neither opens the topic nor advances the argument.

Answer: Sentence 4

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Passage · Business & Economics
Studies showing that income inequality plays a positive role in economic growth are largely based on three arguments. The first argument focuses on investment indivisibilities wherein large sunk costs are required when implementing new fundamental innovations. Without stock markets and financial institutions to mobilize large sums of money, a high concentration of wealth is needed for individuals to undertake new industrial activities accompanied by high sunk costs . . . [One study] shows the relation between economic growth and income inequality for 45 countries during 1966-1995. [It was found] that the increase in income inequality has a significant positive relationship with economic growth in the short and medium term. Using system GMM, [another study estimated] the relation between income inequality and economic growth for 106 countries during 1965- 2005 period. The results show that income inequality has a positive impact on economic growth in the short run, but the two are negatively correlated in the long run. The second argument is related to moral hazard and incentives . . . Because economic performance is determined by the unobservable level of effort that agents make, paying compensations without taking into account the economic performance achieved by individual agents will fail to elicit optimum effort from the agents. Thus, certain income inequalities contribute to growth by enhancing worker motivation . . . and by giving motivation to innovators and entrepreneurs . . . Finally, [another study] point[s] out that the concentration of wealth or stock ownership in relation to corporate governance contributes to growth. If stock ownership is distributed and owned by a large number of shareholders, it is not easy to make quick decisions due to the conflicting interests among shareholders, and this may also cause a free-rider problem in terms of monitoring and supervising managers and workers. . . . Various studies have examined the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and most of these assert that a negative correlation exists between the two. . . . Analyzing 159 countries for 1980-2012, they conclude that there exists a negative relation between income inequality and economic growth; when the income share of the richest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP decreases by 0.08%, whereas when the income share of the poorest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP increases by 0.38%. Some studies find that inequality has a negative impact on growth due to poor human capital accumulation and low fertility rates . . . while [others] point out that inequality creates political instability, resulting in lower investment. . . . [Some economists] argue that widening income inequality has a negative impact on economic growth because it negatively affects social consensus or social capital formation. One important research topic is the correlation between democratization and income redistribution. [Some scholars] explain that social pressure for income redistribution rises as income inequality increases in a democratic society. In other words, when democratization extends suffrage to a wider class of people, the increased political power of low- and middle-income voters results in broader support for income redistribution and social welfare expansion. However . . . if the rich have more political influence than the poor, the democratic system actually worsens income inequality rather than improving it.
Q11Reading ComprehensionMCQ

Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?

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Correct answer: D

A best-summary question. Track the passage's shape: a positive case, then a countervailing negative case.

The first half lays out three channels through which inequality may support growth — investment indivisibilities (large sunk costs need concentrated wealth), incentive/moral-hazard motivation, and concentrated-ownership governance. It then reports that this positive effect is mainly short-run, while the long-run correlation is negative, alongside downsides in human capital, fertility, political instability and social capital. Option D captures all of it: "investment, incentive, and governance channels through which income inequality may support economic growth," plus "short-term gains while noting long-term drawbacks."

Why the others fail

  • The "evaluating without both short- and long-term consequences is misguided" option is too narrow — it omits the three channels.
  • The "confines its discussion to financing gaps and corporate control" option is false; the passage does cover human capital, fertility and redistribution.
  • The "income inequality accelerates growth" option drops the long-run drawback and the governance channel.

Answer: D

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Q12Reading ComprehensionMCQ

The passage refers to “democratization”. Choose the one option below that comes closest to the opposite of this process.

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Correct answer: A

The question asks for the option closest to the opposite of "democratization." Fix what the word means in the passage first.

In the passage, democratization means extending suffrage and political power to wider classes of people. Its opposite would narrow participation and move toward autocracy. Option A states exactly that: after an emergency decree, "the regime shifted toward authoritarianism as suffrage narrowed and opposition parties were deregistered." That is the reverse of extending the franchise.

Why the others fail

  • Capping donations and providing public party funding, and imposing term limits with stronger judicial review, are democratic reforms — however a press release might label them.
  • Participatory budgeting and recall elections are themselves forms of democratization, not its opposite.

The trick in the wrong options is a misleading label ("oligarchy," "totalitarianism," "autocratic") slapped onto a genuinely democratic measure — judge the substance, not the tag.

Answer: A

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Q13Reading ComprehensionMCQ

The primary function of the three-part case for a positive income inequality-economic growth link in the first half of the passage is to show that:

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Correct answer: C

This asks for the function of the three-part positive case in the first half of the passage. Summarise what those three arguments jointly establish.

The three arguments are that inequality can help growth (a) where large sunk costs require concentrated wealth, (b) where performance-linked pay aligns incentives and motivates effort, and (c) where concentrated ownership improves corporate governance — and the passage stresses the effect is mainly short-term. Option C states precisely this synthesis: "inequality can aid short-term growth in settings with high sunk costs, incentive alignment, and concentrated ownership."

Why the others fail

  • The "boosts growth in every period and type of economy" option contradicts the short-run/long-run distinction the passage insists on.
  • The "mature stock markets make wealth concentration unnecessary" option is an incidental aside, not the function of the three-part case.
  • The "dispersed ownership speeds decision-making" option reverses the passage — it is concentrated ownership that speeds decisions and eases the free-rider problem.

Answer: C

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Q14Reading ComprehensionMCQ

According to the incentive or moral hazard argument, which one of the designs below is most consistent with the claim that some inequality can raise growth?

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Correct answer: A

This tests the incentive / moral-hazard argument specifically. State that argument, then find the design that fits it.

The argument runs: because a worker's effort is unobservable, pay must be tied to measurable performance to draw out effort; performance-linked rewards then motivate productive workers, innovators and entrepreneurs — and the resulting inequality can lift growth. Option A — "pay rewards on verifiable performance for highly productive workers" — is exactly that design.

Why the others fail

  • The "rents protected by market power that enlarge top incomes without linking pay to results" option is the opposite of merit-based incentives — it rewards position, not performance.
  • The "wages set by tenure rather than output" option severs pay from effort, undermining the very motivation the argument relies on.
  • The "concentrated stock ownership for governance" option belongs to the third (governance) argument, not the incentive one.

Answer: A

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Q15Para JumbleTITA

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer. 1. It can in fact be integrated into any function (education, medical treatment, production, punishment); it can increase the effect of this function, by being linked closely with it; it can constitute a mixed mechanism in which relations of power (and of knowledge) may be precisely adjusted, in the smallest detail, to the processes that are to be supervised; it can establish a direct proportion between ‘surplus power’ and ‘surplus production’. 2. It’s a case of ‘it’s easy once you’ve thought of it’ in the political sphere. 3. The panoptic mechanism is not simply a hinge, a point of exchange between a mechanism of power and a function; it is a way of making power relations function in a function, and of making a function function through these power relations 4. In short, it arranges things in such a way that the exercise of power is not added on from the outside, like a rigid, heavy constraint, to the functions it invests, but is so subtly present in them as to increase their efficiency by itself increasing its own points of contact.

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Correct answer: 2143

Type: Para-jumble. This is an extract from the middle of a discussion, so almost every sentence begins with "it" pointing back to the same idea (a certain power mechanism). Since the subject is already assumed, the opener isn't the sentence that names it — it's the one that best frames the point that follows. Fix the opener, then follow the connectors link by link.

Opener = 2. "It's a case of 'it's easy once you've thought of it' in the political sphere." This is a broad, scene-setting remark — it reads like an entry into the discussion, not a conclusion. It sets up the whole point: this mechanism is strikingly simple to apply.

2 → 1. "It can in fact be integrated into any function (education, medical treatment, production, punishment)…" The phrase "in fact" confirms and develops the claim in 2 that the thing is easy to apply, and backs it with a concrete list of examples.

1 → 4. "In short, it arranges things in such a way that the exercise of power is not added on from the outside…" "In short" signals a summary — it compresses the long list of integrations just given in 1 into a single idea.

4 → 3. The paragraph closes on its most formal statement: "The panoptic mechanism is not simply a hinge… it is a way of making power relations function in a function." That "not simply X; it is Y" re-definition is the natural climax, and the drumbeat repetition ("function… function… function") is a closing flourish.

💡 Teacher tip: A summary word like "in short" can't come first — it has to follow the material it summarises. Spotting that "in short" belongs after the list (1) immediately kills any order that opens with 4.

Reading it straight through — 2, 1, 4, 3 — every junction holds.

Answer: 2143

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Q16Para SummaryMCQ

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. In the dynamic realm of creativity, artists often find themselves at the crossroads between drawing inspiration from diverse cultures and inadvertently crossing into the territory of cultural appropriation. Inspiration is the lifeblood of creativity, driving artists to create works that resonate across borders. The globalized nature of the modern world invites artists to draw from a vast array of cultural influences. When approached respectfully, inspiration becomes a bridge, fostering understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity. However, the line between inspiration and cultural appropriation can be thin and easily blurred. Cultural appropriation occurs when elements from a particular culture are borrowed without proper understanding, respect, or acknowledgement. This leads to the commodification of sacred symbols, the reinforcement of stereotypes, and the erasure of the cultural context from which these elements originated. It’s essential to recognize that the impact of cultural appropriation extends beyond the realm of artistic expression, influencing societal perceptions and perpetuating power imbalances.

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Correct answer: A

Type: Para-summary. The winning option must capture the passage's full arc and its final, emphasised point.

The passage's arc: in a globalised world, artists draw on many cultures; approached respectfully, inspiration is a bridge that fosters understanding; but the line to cultural appropriation — borrowing without understanding, respect or acknowledgement — is thin. Appropriation commodifies sacred symbols, reinforces stereotypes and erases cultural context — and, crucially, its impact "extends beyond… artistic expression," shaping societal perceptions and perpetuating power imbalances.

Why A is best. Option A keeps the globalised framing, the inspiration-versus-appropriation navigation, and the culminating point about broader societal impacts and power imbalances — the note the passage deliberately ends on.

Why the others fall short:

  • Option B is partial — it misses the globalisation framing and the power-imbalance conclusion.
  • Option C misreads the passage as saying appropriation is an inevitable by-product, and claims works "must appeal to all" — neither is stated.
  • Option D captures the middle (commodification, stereotypes) but drops the passage's final, emphasised claim about wider societal impact and power imbalances.

Answer: A

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Q17Para SummaryMCQ

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Zombie cells may contribute to age-related chronic inflammation: this finding could help scientists understand more about the aging process and why the immune system becomes less effective as we get older. Zombie or “senescent” cells are damaged cells that can no longer divide and grow like normal cells. Scientists think that these cells can contribute to chronic health problems when they accumulate in the body. In younger people, the immune system is more effective at clearing senescent cells from the body through a process called apoptosis, but as we age, this process becomes less efficient. As a result, there is an accumulation of senescent cells in different organs in the body, either through increased production or reduced clearance by the immune system. The zombie cells continue to use energy though they do not divide, and often secrete chemicals that cause inflammation, which if persistent for longer periods of time can damage healthy cells leading to chronic diseases.

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Correct answer: C

Type: Para-summary. The best summary must carry the passage's whole causal chain — not just define a term or capture one true detail.

The passage runs as a chain: aging → the immune system clears "zombie" (senescent) cells less efficiently → these cells accumulate → they keep using energy and secrete inflammation-causing chemicals → persistent inflammation damages healthy cells → chronic disease (and this loop feeds back into aging). Option C captures that entire arc.

Why the others fall short:

  • Option A only defines zombie cells. It drops the aging, inflammation and disease argument entirely — a true sentence, but not a summary.
  • Option B says the cells "resist apoptosis." The passage says the clearance process becomes less efficient with age — not that the cells actively resist it — and B omits the inflammation-to-disease loop.
  • Option D calls them "dead" cells. They aren't dead — they're senescent, still using energy and still secreting chemicals — and D also muddles the direction of cause and effect.

Answer: C

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Q18Para JumbleTITA

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer. 1. But man, woman or otherwise, there is no denying that the quality of our life and character will be significantly shaped by the way we handle our anger. 2. Once the taboos have been broken, women usually experience letting their fists fly as intensely liberating. 3. Though this might seem a stereotype, women—unlike men, who are frequently applauded for unbridled aggression—are often socialized to keep a lid on their ire. 4. Many of them are so at odds with their aggressive feelings that, as a coach, I often have to stop them from pulling their punches and encourage them to extend their arms so their blows might actually reach their fleshy target.

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Correct answer: 3421

Type: Para-jumble. Find the one sentence that can open, then follow the thread.

Find the opener. Only 3 can start. It introduces the theme — that women, unlike men, are socialised to keep a lid on their anger — with no reference back to anything. The others can't open: 1 begins with "But" (a closing contrast); 2 begins with "Once the taboos have been broken" (needs earlier context about those taboos); 4 begins with "Many of them" (needs a plural group already named).

Build the links:

  1. 3 → 4. "Many of them" in 4 refers to the women introduced in 3. As a coach, the writer sees these women "at odds with their aggressive feelings," pulling their punches.
  2. 4 → 2. The coach encourages them to extend their arms so blows land; then, "Once the taboos have been broken," women find letting their fists fly "intensely liberating" — the breakthrough that follows the coaxing.
  3. 2 → 1. "But man, woman or otherwise…" lifts the point beyond gender: however we're built, our life and character are shaped by how we handle anger. A clean closing generalisation.

💡 Teacher tip: A pronoun with no antecedent ("Many of them," "the taboos") can never open a paragraph — that alone rules out 4, 2 and 1 as the first sentence.

Reading 3-4-2-1 straight through runs smoothly end to end.

Answer: 3421

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Q19Para CompletionMCQ

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph. Sentence: Historically, silver has been, and still is, an important element in the business of ‘show’ visible in private houses, churches, government and diplomacy. Paragraph: ____(1) ____. Timothy Schroder put it succinctly in suggesting that electric light and eating in the kitchen eroded this need. As he explained to the author, ‘Silver, when illuminated by flickering candlelight, comes alive and almost dances before the eyes, but when lit by electric light, it becomes flat and dead.’ ____(2) ____. Domestic and economic changes may have worked against the market, but the London silver trade remained buoyant, thanks to the competition of collectors seeking grand display silver at the top end, and the buyers of ‘collectables’, like spoons and wine labels and ‘novelties’, at the bottom. ____(3) ____. Another factor that came into play was the systematic collection building of certain American museums over the period. Boston, Huntington Art Gallery and Williamsburg, among others, were largely supplied by London dealers. ____(4) ____.

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Correct answer: B

Type: Para-completion (sentence insertion). Test each blank against the direction the paragraph actually takes — not just the sentence next door.

The missing sentence — "Historically, silver has been, and still is, an important element in the business of 'show'…" — asserts that silver's role in display has endured.

Why blank 1 is the trap. The sentence right after blank 1 says electric light "eroded this need," and it's tempting to make the missing sentence the thing "this need" refers to. But if the sentence goes at blank 1, the rest of the paragraph ought to trace the decline of that need. Instead it pivots to how "the London silver trade remained buoyant." So blank 1 points the paragraph the wrong way.

Where it belongs. The sentence explains the demand behind "collectors seeking grand display silver," so it fits the buoyancy stretch — blank 2 or blank 3.

Blank 2 vs blank 3. Blank 2 falls right after the line that silver under electric light "becomes flat and dead" — its display value being killed off. Asserting "silver is important for show" there clashes head-on with that image. Blank 3 sits right after "collectors seeking grand display silver… and buyers of 'collectables'," and the missing sentence carries that idea forward. The line that follows — "Another factor that came into play was the systematic collection building of certain American museums" — then adds a second reason the trade stayed buoyant. That "another factor" parallel confirms the fit: the missing sentence is the first factor.

Blank 4 is the closing line — far too late to introduce silver's historical role.

Answer: Option 3

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Passage · Psychology & Behaviour
How can we know what someone else is thinking or feeling, let alone prove it in court? In his 1863 book, A General View of the Criminal Law of England, James Fitzjames Stephen, among the most celebrated legal thinkers of his generation, was of the opinion that the assessment of a person’s mental state was an inference made with “little consciousness.” In a criminal case, jurors, doctors, and lawyers could watch defendants—scrutinizing clothing, mannerisms, tone of voice—but the best they could hope for were clues. . . . Rounding these clues up to a judgment about a defendant’s guilt, or a defendant’s life, was an act of empathy and imagination. . . . The closer the resemblance between defendants and their judges, the easier it was to overlook the gap that inference filled. Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed. In the nineteenth century, physicians who specialized in the study of madness and the care of the insane held themselves out as experts in the new field of mental science. Often called alienists or mad doctors, they were the predecessors of modern psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists. . . . The opinions of family and neighbors had once been sufficient to sift the sane from the insane, but a growing belief that insanity was a subtle condition that required expert, medical diagnosis pushed physicians into the witness box. . . . Lawyers for both prosecution and defense began to recruit alienists to assess defendants’ sanity and to testify to it in court. Irresponsibility and insanity were not identical, however. Criminal responsibility was a legal concept and not, fundamentally, a medical one. Stephen explained: “The question ‘What are the mental elements of responsibility?’ is, and must be, a legal question. It cannot be anything else, for the meaning of responsibility is liability to punishment.” . . . Nonetheless, medical and legal accounts of what it meant to be mentally sound became entangled and mutually referential throughout the nineteenth century. Lawyers relied on medical knowledge to inform their opinions and arguments about the sanity of their clients. Doctors commented on the legal responsibility of their patients. Ultimately, the fields of criminal law and mental science were both invested in constructing an image of the broken and damaged psyche that could be contrasted with the whole and healthy one. This shared interest, and the shared space of the criminal courtroom, made it nearly impossible to consider responsibility without medicine, or insanity without law. . . . Physicians and lawyers shared more than just concern for the mind. Class, race, and gender bound these middle-class, white, professional men together, as did family ties, patriotism, Protestantism, business ventures, the alumni networks of elite schools and universities, and structures of political patronage. But for all their affinities, men of medicine and law were divided by contests over the borders of criminal responsibility, as much within each profession as between them. Alienists steadily pushed the boundaries of their field, developing increasingly complex and capacious definitions of insanity. Eccentricity and aggression came to be classified as symptoms of mental disease, at least by some.
Q20Reading ComprehensionMCQ

The last paragraph of the passage refers to “middle-class, white, professional men”. Which one of the following qualities best describes the connection among them?

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Correct answer: A

The question asks what best describes the connection among the "middle-class, white, professional men" of the last paragraph. Read that paragraph's own logic.

It says these men — physicians and lawyers — shared class, race, gender, family ties, religion and more, but were then "divided by contests over the borders of criminal responsibility." Across the whole passage, the conceptual hinge linking the two professions is precisely this: criminal responsibility (a legal idea) set against insanity (a medical one). So the contested "borders of criminal responsibility" is what the passage foregrounds as connecting — and dividing — these men. That is option A.

Why the others fail

  • The opinions of family and neighbours and empathy and imagination are details from earlier paragraphs, not what binds these men.
  • Eccentricity and aggression is a peripheral detail about how alienists widened the definition of insanity.

Answer: A

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Q21Reading ComprehensionMCQ

According to the passage, who or what was an “alienist”?

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Correct answer: B

A straightforward detail question — the passage defines the term directly.

It states: "physicians who specialized in the study of madness and the care of the insane... Often called alienists or mad doctors, they were the predecessors of modern psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists." That is option B, almost verbatim.

Why the others fail

  • The "pushed the boundaries of their fields till they became unrecognisable" option is a vague stretch, not the definition.
  • The immigrants/"aliens" option and the extraterrestrials/"aliens" option both play on the wrong sense of the word "alien."

Answer: B

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Q22Reading ComprehensionMCQ

Study the following sets of concepts and identify the set that is conceptually closest to the concerns and arguments of the passage.

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Correct answer: D

This asks which set of four concepts sits closest to the passage's core concerns. Identify the passage's central ideas, then match the set that captures them without drifting into side details.

The passage is built around four ideas: the judgement of a defendant's mental state; insanity and the new "mental science"; liability to punishment ("the meaning of responsibility is liability to punishment"); and criminal responsibility as a legal concept. Option D — "Judgement, Insanity, Punishment, Responsibility" — matches all four.

Why the others fail

Options A, B and C each keep one or two core ideas but pad the set with peripheral items — Business, Patronage, Patriotism — that appear only in passing (in the list of things that socially bound the professionals together). A set is only as strong as its weakest member, so those mixed sets fall short.

Answer: D

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Q23Reading ComprehensionMCQ

“Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed.” Which one of the following best describes the use of the word “confession” in this sentence?

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Correct answer: A

A word-in-context question about "confession" in the phrase "by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race."

Every item in that list is a marker that could make a defendant seem unlike the Protestant, middle-class, male officials judging them. In that company, "confession" carries its older religious sense — a stated faith or denomination (as in "the Catholic confession"), i.e. the defendant's religion. This fits the paragraph's own note that Protestantism was one of the ties binding these officials together, so a different faith would mark a defendant as an outsider. That is option A.

Why the others fail

  • The "professing a gender/race" option is forced and does not fit a list of markers of difference.
  • The option built on "dint" meaning "didn't" misreads the word — "by dint of" means "by means of."
  • The "struck out at officials and then confessed" option invents a physical attack absent from the text.

Answer: A

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Q24Odd One OutTITA

Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer. 1. The Bayeux tapestry was, therefore, an obvious way to tell people about the downfall of the English and the rise of the Normans. 2. So if we take expert in Anglo-Saxon culture Gale Owen- Crocker’s idea that the tapestry was originally hung in a square with certain scenes facing each other, people would have stood in the centre. 3. Art historian Linda Neagley has argued that pre-Renaissance people interacted with art visually, kinaesthetically (sensory perception through bodily movement) and physically. 4. That would make it an 11th-century immersive space with scenes corresponding and echoing each other, drawing the viewer’s attention, playing on their senses and understanding of the story they thought they knew. 5. The Bayeux tapestry would have been hung at eye level to enable this.

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Correct answer: 1

Type: Odd-one-out. Find the single idea that unites four of the sentences, then spot the one that belongs to a different idea.

The unifying thread: sentences 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all about how the Bayeux tapestry was displayed and physically experienced by viewers:

  • 3 — pre-Renaissance people interacted with art visually, kinaesthetically and physically.
  • 5 — the tapestry was hung at eye level to enable exactly that.
  • 2 — one scholar's idea that it hung in a square with scenes facing each other, viewers standing in the centre.
  • 4 — that arrangement makes it an "immersive space" with scenes echoing one another.

Together they read as one paragraph about display and bodily experience (e.g. 3 → 5 → 2 → 4).

Why 1 is the odd one out. Sentence 1 is about the tapestry's political purpose and narrative content — telling people about "the downfall of the English and the rise of the Normans." That's what the tapestry says, a completely different topic from how it was hung and experienced.

Answer: Sentence 1

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