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This quiz consists of questions from past
actual XAT papers. Leave your answers/ responses in the comments section below
and soon we’ll let you know the correct answers!

Analyse
the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the questions 1
and  2. 

Since power is itself a value, forms of
influence which include power in their scope are usually  themselves forms of power. The king’s
mistress, though she has only influence, not power, over  the king, may have power over his subjects in
the degree of that influence. Forms of influence  based on power are  themselves forms of  power 
only  if the scope  of  the
influence  is included  within that of the power in question. The
king may exercise influence over standards of morality,  say, by virtue of his power position, but he
does not necessarily exercise power over morality. 

1.
Which combination of following statements best summarises the idea  expressed in the  paragraph?  

1.
Strength of an influence determines its power. 

2.
Influence always contributes power to the welder of influence beyond the scope
of influence. 

3.
Proximity to authority is itself a source of power. 

4.
Forms of influence are power only if they can influence behaviour.  

A. 1, 2 

B. 1, 3 

C. 1, 4 

D. 1, 3, 4 

E. 1, 2, 4  

2.
Which of the following is similar to ideas expressed in the paragraph?  

A. A king can influence what dramas are
enacted by artists. 

B. A king can influence who acts in dramas
in his kingdom. 

C. A king can indicate the appropriateness
of dramas enacted. 

D. A king can influence the prices charged
from drama groups by actors. 

E. A king can influence on what drama
audience spend their money.

3.
Widespread use of lectures in class-rooms in business schools leads to severe
negative consequences. The first consequence is theoretically knowledgeable
graduates who cannot apply theory to solve real world problems. The more
serious consequence is that lectures encourage a feeling of total omniscience
among them which persists for quite some time after graduating. This feeling
prevents “them from learning from their subordinates and colleagues. 

Which
of the following can best help to reduce these negative consequences among the
students in a business school? 

(1) Use illustrations of real life problems
in classrooms.

(2) Send the students to find business
problems so that it can be discussed in classrooms.

(3) Business education to be given to students,
who have work experience.

(4) Modify the pedagogy to have knowledge
of theory and application in parallel.

(5) Removing theoretical inputs from the
curriculum altogether; only practical problems to be discussed in class
rooms.  

Analyse
the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the questions 4
through 5 that follow. 

Silver is especially and repetitively
savage about what he sees as the extravagant claims made for particle physics,
arguing that once the proton, neutron, and electron were found and their
properties experimentally confirmed, the very expensive searches for ever more
exotic particles, such as the Higgs Boson, were increasingly harder to justify
other than by their importance to particle physicists. Most of the particles
resemble ecstatic happiness: They are very short-lived and have nothing to do
with everyday life. His repeated assault goes to the level of sarcasm:
“Finding the Higgs Boson will be a magnificent technical and theoretical
triumph. Like a great Bobby Fisher game”. Of course, this is a tad unfair,
even if some of the claims of its practitioners invite such assaults on their
field. 

4.
Which of the following, if true, will weaken the argument described in the
passage? 

(1) All streams of new science need to
undergo through a period of uncertainty and we should not criticize research in
particle physics alone.

(2) Necessity is the mother of every
invention.

(3) Knowledge has preceded application in
all spheres of science.

(4) Funding agency supporting research on
Higgs Boson do not mind wasting their money.

(5) Do not expect everyone to appreciate
everything. 

5.
Identify the statement(s) that is(are) logically consistent with the content of
the paragraph: 

I.
Silver is an ardent critic of Higgs Boson theory.

II.
Everyday life has nothing to do with experimental confirmation of the
properties of proton, neutron and electron.

III.
Identifying more information about Higgs Boson is a significant contribution to
particle physics.

IV.
Research on exotic particles in particle physics is an expensive
proposition. 

(1) Only I

(2) Only II

(3) Only II and IV

(4) Only IV

(5) Only I and IV 

Analyse the following passage and provide
an appropriate answer for the questions 6 through 7 that follow. 

Fashion is different from custom, or rather
is a particular species of it. That is not the fashion which everybody wears,
but which those wear who are of a high rank, or character. The graceful, the
easy, and the commanding manners of the great, joined to the usual richness and
magnificence of their dress, give a grace to the very form which they happen to
bestow upon it. As long as they continue to use this form, it is connected in
our imaginations with the idea of something that is genteel and magnificent,
and though in itself it should be indifferent, it seems, on account of this
relation, to have something about it that is genteel and magnificent too. As
soon as they drop it, it loses all the grace, which it had appeared to possess
before, and being now used only by the inferior ranks of people, seems to have
something of their meanness and awkwardness. 

6.
Which phrase would be the best title of the passage? 

(1) Proletariat fashion models and fashion
shows

(2) Scourge of fashion

(3) The clothes maketh the man

(4) The man maketh the cloth

(5) Predicting fashion-trends and
character 

7.
Which is nearest to the central idea in the passage? 

(1) Fashion improves grace of a person.

(2) Grace is indicated by the fashion
adopted.

(3) Grace is a characteristic of
imaginative persons.

(4) The contemporary nature of fashion
portrays the society. 

(5) Grace is a reflection of the person’s
rank or character. 

8.  Social roles may either conflict or cooperate
within any given person, depending upon the circumstances. They conflict when
the behaviour patterns demanded by one role cannot be performed while
performing the second role. Thus, one cannot easily be a saintly rake or a
feminine brut, but given an understanding husband, a woman can be both a loving
wife and a loving mother with no conflict between the roles. 

Which
of the following methods is used by the author to make his or her point? 

A. Applying an individual attribute to a
whole

B. Implying contradictions without actually
citing them

C. Relying on common-sense notions of
social roles

D. Presenting specific examples to clarify
a generality

E. Using paradox to highlight an implicit
contradiction

Analyse
the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the questions 9
through 10 that follow. 

One key element of Kantian ethics is the
idea that the moral worth of any action relies entirely on the motivation of
the agent: human behaviour cannot be said good or bad in light of the
consequences it generates, but only with regards to what moved the agent to act
in that particular way. Kant introduces the key concept of duty to clarify the
rationale underpinning of his moral theory, by analysing different types of motivation.
First of all individuals commit actions that arc really undertaken for the sake
of duty itself, which is, done because the agent thinks they arc the right
thing to do. No consideration of purpose of the action matters, but only
whether the action respects a universal moral law. Another form of action
(motivation) originates from immediate inclination: Everyone has some
inclinations, such as to preserve one’s life, or to preserve honour. These are
also duties that have worth in their own sake. But acting according to the
maxim that these inclinations might suggests – such as taking care of one’s own
health – lacks for Kant true moral worth. For example, a charitable person who
donates some goods to poor people might do it following her inclination to help
the others – that is. because she enjoys helping the others. Kant does not
consider it as moral motivation, even if the action is in conformity with duty.
The person acting from duty would in fact donate to the other because she
recognizes that helping the others is her moral obligation. Final type of
motivation suggested by Kant include actions that can be done in conformity
with duty, yet are not done from duty, but rather as a mean to some further
end. In order to illustrate this type of motivation, Kant provides the
following example. A shopkeeper who does not overcharge the inexperienced
customer and treats all customers in the same way certainly is doing the right
thing – that is, acts in conformity with duty – but we cannot say for sure that
he is acting in this way because he is moved by the basic principles of
honesty: “it is his advantage that requires it”. Moreover, we cannot
say that he is moved by an immediate inclination toward his customers, since he
gives no preference to one with respect to another. Therefore, concludes Kant,
“his action was done neither from duty nor from immediate inclination but
merely for purposes of self-interest”. 

9.
Consider the following examples: 

i)
Red Cross volunteer who donates blood every year to thank an anonymous donor
who saved the life of his mother some time back

ii)
A voluntary organization which conducts regular blood donation camps to improve
its legitimacy 

As
per the passage, correct statement(s) related to the above examples would
be: 

I.
The source of motivation for both examples is same

II.
Individuals may commit actions for reasons beyond duty

III.
Both examples illustrate the concept of moral worth 

(1) Option I only

(2) Option II only

(3) Options I & II

(4) Option III only

(5) Options II & III 

10.
Which of the following inferences would be against the ideas in the
passage? 

I.
Kantian ethics considers the moral worth of an inclination on the basis of its
consequence.

II.
Actions motivated by the inclination of an individual lacks moral worth.

III.
Elements of moral obligation reduces the moral worth of a duty, which has some
worth in itself. 

(1) Option I only

(2) Options I & II

(3) Options II only

(4) Options III only

(5) Options II & III 

MBA:

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Answers

1(c)    2(c)    
3(d)    4(c)     5(e)    
6(d)   7(e)    8(d)    
9(c)    10(a)   

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