Verbal Aptitude Quiz for XAT, CAT
Dear readers,
This quiz consists of questions from
various past papers of MBA entrance exams. Leave your answers/ responses in the
comments section below and soon we’ll let you know the correct answers!
1.
Read the following sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a
logical order.
1.
In law a fiduciary individual is someone who is entrusted with the power to act
on behalf of and for the benefit of another.
2.
Following the weight of corporate law and legal precedent, the director primacy
model positions directors as autonomous fiduciaries, not agents.
3.
The term fiduciary derives from the Latin fiducia, or trust, and the fiduciary
is expected to act in good faith and honesty for the beneficiary’s interests.
4.
A person who accepts the role of fiduciary in law must single-mindedly pursue
the interests of his or her beneficiary, in this case the corporation, even
when the latter cannot monitor or control the fiduciary’s behaviour.
A. 3, 1, 4, 2 B. 3, 4, 1, 2 C. 2, 1,
3, 4 D. 4, 2, 3, 1 E. 2, 1, 4, 3
2.
Perhaps this war will pass like the others which divided us, leaving us dead,
killing us along with the killers but the shame of this time puts its burning
fingers to our faces. Who will erase the ruthlessness hidden in innocent blood?
Which
of the following is certainly not implied in the above verse?
A. Killers also get killed in war.
B. Humanity gets divided by war and
reunites afterwards in peace.
C. This war is especially ruthless.
D. This war is shameful to the entire
humanity.
E. None can obliterate the ruthlessness of
this war
Answer
questions 3-4 on the basis of the following conversation between two friends,
Paradox (P) and Herodox (H)
P:
The human body is but the tomb of the soul and the visible world of matter is
appearance that must be overcome if we are to know reality. The former is an
integral part of “being”, that which can neither come into existence nor cease
to exist for it always is. Being is unmoved and undisturbed. Motion and
disturbance belong to the realm of “becoming”, the changing world of unreality
rather than of “being” in which true reality resides. Further, motion &
change by belonging to the realm of “becoming” by having no separate existence
of their own are logically inconsistent with reality and hence. unworthy of
serious study.
H:
All things are in a state of perpetual flux. Permanence, and by extension, the
concept of “being” is only an illusion. This change and continual
transformation, through an often disorderly process of conflict and survival of
the fittest, is the underlying principle at work in the universe. It is from
this principle that all things come into existence, and forms the basis for the
morals and governance patterns that attempt to preserve the social thread of
societies. By extension, the study of human activity through the lens of an
idealized state of “being” and as a basis for formulating moral codes of
conduct is inappropriate at best.
3
Which of the following statements could be considered as logically consistent
with the views of Paradox in the above paragraphs?
i.
A fly travelling on a flying arrow perceives it to be at rest. Therefore the
flying arrow belongs to the realm of being.
ii.
The activities of day to day life are concerned with the unreal part of human
existence and hence, should not be subject to moral standards.
iii.
Maintaining a balance among the various constituents of society is essential to
the well-being and the continuing existence of the soul.
iv.
Conflicts and the coming of spontaneous order do not have any underlying causes
that are relevant for study as the notion of perpetual flux itself is
erroneous.
v.
The real is and cannot be non-existent. Further, reality is one and unique.
A. i only B.
ii and iv C. iv and v D. i, ii. and iii E. i, iv, and v
4.
Which of the following statements best represents an implication of Herodox’s
ideas?
A. Religion and other approaches that
stress on maintaining and developing the purity of the human soul are subjects
that do not merit serious attention.
B. The setting of moral standards and codes
of governance have to be more procedure-oriented with a focus on the way humans
conduct themselves in their interactions with each other.
C. Maintaining a balance between various
constituents of the society and conflict prevention is essential to the
maintenance of social order and a pre-requisite for governance.
D. As the real world relevant to the
existence of human beings is in a state of perpetual flux, attempting to study
the same in a systematic manner would be meaningful despite reality itself
having changed by then.
E.
There is no notion of time- space-invariant reality. There can be
numerous realities both across times and across human cultures &
civilizations.
5.
Travelling is my hobby. Today in the Himalayas, as I drag my feet through the
_______, I cannot but think of the same time last year when I was negotiating
the thick _______of the Ganges delta or for that matter the time I spent with
my children _______ about in the waters of the Arabian Sea.
The
option that best fill the blanks in the above sentence would be:
A. slush, sludge, sloshing
B. sludge, slosh, slushing
C. slush, slosh, sludging
D. slosh, sludge, slushing
E. sludge, slush, sloshing
6.
The author has _______ his composition
to the best of his _______ ; yet listen to it with a sympathetic _______, O _______ souls, and judge it.
The
options that best fill the blanks in the above sentence would be:
A. honed, insights, mind, distinguished
B. polished, intellect, mind, noble
C. polished, mind, intellect, noble
D. refined, ingenuity. heart, righteous
E. refined, thoughts, heart, righteous
Answer
Questions 7-9 on the basis of the information below.
Five
reviews of the recently published novel, Caught in a Blizzard, are reproduced
below. The reviews and the reviewers are identified as indicated by the
letters.
A.
This novel can change your life – for the good, as it has changed mine. It has
made me reflect critically about my life.
B.
The novel has become a popular piece of literature, more among the youth than
among the older population.
C.
The author uses the plot in her novel to present her philosophy about life in a
positive light, rather than relying on the merits of the philosophy per se.
D.
The author is known to be a writer of great power. The intricate and
captivating plots in her novels shows that she has a subtle and ingenious mind.
E.
People have been jolted out of their beliefs about love and other different
aspects of life after reading this novel.
The
options to the questions 7- 9 are same as the reviews/ reviewers indicated
above.
7.
There has been criticism about reviewers that they write reviews after having a
cursory reading of the book in question. Based on the analysis of the different
reviews, which reviewer is most likely to have read the book in greater detail
as compared to the other reviewers?
8.
Out the five reviews given, which one can be most objectively validated?
9.
Which reviewer eulogises the author rather than critically reviews the novel?
10.
Read the sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a logical
order.
a.
Generally, it is unusual for a new problem in international relations to be
considered without at the same time some international organization being
developed to deal with it.
b.
International society has, in spite of the diversity of culture and political
systems, been progressively drawn closer together and become more unified.
c.
Despite the fears and concerns of some governments that international
organizations are increasing too fast and that they are a burden on their
exchequers, they are still proliferating at a considerable rate.
d.
People and their governments now look far beyond national frontiers and feel a
common responsibility for the major problems of the world and for lesser
problems that may subsist within smaller groups of states.
e.
More recently in the 1990s the problems of international trade, which was
growing increasingly complex, led to the development of the WTO.
f.
For instance, concern with the instability of commodities markets led to the
establishment in the 1980s of the Common Fund for Commodities and the
competition for the newly discovered wealth of the international seabed area
resulted in the creation of the ISA under the Law of the Sea Convention of
1982, based on the concept of ‘the common heritage of mankind’.
A. a,b,c,d,f,e B. b,e,d,c,f,a C.
c,a,f,e,d,b D. c,a,f,e,b,d E. d,c,a,b,f,e
11.
Choose the odd one:
A. The balloon goes up : Spot fixing
scandal
B. In the altogether : Bath tub
C. The halcyon days : Childhood
D. The real McCoy : Darjeeling Tea
E. Throw down the gauntlet : UN peace
keeping force
12.
In spite of being perceived as _______ by all, the club members decided to
_______ Arun, a skinny teenage with prominent _______, as the member of the
year, so that the whole affair would be _______ to Arun’s father who was
recuperating after a serious illness.
The
option that best fill the blanks in the above sentence would be:
A. felon, felicitate, freckles, febrile
B. feral. facilitate, feckless, felicific
C. federate, facilitate, freckles, feral
D. febrile, felicitate, feckless, feral
E. feckless, felicitate, freckles.
Felicific
Answer
Questions 13-14 on the basis of the paragraph below
We
are not only afraid of being in the dark; we are also suspicious of being kept
in the dark. We often feel that the universe has a hidden order that we cannot
quite comprehend. In ancient times, this order was attributed to the
gods-omnipotent beings who controlled humans’ fates. Greek myths in particular
portrayed humans as pawns in the great games played by the gods. More recently,
there are suspicions of global conspiracies. These conspiracies are cited for
events that are too important to be random. We no longer describe them as “Acts
of God,” so they must be the work of other people-people who are hiding their
influence over us, covering up their involvement. They are keeping the rest of
us in the dark. Among the events attributed to these people are political
assassinations and UFO sightings. Examining these events in minute detail
results in a long list of “coincidences” which, in the minds of the conspiracy
buffs, are too numerous to be truly random. There must be a central planner who
is at the hub of a sinister form of order. No one admits to the conspiracy, so
there must be a cover-up. Better to think that we are all being kept in the
dark by sinister forces than to admit that there is no order.
13.
Which of the following statements, if true, would weaken the underlying logic
of the above passage?
i.
The human need for order is a highly exaggerated notion. It more often than not
leads to creation of theories about the universe. The more sensational the
theory, the more prevalent it becomes.
ii.
The universe is less guided by pure randomness than by well-defined natural
processes which are subjected to randomness at varying intervals of time and
space.
iii.
To strengthen their case for a variety of conspiracies the conspiracy buffs are
extrapolating from a very small set of observed “coincidences”.
iv.
The persons propounding the different conspiracy theories are usually novelists
who use these theories as a backdrop during the construction of the plots of
the novels.
v.
The human fear of being kept in the dark is much stronger than the fear of lack
of order in the workings of the
universe.
A. i, ii and iii B. i, ii and iv C.
i, iii and iv D. i, iv and v
E. ii, iv and v
14.
Which of the following statements would, if true, strengthen the case for
belief in sinister forces and
conspiracies being at work in the above paragraph?
i.
Though science has progressed a lot in the last two centuries or so, it is
still unable to explain/ account for more than 80% of the phenomena in the
universe.
ii.
There is now the existence of photographic evidence of presence of UFOs and a
growing number of parallel studies showing that the human mind can easily be
manipulated to do someone else’s will through various events that manipulate
the ‘perceived reality’.
iii.
The fear of our actions and thoughts being controlled by someone else has
intensified with the widespread popularity of the depiction of its gory
outcomes by different novelists and movie makers.
iv.
There is a strong movement to reintroduce the teachings of the biblical
evolutionary process and the presence of God in schools around the world.
v.
The Darwinian study of evolution of species, the cornerstone of beliefs in
fathomable randomness of the workings of the universe has come under a scathing
attack for its inaccurate depiction of the causes and process of evolution.
A. i and iv B. i and v C. ii,
iii and v D. i, ii and v E. ii, iii, and iv
15.
There is much difficulty _______ getting _______ this place and it is not possible
to reach _______ without the grace of the lord.
The
option that best fills the blanks in the above sentence would be:
A. in; to; it
B. to; to; it
C. to; in; it
D. in; in; in
E. in; to; to
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