guys do you follow any text book for grammer or you just do the coaching center materials? Please suggest
RC:
The fact that superior service can generate a competitive advantage for a company does not mean that every attempt at improving service will create such an advantage. Investments in service, like those in production and distribution, must be balanced against other types of investments on the basis of direct, tangible benefits such as cost reduction and increased revenues. If a company is already effectively on a par with its competitors because it provides service that avoids a damaging reputation and keeps customers from leaving at an unacceptable rate, then investment in higher service levels may be wasted, since service is a deciding factor for customers only in extreme situations.
This truth was not apparent to managers of one regional bank, which failed to improve its competitive position despite its investment in reducing the time a customer had to wait for a teller. The bank managers did not recognize the level of customer inertia in the consumer banking industry that arises from the inconvenience of switching banks. Nor did they analyze their service improvement to determine whether it would attract new customers by producing a new standard of service that would excite customers or by proving difficult for competitors to copy. The only merit of the improvement was that it could easily be described to customers.
Question 1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) contrast possible outcomes of a type of business investment
(B) suggest more careful evaluation of a type of business investment
(C) illustrate various ways in which a type of business investment could fail to enhance revenues
(D) trace the general problems of a company to a certain type of business investment
(E) criticize the way in which managers tend to analyze the costs and benefits of business investments
Question 2. According to the passage, investments in service are comparable to investments in production and distribution in terms of the
(A) tangibility of the benefits that they tend to confer
(B) increased revenues that they ultimately produce (C) basis on which they need to be weighed
(D) insufficient analysis that managers devote to them
(E) degree of competitive advantage that they are likely to provide
Question 3. The passage suggests which of the following about service provided by the regional bank prior to its investment in enhancing that service?
(A) It enabled the bank to retain customers at an acceptable rate.
(B) It threatened to weaken the bank's competitive position with respect to other regional banks.
(C) It had already been improved after having caused damage to the bank's reputation in the past.
(D) It was slightly superior to that of the bank's regional competitors.
(E) It needed to be improved to attain parity with the service provided by competing banks
5. The discussion of the regional bank in the second paragraph serves which of the following functions within the passage as a whole?
(A) It describes an exceptional case in which investment in service actually failed to produce a competitive advantage.
(B) It illustrates the pitfalls of choosing to invest in service at a time when investment is needed more urgently in another area.
(C) It demonstrates the kind of analysis that managers apply when they choose one kind of service investment over another.
(D) It supports the argument that investments in certain aspects of service are more advantageous than investments in other aspects
of service.
(E) It provides an example of the point about investment in service made in the first
paragraph.
Question 6. The author uses the word "only" in the most likely in order to
(A) highlight the oddity of the service improvement
(B) emphasize the relatively low value of the investment in service improvement
(C) distinguish the primary attribute of the service improvement from secondary attributes
(D) single out a certain merit of the service improvement from other merits
(E) point out the limited duration of the actual service improvement
SC: Career switchers often schedule interviews with high-level managers, believing that the insight of professionals will help narrow down the many choices of careers available to graduating MBAs
Concerned about the drastic declining in vulture population in Tripura, the forest department has decided to start captive breeding of the scavenger bird is the useage of concerned about correct or it should be concerned over
please find the error in this line if any ? - Some attribute evil to the existence of free will; others argue that it is based in the ignorance of truth.
guys plz suggest some source for pshycology, sociology, literature, history etc topics for RC preparation
A is in its correct place . rearrange the rest
A. I had six thousand acres of land, and had thus got much spare land besides the coffee plantation. Part of the farm was native forest, and about one thousand acres were squatters' land, what [the Kikuyu] called their shambas
. B. The squatters' land was more intensely alive than the rest of the farm, and was changing with the seasons the year round. The maize grew up higher than your head as you walked on the narrow hard-trampled footpaths in between the tall green rustling regiments
. C. The squatters are Natives, who with their families hold a few acres on a white man's farm, and in return have to work for him a certain number of days in the year. My squatters, I think, saw the relationship in a different light, for many of them were born on the farm, and their fathers before them, and they very likely regarded me as a sort of superior squatter on their estates
. D. The Kikuyu also grew the sweet potatoes that have a vine like leaf and spread over the ground like a dense entangled mat, and many varieties of big yellow and green speckled pumpkins.
E. The beans ripened in the fields, were gathered and thrashed by the women, and the maize stalks and coffee pods were collected and burned, so that in certain seasons thin blue columns of smoke rose here and there all over the farm.
(1) CBDE (2) BCDE (3) CBED (4) DBCE (5) EDBC
RC#
Christianity suggests that the universe is a theatre of change and imperfection, and God is perfect and unchanging. Apologists, who reconcile Christianity with Greek Philosophy advocate that universe is somewhat different from pure matter. Thus, God according to them also is eternal and unchanging; he is the primordial cause of everything in the universe. Ideas of Plato and forms of Aristotle became God for them.
St. Augustine, one of the greatest thinkers among the early Christian Philosophers worked most on the theory of apologists. According to him, God created matter out of nothing and then created everything in the universe. Indeed, God created time and space also. This principle is in congruence with the Greek Philosophy, that the universe is the result of union of matter and form.
Christian thinkers furthered the Greek philosophy and they attempted to account for the existence of matter. The Christians put the ideas or forms in God's mind and went on to say that God created matter out of nothing. After he had created matter, he had something upon which to impress ideas for forms.
These Christian philosophers taught that the ideas or forms being in the mind of the God, were divine. Therefore, in so far as things are ideas or forms impressed on matter, they seek God and try to return to him. But matter holds them back. Matter which God has created is the principle, which makes it necessary for things to struggle in their attempt to become divine.
Q1 ) Which of the following can be a valid conclusion as per passage?
a. God is eternal, unchanging.
b. God created matter and philosophers.
c. God is creator of all forms and ideas.
d. The pattern of the world is himself.
e. God has created everything.
Q2)Which of the following can be validated true from the passage?
a. Greek philosophers might not have attempted to account for matter while explaining the creation of universe.
b. The universe is the manifestation of interplay between change and imperfection.
c. God is eternal, unchanging and the creator of everything.
d. Both B and C
e. None of the above
Q3) According to some Christian philosophers though all forms are created by God
a. Matter present in them impedes their attempts to return to their creator.
b. They still have to struggle to prove their divinity.
c. All may not qualify to be called divine.
d. God created matter out of everything.
e. God is the allower of freedom. He is a lawgiver, but he is not a tyrant.
RC
In public Greek life, a man had to make his way at every step through the immediate persuasion of the spoken word. Whether it be addressing an assembly, a law-court or a more restricted body, his oratory would be a public affair rather than under the purview of a quiet committee, without the support of circulated commentary, and with no backcloth of daily reportage to make his own or others' views familiar to his hearers. The oratory's immediate effect was all-important; it would be naive to expect that mere reasonableness or an inherently good case would equate to a satisfactory appeal. Therefore, it was early realized that persuasion was an art, up to a point teachable, and a variety of specific pedagogy was well established in the second half of the fifth century. When the sophists claimed to teach their pupils how to succeed in public life, rhetoric was a large part of what they meant, though, to do them justice, it was not the whole.
Skill naturally bred mistrust. If a man of good will had need of expression advanced of mere twaddle, to learn how to expound his contention effectively, the truculent or pugnacious could be taught to dress their case in well-seeming guise. It was a standing charge against the sophists that they ‗made the worse appear the better cause,' and it was this immoral lesson which the hero of Aristophanes' Clouds went to learn from, of all people, Socrates. Again, the charge is often made in court that the opponent is an adroit orator and the jury must be circumspect so as not to let him delude them. From the frequency with which this crops up, it is patent that the accusation of cleverness might damage a man. In Greece, juries, of course, were familiar with the style, and would recognize the more evident artifices, but it was worth a litigant's while to get his speech written for him by an expert. Persuasive oratory was certainly one of the pressures that would be effective in an Athenian law-court.
A more insidious danger was the inevitable desire to display this art as an art. It is not easy to define the point at which a legitimate concern with style shades off into preoccupation with manner at the expense of matter, but it is easy to perceive that many Greek writers of the fourth and later centuries passed that danger point. The most influential was Isocrates, who polished for long years his pamphlets, written in the form of speeches, and taught to many pupils the smooth and easy periods he had perfected. Isocrates took to the written word in compensation for his inadequacy in live oratory; the tough and nervous tones of a Demosthenes were far removed from his, though they, too, were based on study and practice. The exaltation of virtuosity did palpable harm. The balance was always delicate, between style as a vehicle and style as an end in itself.
We must not try to pinpoint a specific moment when it, once and for all, tipped over; but certainly, as time went on, virtuosity weighed heavier. While Greek freedom lasted, and it mattered what course of action a Greek city decided to take, rhetoric was a necessary preparation for public life, whatever its side effects. It had been a source of strength for Greek civilization that its problems, of all kinds, were thrashed out very much in public. The shallowness which the study of rhetoric might (not must) encourage was the corresponding weakness.
1.If the author of the passage travelled to a political convention and saw various candidates speak he would most likely have the highest regard for an orator who:
A. roused his hearers to immediate and decisive action.
B. understood that rhetoric serves an aesthetic as well as a practical purpose.
C. relied on facts and reason rather than on rhetorical devices in making his case.
D. passed on the techniques he had perfected to many students.
E. made use of flowery and inflated words
2. Historians agree that those seeking public office in modern America make far fewer speeches in the course of their campaign than those seeking a public position in ancient Greece did. The author would most likely explain this by pointing out that:
A. speeches are now only of limited use in the abrupt vicissitudes of politics.
B. modern politicians need not rely exclusively on speeches to make themselves known.
C. modern audiences are easier to persuade through rhetoric than were the Greek audiences.
D. modern politicians do not make a study of rhetoric as did the Greeks.
E. modern America is not much different from ancient Greece
3. Implicit in the statement that the exaltation of virtuosity was not due mainly to Isocrates because public display was normal in a world that talked far more than it read is the assumption that:
A. Isocrates was actually concerned as much with the content of his speeches as with their style.
B. excessive concern with style is bound to arise in a world dominated by public display.
C. the Greeks were guilty of exalting virtuosity in their public art and architecture as well.
D. Isocrates was less influential than previous historians estimated.
E. there should be no connection between communication style and public display of thoughts
which is best test series for CAT ?
- CL
- IMS
- OTHER( PLZ NAME IT)
- TIME
0 voters
Hi, Pls can someone let me know where can i find practice material for incorrect usage of words.
puys please help me out with para completion, I always get them wrong :(
How do you choose the correct option?
is it just me or RCs (especially TIME) are getting tough to crack..I can barely use elimination in those Literature/philosohy critique type RCs? how do you guys eliminate options on these RCs? *baffled*
Are there any good sources for practicing the questions on incorrect usage of words?
RC : An easy one! Source : CL
The reasons for this caution are obvious. First, as of now, every significant country/region of the world is either still in the midst of stagnation or growth deceleration. The 'recovery' is largely because of a minor upturn from still lower levels in a bent graph. Hope, therefore, currently rests on predictions. But, as the Financial Times recently noted, "For the past four years, analysts have predicted an imminent acceleration in the US economy, and got it wrong. The mediocre record is growth of 2.5 per cent in 2010, 1.8 per cent in 2011, 2.8 per cent in 2012 and something around 2 per cent in 2013."
The second is that interest rates in Japan, the US and the Eurozone are either near zero or extremely low. This implies that monetary policy to stimulate growth, in the form of a reduction in interest rates, has run its course there without much impact. On the other hand, the space for fiscal activism is seen as restricted. Getting a recovery going is, therefore, even more difficult.
Finally, in countries like China and India, besides other emerging markets, the growth slowdown is accompanied by a rise in inflation rates. That makes addressing the slowdown through demand stimulation that much more difficult. India's central bank has just "shocked" markets by raising the policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 8 per cent. This, the third increase in six months, was a declaration that fighting inflation must take precedence over stimulating growth.
Though RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has explained the policy in terms of domestic compulsions, especially the high retail inflation rate, the evidence is clear that across emerging markets central banks are under pressure to raise interest rates, despite slowdown in growth due to external reasons. The principal reason is that the 'taper' or gradual reduction in the Federal Reserve's bond purchase policy is expected to push up interest rates in the developed countries. This is forcing emerging markets to maintain high and rising interest rates in the hope that they can withstand the hit from what Brazil's central bank governor, Alexandre Tombini, has termed the "vacuum cleaner" - high developed country interest rates that would suck out capital from emerging markets.
Evidence of that likely hit is not lacking. In the week ending January 24 and the week that followed, emerging country stock indices fell sharply and currencies depreciated because of capital flight, necessitating an emergency response by Argentina and Turkey to stem the fall of the peso and the lira,respectively.
1. Which of the following options can be inferred from the first paragraph?
a) There is hope of economic recovery due to predictions rather than due to actual evidence.
b) The current prediction of a recovery in the economy will soon prove to be wrong just as the many predictions made before this.
c) There is danger of another downturn lurking in the future and the current hopes of a recovery are practically baseless.
d) A spate of recent economic changes can be held responsible for the optimism that some economists have towards future economic progress.
2.With reference to rising inflation rates, which of the following options is true as per the passage?
a)With the increase in the rate of inflation, encouraging spending among consumers becomes much more critical for India.
b)By increasing the repo rate, India's central bank hopes to curb demand and hence help reduce inflation.
c) By raising the repo rate, the central bank hopes to take away enough money to encourage investment in non-monetary capital projects.
d) With its economic policy, India can be seen as a country that has traditionally gone against the grain and found its own foothold.
3.The tone of the passage can best be described as
a) disdainful
b) laudatory
c) argumentative
d) sympathetic
4. Which of the following would best help explain the external reasons due to which the central banks of emerging markets have increased interest rates?
a) With the Federal Reserve's bond purchase policy, emerging markets are being arm twisted into raising interest rates to attract capital.
b) With the increase in interest rates in developed countries, emerging markets are forced to keep up.
c) When the interest rates rise, the rate of inflation will also be affected and hence emerging markets will need to build their own capital reserves.
d) The change in the Federal Reserve's bond purchase policy will lead to the movement of capital, from emerging markets to developed countries.
Birds overcome by pollution and routinely falling from the sky above Los Angeles freeways were/was prompting officials in California to devise a plan to reduce the incident- ......
Answer says it should be was. I don know why.Please explain and if possible give me similar examples.
Helllo puys, is there any special coaching classes to improve one's verbal ability skills to crack m.b.a exams. i have heard few people taking specialized 2,3 months classes(online series as well)...apart from time,cl,ims,,is there any worthwhile classes that you guys would recommend...please help me
RC for the day :
In this age of fierce competition between Internet marketing and traditional retail, merchants want to know: Which approach stirs potential customers most?
Experiments by neuroeconomist Antonio Rangel and his colleagues suggest that the old pop song chorus-"Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby"-might have it right.
The findings could be relevant to more than shopping, however. They may give insight into the ways our brains assign value in the computational activity that is human choice.
"Whether the stimuli are physically present or not really affects the values you assign and the choices you make," says Rangel, a California Institute of Technology researcher who published the research results with his colleagues in the American Economic Review in September.
Rangel, an economist-turned-neuroscientist, is one of those people eager to find the biological basis for human behavior, including choice making. He and many others have concluded that choices are made based on the values people assign to the options they encounter.
In a series of experiments, his group set out to learn how people assign values to the same goods presented differently: as text on a computer screen, as a high-quality photograph on the same screen or as the thing itself.
They randomly presented more than 50 hungry Caltech students with snack foods such as candy bars, potato chips and other sweet and salty snacks, one by one, in three different conditions: a text condition where the food's name was written; a high-resolution picture of the food; or the actual snack in a tray. The students were asked to assign values to each of the foods.
On average, there was no difference in the subjects' willingness to pay for the foods between the text and picture conditions, but subjects were willing to pay, on average, 50 percent more for items that were physically present. Importantly, these were real decisions: Subjects purchased those items at the stated price.
Concerned that noses rather than brains were guiding these judgments, the authors repeated the experiment with something other than food. They asked their subjects to rate Caltech paraphernalia: key chains, pens and baseball caps. The students still were willing to pay about 50 percent more for the goods in the real condition, with no difference between text and picture. "We were shocked when it replicated with all of our goods, like the trinkets," Rangel says. "Somehow the brain knows it is present, and computes the value of stimuli differently when this is the case."
To gain more insight about the mechanisms in play, the team repeated the food experiment, but this time placed the actual food behind clear Plexiglas so that subjects could see the foods just as before, but could not reach or smell them. When behind glass, the real condition's advantage disappeared. The authors argue that this suggests that the original effect is triggered by the activation of automatic approach responses (often called Pavlovian processes) that strike when a highly appealing, or "appetitive," item is placed within sight and reach of a subject.
The findings reinforced questions that nag at Rangel. "We want to understand not just how signals get coded in the brain but how they are constructed at the time of choice. What are the inputs that determine what values get assigned? How is that affected by learning? How is it affected by a lot of perceptual information in the environment?" Rangel asks.
The researcher's working hypothesis is that seeing something that you know you could reach out and grab, if you really needed to, generates a larger cue in the brain than simply seeing an extrapolation of the same object.
1. According to the passage, the purpose of the experiments on Caltech students was to understand
a) which approach stirs potential customers most.
b) the way our brain assigns values to activities.
c) the biological basis of human behaviour in making choices.
d) human responses to actual objects.
2. From the information on the findings of the researchers, which of the following situations would send the strongest signals to the brain?
a) A sweater displayed on a mannequin at the store entrance.
b) A sweater displayed by a model walking on the ramp.
c) A woman knitting a sweater behind a glass counter.
d) A sweater gift wrapped attractively.
3. The passage can be best described as
a) hypothetical
b) argumentative
c) factual
d) experimental
I'll post the answer somewhere in the evening !
Hi Guys, In RC passages mostly i have seen that even if passage is simple enough, options in questions create a lot of confusion. Can someone pls share strategy solving these kind of questions. Also please provide me link to practise such passages.
Hi Guys, In RC passages mostly i have seen that even if passage is simple enough, options in questions create a lot of confusion. Can someone pls share strategy solving these kind of questions. Also please provide me link to practise such passages.