Verbal Ability: Geographic Factors and Human Phenomena

Human Phenomena and Geographic Factors

• Human phenomena, such as behaviors, economies, genes, and life expectancies, are influenced by both geographic and non-geographic factors.
• Geographic factors include physical and biological factors tied to geographic location, such as climate, distribution of wild plants and animals, soils, and topography.
• Non-geographic factors include cultural, historical, and individual factors.

Example: North and South Korea

• The differences between the economies of North and South Korea cannot be attributed to environmental differences, but rather to different government policies.

Example: Inuit and Aboriginal Australians

• The Inuit developed warm fur clothes, but no agriculture, while equatorial lowland peoples developed agriculture, but no warm fur clothes.
• The explanation is geographic, not cultural or historical.
• Aboriginal Australia remained a hunter-gatherer society due to the lack of domesticable native animal species.

Scholars and Geographic Determinism

• Many scholars reject geographic explanations for human phenomena, labeling them as "geographic determinism".
• This rejection may be due to past racist geographic explanations, or because scholars prioritize cultural, historical, and individual factors.

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Wolf Population in Lozère, France

• The wolf population is increasing in Lozère, France, after being eradicated in the 1930s.
• The wolves are migrating from Italy and spreading to other areas.
• Farmers are concerned about livestock losses, while environmentalists see the wolves as a sign of ecological health.
• The increase in forest cover and decline in hunting have contributed to the wolf population growth.

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Indian Ocean Novels and Globalisation

• Indian Ocean novels centre the Indian Ocean world in their stories, unlike traditional novels that focus on the nation or village.
• These novels feature outward-looking, border-crossing, and interconnected themes.
• The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia.

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Foragers and Affluence

• Marshall Sahlins's essay "The Original Affluent Society" argues that foragers, or hunter-gatherers, are not engaged in a desperate struggle for survival, but rather have more leisure time and freedom.
• Foragers satisfy their needs with less work than people in agricultural and industrial societies.
• The essay challenges contemporary economic life and bourgeois individualism, and shows that societies make real choices.
• The work is a thought experiment and stimulus to the imagination of possibilities.### Question Analysis
• There are 46 questions in total, divided into three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Ability.
• Question types include:
  • Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension: identifying the main goal of a text, choosing the best summary of a passage, determining the correct order of sentences, and identifying the odd sentence out.
  • Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning: analyzing data, identifying patterns, and making inferences.
  • Quantitative Ability: algebra, logarithms, and mathematical calculations.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

• Question 16: Sahlins's main goal in writing his essay was to counter Galbraith's pessimistic view of the inevitability of a capitalist trajectory for economic growth.
• Question 17: The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting and can lead to unremediated doubt.
• Question 18: The discovery of a genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people helps to explain archeological similarities between the Paleolithic peoples of China, Japan, and the Americas.
• Question 19: The naming of numbers in English is not systematic, and children may take a while to learn the words.
• Question 20: The ability to perceive and interpret other people's behavior in terms of their mental states is a fascinating human capacity.
• Question 21: The correct order of sentences is crucial to understand the meaning of a paragraph.
• Question 22: Algorithmic bias is not the result of algorithms, but rather the data used to train them.
• Question 23: Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon, and the modern European colonial project emerged with the development of navigation technology.
• Question 24: The weaponization of information is an ancient practice, but it has been amplified by modern technology.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

• Question 25: Faculty members in a management school can belong to one of four departments, and the rules for the election of the Dean of the school are complex.
• Question 26: The number of votes received by Prof. Qureshi from a single department is a key factor in the election.
• Question 27: The department of Prof. Samuel can be determined based on the votes received by each candidate.
• Question 28: The candidate from O&Q is a crucial factor in the election.
• Question 29: The statements about the candidates' votes are true or false based on the given information.
• Question 30: The ratings given by five restaurants to five gig workers are summarized in terms of mean, median, and modal ratings.
• Question 31: The number of individual ratings that cannot be determined from the given information is a key factor.
• Question 32: The rating given by R1 to Xavier is a key factor in the analysis.
• Question 33: The median of the ratings given by R3 to the five workers is a key factor.
• Question 34: The restaurant that gave its median rating to exactly one of the workers is a key factor.
• Question 35: The visa processing office has a complex system of scheduling and processing applications.
• Question 36: The number of UK applications is a key factor in the analysis.
• Question 37: The time when Nandini's application process got over is a key factor.
• Question 38: The statements about the application process of Mahira, Osman, and Vijay are true or false based on the given information.
• Question 39: The time when the application processing for all US applicants got over is a key factor.
• Question 40: The schematic diagram of the housing complex shows the location of 12 rectangular houses.
• Question 41: The number of vacant houses in Block XX is a key factor.
• Question 42: The number of vacant houses in Row-2 is a key factor.
• Question 43: The maximum possible quoted price for a vacant house in Column-E is a key factor.
• Question 44: The house in Block YY that has parking space is a key factor.

Quantitative Ability

• Question 45: The logarithmic equation logx(x2 + 12) = 4 and 3 logyx = 1 can be solved to find the value of x + y.### Algebra
• If m is the least positive integer such that 1134n is a factor of 168m, then m + n equals 12.
• If x and y are real numbers such that x² + (x – 2y – 1)² = -4y(x + y), then the value x – 2y is 1.

Equations

• The number of integer solutions of equation 2|x|(x² + 1) = 5x² is a numerical value.
• Let α and β be the two distinct roots of the equation 2x² – 6x + k = 0, such that (α + β) and αβ are the distinct roots of the equation x² + px + p = 0. Then, the value of 8(k – p) is a numerical value.
• The equation x³ + (2r + 1)x² + (4r – 1)x + 2 = 0 has –2 as one of the roots. If the other two roots are real, then the minimum possible non-negative integer value of r is a numerical value.

Time and Work

• The minor angle between the hours hand and minutes hand of a clock was observed at 8:48 am. The minimum duration, in minutes, after 8:48 am when this angle increases by 50% is 2.

Mixtures

• A mixture P is formed by removing a certain amount of coffee from a coffee jar and replacing the same amount with cocoa powder. The same amount is again removed from mixture P and replaced with the same amount of cocoa powder to form a new mixture Q. If the ratio of coffee and cocoa in the mixture Q is 16:9, then the ratio of cocoa in mixture P to that in mixture Q is 4:9.

Examination

• In an examination, the average marks of 4 girls and 6 boys is 24. Each of the girls has the same marks while each of the boys has the same marks. If the marks of any girl is at most double the marks of any boy, but not less than the marks of any boy, then the number of possible distinct integer values of the total marks of 2 girls and 6 boys is 20.

Speed and Distance

• Brishti went on an 8-hour trip in a car. Before the trip, the car had travelled a total of x km till then, where x is a whole number and is palindromic. At the end of the trip, the car had travelled a total of 26862 km till then, this number again being palindromic. If Brishti never drove at more than 110 km/hr, then the greatest possible average speed at which she drove during the trip, in km/hr, was 100.

Profit and Loss

• Gita sells two objects A and B at the same price such that she makes a profit of 20% on object A and a loss of 10% on object B. If she increases the selling price such that objects A and B are still sold at an equal price and a profit of 10% is made on object B, then the profit made on object A will be nearest to 45%.

Ratio and Proportion

• The salaries of three friends Sita, Gita, and Mita are initially in the ratio 5:6:7, respectively. In the first year, they get salary hikes of 20%, 25%, and 20%, respectively. In the second year, Sita and Mita get salary hikes of 40% and 25%, respectively, and the salary of Gita becomes equal to the mean salary of the three friends. The salary hike of Gita in the second year is 28%.

Time and Distance

• Arvind travels from town A to town B, and Surbhi from town B to town A, both starting at the same time along the same route. After meeting each other, Arvind takes 6 hours to reach town B while Surbhi takes 24 hours to reach town A. If Arvind travelled at a speed of 54 km/h, then the distance, in km, between town A and town B is a numerical value.

Interest

• Anil invests Rs. 22000 for 6 years in a certain scheme with 4% interest per annum, compounded half-yearly. Sunil invests in the same scheme for 5 years and then reinvests the entire amount received at the end of 5 years for one year at 10% simple interest. If the amounts received by both at the end of 6 years are the same, then the initial investment made by Sunil, in rupees, is a numerical value.

Work and Wages

• The amount of job that Amal, Sunil, and Kamal can individually do in a day are in harmonic progression. Kamal takes twice as much time as Amal to do the same amount of job. If Amal and Sunil work for 4 days and 9 days, respectively, Kamal needs to work for 16 days to finish the remaining job. Then the number of days Sunil will take to finish the job working alone is a numerical value.

Geometry

• A quadrilateral ABCD is inscribed in a circle such that AB:CD = 2:1 and BC:AD = 5:4. If AC and BD intersect at the point E, then AE:CE equals 5:8.
• Let C be the circle x² + y² + 4x – 6y – 3 = 0 and L be the locus of the point of intersection of a pair of tangents to C with the angle between the two tangents equal to 60°. Then, the point at which L touches the line x = 6 is (6, 4).
• In a right-angled triangle ΔABC, the altitude AB is 5 cm, and the base BC is 12 cm. P and Q are two points on BC such that the areas of ΔABP, ΔABQ, and ΔABC are in arithmetic progression. If the area of ΔABC is 1.5 times the area of ΔABP, the length of PQ, in cm, is a numerical value.

Arithmetic Progression

• For some positive and distinct real numbers x, y, and z, if x, y, and z are in harmonic progression, then the relationship which will always hold true is x, y, and z are in arithmetic progression.

Counting

• The number of all natural numbers up to 1000 with non-repeating digits is 648.
• A lab experiment measures the number of organisms at 8 am every day. Starting with 2 organisms on the first day, the number of organisms on any day is equal to 3 more than twice the number on the previous day. If the number of organisms on nth day exceeds one million, then the lowest possible value of n is a numerical value.