CAT 2023 Previous Year Paper (Slot 1) PDF

MBA Wallah CAT 2023_SLOT-1 Questions VARC Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set...

MBA Wallah CAT 2023_SLOT-1 Questions VARC Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most Directions (1–4): The passage below is accompanied commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, best answer for each question. assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel mention places like Paris and New York. The novels in was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually [my] book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, [concerned with] national questions. Sometimes the feature characters of colour and centralise the ports of whole story of the novel was taken as an allegory of the Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay.... It is a nation, whether India or Tanzania. This was important densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged be limiting – land-focused and inwardlooking. My new sense of place in the world. This remapping is book “Writing Ocean Worlds” explores another kind of particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European... Indian Ocean world. The book describes a set of novels. African, as well as Indian and Arab characters, are in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak villains, missionaries and activists. This does not mean Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad [who have] that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as novels.... Their work reveals a world that is outward- abandonment rather than adventure, freedoms are kept looking – full of movement, border-crossing and south- from women and slavery is rife. What it does mean is south interconnection. They are all very different – from that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist active role in its long, rich history and therefore in that (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of the wider world. of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of 1. Which one of the following statements is not true remapping the world in the reader’s mind, as centred in about migration in the Indian Ocean world? the interconnected global south.... The Indian Ocean (a) The Indian Ocean world’s migration world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting networks were shaped by religious and connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab commercial histories of the region. coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were (b) Geographical location rather than made possible by the geography of the Indian Ocean. geographical proximity determined the For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than choice of destination for migrants. by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were (c) Migration in the Indian Ocean world was an often more easily connected to each other than to much ambivalent experience. closer inland cities. Historical and archaeological (d) The Indian Ocean world’s migration evidence suggests that what we now call globalisation networks connected the global north with the first appeared in the Indian Ocean. This is the global south. interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book.... For their part Ghosh,  MBA Wallah 2. All of the following claims contribute to the [Fifty] years after its publication in English [in 1972], “remapping” discussed by the passage, EXCEPT: and just a year since [Marshall] Sahlins himself died— (a) Cosmopolitanism originated in the West and we may ask: why did [his essay] “Original Affluent Society” have such an impact, and how has it fared traveled to the East through globalization. since?... Sahlins’s principal argument was simple but (b) The world of early international trade and counterintuitive: before being driven into marginal commerce was not the sole domain of white environments by colonial powers, huntergatherers, or Europeans. foragers, were not engaged in a desperate struggle for (c) Indian Ocean novels have gone beyond the meager survival. Quite the contrary, they satisfied their specifics of national concerns to explore rich needs with far less work than people in agricultural and regional pasts. industrial societies, leaving them more time to use as (d) The global south, as opposed to the global they wished. Hunters, he quipped, keep bankers’ hours. Refusing to maximize, many were “more concerned with north, was the first center of globalization. games of chance than with chances of game.”... The so-called Neolithic Revolution, rather than improving 3. All of the following statements, if true, would life, imposed a harsher work regime and set in motion weaken the passage’s claim about the relationship the long history of growing inequality... Moreover, between mainstream English-language fiction and foragers had other options. The contemporary Hadza of Indian Ocean novels EXCEPT: Tanzania, who had long been surrounded by farmers, (a) Most mainstream English-language novels knew they had alternatives and rejected them. To have historically privileged the Christian, Sahlins, this showed that foragers are not simply examples of human diversity or victimhood but white, male experience of travel and something more profound: they demonstrated that adventure. societies make real choices. Culture, a way of living (b) The depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean oriented around a distinctive set of values, manifests a novels is driven by an Orientalist imagination fundamental principle of collective self-determination... of its cultural crudeness.. But the point [of the essay] is not so much the (c) Very few mainstream English-language empirical validity of the data—the real interest for most novels have historically been set in American readers, after all, is not in foragers either today or in the Paleolithic—but rather its conceptual challenge to and European metropolitan centers. contemporary economic life and bourgeois (d) The depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean individualism. The empirical served a philosophical and novels is driven by a postcolonial nostalgia political project, a thought experiment and stimulus to for an idyllic past. the imagination of possibilities. With its title’s nod toward The Affluent Society (1958), economist John 4. On the basis of the nature of the relationship Kenneth Galbraith’s famously skeptical portrait of between the items in each pair below, choose the America’s postwar prosperity and inequality, and odd pair out: dripping with New Left contempt for consumerism, “The Original Affluent Society” brought this critical (a) Postcolonial novels : Border-crossing perspective to bear on the contemporary world. It did so (b) Indian Ocean world : Slavery through the classic anthropological move of showing (c) Postcolonial novels : Anti-colonial nationalism that radical alternatives to the readers’ lives really exist. (d) Indian Ocean novels : Outward-looking If the capitalist world seeks wealth through ever greater material production to meet infinitely expansive desires, Directions (5–8): The passage below is accompanied foraging societies follow “the Zen road to affluence”: by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the not by getting more, but by wanting less. If it seems that best answer for each question. foragers have been left behind by “progress,” this is due  MBA Wallah only to the ethnocentric self-congratulation of the West. 7. The author mentions Tanzania’s Hadza Rather than accumulate material goods, these societies community to illustrate: are guided by other values: leisure, mobility, and above (a) that forager communities’ lifestyles derived all, freedom.... Viewed in today’s context, of course, not from ignorance about alternatives, but not every aspect of the essay has aged well. While from their own choice. acknowledging the violence of colonialism, racism, and (b) how two vastly different ways of living and dispossession, it does not thematize them as heavily as working were able to coexist in proximity for we might today. Rebuking evolutionary anthropologists centuries. for treating present-day foragers as “left behind” by (c) how pre-agrarian societies did not hamper the progress, it too can succumb to the temptation to use emergence of more advanced agrarian them as proxies for the Paleolithic. Yet these practices in contiguous communities. characteristics should not distract us from appreciating (d) that hunter-gatherer communities’ Sahlins’s effort to show that if we want to conjure new subsistence-level techniques equipped them possibilities, we need to learn about actually inhabitable to survive well into contemporary times. worlds. 8. We can infer that Sahlins's main goal in writing 5. The author of the passage mentions Galbraith’s his essay was to: “The Affluent Society” to: (a) counter Galbraith’s pessimistic view of the (a) contrast the materialist nature of inevitability of a capitalist trajectory for economic growth. contemporary growth paths with the pacifist (b) hold a mirror to an acquisitive society, with content ways of living among the foragers. examples of other communities that have (b) show how Galbraith’s theories refute chosen successfully to be non-materialistic. Sahlins’s thesis on the contentment of pre- (c) highlight the fact that while we started off as huntergatherer communities. a fairly contented egalitarian people, we have (c) show how Sahlins’s views complemented progressively degenerated into materialism. Galbraith’s criticism of the consumerism and (d) put forth the view that, despite egalitarian inequality of contemporary society. origins, economic progress brings greater inequality and social hierarchies. (d) document the influence of Galbraith’s cynical views on modern consumerism on Sahlins’s Directions (9–12): The passage below is accompanied analysis of pre-historic societies. by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question. 6. The author of the passage criticises Sahlins’s Many human phenomena and characteristics – such as essay for its: behaviors, beliefs, economies, genes, incomes, life (a) critique of anthropologists who disparage the expectancies, and other things – are influenced both by choices of foragers in today’s society. geographic factors and by non-geographic factors. (b) cursory treatment of the effects of racism and Geographic factors mean physical and biological factors colonialism on societies. tied to geographic location, including climate, the (c) outdated values regarding present-day distributions of wild plant and animal species, soils, and foragers versus ancient foraging topography. Non-geographic factors include those communities. factors subsumed under the term culture, other factors (d) failure to supplement its thesis with robust subsumed under the term history, and decisions by empirical data individual people.... [T]he differences between the current economies of North and South Korea... cannot be attributed to the modest environmental differences  MBA Wallah between [them]... They are instead due entirely to the influential Inuit leader persuaded other Inuit in 1783 to different [government] policies... At the opposite adopt warm fur clothes, for no good environmental extreme, the Inuit and other traditional peoples living reason. A third reason is that geographic explanations north of the Arctic Circle developed warm fur clothes usually depend on detailed technical facts of geography but no agriculture, while equatorial lowland peoples and other fields of scholarship... Most historians and around the world never developed warm fur clothes but economists don’t acquire that detailed knowledge as part often did develop agriculture. The explanation is of the professional training. straightforwardly geographic, rather than a cultural or historical quirk unrelated to geography.... Aboriginal 9. The author criticizes scholars who are not Australia remained the sole continent occupied only by geographers for all of the following reasons hunter/gatherers and with no indigenous farming or EXCEPT: herding... [Here the] explanation is biogeographic: the (a) their outdated interpretations of past cultural Australian continent has no domesticable native animal and historical phenomena. species and few domesticable native plant species. (b) their labeling of geographic explanations as Instead, the crops and domestic animals that now make deterministic. Australia a food and wool exporter are all non-native (c) the importance they place on the role of (mainly Eurasian) species such as sheep, wheat, and individual decisions when studying human phenomena. grapes, brought to Australia by overseas colonists. (d) their rejection of the role of biogeographic Today, no scholar would be silly enough to deny that factors in social and cultural phenomena culture, history, and individual choices play a big role in many human phenomena. Scholars don’t react to 10. The examples of the Inuit and Aboriginal cultural, historical, and individual-agent explanations by Australians are offered in the passage to show: denouncing “cultural determinism,” “historical (a) how environmental factors lead to determinism,” or “individual determinism,” and then comparatively divergent paths in livelihoods thinking no further. But many scholars do react to any and development. explanation invoking some geographic role, by (b) how physical circumstances can dictate denouncing “geographic determinism”... Several human behavior and cultures. reasons may underlie this widespread but nonsensical (c) that despite geographical isolation, traditional view. One reason is that some geographic explanations societies were self-sufficient and adaptive. advanced a century ago were racist, thereby causing all (d) human resourcefulness across cultures in geographic explanations to become tainted by racist adapting to their surroundings. associations in the minds of many scholars other than geographers. But many genetic, historical, 11. All of the following are advanced by the author as psychological, and anthropological explanations reasons why non-geographers disregard on human advanced a century ago were also racist, yet the validity phenomena EXCEPT their: of newer non-racist genetic etc. explanations is widely (a) disciplinary training which typically does not accepted today. Another reason for reflex rejection of include technical knowledge of geography. geographic explanations is that historians have a (b) belief in the central role of humans, unrelated tradition, in their discipline, of stressing the role of to physical surroundings, in influencing contingency (a favorite word among historians) based on phenomena. individual decisions and chance. Often that view is (c) dismissal of explanations that involve geographical causes for human behaviour. warranted... But often, too, that view is unwarranted. (d) lingering impressions of past geographic The development of warm fur clothes among the Inuit analyses that were politically offensive. living north of the Arctic Circle was not because one  MBA Wallah 12. All of the following can be inferred from the health. Farmers, who say the wolves cause the deaths of passage EXCEPT: thousands of sheep and other grazing animals, are less (a) While most human phenomena result from cheerful. They grumble that green activists and culture and individual choice, some have bio- politically correct urban types have allowed the return of geographic origins. an old enemy. Various factors explain the changes of the past few decades. Rural depopulation is part of the story. (b) individual dictat and contingency were not In Lozère, for example, farming and a once-flourishing the causal factors for the use of fur clothing mining industry supported a population of over 140,000 in some very cold climates. residents in the mid-19th century. Today the department (c) Several academic studies of human has fewer than 80,000 people, many in its towns. As phenomena in the past involved racist humans withdraw, forests are expanding. In France, interpretations. between 1990 and 2015, forest cover increased by an (d) agricultural practices changed drastically in average of 102,000 hectares each year, as more fields the Australian continent after it was were given over to trees. Now, nearly one-third of colonized. mainland France is covered by woodland of some sort. The decline of hunting as a sport also means more Direction (13-16): The passage below is accompanied forests fall quiet. In the mid-to-late 20th century over 2m by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the hunters regularly spent winter weekends tramping in best answer for each question. woodland, seeking boars, birds and other prey. Today RESIDENTS of Lozère, a hilly department in southern the Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs, the national France, recite complaints familiar to many rural corners body, claims 1.1m people hold hunting licences, though of Europe. In remote hamlets and villages, with names the number of active hunters is probably lower. The such as Le Bacon and Le Bacon Vieux, mayors grumble mostly protected status of the wolf in Europe—hunting about a lack of local schools, jobs, or phone and internet them is now forbidden, other than when occasional culls connections. Farmers of grazing animals add another are sanctioned by the state—plus the efforts of NGOs to concern: the return of wolves. Eradicated from France track and count the animals, also contribute to the last century, the predators are gradually creeping back to recovery of wolf populations. As the lupine population more forests and hillsides. “The wolf must be taken in of Europe spreads westwards, with occasional reports of hand,” said an aspiring parliamentarian, Francis wolves seen closer to urban areas, expect to hear of more Palombi, when pressed by voters in an election clashes between farmers and those who celebrate the campaign early this summer. Tourists enjoy visiting a predators’ return. Farmers’ losses are real, but are not the wolf park in Lozère, but farmers fret over their livestock only economic story. Tourist venues, such as parks and their livelihoods.... As early as the ninth century, where wolves are kept and the animals’ spread is the royal office of the Luparii—wolf-catchers—was discussed, also generate income and jobs in rural areas. created in France to tackle the predators. Those official hunters (and others) completed their job in the 1930s, 13. Which one of the following has NOT contributed when the last wolf disappeared from the mainland. to the growing wolf population in Lozère? (a) The shutting down of the royal office of the Active hunting and improved technology such as rifles Luparii. in the 19th century, plus the use of poison such as (b) An increase in woodlands and forest cover in strychnine later on, caused the population collapse. But Lozère. in the early 1990s the animals reappeared. They crossed (C) The granting of a protected status to wolves the Alps from Italy, upsetting sheep farmers on the in Europe. French side of the border. Wolves have since spread to (d) A decline in the rural population of Lozère. areas such as Lozère, delighting environmentalists, who see the predators’ presence as a sign of wider ecological  MBA Wallah 14. Which one of the following statements, if true, philosophical writing is even strictly critical in would weaken the author’s claims? that it does not even attempt to provide an (a) Wolf attacks on tourists in Lozère are on the alternative after tearing down a cultural or rise. conceptual citadel. ___(3)___. The reader of (b) Having migrated out in the last century, philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of wolves are now returning to Lozère. this experience. While reading philosophy can (c) Unemployment concerns the residents of help one clarify one’s values, and even make one Lozère. self-conscious for the first time of the fact that (d) The old mining sites of Lozère are now being there are good reasons for believing what one used as grazing pastures for sheep. believes, it can also generate unremediated doubt that is difficult to live with. ___(4)___. 15. The author presents a possible economic solution 1. Option 2 to an existing issue facing Lozère that takes into 2. Option 3 account the divergent and competing interests of: 3. Option 1 (a) tourists and environmentalists. 4. Option 4 (b) politicians and farmers. (c) environmentalists and politicians. 18. There is a sentence that is missing in the (d) farmers and environmentalists. paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following 16. The inhabitants of Lozère have to grapple with all sentence would best fit. of the following problems, EXCEPT: Sentence: The discovery helps to explain (a) decline in the number of hunting licences. archeological similarities between the Paleolithic (b) livestock losses. peoples of China, Japan, and the Americas. (c) poor rural communication infrastructure. Paragraph: The researchers also uncovered an (d) lack of educational facilities. unexpected genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people. ___(1)___. 17. There is a sentence that is missing in the During the deglaciation period, another group paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and branched out from northern coastal China and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following travelled to Japan. ___(2)___. "We were surprised sentence would best fit. to find that this ancestral source also contributed Sentence: This philosophical cut at one’s core to the Japanese gene pool, especially the beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough. indigenous Ainus," says Li. ___(3)___. They Paragraph: The experience of reading shared similarities in how they crafted stemmed philosophy is often disquieting. When reading projectile points for arrowheads and spears. philosophy, the values around which one has ___(4)___. "This suggests that the Pleistocene heretofore organised one’s life may come to look connection among the Americas, China, and Japan provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. ___(1)___. was not confined to culture but also to genetics," When beliefs previously held as truths are says senior author Qing-Peng Kong, an rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and evolutionary geneticist at the Chinese Academy of ways of living may be required. ___(2)___. Sciences. What’s worse, philosophers admonish each other (a) Option 3 (b) Option 4 to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible (c) Option 2 (d) Option 1 new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes  MBA Wallah 19. Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 21. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of below, when properly sequenced, would yield a them can be put together to form a coherent coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in sequencing of the order of the sentences and key the number of that sentence as your answer. in the sequence of the four numbers as your 1. Having an appreciation for the workings of answer. another person’s mind is considered a 1. Algorithms hosted on the internet are prerequisite for natural language acquisition, accessed by many, so biases in AI models strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, have resulted in much larger impact, and moral judgment adversely affecting far larger groups of 2. It is a ‘theory of mind’ though some scholars people prefer to call it ‘mentalizing’ or 2. Though “algorithmic bias” is the popular ‘mindreading’, which is important for the term, the foundation of such bias is not in development of one's cognitive abilities. algorithms, but in the data; algorithms are not 3. Though we must speculate about its evolutionary origin, we do have indications biased, data is, as algorithms merely reflect that the capacity evolved sometime in the last persistent patterns that are present in the few million years. training data. 4. This capacity develops from early beginnings 3. Despite their widespread impact, it is in the first year of life to the adult’s fast and relatively easier to fix AI biases than human- often effortless understanding of others’ generated biases, as it is simpler to identify thoughts, feelings, and intentions. the former than to try to make people unlearn 5. One of the most fascinating human capacities behaviors learnt over generations. is the ability to perceive and interpret other 4. The impact of biased decisions made by people’s behavior in terms of their mental humans is localised and geographically states. confined, but with the advent of AI, the impact of such decisions is spread over a 20. Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and much wider scale 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent 22. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in below, when properly sequenced, would yield a the number of that sentence as your answer. coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper 1. In English, there is no systematic rule for the sequencing of the order of the sentences and key naming of numbers; after ten, we have in the sequence of the four numbers as your "eleven" and "twelve" and then the teens: answer. "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen" and so on. 1. What precisely are the “unusual elements” 2. Even more confusingly, some English words that make a particular case so attractive to a invert the numbers they refer to: the word "fourteen" puts the four first, even though it certain kind of audience? appears last. 2. It might be a particularly savage or 3. It can take children a while to learn all these unfathomable level of depravity, very often it words, and understand that "fourteen" is has something to do with the precise amount different from "forty". of mystery involved. 4. For multiples of 10, English speakers switch 3. Unsolved, and perhaps unsolvable cases offer to a different pattern: "twenty", "thirty", something that “ordinary” murder doesn’t. "forty" and so on. 4. Why are some crimes destined for perpetual 5. If you didn't know the word for "eleven", you re-examination and others locked into would be unable to just guess it – you might permanent obscurity? come up with something like "one-teen".  MBA Wallah 23. The passage given below is followed by four maintain political control in spite of geographical alternate summaries. Choose the option that best dispersion. The term colonialism is used to captures the essence of the passage. describe the process of European settlement, Manipulating information was a feature of history violent dispossession and political domination long before modern journalism established rules over the rest of the world, including the Americas, of integrity. A record dates back to ancient Rome, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia. when Antony met Cleopatra and his political (a) Colonialism surged in the 16th century due to enemy Octavian launched a smear campaign advancements in navigation, enabling British against him with “short, sharp slogans written settlements abroad and global dominance. upon coins.” The perpetrator became the first (b) Technological advancements in navigation in Roman Emperor and “fake news had allowed the 16th century, transformed colonialism, Octavian to hack the republican system once and enabling Europeans to establish settlements for all”. But the 21st century has seen the and exert political dominance over distant weaponization of information on an regions. unprecedented scale. Powerful new technology (c) As a result of developments in navigation makes the fabrication of content simple, and social technology, European colonialism, led to the networks amplify falsehoods peddled by States, displacement of indigenous populations and populist politicians, and dishonest corporate global political changes in the 16th century. entities. The platforms have become fertile ground (d) Colonialism, conceptualized in the 16th for computational propaganda, ‘trolling’ and ‘troll century, allowed colonizers to expand their armies’. territories, establish settlements, and exercise (a) Use of misinformation for attaining power, a political power. practice that is as old as the Octavian era, is currently fueled by technology. LRDI (b) Disinformation, which is mediated by technology today, is not new and has existed Directions (25–29): Answer the questions based on since ancient times. (c) People need to become critical of what they the information given below. read, since historically, weaponization of The schematic diagram below shows 12 rectangular information has led to corruption. houses in a housing complex. House numbers are (d) Octavian used fake news to manipulate mentioned in the rectangles representing the houses. The people and attain power and influence, just as houses are located in six columns – Column-A through people do today Column-F, and two rows – Row-1 and Row-2. The houses are divided into two blocks - Block XX and 24. The passage given below is followed by four Block YY. The diagram also shows two roads, one alternate summaries. Choose the option that best passing in front of the houses in Row-2 and another captures the essence of the passage. between the two blocks. Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. In the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. The modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to  MBA Wallah Some of the houses are occupied. The remaining ones Directions (30–34): Answer the questions based on are vacant and are the only ones available for sale. the information given below. The road adjacency value of a house is the number of its Five restaurants, coded R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 gave sides adjacent to a road. Forexample, the road adjacency integer ratings to five gig workers – values of C2, F2, and B1 are 2, 1, and 0, respectively. Ullas, Vasu, Waman, Xavier and Yusuf, on a scale of 1 The neighbour count of a house is the number of sides of to 5. that house adjacent to occupied houses in the same The means of the ratings given by R1, R2, R3, R4 and block. For example, E1 and C1 can have the maximum R5 were 3.4, 2.2, 3.8, 2.8 and 3.4 Respectively. possible neighbour counts of 3 and 2, respectively. The summary statistics of these ratings for the five The base price of a vacant house is Rs. 10 lakhs if the workers is given below. house does not have a parking space, and Rs. 12 lakhs if Ullas Vasu Waman Xavier Yusuf it does. The quoted price (in lakhs of Rs.) of a vacant Mean house is calculated as (base price) + 5 × (road adjacency 2.2 3.8 3.4 3.6 2.6 rating value) + 3 × (neighbour count). The following information is also known. Median 2 4 4 4 3 1.The maximum quoted price of a house in Block XX is rating Rs. 24 lakhs. The minimum quoted price of a house in Modal 2 4 5 5 1&3 block YY is Rs. 15 lakhs, and one such house is in rating Column-E. Range of 3 3 4 4 3 2. Row-1 has two occupied houses, one in each block. rating 3. Both houses in Column-E are vacant. Each of Range of ratings is defined as the difference between the Column-D and Column-F has at least one occupied maximum and minimum ratings awarded to a worker. house. The following is partial information about ratings of 1 4. There is only one house with parking space in Block and 5 awarded by the restaurants to YY. the workers. (a) R1 awarded a rating of 5 to Waman, as did R2 to 25. How many houses are vacant in Block XX? Xavier, R3 to Waman and Xavier, and R5 to Vasu. (b) R1 awarded a rating of 1 to Ullas, as did R2 to 26. Which of the following houses is definitely Waman and Yusuf, and R3 to Yusuf. occupied? (a) F2 (b) A1 30. How many individual ratings cannot be (c) D2 (d) B1 determined from the above information? 27. Which of the following options best describes the 31. To how many workers did R2 give a rating of 4? number of vacant houses in Row-2? (a) Either 2 or 3 (b) Exactly 3 32. What rating did R1 give to Xavier? (c) Either 3 or 4 (d) Exactly 2 28. What is the maximum possible quoted price (in 33. What is the median of the ratings given by R3 to lakhs of Rs.) for a vacant house in Column-E? the five workers? 29. Which house in Block YY has parking space? 34. Which among the following restaurants gave its (a) F1 (b) E2 median rating to exactly one of the workers? (c) E1 (d) F2 (a) R5 (b) R2 (c) R4 (d) R3  MBA Wallah Directions (35–39): Answer the questions based on 35. How many UK applications were scheduled on the information given below. that day? A visa processing office (VPO) accepts visa applications in four categories – US, UK, Schengen, and Others. The 36. What is the maximum possible value of the total applications are scheduled for processing in twenty 15- time (in minutes, nearest to its minute slots starting at 9:00 am and ending at 2:00 pm. integer value) required to process all Ten applications are scheduled in each slot. applications in the Others category on that There are ten counters in the office, four dedicated to US day? applications, and two each for UK applications, Schengen applications and Others applications. 37. Which of the following is the closest to the time Applicants are called in for processing sequentially on a when Nandini’s application process got over? first-come-first-served basis whenever a counter gets (a) 9 : 50 am (b) 9 : 37 am freed for their category. The processing time for an (c) 9 : 45 am (d) 9 : 35 am application is the same within each category. But it may vary across the categories. Each US and UK 38. Which of the following statements is false? application requires 10 minutes of processing time. (a) The application process of Mahira started Depending on the number of applications in a category after Nandini’s. and time required to process an application for that (b) The application process of Mahira was category, it is possible that an applicant for a slot may be completed before Nandini’s. processed later. (c) The application process of Osman was On a particular day, Ira, Vijay and Nandini were completed before Vijay’s. scheduled for Schengen visa processing in that order. (d) The application process of Osman was They had a 9:15 am slot but entered the VPO at 9:20 am. completed before 9:45 am. When they entered the office, exactly six out of the ten counters were either processing applications, or had 39. When did the application processing for all US finished processing one and ready to start processing the applicants get over on that day? next. (a) 2 : 05 pm (b) 2 : 25 pm Mahira and Osman were scheduled in the 9:30 am slot (c) 3 : 40 pm (d) 2 : 00 pm on that day for visa processing in the Others category. The following additional information is known about Directions (40–44): Answer the questions based on that day. the information given below. 1. All slots were full. Faculty members in a management school can belong to 2. The number of US applications was the same in all the one of four departments – Finance and Accounting slots. The same was true for the other three categories. (F&A), Marketing and Strategy (M&S), Operations and 3. 50% of the applications were US applications. Quants (O&Q) and Behaviour and Human Resources 4. All applicants except Ira, Vijay and Nandini arrived (B&H). The numbers of faculty members in F&A, on time. M&S, O&Q and B&H departments are 9, 7, 5 and 3 5. Vijay was called to a counter at 9:25 am. respectively. Prof. Pakrasi, Prof. Qureshi, Prof. Ramaswamy and Prof. Samuel are four members of the school's faculty who were candidates for the post of the Dean of the school. Only one of the candidates were from O&Q.  MBA Wallah Every faculty member, including the four candidates, 44. Which of the following statements is/are true? voted for the post. In each department, all the faculty Statement A: Non-candidates from M&S voted for members who were not candidates voted for the same Prof. Qureshi. Statement B: Non-candidates from F&A voted for candidate. The rules for the elections are listed below. Prof. Qureshi. 1. There cannot be more than two candidates from a (a) Both statements A and B single department. (b) Only statement B 2. A candidate cannot vote for himself/herself. (c) Only statement A 3. Faculty members cannot vote for a candidate from (d) Neither statement A nor statement B their own department. After the election, it was observed that Prof. Pakrasi QUANT received 3 votes, Prof. Qureshi received 14 votes, Prof. Ramaswamy received 6 votes and Prof. Samuel received 45. If x and y are positive real numbers such that 1 vote. Prof. Pakrasi voted for Prof. Ramaswamy, Prof. logx (x² + 12) 4 and 3 logy x = 1, then x + y Qureshi for Prof. Samuel, Prof. Ramaswamy for Prof. equals Qureshi and Prof. Samuel for Prof. Pakrasi. (a) 20 (b) 10 (c) 11 (d) 68 40. Which two candidates can belong to the same department? 46. If x and y are real numbers such that x² + (x - 2y (a) Prof. Pakrasi and Prof. Qureshi - 1)² = -4y(x + y), then the value x - 2y is (a) 1 (b) 2 (b) Prof. Ramaswamy and Prof. Samuel (c) 0 (d) -1 (c) Prof. Qureshi and Prof. Ramaswamy (d) Prof. Pakrasi and Prof. Samuel 47. Let n be the least positive integer such that 168 is a factor of 1134n. If m is the least positive 41. Which of the following can be the number of integer such that 1134n is a factor of 168m, then votes that Prof. Qureshi received m + n equals from a single department? (a) 9 (b) 15 (a) 6 (b) 9 (c) 24 (d) 12 (c) 8 (d) 7 42. If Prof. Samuel belongs to B&H, which of the 48. ( ) If 5x + 9 + 5x − 9 = 3 2 + 2 , then 10x + 9 following statements is/are true? is equal to Statement A: Prof. Pakrasi belongs to M&S. (a) 4 5 (b) 3 7 Statement B: Prof. Ramaswamy belongs to O&Q. (c) 2 7 (d) 3 31 (a) Neither statement A nor statement B (b) Only statement A (c) Both statements A and B 49. The equation x3 + (2r + 1)x² + (4r - 1)x + 2 = 0 has -2 as one of the roots. If the other two roots (d) Only statement B are real, then the minimum possible non- 43. What best can be concluded about the candidate negative integer value of r is from O&Q? (a) It was Prof. Ramaswamy. 50. Let 𝛼 and β be the two distinct roots of the (b) It was either Prof. Ramaswamy or Prof. equation 2x² - 6x + k = 0, such that (𝛼 + β) and Samuel. 𝛼β are the distinct roots of the equation x² + px (c) It was Prof. Samuel. + p = 0. Then, the value of 8(k - p) is (d) It was either Prof. Pakrasi or Prof. Qureshi.  MBA Wallah 51. The number of integer solutions of equation 56. The salaries of three friends Sita, Gita and Mita 2|x|(x² + 1) = 5x² is are initially in the ratio 5 : 6 : 7, respectively. In the first year, they get salary hikes of 20%, 25% 52. The minor angle between the hours hand and and 20%, respectively. In the second year, Sita minutes hand of a clock was observed at 8:48 and Mita get salary hikes of 40% and 25%, am. The minimum duration, in minutes, after 8.48 am when this angle increases by 50% is respectively, and the salary of Gita becomes 36 equal to the mean salary of the three friends. The (a) (b) 4 salary hike of Gita in the second year is 11 24 (a) 25% (b) 30% (c) 2 (d) 11 (c) 28% (d) 26% 53. Gita sells two objects A and B at the same price 57. In an examination, the average marks of 4 girls such that she makes a profit of 20% on object and 6 boys is 24. Each of the girls has the same A and a loss of 10% on object B. If she increases marks while each of the boys has the same the selling price such that objects A and B are marks. If the marks of any girl is at most still sold at an equal price and a profit of 10% is made on object B, then the profit made on object double the marks of any boy, but not less than A will be nearest to the marks of any boy, then the number of (a) 49% (b) 45% possible distinct integer values of the total marks (c) 47% (d) 42% of 2 girls and 6 boys is (a) 21 (b) 22 54. Brishti went on an 8-hour trip in a car. Before (c) 19 (d) 20 the trip, the car had travelled a total of x km till then, where x is a whole number and is palindromic, i.e., x remains unchanged when its 58. Anil invests Rs. 22000 for 6 years in a certain digits are reversed. At the end of the trip, the car scheme with 4% interest per annum, had travelled a total of 26862 km till then, this compounded half-yearly. Sunil invests in the number again being palindromic. If Brishti never same scheme for 5 years, and then reinvests the drove at more than 110 km/h, then the greatest entire amount received at the end of 5 years for possible average speed at which she drove one year at 10% simple interest. If the amounts during the trip, in km/h, was received by both at the end of 6 years are same, (a) 100 (b) 90 then the initial investment made by Sunil, in (c) 80 (d) 110 rupees, is 55. A mixture P is formed by removing a certain amount of coffee from a coffee jar and replacing 59. The amount of job that Amal, Sunil and Kamal the same amount with cocoa powder. The same can individually do in a day, are in harmonic amount is again removed from mixture P and progression. Kamal takes twice as much time as Amal to do the same amount of job. If Amal and replaced with same amount of cocoa powder to Sunil work for 4 days and 9 days, respectively, form a new mixture Q. If the ratio of coffee and Kamal needs to work for 16 days to finish the cocoa in the mixture Q is 16 : 9, then the ratio of remaining job. Then the number of days Sunil cocoa in mixture P to that in mixture Q is will take to finish the job working alone, is (a) 4 : 9 (b) 1 : 3 (c) 5 : 9 (d) 1 : 2  MBA Wallah 60. Arvind travels from town A to town B, and 65. For some positive and distinct real numbers x, y Surbhi from town B to town A, both starting at 1 and z, if is the arithmetic mean of the same time along the same route. After y+ z meeting each other, Arvind takes 6 hours to 1 1 reach town B while Surbhi takes 24 hours to and , then the relationship x+ z x+ y reach town A. If Arvind travelled at a speed of 54 km/h, then the distance, in km, between town which will always hold true, is A and town B is (a) y, x and z are in arithmetic progression (b) x , y , and z , are in arithmetic 61. A quadrilateral ABCD is inscribed in a circle progression such that AB : CD = 2 : 1 and BC : AD = 5 : 4. (c) x , z an y are in arithmetic progression If AC and BD intersect at the point E, then AE : (d) x, y and z are in arithmetic progression CE equals (a) 8 : 5 (b) 1 : 2 66. A lab experiment measures the number of (c) 5 : 8 (d) 2 : 1 organisms at 8 am every day. Starting with 2 organisms on the first day, the number of 62. Let C be the circle x2 + y2 + 4x - 6y - 3 = 0 and organisms on any day is equal to 3 more than L be the locus of the point of intersection of a twice the number on the previous day. If the pair of tangents to C with the angle between the number of organisms on the nth day exceeds one two tangents equal to 60 ° Then, the point at million, then the lowest possible value of n is which L touches the line x = 6 is (a) (6, 6) (b) (6, 8) (c) (6, 4) (d) (6, 3) 63. In a right-angled triangle ∆ABC, 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 ∆ABP, ∆ABQ and ∆ABC are in arithmetic progression. If the area of ∆ABC is 1.5 times the area of ∆ABP, the length of PQ, in cm, is 64. The number of all natural numbers up to 1000 with non-repeating digits is (a) 504 (b) 585 (c) 738 (d) 648  MBA Wallah Answers Key VARC 1. (d) 7. (d) 13. (c) 19. (3) 2. (a) 8. (b) 14. (c) 20. (2) 3. (b) 9. (c) 15. (d) 21. (4123) 4. (b) 10. (b) 16. (b) 22. (4123) 5. (c) 11. (d) 17. (4) 23. (b) 6. (d) 12. (d) 18. (2) 24. (b) LRDI 25. (3) 30. (0) 35. (0) 40. (a) 26. (d) 31. (0) 36. (200) 41. (b) 27. (a) 32. (3) 37. (c) 42. (c) 28. (21) 33. (4) 38. (a) 43. (b) 29. (c) 34. (c) 39. (a) 44. (b) QUANT 45. (b) 50. (6) 55. (c) 60. (972) 65. (a) 46. (a) 51 (3) 56. (d) 61. (a) 66. (19) 47. (b) 52. (d) 57. (a) 62. (d) 48. (b) 53. (c) 58. (20808) 63. (2) 49. (2) 54. (a) 59. (27) 64. (c)  MBA Wallah Hints & Solutions VARC Ocean world was an ambivalent experience is true 1. (d) and therefore it could not be the answer. Essence of the question: Trap of the question: This question asks about migration, discussed in There are many points mentioned in the passage the passage. We shall find out that point or about migration. Now, here we need to choose that statement that does not deliver right information option which does not deliver the true information. on migration. So the trap here is clarifying whether the Explanation for the correct answer: information is true or not as per the context of the Option (d): In the passage, the author mentions passage. that The Indian Ocean world is maintaining long- lasting connections among the coasts of East 2. (a) Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia Essence of the question: but it is not particularly about global north with This is an ‘except’ category question. It asks for the global south. The Indian ocean has established the statement which does not illustrate about links with different coastal areas as it has remapping, discussed in the passage. boundaries associated with them. So, the migration Explanation for the correct answer: network in the Indian ocean does not imply that it Option (a): The author discusses that historical connected the global north with the global south. and archaeological evidence suggests that what we Since option d does not provide true information now call globalization first appeared in the Indian on migration in the Indian ocean, thus it is the Ocean and this is the interconnected oceanic right answer. world. He also states that cosmopolitan culture Explanation for incorrect answers: provided an enlarged sense of place in the world. Option (a): The author discusses a background of This remapping is particularly powerful for the Christianity and whiteness in Europe or the US, representation of Africa. All these points discussed Islamic space, features characters of color and in the passage show that option a is not true and centralizes the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, therefore it is the right answer. Java and Bombay and an image of a southern Explanation for incorrect answers: cosmopolitan culture. All these points mentioned Option (b): The passage states that African, as in the passage show that the Indian Ocean world’s well as Indian and Arab characters, are traders. migration networks were shaped by religious and This shows that international trade and commerce commercial histories. It provides true information was not the sole domain of white Europeans. So, it about migration in the ocean, so it is incorrect. is not correct. Option (b): We can see in the passage that travel Option (c): The passage discusses novelists by sea was much easier than by land, which meant Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad, that they that port cities very far apart were often more referred to a different set of histories and easily connected to each other than to much closer geographies from different regions. This shows inland cities. This shows that option b is true and it that Indian Ocean novels have gone beyond the cannot be the answer. specifics of national concerns to explore rich Option (c): As the passage discusses many regional pasts. Thus it is incorrect. cultures and different geographical coastal areas Option (d): The passage states that what we now where people can travel and gain different call globalization first appeared in the Indian experiences. Thus, option c that says the Indian Ocean and the ocean is considered as centered in  MBA Wallah the interconnected global south. It makes clear that In the beginning, the question says that the option 4 is true and cannot be the answer. statement weakens the claim but we shall pay Trap of the question: attention to the word except. It indicates that one Here the trap lies in the close options as option 1 option that does not weaken the claim, we be our and option 4 both talk about globalization but we answer. need to check which data is not true as per the context of the passage and that will be the answer. 4. (a) Essence of the question: 3. (a) Here we have to analyze the relationship between Essence of the question: the given pairs and the set of words which does The given passage expresses a relationship not reveal the same relationship established between mainstream English-language fiction and between other sets of words, will be the answer. Indian Ocean novels. We shall check which Explanation for the correct answer: statement would not weaken the claim of the Option (a): Let’s analyze the link between given author about the relationship as this is an ‘except’ category question. sets of words. The Indian ocean world gives us Explanation for the correct answer: indications of the existence of slavery. Option (a): The mainstream novelists assume a Postcolonial novels provide us information about background of Christianity and whiteness in Anti-colonial nationalism and Indian Ocean Europe and US. The passage discusses travel to novels discuss Outward-looking. However different ports and regions. There are some ports Postcolonial novels do not give indication for mentioned in the passage like the ports of Malindi, Border-crossing. Border crossing is explained in Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay and Africa. terms of traveling around the sea. Therefore option This information shows that mainstream English- 1 is the odd one out pair and it is the right answer. language novels have historically privileged the Explanation for incorrect answers: Christian, white, male experience of travel and Option (b): The passage states that the Indian adventure. So, option 1 does not weaken the claim Ocean world shows that there existed Slavery and of the author and it is the right answer. Explanation for incorrect answers: this indication or providing the information Option (b): The passage states that the remapping suggests the same link established between other is particularly powerful for the representation of pairs, so it is not the answer. Africa but its cultural crudeness is not mentioned Option (c): Postcolonial novels give us anywhere. Thus, it weakens the claim and cannot information about anti-colonial nationalism and be the answer. thus it cannot be the answer as it is also showing Option (c): We can see in the passage that mostly the same link. mainstream novelists centered in Europe or the Option (d): Indian Ocean novels give us US. This shows that option 3 is not true and Outward-looking, again expresses the same cannot be the answer. relationship, so it cannot be the answer. Option (d): The author has mentioned Africa as Trap of the question: one of the coasts and explained that the African Here we need to analyze the link between words, part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history, however it was extremely where the trap lies. So once we are able to pleasant, is not mentioned. Thus, it cannot be the establish a relationship between words, we can answer. crack this question. Trap of the question:  MBA Wallah 5. (c) consumerism, aligning their views in the context Essence of the question: of contemporary society. The question asks about the mention of Reasons for Incorrect Answers: Galbraith’s “The Affluent Society” and its primary Option (a):This option is incorrect due to lack of purpose question of moderate level in the context evidence but may seem correct if one of the passage. Therefore this question may seem misinterprets it.The passage doesn't explicitly retrieval based and easy but it is implanted with discuss the pacifist content ways of living among deep layers of details which one has to interpret foragers in contrast to contemporary growth paths. with utmost concentration. Let’s solve this It focuses more on the critique of consumerism primary purpose question step by step STEP-1 and inequality.There is no indication in the Skim the passage thoroughly—-> STEP-2 After passage that Galbraith's work specifically skimming and mind mapping analyze what is the addresses the pacifist content ways of living intent of author in mentioning Gailbraith “ The among foragers. Therefore this option is too alien. Affluent Society” What is specifically the author Option (b): This option is incorrect as the passage trying to say through his opinions. STEP 3→ As does not suggest that Galbraith's theories refute per the information deduced from the passage Sahlins's thesis. Instead, it highlights the choose that which is major, specific and is covered alignment of their views in criticizing throughout the passage. contemporary society.Therefore this option is too Reason for Correct Answer (Option c): alien. The correct answer is option (c) The passage Option (d): Option (d) suggests that the mention indicates that Sahlins's essay, with its title “nod of Galbraith’s “The Affluent Society” is to toward Galbraith's work”, brings a critical document the influence of Galbraith’s cynical perspective to contemporary society. It aligns with views on modern consumerism on Sahlins’s Galbraith's skeptical portrait of postwar prosperity analysis of prehistoric societies. However, this and inequality, emphasizing the critique of interpretation is not supported by the passage. The consumerism and economic life. The passage passage does not provide evidence or suggest that suggests that Sahlins's views complement Galbraith's cynical views on modern consumerism Galbraith's criticism of contemporary society, directly influenced Sahlins’s analysis of linking the two in their shared perspective on prehistoric societies.The focus is on how both alternatives to mainstream values.The claim made Galbraith and Sahlins share a critical perspective in option (c), which states that Sahlins's views on contemporary society, not on a direct influence complemented Galbraith’s criticism of the on the analysis of prehistoric societies. consumerism and inequality of contemporary Trap of the question: society, can be verified in the fourth paragraph of The trap lies in misinterpreting the relationship the passage. between Galbraith's work and Sahlins's essay. "With its title’s nod toward The Affluent Society Students may be tempted to choose answers that (1958), economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s create a direct contrast or connection between the famously skeptical portrait of America’s postwar two without considering the nuanced way in which prosperity and inequality, and dripping with New the passage suggests their complementary views Left contempt for consumerism, 'The Original on criticizing contemporary society. The correct Affluent Society' brought this critical perspective answer involves understanding the shared to bear on the contemporary world." perspective rather than a direct refutation or Through his paragraph it can be deduced that influence. Sahlins's essay complements Galbraith's critical perspective on postwar prosperity and  MBA Wallah 6. (b) for its critique of anthropologists who disparage Essence of the question: the choices of foragers in today’s society. The The question is about the criticism the author potential reason a student might be tempted to makes regarding Sahlins's essay. Therefore its a choose this answer could be due to a double tier question consisting first of it being misinterpretation of the passage. The passage does retrieval based and second being primary emphasize that Sahlins's essay demonstrates that purpose/main objective based which may seem foragers are not simply examples of human easy at first but due to the proximity of options diversity or victimhood but something more this is a moderate-difficult level of question. Let’s profound—they make real choices. This positive solve it step by step STEP-1 Skim the passage aspect of Sahlins's essay might lead a student to thoroughly—-> STEP-2 After skimming and mind believe that the author criticizes it for being too mapping analyze what is the intent of the author in critical of anthropologists who disparage criticizing Sahlini’s essay“ The Affluent Society '' foragers.But we have to keep one thing in mind What is specifically the author trying to say that misinterpreting the overall sentiment of the through his opinions. STEP 3 → As per the passage and choosing an answer that seems information deduced from the passage choose that positive based on the acknowledgment of foragers' which is major, specific and is covered throughout choices can lead us to a faulty answer. The overall the passage. sentiment of the author is regarding how the Reason for Correct Answer (Option b): passage does not sufficiently emphasize these The correct answer is option (b) The author critical issues in today's context. criticizes Sahlins's essay for its cursory treatment Option (c): Many students might be tempted to of the effects of racism and colonialism on choose option (c) as this is very close to the societies. The passage mentions that, when viewed correct option but this is incorrect because the one in today's context, the essay does not emphasize element that is this option is too narrow. While the the violence of colonialism, racism, and passage acknowledges that not every aspect of the dispossession as heavily as it could. This indicates essay has aged well, the specific criticism a critique of Sahlins's essay for not giving mentioned in the passage is related to the sufficient attention to these critical issues. Option insufficient emphasis on the effects of racism and (b), which states that the passage mentions that not colonialism in today's context. The criticism is not every aspect of the essay has aged well, can be explicitly directed at outdated values regarding found in the final paragraph of the foragers. passage."Viewed in today’s context, of course, not Option (d): Many students might be tempted to every aspect of the essay has aged well. While choose option (c) as this is very close to the acknowledging the violence of colonialism, correct option but this is incorrect because the one racism, and dispossession, it does not thematize element that is this option is too narrow. Option them as heavily as we might today."This (d) suggests that the author criticizes Sahlins's paragraph addresses the aging of the essay and the essay for its failure to supplement its thesis with specific aspect of the essay's treatment of issues robust empirical data. A student might be tempted such as colonialism, racism, and dispossession. to choose this answer because the passage Reasons for Incorrect Answers: mentions that the point of the essay is not so much Option (a):Many students might be tempted to the empirical validity of the data. However, the choose option 1 but this is incorrect. Let’s analyze passage does not explicitly criticize the essay for step by step why a candidate would have chosen failing to supplement its thesis with empirical this option and why it's incorrect. Option (a) data.While the passage acknowledges that the suggests that the author criticizes Sahlins's essay point of the essay is not primarily about the  MBA Wallah empirical validity of the data, it does not explicitly lifestyles derived not from ignorance about criticize Sahlins's essay for a failure to supplement alternatives but from their own choice, can be its thesis with robust empirical data. The focus of found in the passage's third paragraph "Moreover, the criticism in the passage is on the insufficient foragers had other options. The contemporary emphasis on the effects of racism and colonialism. Hadza of Tanzania, who had long been surrounded Trap of the question: by farmers, knew they had alternatives and The trap in this question could be focusing on rejected them. To Sahlins, this showed that general critiques of Sahlins's essay rather than foragers are not simply examples of human honing in on the specific aspect mentioned in the diversity or victimhood but something more passage—its cursory treatment of the effects of profound: they demonstrated that societies make racism and colonialism. Students might be drawn real choices. "Therefore it can be deduced from to more general critiques of the essay and miss the this paragraph that their decisions were made with specific point emphasized in the passage and they utmost brainstorming. can also be trapped between the closeness of Reasons for Incorrect Answers: options. Option (b): The passage does not discuss how two vastly different ways of living and working 7. (a) coexisted. It focuses on the Hadza's rejection of Essence of the question: alternatives, emphasizing the choices made by The question is of easy level about the mention of forager communities. Therefore it is incorrect and Tanzania’s Hadza community and its purpose in alien. the passage. Therefore it is a double tier question Option (c): The passage does not suggest that the which is both concerned as retrieval based and Hadza community illustrates how pre-agrarian also as primary purpose based. Let’s solve it one societies did not hamper the emergence of more by one STEP 1->Skim the passage thoroughly—-> advanced agrarian practices in contiguous STEP-2 After skimming and mind mapping communities. It is more about the choices made by analyze what is the intent of author in mentioning forager societies.Therefore it is incorrect and alien. Tanzania’s Hadza community STEP 3→ As per Option (d): The passage does not convey that the the information deduced from the passage choose Hadza community's subsistence-level techniques that which is major, specific and is covered equipped them to survive well into contemporary throughout the passage. times. The emphasis is on their choices and values Reason for Correct Answer (Option a): rather than the longevity of their subsistence The correct answer is option (a) The passage techniques.Therefore it is incorrect and alien. mentions Tanzania’s Hadza community to Trap of the question: illustrate that forager communities' lifestyles were The trap lies in misinterpreting the purpose of not a result of ignorance about alternatives but a mentioning the Hadza community. Students might conscious choice. This is evident in the passage be tempted to choose answers that discuss where it states that the contemporary Hadza of coexistence or the longevity of subsistence Tanzania, surrounded by farmers, knew they had techniques, but the correct answer focuses on the alternatives and rejected them. This illustrates the illustration of conscious choices made by forager idea that foragers make real choices and that their communities, aligning with the passage's emphasis way of life is a manifestation of collective self- on real choices and collective self-determination. determination. The claim made in option (a), which states that the mention of Tanzania’s Hadza community illustrates that forager communities'  MBA Wallah 8. (b) Sahlins's main goal was to present a critical Essence of the question: perspective on contemporary economic life and The question is about inferring Sahlins's main goal provide examples of communities that have in writing his essay.Therefore this is a moderate- chosen successfully to be non-materialistic. difficult level of double tier question first of it Reasons for Incorrect Answers: being main objective/primary purpose based Option (a):This option is incorrect but a student second of it being inference based but the can be tempted to choose it,Students might assume availability of confusing and close options make that since both works criticize certain aspects of this question very challenging and difficult. postwar prosperity, Sahlins's essay must be written Reason for Correct Answer (Option 2): to provide a contrasting view or contradict The correct answer is option (b) We can infer that Galbraith's perspective. The passage, however, Sahlins's main goal in writing his essay was to emphasizes Sahlins's broader aim of presenting hold a mirror to an acquisitive (avaricious and radical alternatives and challenging contemporary greedy) society, providing examples of other economic life, rather than engaging in a direct communities that have chosen successfully to be counterargument with Galbraith. Students might non-materialistic. The passage mentions that "The overlook the nuanced focus of Sahlins's essay by Original Affluent Society" sought to bring a assuming a more direct opposition to Galbraith's critical perspective to the contemporary world, ideas. showing radical alternatives to readers' lives. The Option (c):This option may seem too close to the essay contrasts the capitalist pursuit of material correct option and many students can get confused wealth with the non-materialistic values of between them. But let’s analyze why this option is foraging societies.If from the inference of the incorrect and why a student can be confused by passage we have to understand main objective of it.Firstly keep in mind these lines from the passage author in mentioning is to produce a “But the point [of the essay] is not so much the “didactic/moralistic message” he argues that they empirical validity of the data—the real interest for satisfied their needs with less work and were more most readers, after all, is not in foragers either concerned with activities other than material today or in the Paleolithic(stone age)—but rather accumulation. its conceptual challenge to contemporary The correctness of option (b) can be validated economic life and bourgeois(middle from paragraph 3 "But the point [of the essay] is class)individualism” the keyword here is not so much the empirical validity of the data—the “Philosophic” which aligns with option (b) but real interest for most readers, after all, is not in option (c) can be negated as t is too broad and foragers either today or in the Paleolithic(stone alien as it introduces a whole new concept of age)—but rather its conceptual challenge to historical narrative which is too rigid to be verified contemporary economic life and bourgeois(middle from the information given in the passage. class)individualism. The empirical served a Therefore, Option (b) captures the essence of philosophical and political project, a thought Sahlins's essay by emphasizing the presentation of experiment and stimulus to the imagination of alternatives and the challenge to contemporary possibilities." A student can be confused in economic life. Option (c), while sharing some understanding this paragraph because of the similarities, diverges by suggesting a historical complex words that are being used but the whole narrative of decline, which is not the primary goal crux suggests The essay serves a philosophical and inferred from the passage. political project, acting as a thought experiment Option (d): Again same is the case with option (d) that stimulates the imagination of possibilities. which is very close to option (b). But let’s analyze This aligns with option (b), indicating that why this option is incorrect and why a student can  MBA Wallah be confused by it. The passage does mention the Option (b): The author mentions that many harsher work regime imposed by the Neolithic scholars do react to any explanation invoking Revolution and the long history of growing some geographic role, by denouncing “geographic inequality. Students might focus on these aspects determinism” but scholars don’t react to cultural, and assume that Sahlins's main goal is to argue historical, by denouncing “cultural determinism,” that economic progress leads to greater inequality “historical determinism,” or “individual and social hierarchies.Students might assume a determinism. These points show his criticism linear progression in Sahlins's argument: from towards not geographers. Thus option (b) is true egalitarian origins to the imposition of a harsher and cannot be the answer. work regime, ultimately resulting in greater Option (c): Another reason for rejection of inequality which is faulty one. Option 4 implies a geographic explanations is that historians have a causal relationship between egalitarian origins and tradition, in their discipline, of stressing the role of the emergence of greater inequality making this contingency based on individual decisions and option as too broad and extreme oversimplifying later it is mentioned that it is unwarranted, shows a the option. criticism and thus it is not correct. Trap of the question: Option (d): It is given in the passage that The trap lies in misinterpreting the overall goal of Australia remained the sole continent occupied Sahlins's essay. Students might be tempted to only by hunter/gatherers and with no indigenous choose answers that align with general critiques of farming or herding due to bioge