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TOP SECRETS for

CAT RC
REVEALED BY:

7 TIMES
99%ILER IN VERBAL

PRASHANT
CHADHA
Preface

Hi, I am Prashant Chadha, founder of Wordpandit.com and seven times 99

percentiler in CAT Verbal Ability. The intent and purpose of this book are very
simple: to synthesise my learning and provide you with a comprehensive list of
action points that will help you with your RC prep.

I first appeared for the CAT exam in the year 2006, and it was a sobering experi-
ence back then. I have appeared for the exam multiple times since then and have
seen the evolution and transformations in the exam. This e-book is based purely
on this actual exam experience and will help you fine-tune your strategies in this
final lap of the CAT-2016 preparation.

In this e-book cum strategy guide, I cover the following:

Top 9 CAT RC Secrets: These are action points you need to put into use imme-
diately.
CAT RC Sources: These help you identify the kind of material you should be
reading at this stage.
Strategies for different question types
List of important tones and writing styles
Practice passages to fine tune your preparation

I sincerely hope you derive value from this exhaustive resource for reading com-
prehension preparation and take your prep to the next level.

Happy Learning..:)

1
CAT RC Secrets
CAT-2016 is around the corner, and it is time for you to up your prep-game. How
will you do so? The first thing you need to do is target the one area that causes
the maximum havoc: Reading Comprehension.
In this collection of secrets, I reveal all the important aspects related to RC prepa-
ration and strategies you can use to master the topic.
Secret-1: Never start the exam from a passage you are uncomfortable with
Passage selection is the key when it comes to RCs. You need to make sure you
select the right passage to solve at the right time. At the start of the exam, it is all
about maximising your gains, and you should ideally target the first 30 minutes
of the exam to solve as many questions as possible.
Secret-2: Tune your mind for finding relevant information in the passage
It is critical that you maintain laser-sharp focus while reading the passage. The
best way to do so is to know the information you are searching for in the exam.
Scan through question stems and identify the key aspects probed in the various
questions. As soon as you are armed with this information, it is easier for your
mind to focus and identify the relevant information in the passage.
Secret-3: Some from all works better than all from some
Along with passage selection, question selection plays a critical role in your RC
scores. You need to identify questions that give you the best possible return on
investment. What does this mean? Well, in simple terms, if there is a question
3 4
type that requires a lot of time (for example, identifying the correct statements
from a set of statements), then you should leave this question in the first go. By
employing this simple trick, you can make sure there are no roadblocks in your
attempt, and you solve the maximum number of questions for this section.
Secret-4: Questions made to cause silly mistakes
There are some questions that are only made to cause a silly mistake. An exam-
ple of such a question type is: All of the following statements are true except.
It is extremely easy to miss out on a word such as 'except' and commit a silly
mistake in the exam. Make sure you are super vigilant for these keywords and do
not fall into the trap.
Secret-5: Understand different types of incorrect answer options
It is vital that you understand the different types of incorrect option types. These
options are extremely tempting in nature and can often mislead you. Be on the
lookout for:
Scope trap: These answer options change the context of the passage. Either
the context becomes too general or too specific. Make sure you stick to the
given subject of the passage and do not fall into the scope trap.
Extreme answer options: Extreme answer options are seductive in nature.
These are based on passage content but commit the mistake of converting
the given sentiment into an extreme one. For example, words such as all,
never, always, etc. convert the option to an incorrect one.
Clever mismatch options: These options make a subtle change to the infor-
mation given in the passage. Even though the information appears to be from
the passage itself, these can lead you down the wrong path.
Secret-6: Do not ignore reading at this stage!
At this stage, you might feel that you do not need to read anymore. Make sure
you avoid this tendency at all costs and read a minimum of 3 to 5 articles daily.
 This is one way to keep your focus sharp at this stage and be ready for a heavy Central idea/Main idea questions
mental workout in the exam. Remember, it is all about building your reading Tone and attitude questions
stamina and having the ability to read a complex test. Primary purpose questions
Title questions
Secret-7: There is a strategy for reading well!
Make sure you read the passage only once for these questions. For answering
The second aspect of reading is to adopt a strategy for it. How should you go
the questions, you mainly need to identify:
about reading in the next few days? My strong suggestion is that you should
attack one topic at a time. For example, read philosophy-related articles for the Main topics and subjects in the passage.

next three days and side by side, cover the important terms for this subject. This Key points in the passage.

way, you will be better prepared to handle passages from this area. Try to cover Key adjectives (which helps us identifying emotions) in the passage.

the following topics: philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, art, culture, litera- Every paragraph you read, you should try to identify these key points. This will
ture, science and technology, economy and business. help you answer these questions with ease.
Do make sure you that explore the vocabulary for these topics.

This completes the set of must-know secrets for CAT reading comprehensions.
Secret-8: Get rid of common RC fears Use these secrets to power-charge your Reading Comprehensions. Merge these
One important aspect for RC prep is to be psychologically prepared for the chal- tips with extensive practice and reading, and you have your formula for success.
lenges you are faced with. Two critical fears that you should discard from your
thought process are:
1. You do not need to understand everything in the passage. By understanding
the overall ideas and main points of the passage and the author, you should be
able to solve some/most questions in a passage.
2. Vocabulary has a limited role in RCs. Even if you do not understand some
words in the passage, it will not impact your overall understanding of the pas-
sage. Also, most of us can understand most contexts (even though we might not
understand a few words).

Secret-9: Criminal to read the passage again for big picture questions
There are some questions which are based on the overall theme of the passage.
These questions are:

5 6
CAT RC Sources
Reading Comprehension is a critical part of MBA entrance exams, especially
CAT. Last year in CAT, out of 34 Questions in the Verbal Ability section 24 ques-
tions were from RC. Most of the RCs feature content which is hard to read.
Therefore, it is imperative that you work on your reading-related skills.
An important aspect of your CAT RC preparation should be going through previ-
ous year RC sources to understand the kind of topics and writing styles that can
be expected in the exam. Through these sources, you will come to know that
there is a heavy emphasis on subjects like philosophy, sociology, and psychology.
These are the areas which most of you find hard to read or too boring in nature.
So, this is the time when you should practice reading from these sources so that
you are comfortable reading from a wide variety of topics. The list of these
sources will help you get a clear picture of the challenge that CAT presents for
the candidates.
To help you gauge the level of difficulty of the various RCs of CAT, following is a
comprehensive list of RC Sources from previous years CAT Papers:
Source CAT 2003:'Financial story of our independence' from the TOI column
Swaminomics
Source CAT 2003:'Will the Potato Take Over' from a column in The Telegraph
Source CAT 2005: Extract on 'Game Theory' from the book 'Prisoner's Dilemma'
7 8
by Anatol Rapopert and Albert M. Chammah
Source CAT 2005: Extract from the book 'Work, Postmodernism and Organiza-
tion: A Critical Introduction' by Philip H Hancock and Melissa Tylor
Source CAT 2005:'Edwardian Summer' written by Larry Elliot and taken from a
column in The Guardian
Source CAT 2006: Extract from the book 'Conjectures and Refutations' by Karl
Popper
Source CAT 2006:'Communism may be dead, but clearly not dead enough' writ-
ten by Seumas Milne and taken from a column...
Source CAT 2006: Extract from the book 'A Theory of Justice' by John Rawl
Source CAT 2007: Extract from the book 'Knowledge and Postmodernism in
Historical Perspective' by Joyce Appleby, Elizabeth Covington, David Hoyt and
Michael Latham
Source CAT 2007: Extract from the book 'Logological Investigations' by Barry
Sandywell
Source CAT 2007: Extract from the book 'Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies' by Jared M.Diamond
Source CAT 2007: Extract from the book 'Sociology: A Very Short Introduction' by
Steve Bruce
Source CAT 2008: Extract from the book 'How to travel with a Salmon and other
 essays' by UmbertoEco, Diane Sterling and William Weaver. Article from New York Times: Debunking the Myth of the Job-Stealing Immigrant
by Adam Davidson
Source CAT 2008: Extract from the book 'The Language Instinct' by Steven Pinker
Article from BBC News: Inca Road: the ancient highway that created an empire
Source CAT 2008: Extract from the book 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail by Jane O'Brien
or succeed' by Jared Diamond
Article from The Economist: Home Economics
Important Note: The above list includes RCs till CAT 2008, (the last paper and
pen based CAT) as the data for online exams is not available from 2009 Article from a Consumer Research Journal: Ritual Cosmetics and Status Transi-
onwards. As the paper went online, there has been a change in the length of the tion: The Female Business Suit as Totemic emblem
passages but the nature and type of the passages has remained similar.
Article from New York Times: The Web is here to Stay.
Following is a list of articles from CAT 2015; the RCs in this exam were different
as there was no RC passage from areas such as philosophy, sociology, etc,
which was an obvious break from previous years trends. The passages were
based on areas like immigration and economy, economic inequalities, the impact
of technology, Impact of electricity and poverty, and the importance of the study
of Humanities.

Source CAT 2015 RCs:

Article from Harvard Business Review: Pikettys Capital, in a Lot Less than 696
Pages by Justin Fox

Article from New York Times: Starving for Wisdom by Nicholas Kristof

Article from New Scientist: Worlds poor need grid power, not just solar panels by
Fred Pearce

Article from New York Times: The Ganga Water Crisis by Anthony Acciavatti

9 10
 Problems faced you find your clues.

while solving RCs

Which are these clues? The clues I am talking about are the ideas that are em-
bedded in every part of the passage. Every paragraph of the passage has one to
two important points that it wishes to convey. It is critical for you to recognise
these important points and make a mental note of them.

Most of us face the same problems while we are reading the passages for RCs:

Central idea/Main idea questions

Tone and attitude questions
Primary purpose questions
Title questions

Well, the one problem that most definitely can be addressed is that of one's
attention wavering while reading. If you can learn to focus while reading, half the
job is done. And this also effectively impacts the other two issues. If you can
focus on something, there is a chance that you might find something a little less
boring and also will reduce the seemingly high levels of complexity of the text.
Read the difficult passage at least twice to get a better understanding of the
content and context. Remember, being able to recall what is where in the pas-
sage gives a massive advantage when you start answering the questions. This is
what will help you to answer questions in a flash. So what is it that you need to
do to achieve this? One simple solution is passage analysis.

Click here to get a Comprehensive Collection of Articles, Tests and Videos to

boost your score in CAT RC.

Passage Analysis
You must be thinking what is 'passage analysis'? Well, put simply, it's going
through the passage like a detective would go through a crime scene: take out
your magnifying glass and rummage through the passage, every word of it till

11 12
 Reading Comprehension Liberal Arts Passages: These passages are related to philosophy, sociology and

Passage Types
psychology. Generally, these passages are very dense and require immense
focus for understanding them. Previous acquaintance with similar material will
go a long way in disarming your resistance to this particular passage type. Gen-
erally, the questions based on these passages are focused on the overall picture,
and check your general understanding of the concepts presented.

Reading Comprehensions can be divided according to the passage type and the
Politics & Current Affairs: The passages from this area are based on current
particular area they appear from. Broadly, we have the following five categories
news, and these passages are by far the easiest to read. Since we are familiar
for RC passages:
with the topics, it becomes easy for us to understand what is happening and to
follow the author of the passage. Though these passages are simple on most
Social Science Passages: These passages would be from areas such as history,
occasions, they can pose some tricky inferential questions at times.
politics, and geography. These passages are enjoyable to read and are not too
dense. A lot of inferential questions are based on these passages, which check
From the above analysis, you can identify the areas you are comfortable with and
your reading ability as well as how closely you have followed the passage.
the ones that require work. The above classification gives you the power to
understand your passage preference and the areas which require work from your
Business & Economics Passages: These passages are based on important
side.
economic theories and business events. It is important for you to get acquainted
with the language of business and economics, understanding the terminology
from this field .Work on your business knowledge and vocabulary to be comfort-
able with these passages.

Science Passages: These passages deal with areas such as biology, chemistry,
medicine, technology and mathematics. These passages present a lot of facts,
and since their subject matter is new to you, you might be bored by them. Do not
get confused by the technical jargon and focus on the main ideas that are pre-
sented by the author of the passage.

Read this Article to get a Comprehensive Guide to Prepare for CAT Grammar
Questions

13 14
 Approaches for different of these question types:

RC question types What can be inferred from the passage?

The author of the passage is most likely to agree/disagree with the
statement.
Paraphrase the given line or segment from the passage
Vocabulary Based Questions
RC question types can be divided into two broad categories: Fact-based questions

These questions depend on your ability to analyse and more importantly, retain
Category 1: Big Picture questions
key information in the passage. Since these questions are based on specific
aspects of the passage, it is important that you can identify the right sections of
As the name suggests, these are questions based on the overall content of the
the passage from where these questions are framed. Let us look at the individual
passage and do not focus on any single point in the passage. These questions
sections, tips for these question types and understand what can be done for
check your overall understanding of the passage and do not focus on any single
these.
point. Which are these questions? Go through the following list:

Main Idea/Main point/Central theme question Inference Questions

Structure and Organization The most important aspect here is that you need to understand the meaning of
Tone and Attitude of the author of the passage the word inference. An inference is defind as: The reasoning involved in drawing
Title of the passage a conclusion or making a logical judgement on the basis of circumstantial
evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation.
As you can see from these question types, each one of these based on the over-
This is what you need to do in inference question: based on the information
all content of the passage and does not ask you to locate and think about some
given, you need to draw out conclusions that relate to the passage. In inference
specific element of the passage. The key for these questions is that while read-
questions, it is easy to select an answer option that is outside the scope of the
ing the passage for the first time, you should be clear about the main ideas of the
passage. Make sure you do not commit this mistake.
passage. If you analyse the passage the right way, you will be able to answer
these questions without referring to the passage again. This is the one huge
Author agree/disagree questions
advantage of these question types.
These questions are built in two ways. Either the question setter might have a
statement that is based on the overall sentiment of the passage or he might
Category 2: Specific Detail Questions
base a statement based on specific aspects of the passage. Two keys thing for
Let us look at the second type of questions. These are the specific detail ques-
this question type are:
tions. Let's take up these one at a time. The following list provides you examples

15 16
 Ability to comprehend minute details
Go through the directions carefully as multiple cases are possible here: he
might ask you the statement the author agrees with, the statement the author
does not agree with, the statement the author does not disagree with, etc. So
make sure you are careful with the directions.
Fool Proof your Preparation for CAT Para Jumbles: Click here to get Comprehen-
sive Material for CAT Para Jumbles.
Paraphrase Questions
These questions will essentially ask you to explain the meaning of a particular
statement or extract from the passage. Generally, in these questions, you should
read the line before and after the one given; it is the one that will have the impor-
tant clues you need to identify the correct answer.
Vocabulary based questions
These questions will ask you the meaning of a word that has been used in the
passage. You should try to read the line where that word is used very carefully
and try to understand the meaning of the word in the given context.
Fact-based questions
These are the easiest of the lot as these simply ask you to identify the correct/in-
correct facts. Please be careful with the directions for these statements.
17
Reading Comprehension
'Main Idea' Questions
When you are asked the Main Idea question, essentially you need to identify that
one central point, the fulcrum, and the basis around which the whole passage is
built. You would have to agree with the fact that passages are built by accumu-
lating some ideas. All these ideas (which might appear disconnected or unique to
you) are built around a central theme, the theme of the passage that the author
wishes you to understand. At times this central idea might be directly quoted in
the passage and on other occasions, only a passing reference might be made to
it. In either case, it is imperative you follow the flow of the passage to identify the
answer.
Things to consider:
In general, you should keep the following things in mind while answering this
question type:
1. Identify the subject
Identify the overall subject of the passage, that one thing the passage is talking
about. Remember we are not talking about identifying the main idea here, we are
talking about the subject of the passage. For example, the passage might be
about some aspect of inflation. In this case, the subject is inflation. As a rule, the
answer option you select needs to reflect the subject of the passage or should
be as closely related to it as possible.
Watch this Video to get Expert Tips and Strategies to Crack CAT and make it to
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18
 2. Don't focus on the details
RC 'Title' Questions
The best thing about the main/central idea question: you do not need to focus on
the details. Leave out the irrelevant junk (examples, illustrations, facts etc.) and
focus on grasping the important ideas in the passage. Connect all of these to
obtain one key idea.
Before we get to the actual tips and strategies for this question type, let us con-
sider what 'titles'are exactly. If you consider a newspaper, how would you analyse
3. Summarise paragraphs of the passage
the title of an article?
One important tool-tip: summarise individual paragraphs of the passage. Look at
the main idea question as one where you need to reach the final destination.
Newspaper titles have the following qualities:
How do you do so? Well, you take one step at a time, stopping at important junc-
They are succinct (brief)
tions. In this case, the stops are the paragraphs. Consume information one para-
On most occasions, they contain the subject of the passage.
graph at a time, summarise and make a mental roadmap of the passage flow.
Once you have the flow of the passage, try to outline the one central idea the On other occasions, they might talk about the subject in an indirect manner,
author of the passage is aiming at. implying it rather than stating it. If you consider books, academic journals and so
on, the titles are more direct, but they can also have implied titles.
How do we reach the final answer?
Use the three important guidelines provided above, match your 'central idea' Effectively we have two types of titles:
(obtained in 3) with the answer options and eliminate the incorrect answer
Explicit: containing the subject
options. Remember the objective of this exercise is to make the process of iden-
Implicit: subject not directly stated
tifying the main idea in an analytical and objective manner. Follow the steps, and
The first ones don't pose a problem; it is the second one you need to be careful
you are on your way to get the correct answer.
about.

Things to consider for the title question:

In general, you should keep the following things in mind while answering this
question type:

Identify the subject: As with the main idea question, you need to identify the
subject of the passage, and make sure it reflects in the answer options (im-
plicit or explicit reference).

19 20

Don't focus on the details: Details are not relevant, only key ideas are.
Do not obsess with single 'ideas/points': Always keep the whole picture in
mind, single points cannot form the answer.
How do we reach the final answer?
Keeping the above in mind, ensure that your chosen 'title' reflects the main idea
and subject of the passage, and does not fall outside the scope of the passage.
Wait, what does 'scope' mean here?
When we pick an answer option, we are misguided by its construction, and we do
not realise the options are about another subject or one that is vaguely related to
the passage, thus rendering it outside our scope. Ensure you do not fall into the
'scope-trap, ' and you should do fairly well for this question type.
21
RC 'Tone' Questions
Every author adopts a certain attitude towards the issue he is talking about. The
author might be trying to:
Highlight facts about a matter (thereby adopting a 'factual' tone)
Explore the pros and cons of a decision (thereby adopting a 'critical' tone)
Explore each and every facet, cause, effect and so on with regards to a certain
topic (thereby adopting an 'analytical' tone)
Narrate an instance from their life (thereby adopting a 'sentimental/narrative'
tone)
Express their emotions, happy or sad (thereby adopting 'emotional/hap-
py/grief-stricken' tones).
These different reasons/methods of expressing themselves become the tone of
the author. Now that you have a basic understanding of tones, the next step is:
how do you identify these tones.
Things to consider for tone identification questions:
Identify the nature of the passage: The first classification for the passage is
that you understand whether the passage is highlighting facts only or does it
also reflect the opinions of the author. This is an important classification. Clas-
sify all tones that you know of into these two categories. For example, the objec-
tive tone is a factual one, and criticising someone is only possible with the help
of opinions.
Identify passage sentiment: The second thing that you need to do is under-
stand the sentiment of the passage i.e. whether the passage can be classified
22
 Positive: the author is appreciating something with your analysis.

Negative: the author is criticising something Identify the main idea of the passage, and co-relate it with the tone of the

Neutral: the passage does not fall into any of the above categories passage (there should be synergy between the two).
Keep 3 and 4 in mind while marking your answer.
Classify all tones that you know of into these three categories. For example: Also, you should try to label the tone of the passage in your words, and see
being appreciative reflects a positive approach, being sarcastic reflects a nega- which one correlates with the author of the passage.
tive approach and being objective is neutral in nature. Eliminate options. Do not select an answer, always eliminate options and be
sure why you are rejecting a particular option.
Ace your preparation for CAT by downloading and solving previous year CAT
The above forms some of the basic things that you should be doing for a Read-
Question Papers.
ing Comprehension tone question. Using these tips and strategies will surely
Identify the adjectives/adverbs used in the passage: Make a mental note of going to help you master this question type.
the language used by the author, and what kind of adjectives he is using.
Adjectives reflect the mood and emotions of the author.
Make a note of conflicting attitudes: Understand and identify where the
author changes his attitude and starts to move along different lines. It is
important to understand these mood changes, and from this understanding,
try to infer the most dominant sentiment in the passage. A common mistake
committed by students is that they focus on one particular sentiment only,
whereas the author has displayed multiple ones in the passage. Remember,
you need to pick the sentiment which dominates the passage and is co-relat-
ed with the central idea of the passage.
Make a list of all relevant adjectives you discover: make your 'tone' list
It is easy to find a list of common RC tones, but you are advised to make your
list of tones and put in all the relevant adjectives that you discover in tests,
mocks and so on. Having your list will gel with your vocabulary levels and
ensure that all bases are covered for you.

How do we reach the final answer?

Identify the nature of the passage (facts or opinion), and eliminate the options
that do not match with your analysis.
Identify the passage sentiment and again eliminate options that do not match

23 24
List of writing styles and
tones for RC Passages

The different types of Styles and certain keywords by which to remember them
are:

Factual/Event Based - Newspaper Article

Descriptive - Authors description
Data Driven - Numbers, statistics, figures
Narrative - Story, First-Person Narration
Abstruse/Abstract - Metaphoric, Symbolic, Philosophical
Analytical - Analysis, Problem Solving
Argumentative - Debate, pros, and cons

These are examples of certain tones. They are classified according to the mood
of the author.

Positive Tones Negative Tones Neutral Tones

Laudatory Demeaning Objective
Concerned Conceited Exaggerated
Sympathetic Preachy Obvious
Didactic Blaming Analytical
Adulatory Pessimistic Equivocal
Compassionate Cynical Diplomatic
Approving Argumentative Humorous
Appreciating Disapproving Patronizing
Optimistic Pitying
Bragging
Mocking

26
 How to read and Try to preempt questions: This is a really difficult skill but if you can master

approach passages?
this, you will surely be the King of Reading Comprehensions'. While reading
the passage, try to identify the possible questions that could be asked, and
which parts of the passage seem most likely candidates for question-setting.
Opening and Closing paragraphs require extra focus: Questions such as the
main idea question are based on the overall subject of the passage, and ma-
jority of the times the answer for this question type lies in the first and last
One of the most significant factors for solving reading comprehensions and
paragraph of the passage. Ensure you derive the maximum possible informa-
being accurate in this area actually revolves around the approach you adopt for
tion from these paragraphs.
this topic. At the best of times, you are likely to find a passage that you have
Constantly question yourself while reading the passage: In order to maintain
never read previously. How do you cope with such a challenge actually becomes
your concentration while reading, make sure that some basic questions keep
a central aspect of how you perform in reading comprehensions.
playing at the back of your mind: What is the author's main point? Why is the
author writing this? How has the author chosen to convey his main point?
With regards to the approach you should adopt for reading comprehensions,
How has the author organized his material?
keep the following in mind:

Don't expect to be stimulated: In fact expect the opposite! Majority of the The above form some of the basic points that should be kept in mind while
times you would be bored by RC topics, and you should not allow this to drain approaching reading comprehensions. These would improve your focus,
your energy. Maintain an impartial attitude towards the passage, and do not increase your grasp of the subject matter and deliver greater understanding. If
get mentally hassled by obscure content. you achieve these six, your task is more or less done.
Make Notes: While reading obscure/abstract text, make sure you make some
quick notes for ready reference. You can write the general flow, structure,
paragraph-wise flow, and important points. Remember that you do not have
to make really long notes, just make a quick note of the important markers/-
points in the passage.
Do not over-read: Yes, you read this right, we said do not 'over-read'. How can
you 'over-read'? You over-read when you focus on each and every detail, rather
than keeping a general outline at the back of your mind. You do not memorize
the passage; you need to simply remember the key points.

Must read article to learn all about CAT Mensuration

27 28
 How to deal with 3. Sharpen your skills through reading

long RCs?
Remember, the biggest challenge with long RCs is the sheer word count of the
passage. This can scare you at times and cause you to panic in the exam. It is
extremely important to maintain your cool in the exam and be prepared for such
challenges. The best long-term strategy to deal with long RCs is to build your
reading stamina and making sure you are ready for the mental battle.

Long reading comprehensions perplex most of the students. The students find
Read as much as you can and reading diverse areas will help in increasing your
these passages daunting, difficult to comprehend as well as solve. What need to
understanding related to other areas in addition to the areas you are familiar
be understood while solving a long passage is that it is not long only for you, but
with. Also, read online journals, magazines, and newspaper, etc.
for everyone else as well. Thus it not the speed, but how fast you comprehend
the passage that matters.
4. Work on your Vocabulary
Try to increase your general vocabulary and area specific vocabulary. This will
Tips for Dealing with Long RCs:
increase your reading speed as well as comprehension. Remember, this is anoth-
er long-term strategy that requires dedication and application. It is not possible
1. Focus on the opening and closing paragraphs of longer passages.
to improve your reading skills overnight and it is extremely important to build on
Most of the passages encountered in the reading comprehension questions will
your core language skills in order to develop into a master reader.
be short, but one or two will be long. If you are running out of time, read the open-
ing and closing paragraphs and skim the middle. The first and last paragraphs
contain the passages main idea in most passages. You can go back and read
body paragraphs more carefully if the questions call for it.

2. Use context to help you.

If a question asks about a particular line, dont go back to the passage and read
just that line. Instead, read at least two sentences before and after the line in
question, so as to comprehend what the author is trying to say.

Get Expert tips to boost your Score in CAT Verbal Ability

29 30
Practice Passages

Passage-1

The way book authors get paid these days is pretty straightforward: publishers
keep careful track of how many books they sell and pay authors a royalty
agreed upon when the contract is signed of each sale. Authors can check
sales figures using resources like Bookscan or their own accountants. Royalty
rates are well established throughout much of the industry. Everyone is protected
by copyright. Easy peasy.

The playing field hasnt always been so level. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
observed in 1797, the publisher always knows the profit to himself and his
family whereas the author is totally in the dark. This problem of lopsided infor-
mation was aggravated by the near-absence of copyright protection in the 18th
and 19th century. A bestseller could be expected to spawn an abundance of
pirated versions. Charles Dickens, on his first trip to the United States in 1842,
complained endlessly about the pirating of his works for the U.S. market. This
lack of intellectual property protection led to further conflicts of interest and
opinion between authors and publishers: it was standard practice among pub-
lishers even respectable ones to have multiple print runs without an authors
permission, and writers sometimes tried to sell near-identical editions of the
same title to multiple publishers. Because authors couldnt trust the sales num-
bers if and when their publishers provided them, 19th-century book contracts
were for a fixed fee rather than per-copy royalty payments.

All of this drove Goethe nuts. Like many artists, Goethe had an uneasy relation-

32
 ship with money in the first place. He was on the one hand disdainful of the profit over the longer run), and he devised this peculiar auction to get Vieweg to tell
motive (he once wrote to a publisher, I look odd to myself when I pronounce the him.
word Profit), and yet he referred to the asymmetry of information as the main
1. It can be inferred from the passage that:
evil of publishing. He wanted to ensure that he got his fair share of the fruits of
1. Selling of books was not an easy proposition in the 18th and 19th century
his labors, and to this end he employed various ruses and strategies to ensure
2. Piracy was more rampant in the 18th and 19th century that it is today
that his more materialistically minded publishers didnt exploit him. Among the
3. Auditing of sales was more cumbersome in the 18th and 19th century that
most intriguing of these schemes was the peculiar auction he devised for the
it is today
sale of the manuscript for his epic poem, Hermann and Dorothea.
4. both (1) and (3)

Goethe wasnt planning on awarding the manuscript to the highest bidder the 2. It can be deduced from the passage that:
kind of auction you might picture at Sothebys for fine art, where the auctioneer
1. Goethe abhorred commercial transactions.
raises the price with each bid until the sale price is reached (whats known as an
2. Goethe devalued profit based transactions.
open ascending price or English auction). Instead, Goethe engineered the
3. Goethe underestimated of profit-based ventures.
following mechanism, as he explained to Mr. Vieweg, his publisher, in a letter
4. Goethe did not appreciate profit-driven enterprises.
dated January 16, 1797:
3. From the information given in the passage, it can figured out:
I am inclined to offer Mr. Vieweg from Berlin an epic poem, Hermann and Doro-
I. Intellectual property rights were not stringent in the 18th century.
thea, which will have approximately 2000 hexameters. Concerning the royalty
II. The desired levels of transparency between authors and publishers did not
we will proceed as follows: I will hand over to Mr. Counsel Bttiger [Goethes
exist in the 18th century.
lawyer] a sealed note which contains my demand, and I wait for what Mr. Vieweg
III. It was not given that publishers would keep authors in the dark with
will suggest to offer for my work. If his offer is lower than my demand, then I take
respect to their actions.
my note back, unopened, and the negotiation is broken. If, however, his offer is
higher, then I will not ask for more than what is written in the note to be opened
1. I & II 2. II & III 3. I & III 4. All of the above
by Mr. Bttiger.
2. The mechanism adopted by Goethe for awarding his manuscript to the highest bidder:
Whats going on here?According to Moldovanu and Tietzel, scholars had treated 1. was a enigmatic mechanism adopted by Goethe to confuse his buyers.
Goethes proposition as one of the enigmas left behind by one of historys great- 2. was a clever mechanism adopted by Goethe to derive the maximum value
est literary figures. But the economists argue that theres no mystery to Goethes for this work.
choice of mechanism. The author wanted to know how much he was worth to 3. was a clever manoeuvre adopted by Goethe to establish his worth.
Vieweg (perhaps with an eye to extracting higher royalties from his publishers 4. was a clever subterfuge adopted by Goethe to trick publishers.

33 34
 5. From the information provided in the passage, how many of the following char-
acter traits can be ascribed with certainty to Goethe:
A. reclusive and reticent
B. commercially astute
C. intellectually driven
D. monetarily covetous
1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D
6. The tone of the author of the passage can be said to be:
1. Descriptive 2. Analytical 3. Critical 4. Subjective
Passage 2
For centuries, philosophers have been using moral intuitions to reason about
ethics. Today, some scientists think theyve found a way to use psychology
and neuroscience to undermine many of these intuitions and advance better
moral arguments of their own. If these scientists are right, philosophers need
to leave the armchair and head to the lab or go into retirement.
The thing is, theyre wrong. There are certainly problems with the way philoso-
phers use intuitions in ethics, but the real challenge to moral intuitions comes
from philosophy, not from science.
How do ethicists use intuitions? To assess whether a moral theory is true,
philosophers formulate cases that call for particular moral choices and ask
which choice seems, intuitively, like the right one. When the choice that seems
right is the choice the theory calls for, this is a reason to accept the theory. If it
seems like the right choice is one the theory doesnt endorse (or even con-
35
demns), thats a reason to reject the theory.
The trolley problem is the best, most ubiquitous example of this kind of phi-
losophy. Philosophers have invited readers to imagine that a trolley is speed-
ing down a track. Unimpeded, the trolley will hit five people ahead of it, killing
them, but an innocent person nearby could stop it. In one version, she could
stop the trolley and save the five people by pulling a lever to divert it to anoth-
er track, but this would kill one person who happens to be on that track. In
another, she can only stop the trolley from killing the five by pushing someone
off a bridge into the trolleys path. Whatever the details, the moral question is
what the person should do.
Ethicists will then cite peoples intuitions about the problem as evidence in the
debate between the two most popular types of moral theories, consequential-
ist and deontological. Consequentialist moral theories hold that whats right is
a function of whats good: the right thing to do is whatever would produce the
best consequences. In contrast, deontological moral theories hold that the
right has priority over the good: it could well be wrong to perform the action
that has the best consequences when that action breaks the moral rules. In
trolley cases, consequentialists typically say that you should be willing to kill
one to save five, but deontologists say that you shouldnt.
In the past few years, scientists have argued that there is a fatal problem with
this approach. Recent research, they say, suggests that many of our moral
intuitions come from neural processes responsive to morally irrelevant factors
and hence are unlikely to track the moral truth.
The psychologist Joshua Greene at Harvard led studies that asked subjects to
decide whether a particular action in a hypothetical case was appropriate or
not. He found that typically, when responding to cases in which the agent
36
 harms someone personally (say, trolley cases in which the agent pushes an
innocent bystander over a bridge to stop the trolley from killing five other
people), the subjects showed more brain activity in regions associated with
emotions than when responding to cases in which the agent harmed some-
one relatively impersonally (like trolley cases in which the agent diverts the
trolley to a track on which it will kill one innocent bystander to stop the trolley
from killing five other people). They also found that the minority of subjects
who said the agent acted appropriately in doing harm in the personal cases
took longer to give this verdict, and experienced greater brain activity in
regions associated with reasoning than the majority who said otherwise.
According to Greene, this indicates that our moral intuitions in favour of deon-
tological verdicts about cases that you should not harm one to save five
are generated by more emotional brain processes responding to morally irrel-
evant factors, such as whether you cause the harm directly, up close and
personal, or indirectly. And our moral intuitions in favour of consequentialist
verdicts that you should harm one to save five are generated by more
rational processes responsive to morally relevant factors, such as how much
harm is done for how much good.
As a result, we should apparently be suspicious of deontological intuitions
and deferential to our consequentialist intuitions. This research thereby also
provides evidence for a particular moral theory: consequentialism.
Greenes results, however, dont offer any scientific support for consequential-
ism. Nor do they say anything philosophically significant about moral intui-
tions. The philosopher Selim Berker at Harvard has offered a decisive argu-
ment why. Greenes argument just assumes that the factors that make a case
personal the factors that engage relatively emotional brain processes and
37
typically lead to deontological intuitions are morally irrelevant. He also
assumes that the factors the brain responds to in the relatively impersonal
cases the factors that engage reasoning capacities and yield consequential-
ist intuitions are morally relevant. But these assumptions are themselves
moral intuitions of precisely the kind that the argument is supposed to chal-
lenge.
7. In the given context, the word 'ubiquitous' means:
1. well-formed 2. Pervasive 3. Effective 4. Comprehensive
8. From the information provided for the consequentialist approach, we can say
which of the following about this approach?
1. it is the theory about the maximum good delivered at the lowest cost possible
2. it is the theory about the maximum good delivered irrespective of cost
3. it is the theory about the maximum good delivered at the highest cost possible
4. it is the theory about delivering the maximum costs required for the maximum good.
9. According to SelimBerker, Greene:
1. uses circular reasoning to prove his points
2. uses specious reasoning to prove his points
3. employs ad hominem to prove his argument
4. employees butterfly logic to prove his point
10. Assuming the information provided by Greene's experiment to be correct, one of
the following is driven by reasoning and one by emotions. Identify the two in the
respective order.
1. consequentialist moral theories and deontological moral theories
2. deontological moral theories and consequentialist moral theories
3. both of the above adhere to the given criteria
4. none of the above adhere to the given criteria
38
 11. In the given context, the author of the passage is clearly:
1. supportive of the view offered by science on the subject under consideration.
2. against the view offered by science on the subject under consideration.
3. sympathetic of the view offered by science on the subject under consideration.
4. empathizes with the view offered by science on the subject under consideration.
12. Which of the following is an apt title for the passage?
1. Science just cannot seem to have enough to say about moral intuitions
2. Science has the last laugh when it comes to moral intuitions
3. Science has always been the enfant terrible when it comes moral intuitions
4. Science has next to nothing to say about moral intuitions
Passage 3
Stop me if youve heard this one before. On 19 December 1984, The New York
Times ran a story about parents who feared the risks of routine vaccinations.
The parent quoted in the article was a lawyer who blamed vaccines for the
death of his daughter. The story was framed as a conflict between parents
such as him and medical experts, who pointed out that serious side-effects of
vaccines were extremely rare, and that the diseases vaccines prevented were
far worse.
On 27 April 1999, The New York Times ran a story about parents who feared
the risks of routine vaccinations. The parent quoted in the article was col-
lege-educated, an author and professional activist, who blamed vaccines for
her sons brain damage.
On 21 March 2008, The New York Times ran a story about parents who feared
the risks of routine vaccinations. The article noted that parents who refused
vaccines for their children were often well-educated and financially stable.
39
These stories were framed as a conflict between those parents and medical
experts, who worried that geographical pockets of vaccine refusal could help
spread preventable diseases, such as measles. Parents today just havent
seen the devastation vaccine-preventable diseases can cause, the scientists
said.
For more than 30 years now, we journalists have been telling the same story,
with the same actors, playing the same roles, and speaking the same lines.
The authors change, but the news doesnt. It barely even counts as new.
There are two groups of people you can blame for this pattern of repetitive
storytelling. Maybe its them: maybe the problem is parents whose anti-sci-
ence proclivities have carried them so far away from the facts that journalists
have no choice but to repeat ourselves ad nauseum. The story doesnt change
because the story hasnt changed.
That could be true. But theres also another option. Maybe its us: maybe jour-
nalists arent listening. The story never changes because we stopped looking
for the other stories we could tell.
If thats true, its a big deal. And not just for journalists. Vaccination is a deeply
important part of public health. Whether to vaccinate or not isnt simply a
decision you make for yourself or your family, independent of the choices of
everyone else. Vaccines work in two ways. They decrease your personal risk
of contracting a disease, and they reduce the number of potential hosts and
carriers in the population. That means the more vaccinated people there are,
the harder it is for a disease to spread. Vaccines can stop an outbreak before
it happens. This so-called herd immunity protects children who are too young
to get a vaccine, people who are too sick to get one, and anybody whose vac-
cination isnt working as well as it should.
40
 Thats why medical experts really care about vaccination and why theyre reason to think we arent listening well enough to what the herd has to say.
worried about vaccine rejection, even though, nationwide in the United States,
13. The author of the passage uses the news stories at the start of the passage:
children are vaccinated at rates of 90 per cent or better for most vaccines. In
1. to establish a conjecture 2. to highlight an incongruity
specific places, and for specific vaccines, uptake can be a lot lower, enough to
3. to establish a narrative 4. to point out pattern
give diseases a foothold. Measles, for instance, is highly contagious. To pre-
vent its spread, you need at least a 96 per cent vaccination rate. In California, 14. The author of the passage clearly believes that:
where a measles outbreak last year infected nearly 200 people and spread to
1. parents can do more to educate themselves about the benefits of vaccination.
23 other states, the measles vaccination rate is about 92 per cent and
2. journalists can do more to steer the debate on vaccination in the right direction.
scientists have estimated that regions near where the outbreak began could
3. scientists can do more to effectively convey the benefits of vaccination.
have rates as low as 50 per cent and certainly no higher than 86 per cent.
4. none of the above

We still seem to be pretty clueless when it comes to why those people fear 15. In the given context of the passage, the phrase 'ad nauseum' means:

vaccines and what could be done to change their minds. Case in point, a 1. To a resounding extent 2. To a niggling extent
paper published in 2014 tested different strategies for improving the likelihood 3. To a deafening extent 4. To a sickening extent
that skeptical parents would vaccinate their kids. None of the tested tech-
15. It can be inferred from the passage that the author of the passage is suggesting:
niques worked. When the researchers tried debunking vaccine misinforma-
I. Parents who reject vaccination prefer to put the public good below their children
tion, they succeeded in convincing more parents that vaccines dont cause
II. Parents who reject vaccination prefer to put their children below the public good
autism. But those same parents were actually more likely to reject vaccines
II. Parents who reject vaccination prefer to put the public good above their children
afterwards.
IV. Parents who reject vaccination prefer to put their children above the public good

Clearly, something is amiss here, and it matters to all of us. What I hadnt
1. I & III 2. II & III 3. I & III 4. I & IV
done, at least until recently, was question whether those stories were accu-
rate. I dont mean in the sense that Id published incorrect information. 16. According to the author of the passage:
Instead, Ive come to believe that I havent been asking the right people the
1. the decision to vaccinate your child has wider implications.
right questions, and thats leading me to write stories that are factually cor-
2. herd immunity has an impact on those who are not vaccinated.
rect, but dont accurately reflect whats really happening. What if scientists are
3. one can contract a disease even if one has taken the vaccination for the same.
wrong about the reasons parents dont vaccinate? What if, as a journalist, Ive
4. all of the above
been steering the national conversation in the wrong direction by not ques-
tioning the reasons put forth? Herd immunity matters a lot, and theres good

41 42
 18. The primary purpose of the author of the passage is:
1. to provide an explanation for a certain set of actions
2. to explain a contentious issue and its widespread implications
3. to highlight an oversight on part of a specific set of people
4. to stir a debate over an issue that deserves deeper understanding
Passage 4
Samuel Bowles slim, fascinating, and thought-provoking book, The Moral
Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens starts
with two assertions. The first is that policymakers have over-learned Adam
Smiths lesson that people achieve collective good when they pursue private
interest. Smith noted that pursuit of self-interest often produces societal ben-
efit. But Smith hedged his bets. Bowles charges that economists, jurists, and
policymakers often dont hedge theirs, and they have come to rely excessively
on incentives based on the proposition that peoples behaviour is entirely
self-interested and amoral.
To be clear, most policymakers probably recognize that people behave from
diverse motives. But standard economic analysis indicates that policy should
normally be based solely on the self-interest assumption. Bowles second
assertion is that policies based on the assumption that people are motivated
primarily or entirely by selfish motives often work poorly and sometimes
backfire. Worse, such policies may actually promote selfishness and amorali-
ty.
Put more positively, public and private policies often work much better if they
are designed with the recognition that people act in part from self-interest and
in part from social preferences, which include altruism, reciprocity, intrinsic
43
pleasure in helping others, aversion to inequity, ethical commitments, and
other motives that induce people to help people more than is consistent with
maximizing their own wealth or material payoff. Furthermore, incentive-based
policies may strengthen or weaken these motivations. Simply put, public
policy can promote or erode civic virtue.
The view of government as moral tutor may seem odd today, especially to
those on the political right. But not to all. The belief that government should
shape and, in fact, cannot avoid shaping public character is the sum and sub-
stance of George Wills 1981 Godkin Lectures, published two years later under
the title Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does. Writing soon after
Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President, Will argued that government
willy-nilly shapes public character by what it does. He warned that legislators,
especially conservatives, should take that duty seriously and posed what has
turned out to be a question of increasing relevance: Can conservatives come
to terms with a social reality more complex than their slogans?
19. In the given context of the passage, what does 'Smith hedged his bets' mean?
1. Adam Smith stuck to his guns in order to promote self-interest.
2. Adam Smith did cover all his bases by introducing contrarian views to his prima-
ry assertion.
3. Adam Smith did not believe in self-interest whole-heartedly, and therefore, talked
about societal benefit.
4. All of the above
20. Paraphrase the given extract from the passage: Will argued that government
willy-nilly shapes public character by what it does.
1. the government does not have choice when it comes to shaping public character
by its actions.
2. the government does not have an impact on public character by virtue of its
44

actions.
3. the government does have very little impact on public character through its
actions.
4. none of the above
21. It can be inferred from the passage that conservatives:
1. support policies that promote civic virtues.
2. are not supporters of policies that promote civic virtues.
3. do not believe that the government should act as a moral tutor.
4. both (2) and (3)
Passage 5
In 1614, when the telescope was new technology, a young man in Germany
published a book filled with illustrations of the exciting new things being discov-
ered telescopically: moons circling Jupiter, moon-like phases of Venus, spots on
the Sun, the rough and cratered lunar surface. The young man was Johann
Georg Locher, and his book was Mathematical Disquisitions Concerning Astro-
nomical Controversies and Novelties. And while Locher heaped praise upon
Galileo, he challenged ideas that Galileo championed on scientific grounds.
You see, Locher was an anti-Copernican, a fan of the ancient astronomer Ptole-

22. According to Samuel Bowles:
1. Public and private policy should keep the sentiment of unselfishness in mind.
2. Public and private policy should keep mutuality in mind.
3. Public and private policy should keep self-interest in mind.
4. All of the above
23. It is given in the passage that:
I. policymakers, by adhering excessively on a certain approach, end up promoting
something they wished to avoid in the first place.
II. policymakers excessively adhere to a standard policy.
III. policymakers do, in part, understand basic human behaviour.
1. Only I 2. Only III 3. Only II and III 4. All of the above
my, and a student within the Establishment (his mentor was Christoph Scheiner,
a prominent Jesuit astronomer). Locher argued that Copernicus was wrong
about Earth circling the Sun, and that Earth was fixed in place, at the centre of
the Universe, like Ptolemy said. But Locher was making no religious argument.
Yes, he said, a moving Earth messes with certain Biblical passages, like Joshua
telling the Sun to stand still. But it also messes with certain astronomical terms,
such as sunrise and sunset. Copernicans had work-arounds for all that, Locher
said, even though they might be convoluted. What Copernicans could not work
around, though, were the scientific arguments against their theory. Indeed,
Locher even proposed a mechanism to explain how Earth could orbit the Sun (a
sort of perpetual falling this decades before Isaac Newton would explain orbits
by means of perpetual falling), but he said it would not help the Copernicans, on
account of the other problems with their theory.

24. According to the information provided in the passage, the views of Samuel
What were those problems? A big one was the size of stars in the Copernican
Bowles and George Will are: universe. Copernicus proposed that certain oddities observed in the movements
1. are fairly dichotomous. 2. are almost contrarian. of planets through the constellations were due to the fact that Earth itself was
3. are almost the same. 4. are built on similar grounds. moving. Stars show no such oddities, so Copernicus had to theorise that, rather
than being just beyond the planets as astronomers had traditionally supposed,

45 46
 stars were so incredibly distant that Earths motion was insignificant by compari- 25. The author of the passage adopts:
son. But seen from Earth, stars appear as dots of certain sizes or magnitudes. 1. a subjective approach in the passage 2. a descriptive approach in the passage
The only way stars could be so incredibly distant and have such sizes was if they 3. a narrative approach in the passage 4. a critical approach in the passage
were all incredibly huge, every last one dwarfing the Sun. Tycho Brahe, the most
26. According to the information given in the passage, Georg Locher was:
prominent astronomer of the era and a favourite of the Establishment, thought
I. in agreement with some of views of Ptolemy
this was absurd, while Peter Crger, a leading Polish mathematician, wondered
II. supported the views of Isaac Newton
how the Copernican system could ever survive in the face of the star-size prob-
III. not a supporter of Copernicus
lem.
IV. was related to Catholicism in some way or the other.

Locher thought much was up in the air and ripe for study. In light of the star-size
1. I, II & III 2. I, III & IV 3. II, III & IV 4. All of the above
problem, he thought that the Earth clearly did not move; the Sun circled it. But
the telescope made it clear that Venus circled the Sun, and that sunspots also 27. The meaning of the word 'epicylce' is:
went around the Sun. Brahe had theorised that all planets circled the Sun, while it
1. A circle that revolves around the Sun.
circled Earth. Locher noted that Brahe might be right, but what was clear was
2. A circle that revolves around a circling planet.
that the telescope supported Ptolemy.
3. A circle that revolves around the Sun, which is further revolving around the Earth.
4. A circle that rolls around (inside or outside) another circle.
Ptolemy had explained those oddities in planetary movement by theorising that,
as planets circled the Earth, they also rode on a smaller circle, or epicycle, creat-
ing an odd motion like a Scrambler ride at a carnival. Locher wrote that, prior to
Passage 6
the telescope, this was just an idea no one knew if epicycles really existed. But
Some 2,400 years ago, in 399 BCE, Athens put Socrates on trial. The charge was
the telescopically discovered moons of Jupiter were proof of epicyclic motion:
impiety, and the trial took place in the Peoples Court. Socrates, already 70 years
the moons rode in circles around Jupiter, while those circles rode with Jupiter on
old, had long been a prominent philosopher and a notorious public intellectual.
its orbit. The telescope had proven Ptolemy correct; it was just that Venus and
Meletus, the prosecutor, alleged that Socrates had broken Athenian law by failing
sunspots (and maybe all the planets) had their epicycles centred on the Sun.
to observe the state gods, by introducing new gods, and by corrupting the youth.
Locher thought the epicycle question could be probed further through telescopic
observation of Saturn, and in particular of the protrusions seen on Saturn (at the
Meletus, as prosecutor, and Socrates, as defendant, delivered timed speeches
time, no one understood these to be rings). Locher argued that a long-term study
before a jury of 501 of their fellow citizens. There is no dispute about the basic
of how those protrusions change might show that Saturn rode on an epicycle.
facts of the trial of Socrates. It is less obvious why Athenians found Socrates
guilty, and what it might mean today. People who believe in both democracy and

47 48
 the rule of law ought to be very interested in this trial. If the takeaway is either
that democracy, as direct self-government by the people, is fatally prone to
repress dissent, or that those who dissent against democracy must be regarded
as oligarchic traitors, then we are left with a grim choice between democracy
and intellectual freedom.
But that is the wrong way to view Socrates trial. Rather, the question it answers
concerns civic obligation and commitment. The Peoples Court convicted
Socrates because he refused to accept that a norm of personal responsibility for
the effects of public speech applied to his philosophical project. Socrates
accepted the guilty verdict as binding, and drank the hemlock, because he
acknowledged the authority of the court and the laws under which he was tried.
And he did so even though he believed that the jury had made a fundamental
mistake in interpreting the law.
The conventional wisdom maintains that the impiety charge against Socrates
was a smokescreen, that politics motivated his trial. Just four years earlier, a
democratic uprising had overthrown a junta that ruled Athens for several tumul-
tuous months. Meletus prosecution speech at the trial likely urged the citizens
of Athens to focus on Socrates long association with members of this vicious
and anti-democratic junta.
In his influential interpretation The Trial of Socrates (1988), the US journal-
ist-turned-classicist I F Stone saw this trial as an embattled democracy defend-
ing itself. In Stones view, Socrates had helped to justify the juntas savage pro-
gramme of oligarchic misrule and was a traitor. More commonly, Socrates is
seen as a victim of an opportunistic prosecutor and a wilfully ignorant citizenry.
In truth, politics is indispensable to understanding the trial of Socrates, but in a
slightly more sophisticated way. Seeing Socrates as the paradigm of the autono-
49
mous individual, as a simple martyr to free speech, is wrong. Athenian political
culture and, specifically, the civic commitments required of Athenian citizens are
essential to understanding the trial. Socrates own commitments to his city influ-
enced the trials course, and those commitments were core parts of Athenian
political culture, shaping the relationship between public speech and responsibili-
ty. Indeed, the actions of Socrates, Meletus and the jury must be understood in
the context of the Athenians emphasis on the role of the responsible citizen in
the democratic state, on their ideal of civic responsibility. Thus it is a story, in
many ways, of civic engagement, in some respects far removed from the politics
of recognition that characterise contemporary US debates.
28. It is clear from the information given in the passage that:
1. Socrates was unfairly persecuted for expressing his views.
2. There is more to the trial of Socrates than the theory of his unfair persecution.
3. Socrates did not curry favour with those in power to escape his punishment.
4. none of the above
29. The primary purpose of the author of the passage is:
1. to showcase how individuals and state are embroiled in contentious issues with
one another.
2. to highlight the repercussions of taking a particular approach.
3. to elicit reaction to a new approach to problem concerning personal ethics.
4. to debunk a popular interpretation of a particular event in history.
30. According to Stone:
1. Socrates acted contrary to democratic principles by supporting the junta.
2. Socrates' trial was a democracy's fight against its opposition.
3. Both (1) and (2)
4. Neither (1) nor (2)
50
 Answer Key Explanations

Question No. Answer. Question No. Answer. 1. Option 3 can be established from the lines: The way book authors get paid these
days is pretty straightforward: publishers keep careful track of how many books
1. 3 16. 4 they sell and pay authors a royalty agreed upon when the contract is signed
of each sale. Authors can check sales figures using resources like Bookscan or
2. 4 17. 4 their own accountants. Royalty rates are well established throughout much of the
industry. Everyone is protected by copyright. Easy peasy.
3. 1 18. 4
Option 1 is ruled out as 'selling of books' is not the subject of the passage and
we do not know how easy or tough it is to sell books,
4. 3 19. 2
Option 2 is ruled out as there is no accurate measure for comparing the level of
5. 1 20. 1
piracy for the two given time references.
6. 1 21. 4
2. The answer can be derived from the lines: All of this drove Goethe nuts. Like
many artists, Goethe had an uneasy relationship with money in the first place.
7. 2 22. 3 He was on the one hand disdainful of the profit motive (he once wrote to a
publisher, I look odd to myself when I pronounce the word Profit), and yet he
8. 1 23. 4 referred to the asymmetry of information as the main evil of publishing.

9. 2 24. 4 We can see that option 4 is the best answer in this case.

10. 1 25. 2 3. In this case, statement III is incorrect. It cleverly uses a double negative and
negates the original sentiment of the author of the passage.
11. 2 26. 2
Statements I & II are direct derivations from the passage.
12. 4 27. 4
4. The answer to this question can be derived from the lines: The author wanted to
13. 4 28. 2 know how much he was worth to Vieweg (perhaps with an eye to extracting
higher royalties from his publishers over the longer run), and he devised this
peculiar auction to get Vieweg to tell him.
14. 2 29. 4
Remember, the intent of the action was not necessarily to adopt a win the
15. 4 30. 3
highest amount (for which he would held an open auction) but to rather
establish his worth.

51 52
 5. From the given options, only intellectually driven is an option that can be used
to describe Goethe. Option A finds no mention in the passage.
Option B is tough to conclude as we cannot say with certainty that Goethes
strategies were successful.
Option D goes against the information of the passage.
6. In this case, the best option is 1. We can only safely say that the author is
describing a certain piece of history here. His views on the subject or his
analysis is something that is missing from the given context.
7. Ubiquitous means being present everywhere at once. In the given context, the
author of the passage has used the given word to imply that this is the universal
or common example for the given situation. Keeping this in mind, we see that
option 2 is the best answer in the given case.
8. The answer to this question can be derived from the lines: Consequentialist
moral theories hold that whats right is a function of whats good: the right thing
to do is whatever would produce the best consequences...In trolley cases,
consequentialists typically say that you should be willing to kill one to save five,
but deontologists say that you shouldnt.
Remember, the costs will be minimum in all cases.
9. Let us look at the meanings of the various options to identify the correct answer.
Specious reasoning: Seemingly well-reasoned, plausible or true, but actually
fallacious. This idea that we must see through what we have started is specious,
however good it may sound.
Circular reasoning: Circular reasoning (Latin: circulus in probando, "circle in
proving"; also known as circular logic) is a logical fallacy in which the reasoner
begins with what they are trying to end with.
Ad hominem:.
(of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position
they are maintaining.
Butterfly logic: A makes me think of B, so B causes A. Or vice versa.
What seems to be connected is connected. Connection implies causality, with
the earlier event being the sole cause.
We can see that option 2 is the best answer in the given case.
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10. The answer can be directly derived from the lines: And our moral intuitions in
favour of consequentialist verdicts that you should harm one to save five are
generated by more rational processes responsive to morally relevant factors,
such as how much harm is done for how much good.
As a result, we should apparently be suspicious of deontological intuitions and
deferential to our consequentialist intuitions. This research thereby also provides
evidence for a particular moral theory: consequentialism.
11. This is an easy question. The answer can be directly derived from the lines:
Greenes results, however, dont offer any scientific support for consequentialism.
Nor do they say anything philosophically significant about moral intuitions
12. 'Enfant terrible' means 'a person whose unconventional behaviour embarrasses
others'. Clearly, option 3 is an illogical choice built to confuse you.
Options 1 and 2 go against the primary argument of the author of the passage.
Option 4 is the best choice in the given case.
13. In the given case, the author of the passage uses the given example to point out
a repetitive pattern in news reporting. He wishes to highlight how a certain event
is happening over and over and we are not doing enough to reach the logical
conclusion. Keeping this in mind, we can see that option 4 is the best answer.
14. The answer can be directly derived from the lines: That could be true. But theres
also another option. Maybe its us: maybe journalists arent listening. The story
never changes because we stopped looking for the other stories we could tell...
What if, as a journalist, Ive been steering the national conversation in the wrong
direction by not questioning the reasons put forth? Herd immunity matters a lot,
and theres good reason to think we arent listening well enough to what the herd
has to say.
15. Ad nauseum is used to refer to the fact that something has been done or
repeated so often that it has become annoying or tiresome.
16. In the given passage, the author suggests that by choosing not to vaccinate their
kids, these parents at putting the general public at risk. In other words, they place
the welfare of their children above public good. Now statements I and IV refer
to this.
17. All of the options can be derived from the lines: That means the more vaccinated
people there are, the harder it is for a disease to spread. Vaccines can stop an
outbreak before it happens. This so-called herd immunity protects children who
are too young to get a vaccine, people who are too sick to get one, and anybody
whose vaccination isnt working as well as it should.
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 18. In the given case, the author of the passage wants us to explore a certain
subject and wants deeper questions to be asked about the same. He goes on
explain the urgent need to consider important points related to vaccinations
and how our understanding of the subject might be incorrect. Considering this,
option 4 is the apt answer.
19. In the given case, you need to know the meaning of the word 'hedged'. It refers
to a practice where one tries to minimize ones risk or loss. Keeping this in mind,
we can see how option 2 relates best with the passage. The primary hypothesis
of the author is that Adam Smith promotes private interest. But he hedged his
bets by talking about societal benefits as well. This is not something which is
done by policymakers.
20. The important thing here is the meaning of the word 'willy-nilly'. It means 'without
having a choice'. Considering this, we can see that option 1 is the correct answer
here.
21. The first thing that you need know in order to answer this question is that
political right and conservatives refer to the same thing. This question illustrates
the need of diverse reading habits and highlights how being exposed to basic
political terminology can help you with questions.
Option 2 can be derived from the lines: He warned that legislators, especially
conservatives, should take that duty seriously and posed what has turned out to
be a question of increasing relevance: Can conservatives come to terms with a
social reality more complex than their slogans?
Option 3 can be derived from the lines: The view of government as moral tutor
may seem odd today, especially to those on the political right.
22. The above options are derived from the lines: Put more positively, public and
private policies often work much better if they are designed with the recognition
that people act in part from self-interest and in part from social preferences,
which include altruism, reciprocity, intrinsic pleasure in helping others, aversion
to inequity, ethical commitments, and other motives that induce people to help
people more than is consistent with maximizing their own wealth or material
payoff.
Remember, Samuel Bowles does not reject self-interest; he simply recommends
that it go hand in hand with social welfare.
23. Statement I can be derived from the lines: Bowles second assertion is that
policies based on the assumption that people are motivated primarily or entirely
by selfish motives often work poorly and sometimes backfire. Worse, such
policies may actually promote selfishness and amorality.
55
Statement II can be derived from the lines: Bowles charges that economists,
jurists, and policymakers often dont hedge theirs, and they have come to rely
excessively on incentives based on the proposition that peoples behaviour is
entirely self-interested and amoral.
Statement III can be derived from the lines: To be clear, most policymakers
probably recognize that people behave from diverse motives.
24. In the given case, option 4 is the best answer. Samuel Bowles and George Will
both talk about the role of policymakers and their arguments are based on
similar grounds. Are there views the same? It is hard to say that but yes, they
have the same origin. This makes option 4 the correct answer here.
25. In the given case, the author of the passage adopts a purely descriptive
approach. He is clearly describing the word of Locher, and what all he
postulated. The author, in the given passage, does not comment on the validity
of the work carried out by Locher but simply highlights the same for us.
26. Refer to the lines: You see, Locher was an anti-Copernican, a fan of the ancient
astronomer Ptolemy, and a student within the Establishment (his mentor was
Christoph Scheiner, a prominent Jesuit astronomer). Locher argued that
Copernicus was wrong about Earth circling the Sun, and that Earth was fixed in
place, at the centre of the Universe, like Ptolemy said.
Statements I and III can be directly derived from the above.
Also, Establishment here refers to the members of the Catholic Church. Also, the
Jesuit order is a Roman Catholic order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in
1534 to defend Catholicism against the Reformation and to do missionary work
among the heathen; it is strongly committed to education and scholarship.
Remember, Isaac Newton came after Locher and therefore, he cannot support
the views of Newton.
27. Remember, we simply need to provide the meaning of the word (this rules out
options 1, 2, & 3 which introduce extraneous elements in the given case). The
correct answer in this case is option 4.
28. In the passage, the author clearly highlights that there is more to the case of
Socrates than the theory that he was unfairly persecuted. In fact, the author
introduces evidence and facts that point out the shortcomings of Socrates.
This makes option 2 the best answer in the given case.
29. In the given passage, the author adopts a very simple purpose: to highlight how
the trial of Socrates has been interpreted in a certain way and how this might not
necessarily be the right way to go about it. This makes option 4 the correct
answer in this case.
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 30. This is a factual question and the answer can be directly derived from the lines:
In his influential interpretation The Trial of Socrates (1988), the US
The distance between
journalist-turned-classicist I F Stone saw this trial as an embattled democracy
defending itself. In Stones view, Socrates had helped to justify the juntas savage
programme of oligarchic misrule and was a traitor.
your Dreams and Reality
Remember, this is an extremely easy question and you should not have gotten
this wrong at any cost.
is called Action.

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