XAT 2022 VALR
Q1–10 of 26Carefully read the following statement:
When I ask people to name three recently implemented technologies that most impact our world today, they usually propose the computers, the Internet and the laser. All three were unplanned, ___________, and_____________ upon their discovery and remained __________ well after their initial use.
Which of the following options will BEST fill up the above blanks meaningfully?
Before the first two blanks describing the discoveries is the word 'unplanned'. The words 'unpredicted' and 'unappreciated' chime with 'unplanned' and also make the best sense in the given context. All other options contain adjectives like 'astonishing', 'amazing', 'superb', and 'shocking' which don't really take forward the idea that the discoveries mentioned were not planned in advance. Also, for the third blank 'unappreciated well after their initial use' makes the best sense.
Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
Geologists have been investigating a potential cycle in geological events for a long time. Back in the 1920s and 30s, scientists of the era had suggested that the geological record had a 30-million-year cycle, while in the 1980s and 90s researchers used the best-dated geological events at the time to give them a range of the length between 'pulses' of 26.2 to 30.6 million years. Now, everything seems to be in order - 27.5 million years is right about where we'd expect. A study late last year suggested that this 27.5-million-year mark is when mass extinctions happen, too.
Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
Which of the following sentences have INCORRECT usage of preposition?
1. The manager was sitting at the desk.
2. My work is superior to yours.
3. I prefer coffee than tea.
4. She was accused for stealing gold.
5. This is an exception to the rule.
6. They are leaving to England soon.
Sentences 3, 4, and 6 contain errors. The correct sentences are 'I prefer coffee to tea', 'She was accused of stealing gold', and 'They are leaving for England soon’.
Read the poem carefully, and answer the following question.
I smiled at you because I thought that you
Were someone else; you smiled back; and there
grew
Between two strangers in a library
Something that seems like love; but you loved
me
(If that's the word) because you thought that I
Was other than I was. And by and by
We found we'd been mistaken all the while
From that first glance, that first mistaken smile
Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from the poem?
The poem given talks about strangers falling in love due to smiles exchanged in a library, mistaking each other's identity, and later realizing that it was all a mistake. The poem does not talk about falling in love with one's own self. So, option B is the correct choice.
Which of the following sentences are grammatically CORRECT ?
1. Have you any clothes to dispose of?
2. I saw a pleasant dream last night.
3. I have done it many a times safely.
4. Students struggle to cope up with academic pressure.
5. You need not give negative feedback to your employees.
6. My friend is good at playing football.
Carefully read the following statement:
The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it _____ for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that _____ are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the ________ is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has ________ to rewrite its own history.
Which of the following options will BEST fill up the above blanks meaningfully?
Considering the first two blanks together, we can see that only option A has words that fit. It is possible for a totalitarian regime to rule because people are not informed and hence do not have an opinion. For blanks 3 and 4 too, only 'consequence' and 'constantly' fit.
Arrange the following sentences in a LOGICAL sequence:
1. In America, primary-age pupils are on average five months behind where they would usually be in maths, and four months in reading, according to McKinsey, a consultancy.
2. As a new school year gets under way in many countries, the harm caused by months of closure is becoming ever clearer
3. The crisis will accelerate that trend.
4. The damage is almost certainly worse in places such as India and Mexico, where the disruption to schooling has been greater.
5. Even before pandemic, parents around the world were growing more willing to pay for extra lessons in the hope of boosting their children's education.
Arrange the following sentences in a LOGICAL sequence:
1. But when it comes to companies that lack computer programmers, the government is far more sympathetic.
2. As a result, limited access to foreign talent is a common gripe of tech founders and venture capitalists.
3. And, demand for the latter has soared among British startups.
4. This is less inconsistent than it may seem.
5. An HGV driver takes between six and ten weeks to train; a competent coder several years.
Tricky para jumble. As the first sentence of the paragraph is not obvious, we need to look for links. 53 is a link. 3 mentions 'the latter' and only 5 can go before 3, as it talks of two different professions. 53 leads to 2: as a result of soaring demand for coders who take several years to train, limited access to foreign talent is a common gripe. The only answer option with this sequence is option A. Also note that the link between 1 and 4 here is logical: 1 talks about the government being more sympathetic to companies that lack programmers; 4 claims this is not inconsistent. 532 explains why. So, 14532 is the correct order.
Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
Labouring is simply what we do to survive. We labour to eat. To keep our bodies healthy. To keep roof over our heads, and to keep life reproducing. All animals labour, with or without coaxing.... There's nothing special about labour, save for the fact that without it we would die.
Work, on the other hand, gives collective meaning to what we do. When we work to produce something we both put something into and leave something lasting in the world: a table, a house, a book, a car, a rug, a high precision piece of engineering with which we can order the days into time, or keep a body breathing.
Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
One theory of accidents is what experts call the Swiss Cheese model. A slab of Swiss cheese has several holes, randomly and unevenly distributed over its surface. If several slabs are stacked together, it would be impossible for something to slip through unless all the holes happen to line up.
If even one slab doesn't align, the impending catastrophe will meet a layer of resistance, and the worst is averted. Aviation professionals will tell you that plane crashes never happen for a single reason. There may be an identifiable primary factor, but it's usually a chain of events, an array of circumstances neatly piling up.
Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?
The main idea of the paragraph is that only when an array of circumstances pile up like holes in a slab of Swiss cheese lining up, disasters happen. If an impending catastrophe meets even one layer of resistance, the worst is averted. Option B sums up this idea.