1 XAT

Read the following paragraphs and answer the question that follows:
The current trend indicates that food and vegetable inflations continue to be pain points. Food inflation rose to 7.79 percent in
June from 7.47 percent, and vegetable inflation rose to 14.74 percent from 10.85 percent. In the weeks ahead, the volatile food inflation will determine the course of overall inflation.
For RBI too, the trend is a concern since under the current agreement with the government, if the inflation exceeds 11 percent it will have to explain to the government why it could not be contained (the lower limit is 2 percent).
Which of the following options is the most appropriate?

2 XAT

Read the following excerpt and answer the question that follows:
Fragrant with steam
were the days and the nights red with many braziers
in the beloved house
of my father, my mother.
Which of the following options is the closest expression of the poet’s feeling?

3 XAT

Read the following statements and answer the question that follows:
1.This is Russia’s Wild West, though the mountains lie to the south of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
2.The Caucasus range has throughout history held Russians, especially fierce nationalists like Solzhenitsyn, in fear and awe.
3.Here, between the Black and Caspian seas, is a land bridge where Europe gradually vanishes amid a six-hundred-mile chain of mountains as high as eighteen thousand feet - mesmerizing in their spangled beauty, especially after the yawning and flat mileage of the steppe lands to the north.
4.Here, since the seventeenth century, Russian colonizers have tried to subdue congeries of proud peoples: Chechens, Ingush,
Ossetes, Daghestanis, Abkhaz, Kartvelians, Kakhetians, Armenians, Azeris, and others.
5.Here, the Russians encountered Islam in both its moderation and implacability.
Which of the following options is the best logical order of the above statements?

4 XAT

Read the following statements and answer the question that follows:
1.The periodic table orders the elements in a way that helps to understand why atoms behave as they do.
2.The properties of the elements are due to electronic configuration, and their recurring pattern gives rise to periodicity.
3.In other words, what gives the elements their properties and what order lies below the surface of their seemingly randomnature?
4.What makes Fluorine react violently with Caesium while its nearest neighbour neon is reluctant to react with anything?
Which of the following options is the best logical order of the above statements?

5 XAT

The serious study of popular films by critics is regularly credited with having rendered obsolete a once-dominant view that
popular mainstream films are inherently inferior to art films. Yet the change of attitude may be somewhat __________ Although, it is now academically respectable to analyse popular films, the fact that many critics feel compelled to rationalize their own __________ action movies or mass-market fiction reveals, perhaps unwittingly, their continued __________ the old hierarchy of popular and art films.
Consider the following words:
1.unproductive
2.not appreciated
3.overstated
4.penchant for
5.dislike for
6.investment in
7.exposure to
Which of the following options is the most appropriate sequence that would meaningfully fit the blanks in the above paragraph?

6 XAT

Which of the following options is grammatically correct and meaningful?

7 XAT

Read the following stanza and answer the question that follows:
Invisible atoms coming together
Revealing themselves in visible forms
Seeds are hugged by the earth
Which renders them as gardens in bloom.
And yonder stars, are they not pearls
Floating on teeming seas?
Scattered, yet strung together in orderly constellations
Love binding them to one another
And each is perpetually seeking its like?
Which of the following options best captures the spirit of the above stanza?

8 XAT

Carefully read the statements below:
1.Chatterjee loves books; therefore, he reads them all the time.
2.Chatterjee loves books. Therefore, he reads them all the time.
3.Chatterjee loves books and, therefore, reads them all the time.
Which of the above statement(s) is (are) correct in grammar and meaning?

9 XAT

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:
On Friday morning, Dieting supplement sales company Herbalife agreed to pay the US Federal Trade Commission a $200m fine.
The FTC said Herbalife cheated hopeful salespeople out of hundreds of millions of dollars with a high-pressure multi-level marketing scheme.
Herbalife’s stock received an immediate 15% increase following the above news. The company also announced that it would hire a second former FTC commissioner in a press release describing the terms of the settlement.
Which of the following options would imply that the 15 percent increase in stock price is fair?

10 XAT

 Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
Worldwide, tomato is one of the most important crops. Because this crop can be adapted for cultivation in various environments ranging from tropical to alpine regions, its cultivation area is now expanding worldwide into not so productive regions. On the other hand, traditional cultivation areas, the most favourable for tomato cultivation with warm and dry climate, are contracting.
Every year, traditional cultivation areas lose 2 million hectares (ha) of land to environmental factors such as salinity, drought, and soil erosion.
Which of the following is the correct inference based on the above passage?

11 XAT

Grotesque is related to Macabre in a similar way as _________

12 XAT

Choose the option with all the correct words and their correct accent (underlined syllable) that fits the blanks.
The suspension of the captain may _________ the number of spectators, who turn up for this match.
Transportation costs will directly __________ the cost of retail goods.
Grandmother’s advancing age could _________ her ability to take care of the house.
She ______ a Texan accent throughout the interview.

13 XAT

Instructions [13 - 14 ]
Writing is both my vocation and my avocation: that’s all I do.
You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery -more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, as a wise man, G. K. Chesterton, observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”
I, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me-no, that’s too much to ask of anyone - if you can become aware of the miraculousness that I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because - well, because I am seemingly so simple.
Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Especially when you realize that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S. each year.
Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye - there’s some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.

“I” in the passage, most likely, refers to:

14 XAT

Instructions [13 - 14 ]
Writing is both my vocation and my avocation: that’s all I do.
You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery -more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, as a wise man, G. K. Chesterton, observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”
I, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me-no, that’s too much to ask of anyone - if you can become aware of the miraculousness that I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because - well, because I am seemingly so simple.
Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Especially when you realize that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S. each year.
Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye - there’s some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.

A “supercilious attitude” in this passage implies:

15 XAT

Instructions [15 - 17 ]
It’s taken me 60 years, but I had an epiphany recently: Everything, without exception, requires additional energy and order to maintain itself. I knew this in the abstract as the famous second law of thermodynamics, which states that everything is falling apart slowly. This realization is not just the lament of a person getting older. Long ago I learnt that even the most inanimate things we know of ?stone, iron columns, copper pipes, gravel roads, a piece of paper ?won’t last very long without attention and fixing and the loan of additional order. Existence, it seems, is chiefly maintenance.

What has surprised me recently is how unstable even the intangible is. Keeping a website or a software program afloat is like keeping a yacht afloat It is a black hole for attention. I can understand why a mechanical device like a pump would break down after a while ?moisture rusts metal, or the air oxidizes membranes, or lubricants evaporate, all of which require repair. But I wasn’t thinking that the nonmaterial world of bits would also degrade. What’s to break? Apparently everything.

Brand-new computers will ossify. Apps weaken with use. Code corrodes. Fresh software just released will immediately begin to fray. On their own ?nothing you did. The more complex the gear, the more (not less) attention it will require. The natural inclination toward change is inescapable, even for the most abstract entities we know of: bits.

And then there is the assault of the changing digital landscape. When everything around you is upgrading, this puts pressure on your digital system and necessitates maintenance. You may not want to upgrade, but you must because everyone else is. It’s an upgrade arms race.

I used to upgrade my gear begrudgingly (Why upgrade if it still works?) and at the last possible moment. You know how it goes: Upgrade this and suddenly you need to upgrade that, which triggers upgrades everywhere. I would put it off for years because I had the experiences of one “tiny” upgrade of a minor part disrupting my entire working life. But as our personal technology is becoming more complex, more co-dependents upon peripherals, more like a living ecosystem, delaying upgrading is even more disruptive. If you neglect ongoing minor upgrades, the change backs up so much that the eventual big upgrade reaches traumatic proportions. So I now see upgrading as a type of hygiene: You do it regularly to keep your tech healthy. Continual upgrades are so critical for technological systems that they are now automatic for the major personal computer operating systems and some software apps. Behind the scenes, the machines will upgrade themselves, slowly changing their features over time. This happens gradually, so we don‘t notice they are“becoming.”

We take this evolution as normal.

Technological life in the future will be a series of endless upgrades. And the rate of graduations is accelerating. Features shift, defaults disappear, menus morph. I’ll open up a software package I don’t use every day expecting certain choices, and whole menus will have disappeared. 

No matter how long you have been using a tool, endless upgrades make you into a newbie ?the new user often seen as clueless. In this era of “becoming” everyone becomes a newbie. Worse, we will be newbies forever. That should keep us humble.

That bears repeating. All of us ?every one of us ?will be endless newbies in the future simply trying to keep up. Here’s why: First, most of the important technologies that will dominate life 30 years from now have not yet been invented, so naturally you’ll be a newbie to them. Second, because the new technology requires endless upgrades, you will remain in the newbie state. Third, because the cycle of obsolescence is accelerating (the average lifespan of a phone app is a mere 30 days!), you won’t have time to master anything before it is displaced, so you will remain in the newbie mode forever. Endless Newbie is the new default for everyone, no matter your age or experience.

Which of the following statements would the author agree with the most?

16 XAT

Instructions [15 - 17 ]
It’s taken me 60 years, but I had an epiphany recently: Everything, without exception, requires additional energy and order to maintain itself. I knew this in the abstract as the famous second law of thermodynamics, which states that everything is falling apart slowly. This realization is not just the lament of a person getting older. Long ago I learnt that even the most inanimate things we know of ?stone, iron columns, copper pipes, gravel roads, a piece of paper ?won’t last very long without attention and fixing and the loan of additional order. Existence, it seems, is chiefly maintenance.

What has surprised me recently is how unstable even the intangible is. Keeping a website or a software program afloat is like keeping a yacht afloat It is a black hole for attention. I can understand why a mechanical device like a pump would break down after a while ?moisture rusts metal, or the air oxidizes membranes, or lubricants evaporate, all of which require repair. But I wasn’t thinking that the nonmaterial world of bits would also degrade. What’s to break? Apparently everything.

Brand-new computers will ossify. Apps weaken with use. Code corrodes. Fresh software just released will immediately begin to fray. On their own ?nothing you did. The more complex the gear, the more (not less) attention it will require. The natural inclination toward change is inescapable, even for the most abstract entities we know of: bits.

And then there is the assault of the changing digital landscape. When everything around you is upgrading, this puts pressure on your digital system and necessitates maintenance. You may not want to upgrade, but you must because everyone else is. It’s an upgrade arms race.

I used to upgrade my gear begrudgingly (Why upgrade if it still works?) and at the last possible moment. You know how it goes: Upgrade this and suddenly you need to upgrade that, which triggers upgrades everywhere. I would put it off for years because I had the experiences of one “tiny” upgrade of a minor part disrupting my entire working life. But as our personal technology is becoming more complex, more co-dependents upon peripherals, more like a living ecosystem, delaying upgrading is even more disruptive. If you neglect ongoing minor upgrades, the change backs up so much that the eventual big upgrade reaches traumatic proportions. So I now see upgrading as a type of hygiene: You do it regularly to keep your tech healthy. Continual upgrades are so critical for technological systems that they are now automatic for the major personal computer operating systems and some software apps. Behind the scenes, the machines will upgrade themselves, slowly changing their features over time. This happens gradually, so we don‘t notice they are“becoming.”

We take this evolution as normal.

Technological life in the future will be a series of endless upgrades. And the rate of graduations is accelerating. Features shift, defaults disappear, menus morph. I’ll open up a software package I don’t use every day expecting certain choices, and whole menus will have disappeared. 

No matter how long you have been using a tool, endless upgrades make you into a newbie ?the new user often seen as clueless. In this era of “becoming” everyone becomes a newbie. Worse, we will be newbies forever. That should keep us humble.

That bears repeating. All of us ?every one of us ?will be endless newbies in the future simply trying to keep up. Here’s why: First, most of the important technologies that will dominate life 30 years from now have not yet been invented, so naturally you’ll be a newbie to them. Second, because the new technology requires endless upgrades, you will remain in the newbie state. Third, because the cycle of obsolescence is accelerating (the average lifespan of a phone app is a mere 30 days!), you won’t have time to master anything before it is displaced, so you will remain in the newbie mode forever. Endless Newbie is the new default for everyone, no matter your age or experience.

Which of the following quotes would the author agree with the most?

17 XAT

Instructions [15 - 17 ]
It’s taken me 60 years, but I had an epiphany recently: Everything, without exception, requires additional energy and order to maintain itself. I knew this in the abstract as the famous second law of thermodynamics, which states that everything is falling apart slowly. This realization is not just the lament of a person getting older. Long ago I learnt that even the most inanimate things we know of ?stone, iron columns, copper pipes, gravel roads, a piece of paper ?won’t last very long without attention and fixing and the loan of additional order. Existence, it seems, is chiefly maintenance.

What has surprised me recently is how unstable even the intangible is. Keeping a website or a software program afloat is like keeping a yacht afloat It is a black hole for attention. I can understand why a mechanical device like a pump would break down after a while ?moisture rusts metal, or the air oxidizes membranes, or lubricants evaporate, all of which require repair. But I wasn’t thinking that the nonmaterial world of bits would also degrade. What’s to break? Apparently everything.

Brand-new computers will ossify. Apps weaken with use. Code corrodes. Fresh software just released will immediately begin to fray. On their own ?nothing you did. The more complex the gear, the more (not less) attention it will require. The natural inclination toward change is inescapable, even for the most abstract entities we know of: bits.

And then there is the assault of the changing digital landscape. When everything around you is upgrading, this puts pressure on your digital system and necessitates maintenance. You may not want to upgrade, but you must because everyone else is. It’s an upgrade arms race.

I used to upgrade my gear begrudgingly (Why upgrade if it still works?) and at the last possible moment. You know how it goes: Upgrade this and suddenly you need to upgrade that, which triggers upgrades everywhere. I would put it off for years because I had the experiences of one “tiny” upgrade of a minor part disrupting my entire working life. But as our personal technology is becoming more complex, more co-dependents upon peripherals, more like a living ecosystem, delaying upgrading is even more disruptive. If you neglect ongoing minor upgrades, the change backs up so much that the eventual big upgrade reaches traumatic proportions. So I now see upgrading as a type of hygiene: You do it regularly to keep your tech healthy. Continual upgrades are so critical for technological systems that they are now automatic for the major personal computer operating systems and some software apps. Behind the scenes, the machines will upgrade themselves, slowly changing their features over time. This happens gradually, so we don‘t notice they are“becoming.”

We take this evolution as normal.

Technological life in the future will be a series of endless upgrades. And the rate of graduations is accelerating. Features shift, defaults disappear, menus morph. I’ll open up a software package I don’t use every day expecting certain choices, and whole menus will have disappeared. 

No matter how long you have been using a tool, endless upgrades make you into a newbie ?the new user often seen as clueless. In this era of “becoming” everyone becomes a newbie. Worse, we will be newbies forever. That should keep us humble.

That bears repeating. All of us ?every one of us ?will be endless newbies in the future simply trying to keep up. Here’s why: First, most of the important technologies that will dominate life 30 years from now have not yet been invented, so naturally you’ll be a newbie to them. Second, because the new technology requires endless upgrades, you will remain in the newbie state. Third, because the cycle of obsolescence is accelerating (the average lifespan of a phone app is a mere 30 days!), you won’t have time to master anything before it is displaced, so you will remain in the newbie mode forever. Endless Newbie is the new default for everyone, no matter your age or experience.

The CEO of a technology company was thinking of the following policies.
1.Life time employment
2.Promotion based on seniority
3.Hire new competent employees and fire old incompetent employees
4.Regular training and retraining
If a CEO were to consult the author of the passage, which of the above policies should the author recommend?

18 XAT

Instructions [18 - 21 ]
Every age has its pet contradictions. A few decades back, we used to accept Marx and Freud together, and then wonder, like thechameleon on the turkey carpet, why life was so confusing. Today there is similar trouble over the question whether there is, or is not, something called Human Nature. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of animal behavior studies, and comparisons between animals and men have become immensely popular. People use evidence from animals to decide whether man is naturally aggressive, or naturally territorial; even whether he has an aggressive or territorial instinct. Moreover, we are still much influenced by Freudian psychology, which depends on the notion of instinct. On the other hand, many still hold what may be called the Blank Paper view, that man is a creature entirely without instincts. So do Existentialist philosophers. If man has no instincts, all comparison with animals must be irrelevant. (Both these simple party lines have been somewhat eroded over time, but both are still extremely influential.)

According to the Blank Paper view, man is entirely the product of his culture. He starts off infinitely plastic, and is formed completely by the society in which he grows up. There is then no end to the possible variations among cultures; what we take to be human instincts are just the deep-dug prejudices of our own society. Forming families, fearing the dark, and jumping at the sight of a spider are just results of our conditioning. Existentialism at first appears a very different standpoint, because the Existentialist asserts man’s freedom and will not let him call himself a product of anything. But Existentialism too denies that man has a nature; if he had, his freedom would not be complete. Thus Sartre insisted that “there is no human nature …. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world, and defines himself afterwards. If man as the Existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes himself.” For Existentialism there is only the human condition, which is what happens to man and not what he is born like. If we are afraid of the dark, it is because we choose to be cowards; if we care more for our own children than for other people’s, it is because we choose to be partial. We must never talk about human nature or human instincts. This implicit moral notion is still very influential, not at all confined to those who use the metaphysic of essence and existence. So I shall sometimes speak of it, not as Existentialist, but as Libertarian ? meaning that those holding it do not just (like all of us) think liberty important, but think it supremely important and believe that our having a nature would infringe it.

Philosophers have not yet made much use of informed comparison with other species as a help in the understanding of man. One reason they have not is undoubtedly the fear of fatalism. Another is the appalling way terms such as instinct and human nature have been misused in the past. A third is the absurdity of some ethological propaganda.

A business school led by an existentialist director, wanted to decide on admission policy for its executive MBA program, which requires candidates to possess minimum five years of managerial experience.
With respect to the selection process, which of the following statements will be closest to the director’s belief:

19 XAT

Instructions [18 - 21 ]
Every age has its pet contradictions. A few decades back, we used to accept Marx and Freud together, and then wonder, like thechameleon on the turkey carpet, why life was so confusing. Today there is similar trouble over the question whether there is, or is not, something called Human Nature. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of animal behavior studies, and comparisons between animals and men have become immensely popular. People use evidence from animals to decide whether man is naturally aggressive, or naturally territorial; even whether he has an aggressive or territorial instinct. Moreover, we are still much influenced by Freudian psychology, which depends on the notion of instinct. On the other hand, many still hold what may be called the Blank Paper view, that man is a creature entirely without instincts. So do Existentialist philosophers. If man has no instincts, all comparison with animals must be irrelevant. (Both these simple party lines have been somewhat eroded over time, but both are still extremely influential.)

According to the Blank Paper view, man is entirely the product of his culture. He starts off infinitely plastic, and is formed completely by the society in which he grows up. There is then no end to the possible variations among cultures; what we take to be human instincts are just the deep-dug prejudices of our own society. Forming families, fearing the dark, and jumping at the sight of a spider are just results of our conditioning. Existentialism at first appears a very different standpoint, because the Existentialist asserts man’s freedom and will not let him call himself a product of anything. But Existentialism too denies that man has a nature; if he had, his freedom would not be complete. Thus Sartre insisted that “there is no human nature …. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world, and defines himself afterwards. If man as the Existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes himself.” For Existentialism there is only the human condition, which is what happens to man and not what he is born like. If we are afraid of the dark, it is because we choose to be cowards; if we care more for our own children than for other people’s, it is because we choose to be partial. We must never talk about human nature or human instincts. This implicit moral notion is still very influential, not at all confined to those who use the metaphysic of essence and existence. So I shall sometimes speak of it, not as Existentialist, but as Libertarian ? meaning that those holding it do not just (like all of us) think liberty important, but think it supremely important and believe that our having a nature would infringe it.

Philosophers have not yet made much use of informed comparison with other species as a help in the understanding of man. One reason they have not is undoubtedly the fear of fatalism. Another is the appalling way terms such as instinct and human nature have been misused in the past. A third is the absurdity of some ethological propaganda.

Which of the following statements would the author agree with the most?

20 XAT

Instructions [18 - 21 ]
Every age has its pet contradictions. A few decades back, we used to accept Marx and Freud together, and then wonder, like thechameleon on the turkey carpet, why life was so confusing. Today there is similar trouble over the question whether there is, or is not, something called Human Nature. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of animal behavior studies, and comparisons between animals and men have become immensely popular. People use evidence from animals to decide whether man is naturally aggressive, or naturally territorial; even whether he has an aggressive or territorial instinct. Moreover, we are still much influenced by Freudian psychology, which depends on the notion of instinct. On the other hand, many still hold what may be called the Blank Paper view, that man is a creature entirely without instincts. So do Existentialist philosophers. If man has no instincts, all comparison with animals must be irrelevant. (Both these simple party lines have been somewhat eroded over time, but both are still extremely influential.)

According to the Blank Paper view, man is entirely the product of his culture. He starts off infinitely plastic, and is formed completely by the society in which he grows up. There is then no end to the possible variations among cultures; what we take to be human instincts are just the deep-dug prejudices of our own society. Forming families, fearing the dark, and jumping at the sight of a spider are just results of our conditioning. Existentialism at first appears a very different standpoint, because the Existentialist asserts man’s freedom and will not let him call himself a product of anything. But Existentialism too denies that man has a nature; if he had, his freedom would not be complete. Thus Sartre insisted that “there is no human nature …. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world, and defines himself afterwards. If man as the Existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes himself.” For Existentialism there is only the human condition, which is what happens to man and not what he is born like. If we are afraid of the dark, it is because we choose to be cowards; if we care more for our own children than for other people’s, it is because we choose to be partial. We must never talk about human nature or human instincts. This implicit moral notion is still very influential, not at all confined to those who use the metaphysic of essence and existence. So I shall sometimes speak of it, not as Existentialist, but as Libertarian ? meaning that those holding it do not just (like all of us) think liberty important, but think it supremely important and believe that our having a nature would infringe it.

Philosophers have not yet made much use of informed comparison with other species as a help in the understanding of man. One reason they have not is undoubtedly the fear of fatalism. Another is the appalling way terms such as instinct and human nature have been misused in the past. A third is the absurdity of some ethological propaganda.

Who among the following, as stated in the third paragraph, would the author be the most sympathetic to?

21 XAT

Instructions [18 - 21 ]
Every age has its pet contradictions. A few decades back, we used to accept Marx and Freud together, and then wonder, like thechameleon on the turkey carpet, why life was so confusing. Today there is similar trouble over the question whether there is, or is not, something called Human Nature. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of animal behavior studies, and comparisons between animals and men have become immensely popular. People use evidence from animals to decide whether man is naturally aggressive, or naturally territorial; even whether he has an aggressive or territorial instinct. Moreover, we are still much influenced by Freudian psychology, which depends on the notion of instinct. On the other hand, many still hold what may be called the Blank Paper view, that man is a creature entirely without instincts. So do Existentialist philosophers. If man has no instincts, all comparison with animals must be irrelevant. (Both these simple party lines have been somewhat eroded over time, but both are still extremely influential.)

According to the Blank Paper view, man is entirely the product of his culture. He starts off infinitely plastic, and is formed completely by the society in which he grows up. There is then no end to the possible variations among cultures; what we take to be human instincts are just the deep-dug prejudices of our own society. Forming families, fearing the dark, and jumping at the sight of a spider are just results of our conditioning. Existentialism at first appears a very different standpoint, because the Existentialist asserts man’s freedom and will not let him call himself a product of anything. But Existentialism too denies that man has a nature; if he had, his freedom would not be complete. Thus Sartre insisted that “there is no human nature …. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world, and defines himself afterwards. If man as the Existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes himself.” For Existentialism there is only the human condition, which is what happens to man and not what he is born like. If we are afraid of the dark, it is because we choose to be cowards; if we care more for our own children than for other people’s, it is because we choose to be partial. We must never talk about human nature or human instincts. This implicit moral notion is still very influential, not at all confined to those who use the metaphysic of essence and existence. So I shall sometimes speak of it, not as Existentialist, but as Libertarian ? meaning that those holding it do not just (like all of us) think liberty important, but think it supremely important and believe that our having a nature would infringe it.

Philosophers have not yet made much use of informed comparison with other species as a help in the understanding of man. One reason they have not is undoubtedly the fear of fatalism. Another is the appalling way terms such as instinct and human nature have been misused in the past. A third is the absurdity of some ethological propaganda.

Which sentence in the passage distances man from “nature”, the most?

22 XAT

Instructions [22 - 24 ]
Some psychologists and sociologists believe that psychopathy can be an asset in business and politics and that, as a result, psychopathic traits are overrepresented among successful people. This would be a puzzle if it were so. If our moral feelings evolved through natural selection, then it shouldn‘t be the case that one would flourish without them. And, in fact, the successful psychopath is probably the exception. Psychopaths have certain deficits. Some of these are subtle. The psychologist Abigail Marsh and her colleagues find that psychopaths are markedly insensitive to the expression of fear. Normal people recognize fear and treat it as a distress cue, but 13 psychopaths have problems seeing it, let alone responding to it appropriately. Other deficits run deeper. The overall lack of moral sentiments—and specifically, the lack of regard for others—might turn out to be the psychopath‘s downfall. We non-psychopaths are constantly assessing one another, looking for kindness and shame and the like, using this information to decide whom to trust, whom to affiliate with. The psychopath has to pretend to be one of us. But this is difficult. It‘s hard to force yourself to comply with moral rules just through a rational appreciation of what you are expected to do. If you feel like strangling the cat, it‘s a struggle to hold back just because you know that it is frowned upon. Without a normal allotment of shame and guilt, psychopaths succumb to bad impulses, doing terrible things out of malice, greed, and simple boredom. And sooner or later, they get caught. While psychopaths can be successful in the short term, they tend to fail in the long term and often end up in prison or worse. Let‘s take a closer look at what separates psychopaths from the rest of us. There are many symptoms of psychopathy, including pathological lying and lack of remorse or guilt, but the core deficit is indifference toward the suffering of other people. Psychopaths lack compassion. To understand how compassion works for all of us non-psychopaths, it‘s important to distinguish it from empathy. Now, some contemporary researchers use the terms interchangeably, but there is a big difference between caring about a person (compassion) and putting yourself in the person‘s shoes (empathy).

I am too much of an adaptationist to think that a capacity as rich as empathy exists as a freak biological accident. It most likely has a function, and the most plausible candidate here is that it motivates us to care about others. Empathy exists to motivate compassion and altruism. Still, the link between empathy (in the sense of mirroring another‘s feelings) and compassion (in the sense of feeling and acting kindly toward another) is more nuanced than many people believe. First, although empathy can be automatic and unconscious—a crying person can affect your mood, even if you‘re not aware that this is happening and would rather it didn‘t—we often choose whether to empathize with another person. So when empathy is present, it may be the product of a moral choice, not the cause of it. Empathy is also influenced by what one thinks of the other person. Second, empathy is not needed to motivate compassion. As the psychologist Steven Pinker points out, “If a child has been frightened by a barking dog and is howling in terror, my sympathetic response is not to howl in terror with her, but to comfort and protect her” Third, just as you can have compassion without empathy, you can have empathy without compassion. You might feel the person‘s pain and wish to stop feeling it—but choose to solve the problem by distancing yourself from that person instead of alleviating his or her suffering. Even otherwise good people sometimes turn away when faced with depictions of pain and suffering in faraway lands, or when passing a homeless person on a city street.

The core deficit of Psychopaths affects their long term success because,

23 XAT

Instructions [22 - 24 ]
Some psychologists and sociologists believe that psychopathy can be an asset in business and politics and that, as a result, psychopathic traits are overrepresented among successful people. This would be a puzzle if it were so. If our moral feelings evolved through natural selection, then it shouldn‘t be the case that one would flourish without them. And, in fact, the successful psychopath is probably the exception. Psychopaths have certain deficits. Some of these are subtle. The psychologist Abigail Marsh and her colleagues find that psychopaths are markedly insensitive to the expression of fear. Normal people recognize fear and treat it as a distress cue, but 13 psychopaths have problems seeing it, let alone responding to it appropriately. Other deficits run deeper. The overall lack of moral sentiments—and specifically, the lack of regard for others—might turn out to be the psychopath‘s downfall. We non-psychopaths are constantly assessing one another, looking for kindness and shame and the like, using this information to decide whom to trust, whom to affiliate with. The psychopath has to pretend to be one of us. But this is difficult. It‘s hard to force yourself to comply with moral rules just through a rational appreciation of what you are expected to do. If you feel like strangling the cat, it‘s a struggle to hold back just because you know that it is frowned upon. Without a normal allotment of shame and guilt, psychopaths succumb to bad impulses, doing terrible things out of malice, greed, and simple boredom. And sooner or later, they get caught. While psychopaths can be successful in the short term, they tend to fail in the long term and often end up in prison or worse. Let‘s take a closer look at what separates psychopaths from the rest of us. There are many symptoms of psychopathy, including pathological lying and lack of remorse or guilt, but the core deficit is indifference toward the suffering of other people. Psychopaths lack compassion. To understand how compassion works for all of us non-psychopaths, it‘s important to distinguish it from empathy. Now, some contemporary researchers use the terms interchangeably, but there is a big difference between caring about a person (compassion) and putting yourself in the person‘s shoes (empathy).

I am too much of an adaptationist to think that a capacity as rich as empathy exists as a freak biological accident. It most likely has a function, and the most plausible candidate here is that it motivates us to care about others. Empathy exists to motivate compassion and altruism. Still, the link between empathy (in the sense of mirroring another‘s feelings) and compassion (in the sense of feeling and acting kindly toward another) is more nuanced than many people believe. First, although empathy can be automatic and unconscious—a crying person can affect your mood, even if you‘re not aware that this is happening and would rather it didn‘t—we often choose whether to empathize with another person. So when empathy is present, it may be the product of a moral choice, not the cause of it. Empathy is also influenced by what one thinks of the other person. Second, empathy is not needed to motivate compassion. As the psychologist Steven Pinker points out, “If a child has been frightened by a barking dog and is howling in terror, my sympathetic response is not to howl in terror with her, but to comfort and protect her” Third, just as you can have compassion without empathy, you can have empathy without compassion. You might feel the person‘s pain and wish to stop feeling it—but choose to solve the problem by distancing yourself from that person instead of alleviating his or her suffering. Even otherwise good people sometimes turn away when faced with depictions of pain and suffering in faraway lands, or when passing a homeless person on a city street.

Which of the following options is correct according to the author?

24 XAT

Instructions [22 - 24 ]
Some psychologists and sociologists believe that psychopathy can be an asset in business and politics and that, as a result, psychopathic traits are overrepresented among successful people. This would be a puzzle if it were so. If our moral feelings evolved through natural selection, then it shouldn‘t be the case that one would flourish without them. And, in fact, the successful psychopath is probably the exception. Psychopaths have certain deficits. Some of these are subtle. The psychologist Abigail Marsh and her colleagues find that psychopaths are markedly insensitive to the expression of fear. Normal people recognize fear and treat it as a distress cue, but 13 psychopaths have problems seeing it, let alone responding to it appropriately. Other deficits run deeper. The overall lack of moral sentiments—and specifically, the lack of regard for others—might turn out to be the psychopath‘s downfall. We non-psychopaths are constantly assessing one another, looking for kindness and shame and the like, using this information to decide whom to trust, whom to affiliate with. The psychopath has to pretend to be one of us. But this is difficult. It‘s hard to force yourself to comply with moral rules just through a rational appreciation of what you are expected to do. If you feel like strangling the cat, it‘s a struggle to hold back just because you know that it is frowned upon. Without a normal allotment of shame and guilt, psychopaths succumb to bad impulses, doing terrible things out of malice, greed, and simple boredom. And sooner or later, they get caught. While psychopaths can be successful in the short term, they tend to fail in the long term and often end up in prison or worse. Let‘s take a closer look at what separates psychopaths from the rest of us. There are many symptoms of psychopathy, including pathological lying and lack of remorse or guilt, but the core deficit is indifference toward the suffering of other people. Psychopaths lack compassion. To understand how compassion works for all of us non-psychopaths, it‘s important to distinguish it from empathy. Now, some contemporary researchers use the terms interchangeably, but there is a big difference between caring about a person (compassion) and putting yourself in the person‘s shoes (empathy).

I am too much of an adaptationist to think that a capacity as rich as empathy exists as a freak biological accident. It most likely has a function, and the most plausible candidate here is that it motivates us to care about others. Empathy exists to motivate compassion and altruism. Still, the link between empathy (in the sense of mirroring another‘s feelings) and compassion (in the sense of feeling and acting kindly toward another) is more nuanced than many people believe. First, although empathy can be automatic and unconscious—a crying person can affect your mood, even if you‘re not aware that this is happening and would rather it didn‘t—we often choose whether to empathize with another person. So when empathy is present, it may be the product of a moral choice, not the cause of it. Empathy is also influenced by what one thinks of the other person. Second, empathy is not needed to motivate compassion. As the psychologist Steven Pinker points out, “If a child has been frightened by a barking dog and is howling in terror, my sympathetic response is not to howl in terror with her, but to comfort and protect her” Third, just as you can have compassion without empathy, you can have empathy without compassion. You might feel the person‘s pain and wish to stop feeling it—but choose to solve the problem by distancing yourself from that person instead of alleviating his or her suffering. Even otherwise good people sometimes turn away when faced with depictions of pain and suffering in faraway lands, or when passing a homeless person on a city street.

A student approached a faculty pleading to increase his marks because failure in one more subject will result in the student having to leave the program. The faculty said, “I am sorry. But I cannot change your grades as it would be unfair to others”.
In the given circumstance, which of the following best describes the faculty?

25 XAT

Instructions [25 - 26 ]
A pastor had eaten at restaurant with his troup of ten and his family. It is a norm to tip the waiter and about 20% of a waiter’s salary comes from these tips. However, while paying the bill, the pastor crossed out the automatic 18% tip charged for parties of more than eight and wrote “I give God 10% why do you get 18%?” above his signature. The chagrined waitress at the restaurant posted a photo of this on the social media. She was subsequently fired for violating company’s policy on customer privacy.

This would have been understandable if the restaurant had not posted just 2 weeks ago a customer receipt that was complimenting them. Social media and social activists came heavily upon the management’s ambivalent stand and the firing of the waitress. In response, the company posted a note on their social media page defending their actions. This quickly drew over 10,000 comments, mostly negative, to which the management started responding by posting the same note over and over again. There were also accusations of the company deleting negative comments and blocking users. The restaurant also experienced a sizable drop in their footfall.

Who/what is the main cause for the situation becoming unmanageable?

26 XAT

Instructions [25 - 26 ]
A pastor had eaten at restaurant with his troup of ten and his family. It is a norm to tip the waiter and about 20% of a waiter’s salary comes from these tips. However, while paying the bill, the pastor crossed out the automatic 18% tip charged for parties of more than eight and wrote “I give God 10% why do you get 18%?” above his signature. The chagrined waitress at the restaurant posted a photo of this on the social media. She was subsequently fired for violating company’s policy on customer privacy.

This would have been understandable if the restaurant had not posted just 2 weeks ago a customer receipt that was complimenting them. Social media and social activists came heavily upon the management’s ambivalent stand and the firing of the waitress. In response, the company posted a note on their social media page defending their actions. This quickly drew over 10,000 comments, mostly negative, to which the management started responding by posting the same note over and over again. There were also accusations of the company deleting negative comments and blocking users. The restaurant also experienced a sizable drop in their footfall.

The downward spiral continued for the restaurant as the management persisted in defending their actions and argued with thosewho criticised them. By the following week, the original post had generated over 18,000 negative comments.
Which of the following is the best way forward for the restaurant at this juncture?

27 XAT

Instructions [27 - 28 ]
Vimla is the domestic help for Shreya and her neighbour Padma; both live in a posh gated community. Vimla not only cleans the house, but also cooks for both the families. Shreya treasures Vimla ever since she joined her family four years ago. Vimla joined Padma’s household this year.

One evening Shreya trying to pay the pizza delivery was surprised to find a few five hundred rupee notes missing from her purse that she was sure were there earlier. She wants to ascertain if someone has stolen the money. On reflecting, the following facts crossed her mind:
1.In the last one year, Shreya had noticed cash missing on three occasions.
2.Shreya’s husband also shared that a few notes were missing from his wallet, though he was not sure if they were stolen.
3.Her eldest son had been pestering Shreya for more pocket money for the last three weeks; in the last few days, he had stopped doing so.
4.In the last one year, Vimla had received six mails from her family asking for money.
5.Her eldest son’s expenditure had gone up in the last few days.
Which of the following combinations of the above statements would DECREASE the likelihood that Vimla has stolen the money?

28 XAT

Instructions [27 - 28 ]
Vimla is the domestic help for Shreya and her neighbour Padma; both live in a posh gated community. Vimla not only cleans the house, but also cooks for both the families. Shreya treasures Vimla ever since she joined her family four years ago. Vimla joined Padma’s household this year.

Padma discovered some money missing from her purse. She suspects that Vimla has stolen it. She wants to prevent the stealing from happening again and is contemplating the following actions:
1.She should let it pass, since to err is human.
2.She should confront Vimla and tell her that she knows the truth and the act is unpardonable regardless of her past service and she is thinking of terminating her services.
3.She should tell Vimla that she is aware someone has stolen money from the house but is not sure who it is.
4.She should share with Vimla that neighbours think Vimla has stolen the money she doesn’t, but is interested in finding out the truth.
5.She should directly ask Vimla if she stole the money, promising her no punishment if she confesses.
Arrange the following combinations of the above actions in the DECREASING order of appropriateness.

29 XAT

Analyse the following caselet and answer the question that follows:
Genius Consulting is a boutique consulting firm started by Shirish, Balram, Rahman and Xavier, four friends from a premier business school. They committed themselves to abide by two principles: a) not to indulge in anything unethical and b) share earnings equally.

Genius Consulting could not get a significant project till the following year, when they managed a big one after Rahman’s father referred their firm to his top management. Convinced of the team’s talent following an impressive presentation, the top management awarded them the project even though six other referred teams made presentations.

The day following the presentations, they met to decide the way forward for the organization. Which of the following choices would be the most appropriate for Genius Consulting?

30 XAT

Instructions [30 - 32 ]
Mrs Biswas was to retire in one year after serving in the construction department of the Gujarat government for more than thirty years.
After retirement, she wanted to spend her retired life along with Mr Biswas, a retired school teacher in a small town in Kerala. They had two children, both studying in Bengaluru. The Biswas’ wished to construct a house in Kerala with their life savings.
The couple gathered information about owning a house in Kerala. They had four options:
1.Buy a fully furnished house from a big developer.
2.Buy a semi-furnished house from big developer and furnish it.
3.Get a local unregistered contractor to construct a house and furnish it.
4.Mr Biswas with inputs from the family could supervise the construction of a house back in Kerala by employing the best material, engineers, masons and labourers.

Which option would ENSURE the best control of quality of construction for the Biswas’?

31 XAT

Instructions [30 - 32 ]
Mrs Biswas was to retire in one year after serving in the construction department of the Gujarat government for more than thirty years.
After retirement, she wanted to spend her retired life along with Mr Biswas, a retired school teacher in a small town in Kerala. They had two children, both studying in Bengaluru. The Biswas’ wished to construct a house in Kerala with their life savings.
The couple gathered information about owning a house in Kerala. They had four options:
1.Buy a fully furnished house from a big developer.
2.Buy a semi-furnished house from big developer and furnish it.
3.Get a local unregistered contractor to construct a house and furnish it.
4.Mr Biswas with inputs from the family could supervise the construction of a house back in Kerala by employing the best material, engineers, masons and labourers.

Which of the following additional information, IF TRUE, would improve the chances of the third option being preferred?

32 XAT

Instructions [30 - 32 ]
Mrs Biswas was to retire in one year after serving in the construction department of the Gujarat government for more than thirty years.
After retirement, she wanted to spend her retired life along with Mr Biswas, a retired school teacher in a small town in Kerala. They had two children, both studying in Bengaluru. The Biswas’ wished to construct a house in Kerala with their life savings.
The couple gathered information about owning a house in Kerala. They had four options:
1.Buy a fully furnished house from a big developer.
2.Buy a semi-furnished house from big developer and furnish it.
3.Get a local unregistered contractor to construct a house and furnish it.
4.Mr Biswas with inputs from the family could supervise the construction of a house back in Kerala by employing the best material, engineers, masons and labourers.

The Kerala Government recently announced a policy: In case of major quality infringement, the builder will pay a penalty of 50% of the price of the house in addition to the price of the house, to the client within a year of notice.
Rank in ASCENDING order the options that would ensure “control of quality”.

33 XAT

Instructions [33 - 35 ]
A University coach was asked to select teams in three sports: Shooting, Cricket (batsmen only) and “Snakes & Ladder”. The honest and keen observer head boy of the school informed the coach that he had observed 100 students playing the three games - shooting, cricket and “Snakes & Ladder”. In shooting, all students were given 100 chances to hit a target. In cricket, a batsman faced a maximum of 100 balls, provided he DID NOT GET OUT. In “Snakes & Ladder”, every student could play 100 matches, one each with the other students and one against a computer. In shooting, a player got one point for hitting the target and zero point for missing the target. In cricket, a batsman got one point for hitting the ball and zero point for missing it. In “Snakes & Ladder”, a person got one point for winning the game and zero for losing. To the coach’s utter surprise, the distribution of points across all three games was the same. It was as follows:

The coach has to select a team of eleven in each sport.

Which of the following options is the best way to select the “Snakes & Ladder” team?

34 XAT

Instructions [33 - 35 ]
A University coach was asked to select teams in three sports: Shooting, Cricket (batsmen only) and “Snakes & Ladder”. The honest and keen observer head boy of the school informed the coach that he had observed 100 students playing the three games - shooting, cricket and “Snakes & Ladder”. In shooting, all students were given 100 chances to hit a target. In cricket, a batsman faced a maximum of 100 balls, provided he DID NOT GET OUT. In “Snakes & Ladder”, every student could play 100 matches, one each with the other students and one against a computer. In shooting, a player got one point for hitting the target and zero point for missing the target. In cricket, a batsman got one point for hitting the ball and zero point for missing it. In “Snakes & Ladder”, a person got one point for winning the game and zero for losing. To the coach’s utter surprise, the distribution of points across all three games was the same. It was as follows:

The coach has to select a team of eleven in each sport.

Which of the following options is the best way of selecting the Shooting team?

35 XAT

Instructions [33 - 35 ]
A University coach was asked to select teams in three sports: Shooting, Cricket (batsmen only) and “Snakes & Ladder”. The honest and keen observer head boy of the school informed the coach that he had observed 100 students playing the three games - shooting, cricket and “Snakes & Ladder”. In shooting, all students were given 100 chances to hit a target. In cricket, a batsman faced a maximum of 100 balls, provided he DID NOT GET OUT. In “Snakes & Ladder”, every student could play 100 matches, one each with the other students and one against a computer. In shooting, a player got one point for hitting the target and zero point for missing the target. In cricket, a batsman got one point for hitting the ball and zero point for missing it. In “Snakes & Ladder”, a person got one point for winning the game and zero for losing. To the coach’s utter surprise, the distribution of points across all three games was the same. It was as follows:

The coach has to select a team of eleven in each sport.

Which of the following options is the correct statement for picking up the cricket team?

36 XAT

Instructions [36 - 37 ]
A college campus with a population of around 2,000 of whom 200 were children, 1,200 people between 15 and 45 years, 500 people between 45 and 65 and around 100 people more than 65 years of age. The campus has two big gates opening out to the city. There are 400 cars and 500 motorbikes inside the campus. The residents relied on these vehicles to visit the city located 10 kilometres away

Now, with land within the campus becoming scarce, the chief administrator (CA) found the growing demand for parking lot difficult to handle. The faculty, staff and students wanted increased parking space. In the past six years, the parking requirement on campus had doubled. The CA found it inappropriate to construct parking lots from the students’ fee, even though those with vehicles may not complain about it.

Besides creating parking problems, the CA felt that these vehicles added to the pollution and made residents less responsible toward each other. The risk to the children and the elderly because of over-speeding was menacing. Therefore, the CA wanted to reduce the number of vehicles in the campus. Many faculty members, students and staff members, however, felt that demand for more parking space was natural as vehicles were required to go to the market, railway station, airport, and inter-state bus terminal all located in the city. They also told the CA that the elderly, sick and the toddlers relied only on these vehicles.

After listening to all stakeholders, the CA wanted to solve these problems while ensuring the campus remained responsible and green

Which of the following actions would best satisfy all the stakeholders within the campus?

37 XAT

Instructions [36 - 37 ]
A college campus with a population of around 2,000 of whom 200 were children, 1,200 people between 15 and 45 years, 500 people between 45 and 65 and around 100 people more than 65 years of age. The campus has two big gates opening out to the city. There are 400 cars and 500 motorbikes inside the campus. The residents relied on these vehicles to visit the city located 10 kilometres away

Now, with land within the campus becoming scarce, the chief administrator (CA) found the growing demand for parking lot difficult to handle. The faculty, staff and students wanted increased parking space. In the past six years, the parking requirement on campus had doubled. The CA found it inappropriate to construct parking lots from the students’ fee, even though those with vehicles may not complain about it.

Besides creating parking problems, the CA felt that these vehicles added to the pollution and made residents less responsible toward each other. The risk to the children and the elderly because of over-speeding was menacing. Therefore, the CA wanted to reduce the number of vehicles in the campus. Many faculty members, students and staff members, however, felt that demand for more parking space was natural as vehicles were required to go to the market, railway station, airport, and inter-state bus terminal all located in the city. They also told the CA that the elderly, sick and the toddlers relied only on these vehicles.

After listening to all stakeholders, the CA wanted to solve these problems while ensuring the campus remained responsible and green

Which of the following would be the best option to increase revenue, decrease carbon footprint and still satisfy all the stakeholders in the campus?

38 XAT

Instructions [38 - 40 ]
Girirajan an unemployed youngster from Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, visited Singapore where his school friend worked as software engineer. In Singapore, Girirajan realized that there were a lot of Tamils in “Little India” area. He soon assessed that there were very few restaurants serving authentic Tamil food and decided to set-up a restaurant “Giri’s” in “Little India” serving authentic Tamil food in traditional banana leaf. Customers loved the food. Very soon word spread about the good quality food served in the traditional way.
Girirajan expanded operation recruiting 10 employees, all Tamils

Six months later, Girirajan realized that a lot of Kannadiga and Telugu customers started visiting the restaurant along with their Tamil friends. One day, a Kannadiga customer looking for Devangere Benne Dosa suggested that it may not be a bad idea for Girirajan to serve
Karnataka and Andhra cuisines along with Tamil.

With time, the popularity of the reastaurant kept soaring. As a result, a lot of Malays, Indonesians and Chinese started visiting the restaurant. His software engineer friend advised to cater to customers of all nationalities. Despite his desire to go grand, Girirajan realized he did not have enough money to get extra space anywhere in Singapore and banks were also reluctant to lend.

One day, while assessing the business, he realized that the restaurant had 90% occupancy rate during peak hours and 40% during the non-peak hours. Both figures were increasing with time.

Which of the following options would be most suitable for the growth of the business?

39 XAT

Instructions [38 - 40 ]
Girirajan an unemployed youngster from Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, visited Singapore where his school friend worked as software engineer. In Singapore, Girirajan realized that there were a lot of Tamils in “Little India” area. He soon assessed that there were very few restaurants serving authentic Tamil food and decided to set-up a restaurant “Giri’s” in “Little India” serving authentic Tamil food in traditional banana leaf. Customers loved the food. Very soon word spread about the good quality food served in the traditional way.
Girirajan expanded operation recruiting 10 employees, all Tamils

Six months later, Girirajan realized that a lot of Kannadiga and Telugu customers started visiting the restaurant along with their Tamil friends. One day, a Kannadiga customer looking for Devangere Benne Dosa suggested that it may not be a bad idea for Girirajan to serve
Karnataka and Andhra cuisines along with Tamil.

With time, the popularity of the reastaurant kept soaring. As a result, a lot of Malays, Indonesians and Chinese started visiting the restaurant. His software engineer friend advised to cater to customers of all nationalities. Despite his desire to go grand, Girirajan realized he did not have enough money to get extra space anywhere in Singapore and banks were also reluctant to lend.

One day, while assessing the business, he realized that the restaurant had 90% occupancy rate during peak hours and 40% during the non-peak hours. Both figures were increasing with time.

Girirajan started analyzing his quarterly customer data to assess growth opportunities. He discovered that 20% of his customers are Kannadigas and many of them were requesting for a few Karnataka dishes. He was not sure if it was a good idea to serve Karnataka food. He wanted to experiment before taking the final call. Which of the following options will be worth experimenting in the next fortnight?

40 XAT

Instructions [38 - 40 ]
Girirajan an unemployed youngster from Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, visited Singapore where his school friend worked as software engineer. In Singapore, Girirajan realized that there were a lot of Tamils in “Little India” area. He soon assessed that there were very few restaurants serving authentic Tamil food and decided to set-up a restaurant “Giri’s” in “Little India” serving authentic Tamil food in traditional banana leaf. Customers loved the food. Very soon word spread about the good quality food served in the traditional way.
Girirajan expanded operation recruiting 10 employees, all Tamils

Six months later, Girirajan realized that a lot of Kannadiga and Telugu customers started visiting the restaurant along with their Tamil friends. One day, a Kannadiga customer looking for Devangere Benne Dosa suggested that it may not be a bad idea for Girirajan to serve
Karnataka and Andhra cuisines along with Tamil.

With time, the popularity of the reastaurant kept soaring. As a result, a lot of Malays, Indonesians and Chinese started visiting the restaurant. His software engineer friend advised to cater to customers of all nationalities. Despite his desire to go grand, Girirajan realized he did not have enough money to get extra space anywhere in Singapore and banks were also reluctant to lend.

One day, while assessing the business, he realized that the restaurant had 90% occupancy rate during peak hours and 40% during the non-peak hours. Both figures were increasing with time.

Giriraja experimented with Karnataka food for a fortnight. He collected sales data for Karnataka food along with the trend of overall sales for the last seven days. Which of the following datasets, IF TRUE, will give Girirajan greater confidence to continue serving Karnataka food? (Figures below represent Karnataka food sales as percentage of total sales.)

41 XAT

Instructions [41 - 43 ]
Shyam prepares and sells piping hot puri and sabji (gravy) from 7:00 am to 9:00 am (both inclusive) through a stall at XLRI campus. Presently, he has just a single oven, which can do only one job at a time. It takes 30 minutes to cook one handi (a large bowl) of sabji, sufficient for 12 customers. It takes him 10 minutes to prepare 2 plates of puri at a time. While the cost of a plate of puri-sabji is ? 10, the price is ? 25. Puri stays hot for only 5 minutes after preparation, while sabji stays hot for 30 minutes only. It takes 10 minutes to reheat the sabji which stays hot for another 30 minutes. If he brings a handi of hot sabji from home, the transport would cost him ? 50. It can also stay hot for 30 minutes excluding the transportation time. Currently, every 20 minutes five plates are ordered. All unsold
quantities are distributed at cost after 9:30 am.

Find the maximum number of plates of puri-sabji Shyam can sell in the first hour of business?

42 XAT

Instructions [41 - 43 ]
Shyam prepares and sells piping hot puri and sabji (gravy) from 7:00 am to 9:00 am (both inclusive) through a stall at XLRI campus. Presently, he has just a single oven, which can do only one job at a time. It takes 30 minutes to cook one handi (a large bowl) of sabji, sufficient for 12 customers. It takes him 10 minutes to prepare 2 plates of puri at a time. While the cost of a plate of puri-sabji is ? 10, the price is ? 25. Puri stays hot for only 5 minutes after preparation, while sabji stays hot for 30 minutes only. It takes 10 minutes to reheat the sabji which stays hot for another 30 minutes. If he brings a handi of hot sabji from home, the transport would cost him ? 50. It can also stay hot for 30 minutes excluding the transportation time. Currently, every 20 minutes five plates are ordered. All unsold
quantities are distributed at cost after 9:30 am.

Shyam’s puri-sabji became famous. Now he gets 5 orders per 10 minutes and has invested in an additional oven. As he is working alone on both the ovens simultaneously, now in any one oven it takes him 45 minutes to cook one handi of sabji,15 minutes for 2 plates of puri and 15 minites to reheat the sabji. He can bring only one handi from home. What will be his maximum daily profit?

43 XAT

Instructions [41 - 43 ]
Shyam prepares and sells piping hot puri and sabji (gravy) from 7:00 am to 9:00 am (both inclusive) through a stall at XLRI campus. Presently, he has just a single oven, which can do only one job at a time. It takes 30 minutes to cook one handi (a large bowl) of sabji, sufficient for 12 customers. It takes him 10 minutes to prepare 2 plates of puri at a time. While the cost of a plate of puri-sabji is ? 10, the price is ? 25. Puri stays hot for only 5 minutes after preparation, while sabji stays hot for 30 minutes only. It takes 10 minutes to reheat the sabji which stays hot for another 30 minutes. If he brings a handi of hot sabji from home, the transport would cost him ? 50. It can also stay hot for 30 minutes excluding the transportation time. Currently, every 20 minutes five plates are ordered. All unsold
quantities are distributed at cost after 9:30 am.

Shyam’s stall was becoming popular by the day. Now he gets 5 customers every 10 minutes. After buying a second oven, he employed a helping hand, Aman at ? 100 for two hours. Aman can cook one handi of sabji in 20 minutes or can prepare 3 plates of puri in 10 minutes. Reheat time for sabji is 10 minutes. None of them can work on both the ovens simultaneously.
Which of the following options will help Shyam maximize his daily profit, if he does NOT bring sabji from home?

44 XAT

Analyse the following caselete and answer the question that follows:
As a newly started organization in the IT sector, Saksha IT is a fast growing 400 employee organization. Its head, Saksha Kumar believes in building an organization driven by humility. Which of the following policies would best help him achieve that?

45 XAT

Analyse the following caselete and answer the question that follows:
Principal Maheshwari of BINK School of Management is facing a problem that calls for quick action. She received an anonymous mail one day, possibly from one of the students, complaining about outdated syllabi, medicore teachers and poor choice of courses on offer.
Which of the following is the best course of action available to the Principal?

46 XAT

The sum of series, (-100) + (-95) + (-90) + …………+ 110 + 115 + 120, is:

47 XAT

Four two-way pipes A, B, C and D can either fill an empty tank or drain the full tank in 4, 10, 12 and 20 minutes respectively. All four pipes were opened simultaneously when the tank is empty. Under which of the following conditions the tank would be half filled after 30 minutes?

48 XAT

A shop, which sold same marked price shirts, announced an offer - if one buys three shirts then the fourth shirt is sold at a discounted price of ? 100 only. Patel took the offer. He left the shop with 20 shirts after paying ? 20,000. What is the marked price of a shirt? 

49 XAT

AB is a chord of a circle. The length of AB is 24 cm. P is the midpoint of AB. Perpendiculars from P on either side of the chord meets the circle at M and N respectively. If PM < PN and PM = 8 cm. then what will be the length of PN?

50 XAT

51 XAT

If f(x) = ax + b, a and b are positive real numbers

52 XAT

Arup and Swarup leave point A at 8 AM to point B. To reach B, they have to walk the first 2 km, then travel 4 km by boat and complete the final 20 km by car. Arup and Swarup walk at a constant speed of 4 km/hr and 5 km/hr respectively. Each rows his boat for 30 minutes. Arup drives his car at a constant speed of 50 km/hr while Swarup drives at 40 km/hr. If no time is wasted in transit, when will they meet again?

53 XAT

Hari’s family consisted of his younger brother (Chari), younger sister (Gouri), and their father and mother. When Chari was born, the sum of the ages of Hari, his father and mother was 70 years. The sum of the ages of four family members, at the time of Gouri’s birth, was twice the sum of ages of Hari’s father and mother at the time of Hari’s birth. If Chari is 4 years older than Gouri, then find the difference in age between Hari and Chari.

54 XAT

In a True/False quiz, 4 marks are awarded for each correct answer and 1 mark is deducted for each wrong answer. Amit, Benn and Chitra answered the same 10 questions, and their answers are given below in the same sequential order.
AMIT T T F F T T F T T F
BENN T T T F F T F T T F
CHITRA T T T T F F T F T T
If Amit and Benn both score 35 marks each then Chitra’s score will be:

55 XAT

In a class of 60, along with English as a common subject, students can opt to major in Mathematics, Physics, Biology or a combination of any two. 6 students major in both Mathematics and Physics, 15 major in both Physics and Biology, but no one majors in both Mathematics and Biology. In an English test, the average mark scored by students majoring in Mathematics is 45 and that of students majoring in Biology is 60. However, the combined average mark in English, of students of these two majors, is 50. What is the maximum possible number of students who major ONLY in Physics?

56 XAT

57 XAT

The Volume of a pyramid with a square base is 200 cubic cm. The height of the pyramid is 13cm. What will be the length of the slant edges (i.e. the distance between the apex and any other vertex), rounded to the nearest integer?

58 XAT

A dice is rolled twice. What is the probability that the number in the second roll will be higher than that in the first?

59 XAT

An institute has 5 departments and each department has 50 students. If students are picked up randomly from all 5 departments to form a committee, what should be the minimum number of students in the committee so that at least one department should have representation of minimum 5 students?

60 XAT

61 XAT

AB, CD and EF are three parallel lines, in that order. Let d1 and d2 be the distances from CD to AB and EF respectively. d1 and d2 are integers, where d1 : d2 = 2 : 1. P is a point on AB, Q and S are points on CD and R is a point on EF. If the area of the quadrilateral PQRS is 30 square units, what is the value of QR when value of SR is the least?

62 XAT

ABCD is a rectangle. P, Q and R are the midpoint of BC, CD and DA. The point S lies on the line QR in such a way that SR: QS = 1:3. The ratio of the area of triangle APS to area of rectangle ABCD is

63 XAT

Instructions [63 - 64 ]
In an innings of a T20 cricket match (a team can bowl for 20 overs) 6 bowlers bowled from the fielding side, with a bowler allowed maximum of 4 overs. Only the three specialist bowlers bowled their full quota of 4 overs each, and the remaining 8 overs were shared among three non-specialist bowlers. The economy rates of four bowlers were 6, 6, 7 and 9 respectively. (Economy rate is the total number of runs conceded by a bowler divided by the number of overs bowled by that bowler). This however, does not include the data of the best bowler (lowest economy rate) and the worst bowler (highest economy rate). The number of overs bowled and the economy rate of any bowler are in integers.

Read the two statements below:
S1: The worst bowler did not bowl the minimum number of overs.
S2: The best bowler is a specialist bowler.
Which of the above statements or their combinations can help arrive at the minimum number of overs bowled by a nonspecialist bowler?

64 XAT

Instructions [63 - 64 ]
In an innings of a T20 cricket match (a team can bowl for 20 overs) 6 bowlers bowled from the fielding side, with a bowler allowed maximum of 4 overs. Only the three specialist bowlers bowled their full quota of 4 overs each, and the remaining 8 overs were shared among three non-specialist bowlers. The economy rates of four bowlers were 6, 6, 7 and 9 respectively. (Economy rate is the total number of runs conceded by a bowler divided by the number of overs bowled by that bowler). This however, does not include the data of the best bowler (lowest economy rate) and the worst bowler (highest economy rate). The number of overs bowled and the economy rate of any bowler are in integers.

Read the two statements below:
S1. The economy rates of the specialist bowlers are lower than that of the non-specialist bowlers.
S2. The cumulative runs conceded by the three non-specialist bowlers were 1 more than those conceded by the three specialist bowlers.
Which of the above statements or their combinations can help arrive at the economy rate of the worst bowler?

65 XAT

Instructions [65 - 68 ]
Abdul has 8 factories, with different capacities, producing boutique kurtas. In the production process, he incurs raw material cost, selling cost (for packaging and transportation) and labour cost. These costs per kurta vary across factories. In all these factories, a worker takes 2 hours to produce a kurta. Profit per kurta is calculated by deducting raw material cost, selling cost and labour cost from the
selling price (Profit = selling price - raw materials cost - selling cost - labour cost). Any other cost can be ignored.

Which of the following options is in decreasing order of raw materials cost?

66 XAT

Instructions [65 - 68 ]
Abdul has 8 factories, with different capacities, producing boutique kurtas. In the production process, he incurs raw material cost, selling cost (for packaging and transportation) and labour cost. These costs per kurta vary across factories. In all these factories, a worker takes 2 hours to produce a kurta. Profit per kurta is calculated by deducting raw material cost, selling cost and labour cost from the
selling price (Profit = selling price - raw materials cost - selling cost - labour cost). Any other cost can be ignored.

Which of the factories listed in the options below has the lowest sales margin (sales margin = profit per kurta divided by selling price per kurta)?

67 XAT

Instructions [65 - 68 ]
Abdul has 8 factories, with different capacities, producing boutique kurtas. In the production process, he incurs raw material cost, selling cost (for packaging and transportation) and labour cost. These costs per kurta vary across factories. In all these factories, a worker takes 2 hours to produce a kurta. Profit per kurta is calculated by deducting raw material cost, selling cost and labour cost from the
selling price (Profit = selling price - raw materials cost - selling cost - labour cost). Any other cost can be ignored.

Abdul has received an order for 2,000 kurtas from a big retail chain. They will collect the finished pre-packaged kurtas directly from the factories, saving him the selling cost. To deliver this order, he can use multiple factories for production. Which of the following options will ensure maximum profit from this order?

68 XAT

Instructions [65 - 68 ]
Abdul has 8 factories, with different capacities, producing boutique kurtas. In the production process, he incurs raw material cost, selling cost (for packaging and transportation) and labour cost. These costs per kurta vary across factories. In all these factories, a worker takes 2 hours to produce a kurta. Profit per kurta is calculated by deducting raw material cost, selling cost and labour cost from the
selling price (Profit = selling price - raw materials cost - selling cost - labour cost). Any other cost can be ignored.

Abdul has introduced a new technology in all his factories. As a result, a worker needs just 1.5 hours to produce a kurta. If raw materials cost and selling cost remain the same, which of the factories listed in the options below will yield the highest profit per kurta?

69 XAT

Instructions [69 - 72 ]
The grid below captures relationships among seven personality dimensions: "extraversion", "true_arousal_plac", "true_arousal_caff”, "arousal_plac", "arousal_caff”, "performance_plac", and "performance caff”. The diagonal represents histograms of the seven dimensions. Left of the diagonal represents scatterplots between the dimensions while the right of the diagonal represents quantitative relationships between the dimensions. The lines in the scatterplots are closest approximation of the points. The value of the relationships to the right of the diagonal can vary from -1 to +1, with -1 being the extreme linear negative relation and +1 extreme linear positive relation. (Axes of the graph are conventionally drawn).

Which of the following is true?

70 XAT

Instructions [69 - 72 ]
The grid below captures relationships among seven personality dimensions: "extraversion", "true_arousal_plac", "true_arousal_caff”, "arousal_plac", "arousal_caff”, "performance_plac", and "performance caff”. The diagonal represents histograms of the seven dimensions. Left of the diagonal represents scatterplots between the dimensions while the right of the diagonal represents quantitative relationships between the dimensions. The lines in the scatterplots are closest approximation of the points. The value of the relationships to the right of the diagonal can vary from -1 to +1, with -1 being the extreme linear negative relation and +1 extreme linear positive relation. (Axes of the graph are conventionally drawn).

Which of the scatterplots shows the weakest relationship?

71 XAT

Instructions [69 - 72 ]
The grid below captures relationships among seven personality dimensions: "extraversion", "true_arousal_plac", "true_arousal_caff”, "arousal_plac", "arousal_caff”, "performance_plac", and "performance caff”. The diagonal represents histograms of the seven dimensions. Left of the diagonal represents scatterplots between the dimensions while the right of the diagonal represents quantitative relationships between the dimensions. The lines in the scatterplots are closest approximation of the points. The value of the relationships to the right of the diagonal can vary from -1 to +1, with -1 being the extreme linear negative relation and +1 extreme linear positive relation. (Axes of the graph are conventionally drawn).

In which of the following scatterplots, the value of one dimension can be used to predict the value of another, as accurately as possible?

72 XAT

Instructions [69 - 72 ]
The grid below captures relationships among seven personality dimensions: "extraversion", "true_arousal_plac", "true_arousal_caff”, "arousal_plac", "arousal_caff”, "performance_plac", and "performance caff”. The diagonal represents histograms of the seven dimensions. Left of the diagonal represents scatterplots between the dimensions while the right of the diagonal represents quantitative relationships between the dimensions. The lines in the scatterplots are closest approximation of the points. The value of the relationships to the right of the diagonal can vary from -1 to +1, with -1 being the extreme linear negative relation and +1 extreme linear positive relation. (Axes of the graph are conventionally drawn).

Which of the following options is correct?

73 XAT

In which of the following countries is Tamil an official language?

74 XAT

The International Court of Justice is located in:

75 XAT

Which of the following countries is not a member of SAARC?

76 XAT

Which of the following institutions are related to the Bretton Woods Agreement?

77 XAT

In India, February 28 th is celebrated as: 

78 XAT

Barak 8 is:

79 XAT

Which of the following is the oldest mountain range?

80 XAT

The words “Satyameva Jayate”, inscribed on Indain currency are taken from :

81 XAT

Who directed the Oscar winning film “Gandhi”?

82 XAT

Which of the following options is a MISMATCH?

83 XAT

Which of the following companies is listed in the Fortune Global 500 Companies, in 2016?

84 XAT

Which of the following brands is NOT currently owned by an Indian company?

85 XAT

Some of the famous battles are listed below:
1.The Battle of Cajamarca
2.The Battle of Huai-Hai
3.The Battle of Plassey
4.The Battle of Stalingrad
5.The Battle of Waterloo
6.The Battle of Yorktown
Which of the following is the correct chronological order of the above battles?

86 XAT

Which of the followings is a WRONG combination?

87 XAT

Which of the followings is a WRONG combination?

88 XAT

Which of the following banks is recently in the news because its employees opened additional relationship accounts without its customer’s permission?

89 XAT

Which of the followings is in the outemost reaches of the solar system?

90 XAT

Which Cult Television series celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016?

91 XAT

Bogota, Lima and Quito are the captials of :

92 XAT

The Yazidis are:

93 XAT

Where is Hadrian’s Wall located?

94 XAT

Which of the following animals’ conservation status was changed from “endangered” to “vulnerable” by WWF recently?

95 XAT

In which of the following countries, both the Tropic of Capricorn and Equator pass through?

96 XAT

Which of the following novelists has won the Booker Prize?

97 XAT

Rodrigo Duterte is associated with which of the following nations?