Aimcat 2221

DIRECTIONS
for questions 1 to 4: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four

questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The most ancient of all societies, and the only one that is natural, is the family: and even so the
children remain attached to the father only so long as they need him for their preservation. As soon
as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. The children, released from the obedience they
owed to the father, and the father, released from the care he owed his children, return equally to
independence. If they remain united, they continue so no longer naturally, but voluntarily; and the
family itself is then maintained only by convention.
This common liberty results from the nature of man. His first law is to provide for his own
preservation, his first cares are those which he owes to himself; and, as soon as he reaches years of
discretion, he is the sole judge of the proper means of preserving himself, and consequently
becomes his own master.
The family then may be called the first model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the
father, and the people to the children; and all, being born free and equal, alienate their liberty only for
their own advantage. The whole difference is that, in the family, the love of the father for his children
repays him for the care he takes of them, while, in the State, the pleasure of commanding takes the
place of the love which the chief cannot have for the peoples under him.
Grotius denies that all human power is established in favour of the governed, and quotes slavery as
an example. His usual method of reasoning is constantly to establish right by fact. It would be
possible to employ a more logical method, but none could be more favourable to tyrants.
It is then, according to Grotius, doubtful whether the human race belongs to a hundred men, or that
hundred men to the human race: and, throughout his book, he seems to incline to the former
alternative, which is also the view of Hobbes. On this showing, the human species is divided into so
many herds of cattle, each with its ruler, who keeps guard over them for the purpose of devouring
them.
As a shepherd is of a nature superior to that of his flock, the shepherds of men, i.e., their rulers, are
of a nature superior to that of the peoples under them. Thus, Philo tells us, the Emperor Caligula
reasoned, concluding equally well either that kings were gods, or that men were beasts.
The reasoning of Caligula agrees with that of Hobbes and Grotius. Aristotle, before any of them, had
said that men are by no means equal naturally, but that some are born for slavery, and others for
dominion.
Aristotle was right; but he took the effect for the cause. Nothing can be more certain than that every
man born in slavery is born for slavery. Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of
escaping from them: they love their servitude, as the comrades of Ulysses loved their brutish
condition. If then there are slaves by nature, it is because there have been slaves against nature.
Force made the first slaves, and their cowardice perpetuated the condition.
Q1. The passage is most likely an extract from
a) the abstract of a thesis.
b) a treatise on a topic.
c) an editorial in a periodical.
d) an essay on a topic.
Q2. Which of the following is an accurate correspondence between the pair of persons (names
given on the left) and what they would respectively compare those in power to (roles given on the
right)?
a) Hobbes and Grotius – devourers and gods
b) Caligula and Aristotle – gods and fathers
c) Author of the passage and Grotius – fathers and masters
d) Aristotle and Caligula – kings and shepherds
Q3. Consider the flawed argument:

The presence of a fire truck at every fire implies that fire trucks cause fires.
Which para in the passage contains a statement that is subsequently shown to be premised on a
similarly flawed logic?
a) Para 2
b) Para 4
c) Para 5
d) Para 7
Q4. The author’s criticism of Aristotle’s argument would be applicable to all of the following,
EXCEPT:
a) The retail market for gold in India is higher than that in most other countries because Indians
consider gold auspicious.
b) A fall in the popularity of brick-and-mortar stores resulted in the rise of e-commerce
companies.
c) Tattoos with violent themes cause criminal behaviour in those who sport them
d) Chemotherapy, a treatment for cancer, is fatal because most people who undergo it do not
survive.

DIRECTIONS for questions 5 to 8: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four
It is almost four decades since Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter found out about a new survey being
run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The idea was that junior birdwatchers
would count the birds in their gardens, to find out which were the 10 most common species. After Ms
Baxter featured it on the television programme, 34,000 children joined in, and the Great Garden
Birdwatch has run every year since.
Volunteers and amateurs without scientific training have long had a crucial role to play in nature
conservation. Over the last decade, such efforts have increasingly been grouped under the heading
of citizen science. Provided you are somewhere in the UK, this is a good time to join the Big Butterfly
Count – the younger cousin of the birdwatch.
Butterflies, like nearly all wildlife, are having a rough time. Since the heatwave summer of 1976, we
have lost around half of our abundant butterflies – the generalist species found in gardens, parks
and countryside all over the UK – and three quarters of our habitat specialists – those butterflies that
rely on rarer plants and settings for their food. As with wild birds, intensive farming is the main
cause, with recent evidence suggesting that the introduction of neonicotinoid pesticides in the 1990s
may also have been a factor.
It’s not all bad news: broadly speaking, British butterflies are thought to be among climate change’s
winners, because the UK is in the northern range of most of the 59 species that live here, meaning
rising temperatures can enable them to move into new territory. This summer the marbled white,
purple emperor and black hairstreak are doing well, while the warm spring provided a boost for the
most endangered of all British butterflies: the high brown fritillary. But the drought conditions are
perilous for caterpillars, since many of the plants and grasses they feed on have dried out, and this
year’s warm and sunny boom could well be followed by a bust next year.
Big fluctuations in populations are normal for butterflies, so conservationists focus on longer-term
trends. But the count – run by the charity Butterfly Conservation, which is 50 this year and also
focuses on moths – produces valuable information about how butterflies are doing in greenspaces
such as urban gardens that conservationists are usually unable to access.
The delicacy and glorious colour of butterflies, and their metamorphosis from creepy-crawly
caterpillars to gorgeous, fluttering butterflies, has won them far more affection and prominence in
human minds than other insects. Because of the long tradition of collecting and observing them,
British butterflies are the most studied group of insects in the world. Though ants, bees and others
have their champions, this realm of the animal kingdom is often overlooked by humans, and
sometimes disliked. Butterflies should be the ambassadors for the insect world. This would augur
well for this often-overlooked realm.
Q5. A consequence of Ms Baxter finding out about the new survey by the RSPB, as can be inferred
from the passage, is that
a) the role of amateurs without scientific training became crucial in nature conservation.
b) it led to the inception of the Great Garden Birdwatch.
c) it led to an increase in the number of participants in the survey.
d) children started to participate in the survey.
Q6. It can be understood from the third para of the passage that
a) abundant butterflies include the generalist species and the habitat specialists.
b) the heatwave of the summer of 1976 led to the loss of half of the abundant butterflies and
three-quarters of the habitat specialists.
c) the use of neonicotinoid pesticides led to the loss of many butterfly species.
d) intensive farming has led to the loss of both wild birds and butterflies.
Q7. Which of the following can be inferred from the statement “this year’s warm and sunny boom…
bust next year”?
a) The butterfly population may decrease next year because of the drought conditions this
year.
b) The butterfly population may increase next year but the population of caterpillars may
plummet.
c) The drought conditions may result in the extinction of the high brown fritillary.
d) The summer of next year may not be as warm and sunny as the summer of this year
resulting in the decrease of butterfly population.
Q8. From the last paragraph of the passage, we can infer that the author hopes that
a) studying butterflies will rekindle the interest that humans have on insects.
b) humans’ interest in butterflies can be extended to interest on insects as a whole.
c) ants and bees have their own champions, but humans must not overlook butterflies.
d) butterflies should be studied more to gain an understanding about the insect world.
DIRECTIONS for questions 9 to 13: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of five

For more than three millennia, human beings have invested some of their best cognitive and
affective resources in the spiritual and the religious. That investment, in retrospect, might not have
been uniformly wise and uniformly creative. But it has not been uniformly forgettable either. The
investment in secular statecraft and secular public life, on the other hand, has been relatively recent
and, though it has also often been immensely creative, it has been spectacularly destructive, too. In
any case, the second set of investments can never compare with the three millennia of human
achievement in the sphere of religion. Civilisation, as we know it, is largely the achievement of the
religious way of life, though we try hard to forget that part of the story. I say this as a non-believer
who has invested some years of life in the study of the psychological and cultural sources of human
creativity.
Can we ignore or bypass these achievements for the sake of a theory of progress that seeks to wipe
clean the pre-Enlightenment world or freeze it as a museum piece? If the answer is ‘no’, how can we
acknowledge the achievements of a part of our self that the Enlightenment vision has declared terra
incognita? I leave the reader with these questions in the hope that they will help me find an answer
to one of the most persistent puzzles of our times: why do we so frequently and enthusiastically
forget the secular world’s capacity to endorse evil, while at the same time being so fearful of religion
and its capacity to endorse evil? Is it because the secular world is more transparent to us? Or, is it
because we belong to the secular world and read all accusations of its complicity with evil as moral
indictments of us? (Such defensive denial of complicity has become an inescapable part of the
career graph of many contemporary ideologies. Despite the shoddy record of nationalism in the last
century, there are millions of nationalists all over the world, even in Europe and Japan, who have
paid an enormous price for their nationalist fervour. Even today, there are more Stalinists in India
than in the former Soviet Union, even though these inane admirers of the Georgian psychopath have
no need to defend his record of oppression and genocide.) One suspects that the evil that grows out
of religion is alien territory to us and looks eerily like witchcraft and blood sacrifice, while the death of
millions in the hands of secular states and secular despots look like necessary costs to pay for lofty
ideals such as nation-building, state formation, progress, development, scientific rationality and
history. Indeed, the emphasis on the blood-thirstiness associated with religions helps the non-
believers to wipe clean the record of their own kind.
Perhaps things are not as simple as these questions suggest. The secular study of religion, at one
level, is the other side of the secular use of religion in which many politicians specialise. Part of the
bitterness towards the political versions of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity
come from a vague but threatening awareness that those who deploy religion for personal or political
gains have the same instrumental concept of religion and use the same set of psychological
mechanisms that we use when we study religion from outside, to produce a good ethnography or
social history or to write an acceptable doctoral dissertation.
Q9. The author uses the phrase 'in retrospect' (para 1) to refer to
a) the ability to look inwards.
b) the expectation(s) in future based on an analysis of past.
c) a comparison of the past and the present to resolve contentious issues.
d) the review or the contemplation of the past from a different perspective.
Q10. All of the following can be deduced from the passage EXCEPT:
a) There are more evils arising from religion than from secularism.
b) Religion as object of research is often approached superficially.
c) Secularism is not as blemish free and blame free as it is made out to be.
d) Certain destructive acts are carried out in the name of high-sounding ideals.
Q11. Which of the following can be understood from the passage?

a) Due to progress made by secularism, it is good to wipe clean the contributions of religion to
civilization.
b) The investment of human cognitive and affective resources in secular public life has always
been wise and creative.
c) Ethno-religious nationalists who use religion as a pathway to power would use the same
religious concepts or psychological processes that ethnographers would use.
d) None of the above
Q12. The term 'terra incognita' means
a) known or discovered or explored territory.
b) unknown territory
c) knowledge that is difficult to understand.
d) terrain that is difficult to explore.
Q13. According to the passage, man has recently invested his cognitive and affective resources in
which of the following?
a) Secular statecraft
b) Secular public life
c) Religion and spirituality
d) Both (A) and (B)
DIRECTIONS for questions 14 to 18: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of five

The question of rights and wrongs of a particular war is generally considered from a juridical or
quasi-juridical standpoint: so and so broke such and such a treaty, crossed such and such a frontier,
committed such and such technically unfriendly acts, and therefore by the rules it is permissible to
kill as many of his nation as modern armaments render possible. There is a certain unreality, a
certain lack of imaginative grasp about this way of viewing matters. It has the advantage, always
dearly prized by lazy men, of substituting a formula, at once ambiguous and easily applied, for the
vital realization of the consequences of acts. The juridical point of view is in fact an illegitimate
transference, to the relations of States, of principles properly applicable to the relation of individuals
within a State. Within a State, private war is forbidden, and the disputes of private citizens are
settled, not by their own force, but by the force of the police, which, being overwhelming, very
seldom needs to be explicitly displayed. It is necessary that there should be rules according to which
the police decide who is to be considered in the right in a private dispute. These rules constitute law.
The chief gain derived from the law and the police is the abolition of private wars, and this gain is
independent of the question whether the law as it stands is the best possible. It is therefore in the
public interest that the man who goes against the law should be considered in the wrong, not
because of the excellence of the law, but because of the importance of avoiding the resort to force
as between individuals within the State.
In the interrelation of States nothing of the same sort exists. There is, it is true, a body of
conventions called “international law,” and there are innumerable treaties between High Contracting
Powers. But the conventions and the treaties differ from anything that could properly be called law
by the absence of sanction: there is no police force able or willing to enforce their observance. It
follows from this that every nation concludes multitudes of divergent and incompatible treaties, and
that, in spite of the high language one sometimes hears, the main purpose of the treaties is in actual
fact to afford the sort of pretext which is considered respectable for engaging in war with another
Power. A Power is considered unscrupulous when it goes to war without previously providing itself
with such a pretext – unless indeed its opponent is a small country, in which case it is only to be
blamed if that small country happens to be under the protection of some other Great Power. England
and Russia may partition Persia immediately after guaranteeing its integrity and independence,
because no other Great Power has a recognized interest in Persia, and Persia is one of those small
States in regard to which treaty obligations are not considered binding. France and Spain, under a
similar guarantee as to Morocco, must not partition it without first compensating Germany, because
it is recognized that, until such compensation has been offered and accepted, Germany, though not
Morocco, has a legitimate interest in the preservation of that country. A treaty is therefore not to be
regarded as a contract having the same kind of binding force as belongs to private contracts; it is to
be regarded merely as a means of giving notice to rival powers that certain acts may, if the national
interest so demand, form one of those reasons for war which are recognized as legitimate.
Q14. According to the passage, which of the following would result in a better international law?
a) Constituting legitimate organizations empowered to impose economic and military sanctions

on belligerents.
b) Drafting treaties more circumspectly, so as to avoid conflicts with other treaties and
conventions, and properly conforming to them once signed.
c) Policing at an international level directed at upholding the sovereignty of small countries.
d) A binding agreement by all the High Contracting Powers to not to wage wars against each
other.
Q15. Which of the following strategies can be adopted by a small country to best protect itself from
a more powerful country, in prevailing circumstances, as inferred from the passage?
a) Enter into a treaty with as many Great Powers as possible assuring that they would not wage
war against it.
b) Ally itself with as many Great Powers as possible and ensuring that they have a vested
interest in its protection.
c) Appeal to the international body of conventions when it feels an imminent threat from any
Great Power.
d) Form an alliance with other small countries to improve its military strength.
Q16. According to the passage, which of the following would be an apt description of the key role of
treaties in international legislation?
a) Supplement the body of conventions and together with it constitute international law.
b) Act as indispensable instruments for legitimizing the aggressive actions of a High Contracting
Power against other Powers.
c) Provide reasons for a State to declare war against another State and still maintain its
respectability
d) Serve as a pretext, in the absence of which a State cannot declare war against another
State.
Q17. Why does the author make a mention of Germany in the passage?
a) It is the best example of a country where treaty obligations are not considered binding.
b) It is one of those countries encouraging private war and where, the disputes of private
citizens are settled by their own force.
c) It is a great power protecting a small nation and a third country needs to notify it in case it
wishes to wage a war against the small nation.
d) To highlight the fact that many great powers are witness to multitudes of divergent and
incompatible treaties.
Q18. Which of the following statements about treaties is true according to the passage?
a) Countries conforming to all the treaties that they enter into will lead to the prevention of
wars.
b) Not all treaties can be reasonably complied with.
c) An increase in the number of treaties will only result in the increase in the number of wars
between nations.
d) Treaties can never be effective in upholding international law.
Q19. DIRECTIONS for question 19: Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them

can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
1. Love-hate over-reactions, fight-or-flight tendencies, withdrawal, aggressiveness, bitterness,
resentment and cold competition are some of the usual results.
2. When we are dependent on the person with whom we are in conflict, both need and conflict
are compounded.
3. As an area of focus and deep investment, it provides great opportunities for strong
relationships, for loving, for sharing, for much that makes life worthwhile but as a center, it
ironically destroys the very elements necessary for family success.
4. When these occur, we tend to fall even further back on background tendencies and habits.
5. We do this in an effort to justify and defend our own behaviour and we attack our spouse's.
Q20. DIRECTIONS for questions 20 and 21: The sentences given in the question, when properly

sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a number. Decide on the
proper order for the four sentences and key in the sequence of four numbers as your answer, in the
input box given below the question.
1. It was this grounding in reality that bestowed a more profound political instinct than would be
available to some sloganeering zealot.
2. What Orwell's experiences – both as figure of authority and as scullion – had given him was
a lived understanding of the human condition.
3. He had acquired a capacity to empathise with the foot-soldiers of history, the put-upon
people generally taken for granted, ignored or squashed by the great isms of one sort or
another.
4. It conferred upon him the remarkable ability to achieve what every journalist and essayist
seeks: he could tell the truth.
Q21. DIRECTIONS for questions 20 and 21: The sentences given in the question, when properly

1. In 2008, at the age of 40, he returned to his homeland and he was one of the most famous
Chinese scholars to do so; an emblem for the government's attempts to match its academic
achievements to its economic ones.
2. Little about his ornamentation hints at Mr. Shi's 18 years in America, where, like thousands
of Chinese students, he decamped for graduate study in the early 1990s.
3. Fine porcelain, Chinese-landscape scrolls and calligraphy adorn the office of Shi Yigong,
dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
4. Mr Shi eventually became a professor at Princeton University but he began to feel like a
“bystander” as his native country started to prosper.
Q22. DIRECTIONS for questions 22 to 24: Each of the questions given below has a paragraph

which is followed by four alternative summaries. Choose the alternative that best captures the
essence of the paragraph.
During the last century science has been transformed by several simultaneous revolutions. In
physics, relativity and quantum theory have utterly changed our understanding of nature. Yet these
twin revolutions initiated by Einstein are mutually discordant, which tells us that they are not yet
complete. Biology has also been doubly transformed by twin revolutions, each the legacy of Darwin.
The most powerful has been the neo-Darwinian synthesis, which, through molecular biology, gives a
detailed microscopic understanding of the processes of life. At the same time an ecological,
systems-oriented perspective has developed in biology, whose vanguard has been the study of
complex systems. Today, systems biology attempts, with some success, to combine the two strands.
Interweaving these developments in physics and biology we have the general study of information
and computation.
a) Einstein’s twin revolutions in Physics combined with Darwin’s twin revolutions in Biology
have transformed science during the last century.
b) The general study of information and computation combines the two strands of science,
physics and biology.
c) Simultaneous revolutions in physics and biology have transformed science, allowing

interweaving of developments into the general study of information and computation.
d) Several simultaneous revolutions in physics and biology have transformed science into a
general study of information and computation.

Believing that creativity is due to some underlying, uncontrollable factor reinforces the idea that few
people are capable of true creativity, which prevents many from realising their own potential. It also
undermines the skill and effort that creative endeavours require, if we can simply chalk it up to the
consequence of a disorder. And the connection between mood disorders and creativity influences
the very way we view the creative work of others: university students who were told the story of Van
Gogh cutting off his ear before they examined his painting Sunflowers (1888) took a more favourable
view of it than those who weren’t told the story. Similarly, students priced a piece of artwork higher
when a fictitious artist’s biography briefly mentioned that he was ‘often described as very eccentric’.
a) Associating creativity with an underlying disorder undermines the skill and effort in creative
endeavours, while stymying creativity and altering the perception towards creative work.
b) Positive perception towards creativity is coloured by the false belief that it is the
consequence of a disorder, and something only a few people are capable of.
c) Attributing creativity to an underlying disorder makes it look like an unachievable goal, while
undermining creative skill and effort and influencing our perception towards it.
d) Creativity is falsely associated with an underlying disorder, thereby slighting the effort and
skill in a creative endeavour, whilst enhancing the general perception towards it.

Julian Jaynes believed that language needed to exist before consciousness was possible and he
cited two Homeric poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. He wrote that the characters in The Iliad don't
look inward and they take no independent initiative. They only do what is suggested by the gods.
When something needs to happen, a god appears and speaks. Without these voices, the heroes
would stand frozen on the beaches of Troy, like puppets. The combination of instinct and voices –
the bicameral mind – would have allowed humans to manage for quite some time, as long as their
societies were rigidly hierarchical. But 3,000 years ago, in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, bits
of the conscious mind would have come to awareness, as the voices mostly died away. That led to a
more flexible way of coping with the decisions of everyday life – one better suited to the chaos that
ensued when the gods went silent. By The Odyssey, the characters are capable of something like
interior thought. The modern mind, with its internal narrative and longing for direction from a higher
power, appears.
a) Julian Jaynes was of the view that the characters of the Illiad are conscious even though
they are puppets of the gods while the characters of the Odyssey were capable of introspection and
taking decisions on their own. Hence consciousness cannot exist without language.
b) Julian Jaynes believed that the characters of the Illiad were by and large very similar to the
characters of the Odyssey as they looked for direction from a higher power in times of chaos.
c) Julian Jaynes believed that the characters of the Illiad existed before the advent of language,
so there are no arguments in their stories, while the characters of the Odyssey were fully capable of
interior thought and of speaking to the gods.
d) To assert that language preceded consciousness, Julian Jaynes cited The Illiad in which the
portrayal of the characters suggested a bicameral mind, and The Odyssey, at the time of which, the
characters had gone on to develop an internal narrative, a trait of the modern mind.
Q25. DIRECTIONS for question 25: The sentences given in the question, when properly

1. We may have been transplanted into another millennium in El Norte, but we are still
connected to that elegy, aren't we?
2. Aren't we still unfolding the same great tapestry of a tale begun long, long ago?
3. Of gods worshipped and sacrificed to from the top of pyramids -- of thousands upon
thousands of Indios baptized for Christ in the saliva of Franciscan monks?
4. Aren't my aunts and uncles, cousins, parents and brothers, all part of the same long dolorous
poem that sings of the epoch of ocean-plying caravelas and conquest, of Totonacas and
Aztecas, of unimaginable treasures created from jade, silver, and gold?
Q26. DIRECTIONS for question 26: Each of the following questions has five sentences. Each
sentence is labelled with a number. All but one of the sentences can be rearranged to form a
logically coherent paragraph. Key in the number of the sentence that does not fit contextually with
the paragraph formed by the other four sentences.
1. The high standards demanded by Socrates separated sharp-minded thinking from its dull
counterparts.
2. All sharp thinking depends on clarity.
3. Just as unclear language leads to miscommunication, so unclear thoughts result in

misconception and misjudgment.
4. Without it, thinking deteriorates into ambiguity and confusion.
5. Hence one should improve thinking quality by monitoring and improving quality so as to
wrestle with crucial decisions and perplexing problems.
LRDI
DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 6: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
Four teams, A through D, participate in a Hockey Championship such that each team plays a series
of matches against every other team. A series comprises 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 matches.
The total number of points allotted to any series is 60 and these 60 points will be allocated uniformly
to all the matches in the series. For example, if there are 2 matches in a series, 30 points will be
allocated to each match and if there are 3 matches in a series, 20 points will be allocated to each
match. Also, the winner of a match will be awarded all the points allocated to the match, while the
loser is not awarded any points. No match ends as a draw.
The following table provides the total number of matches played by each team and the total number
of points scored by each team at the end of the Hockey Championship:
Q1. DIRECTIONS for question 1: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
How many matches did A play in its series against D?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
Q2. DIRECTIONS for question 2: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
How many points did C score in the series it played against A?
Q3. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

What is the total number of points scored by B in all the series that it won?
Note: A team is said to have won a series that it played against another team, if the number of matches th
at it won in the series is greater than that won by the other team.
a) 40
b) 60
c) 36
d) 48

Which team lost the maximum number of series?
Note: A team is said to have lost a series that it played against another team, if the number of matches th
at it won in the series is less than that won by the other team.
a) D
b) A
c) B
d) Both A and D

What is the total number of matches that A lost?
a) 4
b) 6
c) 5
d) 7
How many points did D score in the series it played against A?
DIRECTIONS for questions 7 to 10: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given

below.
Kiran wants to select a group of students from among seven students, A through G, to play in a
basketball match. He prepared a sheet, which has a list of the names of the seven students. He
planned to give this sheet to each of the seven students, one after the other, and ask each student
to express his interest in participating in the match. Each student expresses his interest by marking a
tick or a cross against his name on the sheet – a tick, if he is interested in participating, or a cross, if
he is not interested in participating – and returns it to Kiran, who then passes the sheet on to the
next student of his choice.
Further, any student who is expressing his interest on the sheet will know the interest expressed by
all the other students (and only those students) to whom the sheet was passed before him.
Kiran also knows the following information:
i. If A knows that C is interested in participating, A will not express an interest in participating.
ii. If B knows that either D or E is interested in participating, B will not express an interest in
participating.
iii. If F knows that E is interested in participating, then F will not express an interest in
participating.
iv. If D knows that G is interested in participating, D will not express an interest in participating.
v. If C knows that B is interested in participating, C will not express an interest in participating.
vi. If G knows that either E or F is interested in participating, then G will not express an interest
in participating.
Except in the situations mentioned in the above conditions, every student will express an interest in
participating.
Kiran can choose the order in which to pass the sheet among the seven students.
Q7. DIRECTIONS for questions 7 and 8: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

If each of the seven students marked a tick against his name, who is the second student to whom
the list was passed?
a) A
b) C
c) D
d) F

If exactly four students marked a tick against their names, which of the following can be the list of
students who marked a tick against their name?
a) A, B, C and D
b) A, B, C and E
c) B, C, E and F
d) A, B, E and G
Q9. DIRECTIONS for questions 9 and 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the

question.
What is the minimum number of students who will mark a tick against their names?
Q10. DIRECTIONS for questions 9 and 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the

question.
If the first four students to whom the list is passed are B, D, F and G, in any order, what is the
maximum number of students who will mark a tick against their names?
below.
On a certain day, seven persons, A through G, visited a mall at different times of the day. Each of
the seven persons entered the mall at a different time among 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 12 noon, 1:00
p.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.. Further, of the seven persons, three came to the mall by
bus, two came by taxi and two, by bike.
It is known that
i. any person who came by bike entered the mall immediately after a person who came by bus
did.
ii. one of the two persons who came by taxi entered the mall immediately after B did, while the
other person who came by taxi entered the mall immediately after F did.
iii. E entered the mall immediately after F did, while C entered the mall immediately after D did.
iv. G, who came by bus, was the last person to enter the mall.

How many of the seven persons entered the mall before A did?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

Who entered the mall immediately after C did?
a) B
b) A
c) F
d) G
Among the persons who entered the mall after 12:01 p.m., how many persons came by bus?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

If each person spent exactly 3 hours in the mall, what is the time at which the last person who came
by bike left the mall?
a) 6:00 p.m.
b) 5:00 p.m.
c) 4:00 p.m.
d) 3:00 p.m.

below.
The line chart below provides the number of times four persons, Ankit, Ankolit, Ankur and Ankush,
went to a gym during seven consecutive weeks – Week 1 through Week 7. On each day, any person
went to the gym at most once.
What is the minimum number of days during the given period on which all the four persons went to
the gym?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) None of the above
Q16. DIRECTIONS for question 16: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the

question.
What is the maximum number of consecutive days that any person could have gone to the gym
during the given period?

If, for any pair of persons, n is the maximum possible number of days on which both of them went to
the gym during the given period, for which of the following pairs of persons is the value of n the
highest?
a) Ankit and Ankolit

b) Ankolit and Ankush
c) Ankit and Ankur
d) Ankur and Ankush

question.
What is the maximum number of consecutive days that any person could have gone to the gym

If, for any pair of persons, n is the maximum possible number of days on which both of them went to
the gym during the given period, for which of the following pairs of persons is the value of n the
highest?
a) Ankit and Ankolit
b) Ankolit and Ankush
c) Ankit and Ankur
d) Ankur and Ankush

question.
What is the maximum possible number of days on which none of the four persons went to the gym

During the given period, for two of the four persons, say X and Y, it can be said that only if X went to
the gym on any day did Y go to the gym on the next day. If X is Ankolit, how many possibilities exist
for Y?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

During the given period, for two of the four persons, say X and Y, it can be said that only if X went to
the gym on any day did Y go to the gym on the next day. How many possibilities exist for (X, Y)?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

below.
The birthdays of six persons, three men – Donnie, Will and Gilmour – and three women – Rachel,
Sivagami and Mara – fall in different months of a year, on six different dates – 4 th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 25th and
27th. The birthdays of no two persons are in the same month.
The following information is known about their birthdays:
i. Sivagami's birthday is on April 4 and exactly two persons have their birthdays before her, in
th
a calendar year.
ii. Rachel's birthday falls in the month of May, while Will's birthday falls in the month of August.
iii. In a calendar year, the birthdate of one of the persons whose birthday is after August is 16,
while the birthdate of one of the persons whose birthday is before April is 27.
iv. In a calendar year, the birthday of exactly one man is before that of Gilmour.
v. The birthday of none of the six persons falls in the months of February, October or
December, while Mara’s birthday does not fall in the month of September.
vi. Gilmour's birthdate is a multiple of 8, while Rachel's birthdate is a multiple of 3.

The birthdays of how many women fall before that of Will, in a calendar year?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) Cannot be determined

Whose birthday falls on the 8th of a month?
a) Donnie
b) Rachel
c) Gilmour
d) Cannot be determined.

Who among the following is a woman whose birthday is after that of Rachel, in a calendar year?
a) Sivagami
b) Mara
c) None of Mara and Sivagami
d) Both Mara and Sivagami

Which of the following is Will’s birthday?
a) August 25th
b) August 9th
c) August 8th
d) August 27th
QA
A staircase has a total of five steps. If a person covers a minimum of one and a maximum of three
steps in each stride, in how many ways can he climb the staircase?
If then which of the following gives the value of ?
Find the remainder when 3(12!) – 15(11!) divides 22(11!) + 22!.
a) 11!
b) 10!
c) 12!
d) 9!
A certain quantity, a, varies as the sum of two quantities, of which one varies directly with another
quantity, b, whereas the other varies inversely with b. If when b = 1 or 3, a = 16, find the value of a,
when b = 6.
If n years ago, Raghu’s age was thrice the age of his son, and n years hence, Raghu’s age will be twice
the age of his son, find the ratio of the present ages of Raghu and his son.
a) 5 : 2
b) 4 : 1
c) 7 : 3
d) 9 : 2
If A can do a work in three times the time taken by B and C together to do the same work, in how much
time will A, B and C together do a work, which A alone takes 20 days to complete?
a) 4 days
b)
c) 2 days
d) 5 days
If x and y are two real numbers satisfying the inequalities 3x + 2y ≤ 6, 2x – y + 2 ≥ 0, x ≥ 2 and y ≥ 0, then
the number of ordered pairs (x, y) satisfying the given condition is
If the difference between the roots of the equation x2 – px + 2p = 0 is 3, where both the roots are
positive, find the equation whose roots are 2 more than the roots of the given equation.
a) x2 – 5x + 4 = 0
b) x2 – 9x + 18 = 0
c) x2 + 5x + 18 = 0
d) x2 – 13x + 40 = 0
If f (x) = and h (x) = find the value of f (h (2)).
a) 1
b) −1
c) 2
d) 3
Q10. DIRECTIONS for questions 10 to 12: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the
question.
Find the value of x, such that log2 x +logx 16 = 4.
question.
If N = 888…up to 100 digits, what is the remainder when N is divided by 625?
question.
A student wrote N consecutive natural numbers, starting from 1, on a blackboard and then found their
sum. Another student came along and erased the least number on the board and found the sum of the
remaining numbers. In this manner students came along and erased the least number on the board, in
each case finding the sum of the remaining numbers, until the number left on the board was N. If the
average of all the sums found by the students is 188, find N.
P and Q are two cities on a highway 155 km apart. R, S and T are three cities on the same highway,
between P and Q, with R being between P and S, and T being between S and Q, such that 3PR = TQ and
RS = 2ST. One day, an accident occurred on the highway at T. The medical facilities at Q, R, S and T were
poor. Hence, the victim’s friend called up a hospital at P for an ambulance. The ambulance started from
P at 12:00 noon and reached R at 12:10 p.m. It then doubled its speed for the remaining part of the trip
and returned to P at 2:10 p.m. Find the initial speed of the ambulance.
a) 50 kmph
b) 55 kmph
c) 60 kmph
d) 65 kmph
If x, y, z > 0, x + y + z = 9 and f (x) = – 1, find the minimum value of f (x). f (y). f (z).
Find the value of n , such that
a) 125
b) 3125
c) 625
Let x and y be natural numbers such that xy = k, where k is a natural number not more than 1001. If (xi,
yi) represents a solution to the above equation and zk is defined as a set containing all distinct values of
xi for xy = k, then which of the following best describes the value of k for which zk has the highest
number of elements?
a) 829 ≤ k ≤ 853
b) 921 ≤ k ≤ 960
c) 980 ≤ k ≤ 1001
d) 575 ≤ k ≤ 624
d) 15625
There are 21 people in a group. The difference between the age of the eldest person in the group and
the average age of the group is 20 years. If any one person leaves the group, the average age of the
remaining persons in the group will be a maximum of 21.5 years and a minimum of 20 years. Find the
age of the youngest member of the group.
a) 9 years
b) 13 years
c) 7 years
d) 11 years
Which of the following best describes the value of log245?

a) A rational number less than 5.5
b) An irrational number less than 5.5
c) A rational number more than 5.5
d) An irrational number more than 5.5
The cost of 11 pencils and 11 erasers is 99. Mukesh has ₹33 with him, which is exactly sufficient to
purchase three pencils and five erasers. However, he wants to purchase five pencils and three erasers
for his daughter. How much extra money would Mukesh require?
a) ₹6
b) ₹12
c) ₹24
d) ₹39
The cost of 11 pencils and 11 erasers is 99. Mukesh has ₹33 with him, which is exactly sufficient to
purchase three pencils and five erasers. However, he wants to purchase five pencils and three erasers
for his daughter. How much extra money would Mukesh require?
a) ₹6
b) ₹12
c) ₹24
d) ₹39
A, B and C start simultaneously from P and go towards Q. A being the fastest, reaches Q, turns back
without changing his speed and proceeds towards P. He meets B at a distance of 30 metres from Q and
C at a distance of 70 metres from Q. B also reaches Q, turns back without changing his speed and
proceeds towards P. He meets C on the way at a distance of d metres from Q. If PQ = 210 metres, find
the value of d.
a) 42
b) 84
c) 126
d) 168
If abc ≠ 0 and 2a2 + 17b2 + 8c2 – 6ab – 20bc = 0, then what is the value of ?
a)
b)
c)
Two tanks, T1 and T2, of equal capacities, are provided with inlet taps, A and B, of different flow rates,
respectively. Tap A begins to fill the first tank. Seven minutes later, tap B is opened. Nine minutes after
that, the total quantity of water in the two tanks is just enough to fill one tank completely. Exactly t
minutes after that both the tanks are full. What is the value of t?
A total of 315 students appeared for the Board exam from a school. If the ratio of the number of
students who failed to those who passed in the exam is 1 : n3, where n is a natural number, how many
students passed in the examination?
a) 35
b) 140
c) 280
An ex-circle of a given triangle is drawn outside the triangle, tangent to one of the sides of the triangle,
such that the other two sides, when extended, are also tangent to it. An equilateral triangle of side a is
taken and all its three possible ex-circles are drawn. A circle C is then drawn, passing through the centres
of all the three ex-circles. If the area of circle C is 9π sq. units, what is the value of a (in units)?
For an infinite geometric progression, with common ratio r, if the ratio of the sum to infinite terms to
the sum to n terms is approximately 1.1444, which of the following combinations of values can r and n
assume?
a) r = 0.547, n = 5
b) r = 0.772, n = 8
c) r = 0.697, n = 7
d) r = 0.711, n = 9
question.
Several identical cuboids of dimensions 4 cm × 3 cm × 2 cm are put together to form a large cube.
What is the least possible volume (in cu.cm) of such a cube?

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DIRECTIONS

for questions 1 to 4: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four

Q1. The passage is most likely an extract from

a) the abstract of a thesis.

b) a treatise on a topic.

c) an editorial in a periodical.

d) an essay on a topic.

a) Hobbes and Grotius – devourers and gods

b) Caligula and Aristotle – gods and fathers

c) Author of the passage and Grotius – fathers and masters

d) Aristotle and Caligula – kings and shepherds

Q3. Consider the flawed argument:

b) it led to the inception of the Great Garden Birdwatch.

c) it led to an increase in the number of participants in the survey.

d) children started to participate in the survey.

b) humans’ interest in butterflies can be extended to interest on insects as a whole.

DIRECTIONS for questions 9 to 13: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of five

Q9. The author uses the phrase 'in retrospect' (para 1) to refer to

a) the ability to look inwards.

b) the expectation(s) in future based on an analysis of past.

d) the review or the contemplation of the past from a different perspective.

Q10. All of the following can be deduced from the passage EXCEPT:

b) Religion as object of research is often approached superficially.

Q11. Which of the following can be understood from the passage?

d) None of the above

Q12. The term 'terra incognita' means

a) known or discovered or explored territory.

c) knowledge that is difficult to understand.

d) terrain that is difficult to explore.

b) Secular public life

c) Religion and spirituality

d) Both (A) and (B)

DIRECTIONS for questions 14 to 18: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of five

a) Constituting legitimate organizations empowered to impose economic and military sanctions

Q17. Why does the author make a mention of Germany in the passage?

b) Not all treaties can be reasonably complied with.

d) Treaties can never be effective in upholding international law.

Q19. DIRECTIONS for question 19: Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them

Q20. DIRECTIONS for questions 20 and 21: The sentences given in the question, when properly

Q21. DIRECTIONS for questions 20 and 21: The sentences given in the question, when properly

Q22. DIRECTIONS for questions 22 to 24: Each of the questions given below has a paragraph

c) Simultaneous revolutions in physics and biology have transformed science, allowing

Q23. DIRECTIONS for questions 22 to 24: Each of the questions given below has a paragraph

Q24. DIRECTIONS for questions 22 to 24: Each of the questions given below has a paragraph

Q25. DIRECTIONS for question 25: The sentences given in the question, when properly

2. All sharp thinking depends on clarity.

3. Just as unclear language leads to miscommunication, so unclear thoughts result in

4. Without it, thinking deteriorates into ambiguity and confusion.

DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 6: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.

Q3. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

Q4. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

Q5. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

DIRECTIONS for questions 7 to 10: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given

Kiran also knows the following information:

i. If A knows that C is interested in participating, A will not express an interest in participating.

Q7. DIRECTIONS for questions 7 and 8: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

Q8. DIRECTIONS for questions 7 and 8: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.

a) A, B, C and D

b) A, B, C and E

c) B, C, E and F

d) A, B, E and G

Q9. DIRECTIONS for questions 9 and 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the

Q10. DIRECTIONS for questions 9 and 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the