Reasoning skills

The applicants’ reasoning skills are assessed in this section. There

are eight questions in total. Read them carefully and select the
answer that you think is correct, based on the given information.
There is only one correct answer in each question.

A correct answer produces +2.5 points, an incorrect answer –0.6

points and no answer at all 0 points.

The lowest passing score in this section is five points.

Question 1
Five school mates (Ben, Kevin, Frans, Maya, Alina) competed who
was the quickest to build a card house. They all started the
competition at the same time.

Ben was ready before Alina but later than Maya. Kevin was ready
before Frans but only after Alina.

Select the correct order of school mates, from the quickest to

the slowest.
Alina, Kevin, Frans, Maya, Ben
Maya, Ben, Kevin, Frans, Alina
Ben, Maya, Alina, Frans, Kevin
Alina, Kevin, Ben, Maya, Frans
Alina, Maya, Ben, Frans, Kevin
Ben, Alina, Maya, Frans, Kevin
Maya, Ben, Alina, Kevin, Frans
Maya, Ben, Alina, Frans, Kevin
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 2
Lucas takes care of his brother’s new puppy for the first time. His
brother has instructed Lucas as follows: if the puppy wants to have
a ball, the puppy wants to play.

Which one of the following conclusions is the definitely correct

one? Choose the correct answer.
If the puppy wants to play, then the puppy wants the ball
If the puppy does not want the ball, then the puppy does not want
to play
If the puppy does not want to play, then the puppy does not want
the ball
None of these conclusions is definitely correct, based on the
information given
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 3
Eric had visited a physiotherapist at a hotel during his previous stay.
He was very pleased with the service he received and would now
like to book an appointment for the same physiotherapist for his
next visit at the same hotel. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember
the physiotherapist’s name. Please help the busy front desk worker
to find out the name of Eric’s physiotherapist.

Client number Last name First name

1 Jones Mike
2 Williams Sarah
3 Taylor Eric
4 Brown Anne
5 Taylor Sara

Order number Order date Client number

10 12 March 2020 2
Order number Order date Client number

20 22 March 2020 4

30 8 April 2020 5

40 12 April 2020 3

50 24 April 2020 5

60 2 May 2020 3

70 14 May 2020 1

Service Room Order number Therapist id

Pedicure 202 10 25

Pedicure 203 40 35

Physiotherapy 201 50 25

Physiotherapy 201 10 35

Physiotherapy 202 40 45

Aquagym pool 60 50

Aquagym pool 20 45
Therapist id Last name First name

25 Adams Nina

35 Burton Jenny

45 Stevens Leah

50 Wright Julia

65 Henriksson Anna

Who was Eric’s physiotherapist? Choose the correct answer.

Jenny
Anna
Nina
Leah
Julia
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 4
Filip has grown apples for decades and noticed that the following
statement is true: every red apple tastes good. Filip went to his
storage to get red apples but suddenly the lights went off and it
became totally dark. After some struggling, he found an apple and
tasted it; this apple tasted bad.

Which one of the following statements is true, as regards the

apple that Filip tasted?
The apple was not yellow
The apple was yellow
The apple was not green
The apple was not red
 The apple was red
The apple was green
Cannot say on the basis of the information given
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 5
A numerical value corresponds to each letter in the table. Most
column and row sums have already been calculated. What is the
numerical value of the row sum that is now marked with a
question mark?

H H I G ?
I H I G 17
E E E E 4
I H I E 12
12 10 13 14
11
13
15
16
17
18
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 6
Mike ran a longer distance than Tilda. Peter ran a shorter distance
than Mike. Which one of the following statements is true?
Peter and Tilda ran an equally long distance
Peter ran a shorter distance than Tilda
Tilda ran a longer distance than Peter
Peter ran a longer distance than Tilda
It is impossible to say which one, Peter or Tilda, ran a longer
distance
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 7
Elias woke up in the middle of the night and, due to a power cut, it
was very dark in his apartment. Elias’ pencils were in one large box
and he remembered that there were 11 blue pencils, 14 black
pencils and 8 grey pencils in the box.

As Elias didn’t see the colour of the pencils, he picked as many

pencils from the box so that he would have at least two black
pencils.

What was the minimum amount of pencils Elias needed to pick

to ensure he would get at least two black pencils?
14
19
21
26
28
33
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 8
Tasks A, B, C, D and E have to be completed first, in order to
finalize an assignment. These tasks can be executed
simultaneously with the following exceptions:

• C has to be completed before A can be started

• E has to be completed before D can be started
• A has to be completed before D can be started
• B has to be completed before A can be started

B’s completion takes 5 days and also E’s completion takes 5 days.
A’s completion takes 3 days. D’s completion takes 2 days, and also
C’s completion takes 2 days. It is not possible to influence the
duration of the individual tasks.
How many days does it take, at least, to finalize the entire
assignment?
5 days
7 days
8 days
10 days
12 days
I will leave this question unanswered

Submit your answers.

Mathematical skills
The applicants’ mathematical skills are assessed in this section.
There are ten questions in total. Read them carefully and select the
answer that you think is correct. There is only one correct answer in
each question.

A correct answer produces +2 points, an incorrect answer –0.4

points and no answer at all 0 points.

The lowest passing score in this section is five points.

The applicants may use a function calculator in this section. It can

be opened by pushing the Calculator button on the right hand side,
and hidden by pushing the red X sign on the left hand side of the
opened calculator. Hiding the calculator does not eradicate the
operation on the calculator’s screen.
Question 1
One estimation regarding the amount of water a person should drink
on a hot day, is
Need of water on a hot day = \mathsf{(mass \cdot age) :
1000}(mass⋅age):1 000
The units of mass and age are kg and y (=year), respectively, and
the result should be given in litres. Furthermore, if a person works
hard during a hot day, the value should still be multiplied by 1.1.

Jack is 29 years old and his weight is 81 kg. He works hard on a hot
day. Which of the following is the nearest estimate to the amount of
drinking water he needs?
2.6 litres
2.1 litres
2.3 litres
2.5 litres
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 2
There are four triangles in the image below. The number inside
each triangle is determined based on the numbers at its vertices.
What number should be inside the fourth triangle?

7
15
1
None of these
I will leave this question unanswered
Question 3
Eve left for school at 7:53 and was there at 8:05. In the afternoon,
she left for home at 14:23, but since she played with her friends on
the way, she did not reach home until 15:11. How much longer did
the trip home last compared to the trip to school?
0.6 hours
0.8 hours
32 minutes
None of these
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 4
A, B and C are currencies of different countries. Three As are worth
four Bs and five Bs are worth one C. How many As are two Cs
worth?
5
15
7.5
1.5
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 5
The length of a board is 450 cm. It is cut into three parts so that the
ratios of the lengths are 1:2:6. What is the difference between the
lengths of the longest part and the shortest part?
200 cm
50 cm
310 cm
 None of these
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 6
The monthly salary of a worker is 1 850 €. His tax rate is 13.8 %
and unemployment insurance contribution is 1.2 % of the salary.
What is the combined amount of taxes and unemployment
insurances he pays during half a year?
477.30 €
3 330 €
1 665 €
278 €
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 7
Parking fees in zone A and zone B are 4 € per hour and 3 € per
hour, respectively. Which of the following is true?
The fee in zone A is 25 % higher than the fee in zone B.
Parking in zone B is one third cheaper than parking in zone A.
Using the same amount of money, you can park in zone A for a
25 % shorter period, than in zone B.
None of these
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 8
There is an ice hockey game being played between two local ice
hockey teams, A and B. During the interval a questionnaire was
given to the spectators to establish which team they supported. The
results are in the table below. How many percentage points was the
difference between men and women supporting team A?

Men Women

number number

Team A 72 32

Team B 72 48

Altogether 144 80

40 percentage points
24 percentage points
10 percentage points
None of these
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 9
Leon is six years older than his sister Anna. The age of their mother
is four times the age of Anna. If the age of Leon is denoted by x,
how should we denote the age of their mother?
\mathsf{4(x - 3)}4(x−3)
\mathsf{4x - 24}4x−24
\mathsf{4x }4x
\mathsf{4x - 6}4x−6
I will leave this question unanswered

Question 10
The difference between the squares of two successive positive
integers is 33 033. Which of the following is the smaller of these
numbers?
16 518
16 517
16 519
None of these
I will leave this question unanswered

Submit your answers.

English language
The applicants’ language and communication skills in English are
assessed in this section. There are three parts in this section, A, B
and C, a total of 16 questions. Read the questions carefully and
select the answer that you think is correct. There is only one correct
answer in each question.

Each correct answer produces +1.25 points, an incorrect answer –

0.3 points and no answer at all 0 points.

The lowest passing score in this section is seven points.

Part A
Read the text and then answer the questions concerning the
bolded expressions as instructed. Choose one alternative per
question.

As European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation

Carlos Moedas has noted, ‘artificial intelligence [AI] is not a threat,
how we choose to use it is’ (Moedas 2017). Therefore, we should
be (A1) fostering the development of AI in areas that would, inter
alia, undo the damage we have done to the planet through
industrialisation, open the road to ending poverty and help eradicate
disease. These global challenges should give rise to AI-driven
mission-based innovations and should bring together citizens,
scientists and engineers to address them (European Commission
2017a). We need to (A2) pursue a human-centred AI approach that
augments our intelligence in a computer–human symbiosis —a sort
of (A3) collaborative approach, where each partner brings its own
superior skills to the partnership—instead of seeking AI that will
supersede humans and be autonomous (Isaacson 2014). Such a
development should therefore be seen as an evolution of human
tools similar to our use of rocks, or the invention of the wheel, the
computer or the smartphone.

Today, AI (A4) permeates economies and societies. How can we

ensure that it benefits society as a whole? It is important to
understand that AI, robots and automation are not
(A5) interchangeable concepts. Machines have been present in
every factory for a long time, doing highly repetitive and physically
demanding tasks more efficiently and productively. This is
‘automation’, of which the automotive industry sets a good example.
By contrast, AI systems ‘understand’ data rather than just collate it.
(Evans 2017).

Adapted from a text by G. Carriço (2018, European View, CC 4.0

BY)

A1. Which of the following alternatives does NOT mean the same as the term
‘fostering’ in the text?
impeding
 encouraging
promoting
supporting
I will leave this question unanswered
A2. Which of the following alternatives does NOT mean the same as the term
‘pursue’ in the text?
strive to attain
strive to gain
strive to achieve
strive to omit
I will leave this question unanswered
A3. Which of the following alternatives is closest to the term ‘collaborative’ in the
text?
cooperative
coordinate
coequal
coexistent
I will leave this question unanswered
A4. Which of the following alternatives is closest to the term ‘permeates’ in the
text?
defeats
penetrates
overturns
devastates
I will leave this question unanswered
A5. Which of the following alternatives is closest to the term ‘interchangeable’ in
the text?
 definitely and permanently placed
reciprocal, inversely related
capable of being put or used in the place of each other
free of all ambiguity, uncertainty, or obscurity
I will leave this question unanswered

Part B
Read the text and then choose the correct answer (true/false)
concerning each statement below the text.

Most policy instruments used today to lead economic activity toward

environmental sustainability, such as regulation, subsidies, and tax
incentives, are familiar from industrial policy. This is not
unreasonable, industrial policy having been employed for decades
to initiate and facilitate structural change. In fact, linking
environmental protection to competitiveness, a core aim of industrial
policy, may contribute to winning supporters. Studies have shown
that alignments of interests other than environmental protection can
indeed be central to achieving green transformation.

Many lessons have been learned from the past few decades of
industrial policy implementation. Facilitating private sector–led
experimentation in the pursuit of new technologies, focusing on the
competitive allocation of funds, monitoring and evaluation,
systematic policy-learning and codesigning instruments,
and cofunding with the private sector are established principles of
industrial policy. The objective now is to make use of what has been
learned for achieving structural change toward the green
transformation.

To be truly transformative, however, government intervention must

exceed the conventional limits that ‘‘traditional’’ industrial policy
imposes […]. The WBGU, the German Advisory Council on Global
Change, called for a ‘‘proactive state’’ seized with the ‘‘ethical
imperative’’ to bring about the required transformation through
determining long-term priorities and underpinning them with clear
policy signals. Industrial policy as we know it, in contrast, has
fostered competitiveness along established technological
trajectories. While innovation has been supported, technology
diffusion has been left to the market. Supply and demand have
largely been taken as given, and market dynamics have led to the
selection of certain technologies. In contrast, environmental
pressures are now making it necessary to deliberately disrupt
established pathways and replace them with new, sustainable ones.
This will require support not only for low-carbon technology
innovation but also for diffusion—through, say, the creation of
markets.

Governments must also seek to influence and change

(unsustainable) consumption patterns. The issue of unsustainable
consumption patterns is becoming even more pertinent as growing
middle classes in emerging economies tend to adopt lifestyles
similar to those in industrialized countries.

Expecting governments to single-handedly enable the green

transformation would be unrealistic, given the complexity of this
undertaking, its effects on the economy and society at large, and
the political dynamics that such a process unleashes […].
Governments therefore need to coordinate their actions
with nonstate change agents such as environmental and consumer
associations or industry-based innovators such as new market
entrants, spin-offs or venture capitalists.

Adapted from a text by A. Pegels, G. Vidican-Auktor, W.

Lütkenhorst and T. Altenburg (2017, J of Environment and
Development; CC 4.0 BY-NC)
B1. Industrial policy and the tools currently used to introduce environmental
sustainability into economic activity have very little in common.
True
False
 I will leave this question unanswered
B2. We should leave to the side what has been learned about industrial policy
and push toward finding novel solutions for structural changes leading to green
transformation.
True
False
I will leave this question unanswered
B3. In order to achieve real change, the government’s involvement in
environmental sustainability should not be determined by the conventional
boundaries of industrial policy.
True
False
I will leave this question unanswered
B4. The prevailing thought in industrial policy has long been that technological
development should be driven equally by market dynamics and environmental
pressures.
True
False
I will leave this question unanswered
B5. Governments should try to alter the consumption patterns of the growing
middle classes in emerging economies so that the industrialized countries can
sustain their living habits.
True
False
I will leave this question unanswered
B6. It is far-fetched to anticipate that a green transformation can be achieved
without collaborating with, for example, non-governmental organisations.
True
False
I will leave this question unanswered
Part C
The order of the sentences in the following text has been
altered. Put the sentences into the correct order by indicating
the order of sentences a–e below.

a. If the speaker uses wrong rhythmic patterns, the intended

message is not transmitted because the listener fails to distinguish
between key information and other less significant items in the
utterances.

b. When interpreting a speaker’s message, a listener uses both the

linguistic and the non-linguistic parameters of speech rhythm.

c. For example, speech consists of subsequent rhythmic patterns,

which play an essential role in speech processing.

d. These parameters organize speech into coherent, cohesive

utterances and mark the information-bearing elements in each
utterance.

e. Grouping recurring patterns is typical of us humans, and it is not

haphazard but based on certain cues in these patterns.
C1. The first sentence is
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
I will leave this question unanswered
C2. The second sentence is
a.
b.
 c.
d.
e.
I will leave this question unanswered
C3. The third sentence is
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
I will leave this question unanswered
C4. The fourth sentence is
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
I will leave this question unanswered
C5. The fifth sentence is
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
I will leave this question unanswered
Submit your answers.