CAT 2023- Slot 3 Reading Comprehensions with Solution

Reading Comprehension 1

The biggest challenge [The Nutmeg’s Curse by Ghosh] throws down is to the prevailing understanding of when the climate crisis started. Most of us have accepted . . . that it started
with the widespread use of coal at the beginning of the Industrial Age in the 18th century and worsened with the mass adoption of oil and natural gas in the 20th.

Ghosh takes this history at least three centuries back, to the start of European colonialism in the 15th century. He [starts] the book with a 1621 massacre by Dutch invaders determined to impose a monopoly on nutmeg cultivation and trade in the Banda islands in today’s Indonesia. Not only do the Dutch systematically depopulate the islands through genocide, they also try their best to bring nutmeg cultivation into plantation mode. These are the two points to which Ghosh returns through examples from around the world. One, how European colonialists decimated not only indigenous populations but also indigenous understanding of the relationship between humans and Earth. Two, how this was an invasion not only of humans but of the Earth itself, and how this continues to the present day by looking at nature
as a ‘resource’ to exploit. . . .

We know we are facing more frequent and more severe heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts and wildfires due to climate change. We know our expansion through deforestation, dam
building, canal cutting – in short, terraforming, the word Ghosh uses – has brought us repeated disasters . . . Are these the responses of an angry Gaia who has finally had
enough? By using the word ‘curse’ in the title, the author makes it clear that he thinks so. I use the pronoun ‘who’ knowingly, because Ghosh has quoted many non-European sources to enquire into the relationship between humans and the world around them so that he can question the prevalent way of looking at Earth as an inert object to be exploited to the
maximum.

As Ghosh’s text, notes and bibliography show once more, none of this is new. There have always been challenges to the way European colonialists looked at other civilisations and at
Earth. It is just that the invaders and their myriad backers in the fields of economics, politics, anthropology, philosophy, literature, technology, physics, chemistry, biology have dominated global intellectual discourse. . . .

There are other points of view that we can hear today if we listen hard enough. Those observing global climate negotiations know about the Latin American way of looking at Earth
as Pachamama (Earth Mother). They also know how such a framing is just provided lip service and is ignored in the substantive portions of the negotiations. In The Nutmeg’s Curse,
Ghosh explains why. He shows the extent of the vested interest in the oil economy – not only for oil-exporting countries, but also for a superpower like the US that controls oil drilling, oil prices and oil movement around the world. Many of us know power utilities are sabotaging decentralised solar power generation today because it hits their revenues and control. And how the other points of view are so often drowned out.

Q.1 All of the following can be inferred from the reviewer’s discussion of “The Nutmeg’s Curse”, EXCEPT:

1. environmental preservation policy makers can learn a lot from non-European and/or pre-colonial societies.
2. the contemporary dominant perception of nature and the environment was put in place by processes of colonialism.
3. the history of climate change is deeply intertwined with the history of colonialism.
4. academic discourses have always served the function of raising awareness about environmental preservation.

Solution- 4

Q.2 Which one of the following, if true, would make the reviewer’s choice of the pronoun “who” for Gaia inappropriate?

1. Ghosh’s book has a different title: “The Nutmeg’s Revenge”.
2. There is a direct cause–effect relationship between human activities and global climate change.
3. Non-European societies have perceived the Earth as a non-living source of all resources.
4. Modern western science discovers new evidence for the Earth being an inanimate object.

Solution- 3

Q.3 On the basis of information in the passage, which one of the following is NOT a reason for the failure of policies seeking to address climate change?

1. The global dominance of oil economies and international politics built around it.
2. The decentralised characteristic of renewable energy resources like solar power.
3. The marginalised status of non-European ways of looking at nature and the environment.
4. The greed of organisations benefiting from non-renewable energy resources.

Solution- 2

Q.4 Which one of the following best explains the primary purpose of the discussion of the colonisation of the Banda islands in “The Nutmeg’s Curse”?

1. To illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that has led to climate change.
2. To illustrate the role played by the cultivation of certain crops in the plantation mode in contributing to climate change.
3. To illustrate how systemic violence against the colonised constituted the cornerstone of colonialism.
4. To illustrate the first instance in history when the processes responsible for climate change were initiated.

Solution- 1

Reading Comprehension 2

Understanding romantic aesthetics is not a simple undertaking for reasons that are internal to the nature of the subject. Distinguished scholars, such as Arthur Lovejoy, Northrop Frye and Isaiah Berlin, have remarked on the notorious challenges facing any attempt to define romanticism. Lovejoy, for example, claimed that romanticism is “the scandal of literary history and criticism” . . . The main difficulty in studying the romantics, according to him, is the lack of any “single real entity, or type of entity” that the concept “romanticism” designates. Lovejoy concluded, “the word ‘romantic’ has come to mean so many things that, by itself, it means
nothing” . . .

The more specific task of characterizing romantic aesthetics adds to these difficulties an air of paradox. Conventionally, “aesthetics” refers to a theory concerning beauty and art or the branch of philosophy that studies these topics. However, many of the romantics rejected the identification of aesthetics with a circumscribed domain of human life that is separated from the practical and theoretical domains of life. The most characteristic romantic commitment is to the idea that the character of art and beauty and of our engagement with them should shape all aspects of human life. Being fundamental to human existence, beauty and art should be a central ingredient not only in a philosophical or artistic life, but also in the lives of ordinary men and women. Another challenge for any attempt to characterize romantic aesthetics lies in the fact that most of the romantics were poets and artists whose views of art and beauty are, for the most part, to be found not in developed theoretical accounts, but in fragments, aphorisms and poems, which are often more elusive and suggestive than conclusive.

Nevertheless, in spite of these challenges the task of characterizing romantic aesthetics is neither impossible nor undesirable, as numerous thinkers responding to Lovejoy’s radical
skepticism have noted. While warning against a reductive definition of romanticism, Berlin, for example, still heralded the need for a general characterization: “[Although] one does have a certain sympathy with Lovejoy’s despair…[he is] in this instance mistaken. There was a romantic movement…and it is important to discover what it is” . . .

Recent attempts to characterize romanticism and to stress its contemporary relevance follow this path. Instead of overlooking the undeniable differences between the variety of
romanticisms of different nations that Lovejoy had stressed, such studies attempt to characterize romanticism, not in terms of a single definition, a specific time, or a specific
place, but in terms of “particular philosophical questions and concerns” . . .

While the German, British and French romantics are all considered, the central protagonists in the following are the German romantics. Two reasons explain this focus: first, because it
has paved the way for the other romanticisms, German romanticism has a pride of place among the different national romanticisms . . . Second, the aesthetic outlook that was
developed in Germany roughly between 1796 and 1801–02 — the period that corresponds to the heyday of what is known as “Early Romanticism” . . .— offers the most philosophical
expression of romanticism since it is grounded primarily in the epistemological, metaphysical, ethical, and political concerns that the German romantics discerned in the aftermath of Kant’s philosophy.

Q.5 Which one of the following statements is NOT supported by the passage?

1. Many romantics rejected the idea of aesthetics as a domain separate from other aspects of life.
2. Romantic aesthetics are primarily expressed through fragments, aphorisms, and poems.
3. Recent studies on romanticism seek to refute the differences between national romanticisms.
4. Characterising romantic aesthetics is both possible and desirable, despite the challenges involved

Solution- 3

Q.6 The main difficulty in studying romanticism is the:

1. elusive and suggestive nature of romantic aesthetics.
2. controversial and scandalous history of romantic literature.
3. lack of clear conceptual contours of the domain.
4. absence of written accounts by romantic poets and artists

Solution- 3

Q.7 According to the romantics, aesthetics:

1. should be confined to a specific domain separate from the practical and theoretical aspects of life.
2. is primarily the concern of philosophers and artists, rather than of ordinary people.
3. is widely considered to be irrelevant to human existence.
4. permeates all aspects of human life, philosophical and mundane

Solution- 4

Q.8 According to the passage, recent studies on romanticism avoid “a single definition, a specific time, or a specific place” because they:

1. prefer to highlight the paradox of romantic aesthetics as a concept.
2. prefer to focus on the fundamental concerns of the romantics.
3. seek to discredit Lovejoy’s scepticism regarding romanticism.
4. understand that the variety of romanticisms renders a general analysis impossible.

Solution- 2

Reading Comprehension 3

Steven Pinker’s new book, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” offers a pragmatic dose of measured optimism, presenting rationality as a fragile but
achievable ideal in personal and civic life. . . . Pinker’s ambition to illuminate such a crucial topic offers the welcome prospect of a return to sanity. . . . It’s no small achievement to make formal logic, game theory, statistics and Bayesian reasoning delightful topics full of charm and relevance.

It’s also plausible to believe that a wider application of the rational tools he analyzes would improve the world in important ways. His primer on statistics and scientific uncertainty is
particularly timely and should be required reading before consuming any news about the [COVID] pandemic. More broadly, he argues that less media coverage of shocking but
vanishingly rare events, from shark attacks to adverse vaccine reactions, would help prevent dangerous overreactions, fatalism and the diversion of finite resources away from solvable but less-dramatic issues, like malnutrition in the developing world.

It’s a reasonable critique, and Pinker is not the first to make it. But analyzing the political economy of journalism — its funding structures, ownership concentration and increasing
reliance on social media shares — would have given a fuller picture of why so much coverage is so misguided and what we might do about it.

Pinker’s main focus is the sort of conscious, sequential reasoning that can track the steps in a geometric proof or an argument in formal logic. Skill in this domain maps directly onto the navigation of many real-world problems, and Pinker shows how greater mastery of the tools of rationality can improve decision-making in medical, legal, financial and many other contexts in which we must act on uncertain and shifting information. . . .

Despite the undeniable power of the sort of rationality he describes, many of the deepest insights in the history of science, math, music and art strike their originators in moments of
epiphany. From the 19th-century chemist Friedrich August Kekulé’s discovery of the structure of benzene to any of Mozart’s symphonies, much extraordinary human achievement is not a product of conscious, sequential reasoning. Even Plato’s Socrates — who anticipated many of Pinker’s points by nearly 2,500 years, showing the virtue of knowing what you do not know and examining all premises in arguments, not simply trusting speakers’ authority or charisma — attributed many of his most profound insights to dreams and visions. Conscious reasoning is helpful in sorting the wheat from the chaff, but it would be interesting to consider the hidden aquifers that make much of the grain grow in the first place.

The role of moral and ethical education in promoting rational behavior is also underexplored. Pinker recognizes that rationality “is not just a cognitive virtue but a moral one.” But this profoundly important point, one subtly explored by ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, doesn’t really get developed. This is a shame, since possessing the right sort of moral character is arguably a precondition for using rationality in beneficial ways.

Q.9 The author refers to the ancient Greek philosophers to:

1. reveal gaps in Pinker’s discussion of the importance of ethical considerations in rational behaviour.
2. show how dreams and visions have for centuries influenced subconscious behaviour and pathbreaking inventions.
3. indicate the various similarities between their thinking and Pinker’s conclusions.
4. highlight the influence of their thinking on the development of Pinker’s arguments.

Solution- 1

Q.10 The author endorses Pinker’s views on the importance of logical reasoning as it:

1. provides a moral compass for resolving important ethical dilemmas.
2. helps people to gain expertise in statistics and other scientific disciplines.
3. equips people with the ability to tackle challenging practical problems.
4. focuses public attention on real issues like development rather than sensational events.

Solution- 3

Q.11 According to the author, for Pinker as well as the ancient Greek philosophers, rational thinking involves all of the following EXCEPT:

1. an awareness of underlying assumptions in an argument and gaps in one’s own knowledge.
2. the primacy of conscious sequential reasoning as the basis for seminal human achievements.
3. arriving at independent conclusions irrespective of who is presenting the argument.
4. the belief that the ability to reason logically encompasses an ethical and moral dimension

Solution- 2

Q.12 The author mentions Kekulé’s discovery of the structure of benzene and Mozart’s symphonies to illustrate the point that:

1. great innovations across various fields can stem from flashes of intuition and are not always propelled by logical thinking.
2. unlike the sciences, human achievements in other fields are a mix of logical reasoning and spontaneous epiphanies.
3. Pinker’s conclusions on sequential reasoning are belied by European achievements which, in the past, were more rooted in unconscious bursts of genius.
4. it is not just the creative arts, but also scientific fields that have benefitted from flashes of creativity.

Solution- 1

Reading Comprehension 4

In 2006, the Met [art museum in the US] agreed to return the Euphronios krater, a masterpiece Greek urn that had been a museum draw since 1972. In 2007, the Getty [art
museum in the US] agreed to return 40 objects to Italy, including a marble Aphrodite, in the midst of looting scandals. And in December, Sotheby’s and a private owner agreed to return an ancient Khmer statue of a warrior, pulled from auction two years before, to Cambodia.

Cultural property, or patrimony, laws limit the transfer of cultural property outside the source country’s territory, including outright export prohibitions and national ownership laws. Most art historians, archaeologists, museum officials and policymakers portray cultural property laws in general as invaluable tools for counteracting the ugly legacy of Western cultural imperialism.

During the late 19th and early 20th century — an era former Met director Thomas Hoving called “the age of piracy” — American and European art museums acquired antiquities by
hook or by crook, from grave robbers or souvenir collectors, bounty from digs and ancient sites in impoverished but art-rich source countries. Patrimony laws were intended to protect future archaeological discoveries against Western imperialist designs. . . .

I surveyed 90 countries with one or more archaeological sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list, and my study shows that in most cases the number of discovered sites diminishes
sharply after a country passes a cultural property law. There are 222 archaeological sites listed for those 90 countries. When you look into the history of the sites, you see that all but
21 were discovered before the passage of cultural property laws. . . .

Strict cultural patrimony laws are popular in most countries. But the downside may be that they reduce incentives for foreign governments, nongovernmental organizations and
educational institutions to invest in overseas exploration because their efforts will not necessarily be rewarded by opportunities to hold, display and study what is uncovered. To the
extent that source countries can fund their own archaeological projects, artifacts and sites may still be discovered. . . . The survey has far-reaching implications. It suggests that source
countries, particularly in the developing world, should narrow their cultural property laws so that they can reap the benefits of new archaeological discoveries, which typically increase tourism and enhance cultural pride. This does not mean these nations should abolish restrictions on foreign excavation and foreign claims to artifacts.

China provides an interesting alternative approach for source nations eager for foreign archaeological investment. From 1935 to 2003, China had a restrictive cultural property law
that prohibited foreign ownership of Chinese cultural artifacts. In those years, China’s most significant archaeological discovery occurred by chance, in 1974, when peasant farmers
accidentally uncovered ranks of buried terra cotta warriors, which are part of Emperor Qin’s spectacular tomb system.

In 2003, the Chinese government switched course, dropping its cultural property law and embracing collaborative international archaeological research. Since then, China has
nominated 11 archaeological sites for inclusion in the World Heritage Site list, including eight in 2013, the most ever for China.

Q.13 It can be inferred from the passage that archaeological sites are considered important by some source countries because they:

1. give a boost to the tourism sector.
2. are a symbol of Western imperialism.
3. are subject to strict patrimony laws.
4. generate funds for future discoveries.

Solution- 1

Q.14 Which one of the following statements best expresses the paradox of patrimony laws?

1. They were intended to protect cultural property, but instead resulted in the neglect of historical sites.
2. They were aimed at protecting cultural property, but instead reduced new archaeological discoveries.
3. They were aimed at protecting cultural property, but instead reduced business for auctioneers like Sotheby’s.
4. They were intended to protect cultural property, but instead resulted in the withholding of national treasure from museums.

Solution- 2

Q.15 Which one of the following statements, if true, would undermine the central idea of the passage?

1. Museums established in economically deprived archaeologically-rich source countries can display the antiques discovered there.
2. Affluent archaeologically-rich source countries can afford to carry out their own excavations.
3. Western countries will have to apologise to countries for looting their cultural property in the past century.
4. UNESCO finances archaeological research in poor, but archaeologically-rich source countries.

Solution- 4

Q.16 From the passage we can infer that the author is likely to advise poor, but archaeologically-rich source countries to do all of the following, EXCEPT

1. to find ways to motivate other countries to finance archaeological explorations in their country.
2. fund institutes in other countries to undertake archaeological exploration in the source country reaping the benefits of cutting-edge techniques.
3. adopt China’s strategy of dropping its cultural property laws and carrying out archaeological research through international collaboration.
4. allow foreign countries to analyse and exhibit the archaeological finds made in the source country

Solution- 2

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Read More- CAT 2023- Slot 1 DI-LR Questions with Solutions