ParaSummary Question 3 - CAT 2020
Passage: The rural-urban continuum and the heterogeneity of urban settings pose an obvious challenge to identifying urban areas and measuring urbanization rates in a consistent way within and across countries. An objective methodology for distinguishing between urban and rural areas that is based on one or two metrics with fixed thresholds may not adequately capture the wide diversity of places. A richer combination of criteria would better describe the multifaceted nature of a city’s function and its environment, but the joint interpretation of these criteria may require an element of human judgment.
A) With the diversity of urban landscapes, measurable criteria for defining urban areas may need to be supplemented with human judgement.
B) Current methodologies used to define urban and rural areas are no longer relevant to our being able to study trends in urbanisation.
C) The difficulty of accurately identifying urban areas means that we need to create a rich combination of criteria that can be applied to all urban areas.
D) Distinguishing between urban and rural areas might call for some judgement on the objective methodology being used to define a city’s functions.
Step-by-Step Explanation
- Correct Answer: A
- Explanation: The author states that relying strictly on fixed, objective numbers cannot capture the true diversity and multifaceted functions of urban spaces. While using a richer combination of metrics helps, interpreting them effectively requires human judgment. Option A neatly binds the need for diverse criteria with the supplement of human evaluation.
- FundaMakers Tip: Watch Out for Radical Words. Option B claims current methods are "no longer relevant", which is overly aggressive and extreme. The author merely points out that fixed-threshold systems may not adequately capture the full picture.