Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay Solutions for Chapter: CAT Previous Years' Questions, Exercise 4: CAT 1999

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

Three airlines-IA, JA and SA-operate on the Delhi-Mumbai route. To increase the number of seats sold, SA reduced its fares and this was emulated by IA and JA immediately. The general belief was that the volume of air travel between Delhi and Mumbai would increase as a result.

Which of the following, if true, would add credence to the general belief?

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

According to Mc Neil, a Brahmin priest was expected to be able to recite at least one of the Vedas. The practice was essential for several centuries when the Vedas had not yet been written down. It must have had a selective effect since priests would have been recruited from those able or willing to memorize long passages. It must have helped in the dissemination of the work, since a memorized passage can be duplicated many times.

Which one of the following can be inferred from the above passage?

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follow it.

Developed countries have made adequate provisions for the social security of senior citizens. State insurers (as well as private ones) offer Medicare and pension benefits to people who can no longer earn. In India, with the collapse of the joint family system, the traditional shelter of the elderly has disappeared. And a state faced with a financial crunch is not in a position to provide social security. So it is advisable that the working population give serious thought to building a financial base for itself.

Which one of the following, if it were to happen, weakens the conclusion drawn in the above passage the most?

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

Various studies have shown that our forested and hilly regions and, in general, areas where biodiversity - as reflected in the variety of flora-is high, are the places where poverty appears to be high. And these same areas are also the ones where educational performances seem to be poor. Therefore,  it may be surmised that, even disregarding poverty status, richness in biodiversity goes hand in hand with educational backwardness.

Which of the following statements, if true, can be said to best provide supporting evidence for the surmise mentioned in the passage?

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

Cigarettes constitute a mere $20\%$ of tobacco consumption in India, and fewer than $15\%$ of the $200$million tobacco users consume cigarettes. Yet these $15\%$ contribute nearly $90\%$ of the tax revenues to the exchequer from the tobacco sector. The punitive cigarette taxation regime has kept the tax base narrow, and reducing taxes will expand this base.

Which one of the following best bolsters the conclusion that reducing duties will expand the tax base?

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

Thomas Malthus, the British clergyman turned economist, predicted that the planet would not be able to support the human population for long. His explanation was that human population grows at a geometric rate, while the food supply grows only at an arithmetic rate.

Which one of the following, if true, would not undermine the thesis offered by Malthus?

Directions for the questions: Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

The company's coffee crop for $1998-99$ totalled $8079$tonnes, an all-time record. The increase over the previous year's production of $5830$ tonnes was $38.58\%$. The previous highest crop was $6089$tonnes in $1970-71$. The company had fixed a target of 8000 tonnes to be realized by the year $2000 -01$, and this has been achieved two years earlier; thanks to the emphasis laid on the key areas of irrigation, replacement of unproductive coffee bushes, intensive refilling and improved agricultural practices. It is now our endeavour to reach the target of 10,000 tonnes in $2001-02$.

Which one of the following would contribute most to making the target of $10,000$tonnes in $2001-02$ unrealistic?

Directions for the questions : Read each of the eight short passages given below and answer the questions that follows it.

Animals, in general, are shrewd in proportion as they cultivate society. Elephants and beavers show the greatest signs of this sagacity when they are together in large numbers, but when man invades their communities, they lose all their spirit of industry. Among insects, the labours of the bee and the ant have attracted the attention and admiration of naturalists, but all their sagacity seems to be lost upon separation, and a single bee or ant seems destitute of every degree of industry. It becomes the most stupid insect imaginable and it languishes and soon dies.

Which of the following can be inferred from the above passage?