Q1. Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.
More people signed up for Harvard’s online courses in a year, for example, than have attended the university in its 377 years of existence. In the same spirit, there are more unique visits each month to the WebMD network, a collection of health websites, than to all the doctors working in the United States. In the legal world, three times as many disagreements each year amongst eBay traders are resolved using ‘online dispute resolution’ than there are lawsuits filed in the entire US court system. On its sixth birthday, the Huffington Post had more unique monthly visitors than the website of the New York Times, which is almost 164 years of age. The British tax authorities use a fraud-detection system that holds more data than the British Library (which has copies of every book ever published in the UK). In 2014, the US tax authorities received electronic tax returns from almost 48 million people who had used online tax preparation software rather than a tax professional to help them. The architectural firm Gramazio & Kohler used a group of autonomous flying robots to assemble a structure out of 1500 bricks. The consulting firm Accenture has 750 hospital nurses on its staff, while Deloitte, founded as an audit practice 170 years ago, now has over 200,000
professionals and its own full-scale corporate university set in a 700,000-square-foot campus in Texas.
The author of the above paragraph is trying to conclude something by citing different pieces of evidence. What could the author be trying to prove?
A How new organizational forms are emerging
B How automation is taking away jobs traditionally done by humans.
C How professionals are getting replaced by technology
D How old firms are dying.
E What old firms can do to survive
EXPLANATION
A
The passage provides various examples of how technological advancements and online platforms are changing traditional ways of doing things, such as education, healthcare, legal dispute resolution, news consumption, tax preparation, architecture, and the structure of organizations. The examples collectively
suggest a shift toward new organizational forms and approaches.
Therefore, Option A is the correct choice
Q2-4. Instructions : Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Interpretation in our own time, however, is even more complex. For the contemporary zeal for the project of interpretation is often prompted not by piety toward the troublesome text (which may conceal an aggression), but by an open aggressiveness, an overt contempt for appearances. The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one. The
most celebrated and influential modern doctrines, those of Marx and Freud, actually amount to elaborate systems of hermeneutics, aggressive and impious theories of interpretation. All observable phenomena are bracketed, in Freud’s phrase, as manifest content. This manifest content must be probed and pushed aside to find the true meaning—the latent content beneath. For Marx, social events like revolutions and wars; for Freud, the events of individual lives (like neurotic symptoms and slips of the tongue) as well as texts (like a dream or a
work of art)—all are treated as occasions for interpretation. According to Marx and Freud, these events only seem to be intelligible. Actually, they have no meaning without interpretation. To understand is to interpret. And to interpret is to restate the phenomenon, in effect to find an equivalent for it.
Thus, interpretation is not (as most people assume) an absolute value, a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities. Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view of human consciousness. In some cultural contexts, interpretation is a liberating act. It is a means of revising, of transvaluing, of escaping the dead past. In other cultural contexts, it is reactionary, impertinent, cowardly and stifling.
2. What does the author mean by “Thus, interpretation is not…a gesture of
mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities?”
A Interpretation is being evaluative of the meaning created by an authority.
B Interpretation is an act of mind which is situated in a changeless domain.
C Interpretation is about erecting another meaning on top of the literal one.
D Interpretation is act of understanding, developed by timeless experts.
E Interpretation is about revisiting and reinventing meanings.
EXPLANATION
E
The phrase “interpretation is not…a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities” implies that interpretation is not a static or unchanging mental process. Instead, it is a dynamic and context-dependent activity that involves revisiting and reinventing meanings based on the historical and cultural context. Option E best expresses the idea that interpretation is about engaging with and reshaping meanings in response to evolving contexts, aligning well with the author’s intent in the passage.
Option A: The passage does not specifically discuss evaluation in terms of authority but emphasizes the act of interpretation itself.
Option B: The passage suggests the opposite, highlighting the dynamic and historical nature of interpretation.
Option C represents the old style of interpretation, which the passage contrasts with the modern style of excavation and destruction.
Option D: The passage does not attribute interpretation to timeless experts but rather explores its historical and cultural variability.
3. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT an act of interpretation?
A Searching for underlying themes in a historical document
B Finding underlying causes of a social evil described in a book
C Labelling a text as blasphemous
D Critical appreciation of a literary text
E Investigating class-conflict in Charles Dicken’s novels
EXPLANATION
C
Option C is the correct answer because labeling a text as blasphemous is not an act of interpretation in the context discussed in the passage. The passage emphasizes a dynamic and context-dependent approach to
interpretation, involving the exploration and excavation of meanings within texts. Labelling a text as blasphemous is more of a judgment or categorization based on personal or cultural beliefs, and it does not align with the nuanced and exploratory nature of interpretation as described in the passage. Interpretation, as
presented in the passage, involves a deeper engagement with the content, seeking underlying themes, causes, or appreciating the complexity of literary texts rather than simply assigning a label.
4. Which of the following BEST differentiates manifest content from the latent content?
A Manifest content is apparent whereas latent content is hidden
B Manifest content is loaded whereas latent content is elusive
C Manifest content is natural whereas latent content is cultural
D Manifest content is obscure whereas latent content is lucid
E Manifest content is a superset whereas latent content is a subset
EXPLANATION
A
Option A is correct because it accurately differentiates between manifest content and latent content as described in the passage. Manifest content refers to the apparent, surface-level content, while latent content is hidden, requiring interpretation. The words “apparent” and “hidden” effectively capture this distinction, making
Option A the best choice.
Option B mischaracterizes manifest content and latent content by introducing terms like “loaded” and “elusive” that do not align with the passage’s description.
Option C: The passage doesn’t make a distinction based on natural or cultural elements but focuses on the visibility and hidden nature of the content.
Option D misinterprets the nature of manifest and latent content; manifest content is not necessarily obscure, and latent content is not inherently lucid.
Option E: They are not hierarchical in a superset-subset relationship but rather represent different layers of meaning in interpretation.
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