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CAT 2015 based paper

Section 1 Verbal
Reading Comprehension
Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal
government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a
complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or
formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in
every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave
intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive researchers have described language as a
psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the
admittedly quaint term “instinct”. It conveys the idea that people know how to talk in more or less
the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some unsung
spider genius and does not depend on having had the right education or on having an aptitude for
architecture or the construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spider
brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to succeed. Although there are
differences between webs and words, I will encourage you to see language in this way, for it helps to
make sense of the phenomena we will explore.
Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom, especially as it has been passed
down in the canon of the humanities and social sciences. Language is no more a cultural invention
than is upright posture. It is not a manifestation of a general capacity to use symbols: a three-yearold,
we shall see, is a grammatical genius, but is quite incompetent at the visual arts, religious
iconography, traffic signs, and the other staples of the semiotics curriculum. Though language is a
magnificent ability unique to Homo sapiens among living species, it does not call for sequestering
the study of humans from the domain of biology, for a magnificent ability unique to a particular
living species is far from unique in the animal kingdom. Some kinds of bats home in on flying insects
using Doppler sonar. Some kinds of migratory birds navigate thousands of miles by calibrating the
positions of the constellations against the time of day and year. In nature’s talent show, we are
simply a species of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating information about who did
what to whom by modulating the sounds we make when we exhale.
Once you begin to look at language not as the ineffable essence of human uniqueness hut as a
biological adaptation to communicate information, it is no longer as tempting to see language as an
insidious shaper of thought, and, we shall see, it is not. Moreover, seeing language as one of nature’s
engineering marvels — an organ with “that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which justly
excites our admiration,” in Darwin’s words - gives us a new respect for your ordinary Joe and the
much-maligned English language (or any language). The complexity of language, from the
researcher’s point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not something that parents teach
their children or something that must be elaborated in school — as Oscar Wilde said, “Education is
an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing
can be taught.” A preschooler’s tacit knowledge of grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest
style manual or the most state-of-the-art computer language system, and the same applies to all
healthy human beings, even the notorious syntax fracturing professional athlete and the, you know,
like, inarticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is the product of a well engineered
biological instinct, we shall see that it is not the nutty barrel of monkeys that entertainer columnists
make it out to be.
1. According to the passage, all of the following stem from popular wisdom on language Except?
(1) Language is a cultural artifact.

Question paper for the CAT (Common Admission Test)
Deeply involved in other quarters of the globe, the United States paid little attention to the fortunes
or misfortunes of her neighbours to the south, and when she did intervene, it appeared to be on the
side of order and the status quo rather than on the side of reform. So frightened was the United
States of “Communism” in Latin America that it preferred military dictatorship to reformers who
might drift too far to the “left”, and sustained a Batista in Cuba, a Trujillo in the Dominican Republic,
a Peron in Argentina, and a Jimenez in Venezuela.
In his last two years, President Eisenhower had tried to mend his Latin American fences. Though
rejecting a Brazilian proposal of a Marshall Plan for Latin America, he did take the initiative in setting
up an Inter-American development Bank with a capital of one billion dollars, almost half of it
supplied by the United States. Other government investments in Latin America ran to some four
million dollars, while private investments exceeded nine billion. Yet though to most Americans, all
this seemed a form of economic aid, many Latin Americans regarded it as economic imperialism. In
September 1960, came a co-operative plan that could not be regarded as other than enlightened:
the Act of Bogota, which authorized a grant of half a billion dollars to subsidize not only economic
but social and educational progress in Latin America. “We are not saints”, said President Eisenhower
when he visited Santiago de Chile, “We know we make mistakes, but our heart is in the right place”.
But was it? President Kennedy was confronted by the same dilemma that had perplexed his
predecessors. Clearly it was essential to provide a large-scale aid to the countries south of Rio
Grande, but should this aid go to bolster up established regimes and thus help maintain status quo,
or should it be used to speed up social reforms, even at the risk of revolt? As early as 1958, the then
Senator Kennedy had asserted that “the objective of our aid program in Latin America should not be
to purchase allies, but to consolidate a free and democratic Western Hemisphere, alleviating those
conditions which might foster opportunities for communistic infiltration and uniting our peoples on
the basis of constantly increasing living standards”.
This conviction that raising the standards of living was the best method of checking Communism
now inspired President Kennedy's bold proposal for the creation of the alliance for progress - - a ten
year plan designed to do for Latin America what Marshall Plan had done for Western Europe. It was
to be “a peaceful revolution on a hemispheric scale, a vast cooperative effort, unparalleled in
magnitude and nobility of purpose, to satisfy the basic needs of the American people for homes,
work, land, health and schools. “To achieve this, the United States pleaded an initial grant of one
billion dollars, with the promise of additional billions for the future.
7. Following World War II, which problem was the United States most concerned with regarding
Latin America?
(a) Economic stability.
(b) Political ideology.
(c) Religious persecution.
(d) Military dictatorship.
8. A key reason why Latin American rejected the Inter-American development Bank was that
(a) it primarily provided money for social reform subsidies.
(b) the moneys provided were only for specific performance projects.
(c) it constituted an extension of the Marshall Plan into Latin America
(d) it was being used as a means to control the economic destiny of Latin America.
9. Which of the following is most closely associated with the concept of a Marshall Plan for Latin
America?
(a) The Good Neighbour Policy.
(b) The Alliance for Progress.
(c) The Act of Bogota.
(d) The Monroe Doctrine.
10. According to the passage, the fundamental change in U.S. foreign policy directed towards Latin
America
(a) resulted in a deterioration of U.S. Latin American relations.
(b) was responsible for Peron remaining as a dictator in Peru.
(c) recognized that economic aid alone would prevent social revolutions.
(d) provided for increased military and economic aid to prevent the spread of communism in Latin
America.
11. All of the following statements are true, except?
(a) Mexico and Chile did not experience the general social crises that are common to the majority of
Latin American countries.
(b) President Eisenhower continued in practice the theory that economic aid was the best defense
against communist incursion into Latin America
(c) The Good Neighbour Policy favoured a multilateral interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine.
(d) The traditional U.S. approach in Latin America was to protect the status quo.
12. Which of the inferences can be drawn if everything said in the passage were assumed to be true?
(a) Rebellions are fuelled by social reforms and avoided by supporting established authorities or
continuing the present state of affairs.
(b) The American policy towards Asia can be called an overall success, though small in magnitude.
(c) Kennedy, in 1958, wanted America to aid South American countries to acquire more support in
their fight against communism.
(d) Eisenhower rejected the Marshall Plan, whereas Kennedy implemented a similar one.
Last fortnight, news of a significant development was tucked away in the inside pages of
newspapers. The government finally tabled a bill in Parliament seeking to make primary education a
fundamental right. A fortnight earlier, a Delhi-based newspaper had carried a report about a threemonth
interruption in the Delhi Government's ‘Education for All’ programme. The report made for
distressing reading. It said that literacy centres across the city were closed down, volunteers beaten
up and enrolment registers burnt. All because the state government had, earlier this year, made
participation in the programme mandatory for teachers in government schools. The routine denials
were issued and there probably was a wee bit of exaggeration in the report. But it still is a pointer to
the enormity of the task at hand.
That economic development will be inherently unstable unless it is built on a solid base of education,
specially primary education, has been said so often that it is in danger of becoming a platitude. Nor
does India's abysmal record in the field need much reiteration. Nearly 30 million children in the six to
ten age group do not go to school — reason enough to make primary education not only compulsory
but a fundamental right. But is that the solution? More importantly, will it work? Or will it remain a
mere token, like the laws providing for compulsory primary education? It is now widely known that
14 states and four Union Territories have this law on their statute books. Believe it or not, the list
actually includes Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan, where literacy and education levels are
miles below the national average. A number of states have not even notified the compulsory
education law.
This is not to belittle the decision to make education a fundamental right. As a statement of political
will, a commitment by the decision-makers, its importance cannot be undervalued. Once this
commitment is clear, a lot of other things like resource allocation will naturally fall into place. But
the task of universalizing elementary education (UEE) is complicated by various socio-economic and
cultural factors which vary from region to region and within regions.
If India's record continues to appall, it is because these intricacies have not been adequately
understood by the planners and administrators. The trouble has been that education policy has been
designed by grizzled mandarins ensconced in Delhi and is totally out of touch with the ground
reality. The key then is to decentralise education planning and implementation. What's also needed
is greater community involvement in the whole process. Only then can school timings be adjusted
for convenience, school children given a curriculum they can relate to and teachers made
accountable.
For proof, one has only to look at the success of the district primary education programme, which
was launched in 1994. It has met with a fair degree of success in the 122 districts it covers. Here the
village community is involved in all aspects of education — allocating finances to supervising
teachers to fixing school timings and developing curriculum and textbooks — through district
planning teams. Teachers are also involved in the planning and implementation process and are
given small grants to develop teaching and learning material, vastly improving motivational levels.
The consequent improvement in the quality of education generates increased demand for
education.
But for this demand to be generated, quality will first have to be improved. In MP, the village
panchayats are responsible for not only constructing and maintaining primary schools but also
managing scholarships, besides organising non-formal education. How well this works in practice
remains to be seen (though the department claims the schemes are working very well) but the
decision to empower panchayats with such powers is itself a significant development. Unfortunately,
the Panchayat Raj Act has not been notified in many states. After all, delegating powers to the
panchayats is not looked upon too kindly by vested interests.
More specifically, by politicians, since decentralisation of education administration takes away from
them the power of transfer, which they use to grant favours and build up a support base. But if the
political leadership can push through the bill to make education a fundamental right, it should also
be able to persuade the states to implement the laws on Panchayat Raj. For, UEE cannot be achieved
without decentralisation. Of course, this will have to be accompanied by proper supervision and
adequate training of those involved in the administration of education. But the devolution of powers
to the local bodies has to come first.

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