# 5.XAT 2008

Directions for Questions 1-21:

Each group of questions in this section is based on a set of conditions. In answering some of the questions, it may be useful to draw a rough diagram. Choose the response that most accurately and completely answers each question and blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.

Directions for Questions 1-4:

There are exactly ten stores and no other buildings on a straight street in Bistupur Market. On the northern side of the street, from West to East, are stores 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9; on the southern side of the street, also from West to East, are stores 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. The stores on the northern side are located directly across the street from those on the southern side, facing each other in pairs, as follows: 1 and 2; 3 and 4; 5 and 6; 7 and 8; 9 and 10. Each store is decorated with lights in exactly one of the following colours: green, red, and yellow. The stores have been decorated with lights according to the following conditions:

No store is decorated with lights of the same colour as those of any store adjacent to it.

No store is decorated with lights of the same colour as those of the store directly across the street from it.

Yellow lights decorate exactly one store on each side of the street.

Red lights decorate store 4.

Yellow lights decorate store 5.

Ans .

(b) Green, red, green, yellow, red

1. Explanation :

Ans .

(d) Red lights decorate store 9.

1. Explanation :

Ans .

(b) Red lights decorate store 1.

1. Explanation :

The question asks us which of the following ҍust be correct. Also, we need to go back to only the basic information given in the question set as additional information provided for the previous question cannot be taken to be true for the next one unless specifically stated in the question.

Thus, we need to look into the original solution grid that we had and see which of the solutions match that.

If you check the options, you see that the statement 'Red lights decorate store 10' is a must. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Ans .

(e) Yellow lights decorate store 2.

1. Explanation :

If we need to place two yellow lighted stores into the southern side of the grid (all conditions remaining constant), we can easily see that we cannot place two consecutive yellows in stores 8 and 10. Thus, one of the two yellows on the southern side must be placed in Store 2. Hence, option (e) is correct.

Directions for Questions 5-8:

Six square states having equal area in a country are located in NorthSouth direction in two columns next to each other. States are located in the given order: State 1, State 3 and State 5 are on the western side and State 2, State 4 and State 6 are on the eastern side. Within the six states, there are exactly four medical institutes, two management institutes, and two technical institutes. These eight institutions are located as follows:

No institution is in more than one states.

None of the states contain more than one management institute, and none contains more than one technical institute.

None of the states contain both a management institute and a technical institute.

Each management institute is located in a state that contains at least one medical institute.

The technical institutes are located in two states that do not share a common boundary.

State 3 contains a technical institute and State 6 contains a management institute.

Ans .

(b) State 1 contains exactly one medical institute

1. Explanation :

We can easily reject options (a), (c), (d) and (e) respectively as below:

State 1 cannot contain a technical institute as the two technical institutes are already fixed for States 2 and 3;
State 2 cannot contain a management institute as we already know that state 2 has a technical institute.
State 5 cannot contain a technical institute as the two technical institutes are already fixed for States 2 and 3;
State 6 cannot contain a technical institute as the two technical institutes are already fixed for States 2 and 3.
Only option (b) is possible in this situation.
Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(d) 1,4,5.

1. Explanation :

The second management institute could be in any of the states 1, 4 or 5. Hence, option (d) is correct

Ans .

(d) There is a medical institute in State 4.

1. Explanation :

If each of the 6 states contain at least one institute it means that there are 2 states with exactly 1 technical institute (States 2 and 3-already fixed); There would be two states with exactly 1 management institute and 1 medical institute & there would be 2 states with exactly 1 medical institute each. The grid would look as below with the only variable being where the second management institute would be:

Ans .

(a) 1, 3, 5

1. Explanation :

If one state contains exactly two medical institutes and 1 technical institute that state would be either state 2 or state 3. Then the fourth medical institute would be with a management college in any of states 1, 3 or 5.

Checking the options, we can reject options (d) and (e) as these contain state 6 in them and we already know that state 6 has 1 medical college- hence state 6 cannot be a part of the list of 3 states where there is no management institute.

Option (c) can be rejected as it takes both states 2 and 3 into the list of 3 possible states, which have no medical institute. This cannot happen because we know that either one of these two states contains exactly 2 medical institutes.

Similarly, option (b) gets rejected as a possible list, because if there is no medical institute in any of the three states 1, 4 and 5, then it is a contradiction of the existing situation because we need to put 1 management institute and 1 medical institute in any of these three states. Option (a) is the only possible answer as if there is no medical college in states 1, 3 and 5 we can still do the following arrangement to meet all the constraints of the problem:

Directions for Questions 9-12:

During a four-week period, each one of seven previously unadvertised products, G, H, J, K, L, M and O-will be advertised. A different pair of these products will be advertised each week. Exactly one of the products will be a member of two of these four pairs. None of the other products gets repeated in any pair. Further, the following constraints must be observed:

J is not advertised during a given week unless H is advertised during the week immediately preceding it.

The product that is advertised twice is advertised during week 4 but is not advertised during week 3.

G is not advertised during a given week unless either J or O is also advertised that week.

K is advertised during one of the first two weeks.

O is one of the products advertised during week 3.

Ans .

(b) Week 1: H, K; week 2: J, G; week 3: O, L; week 4: M, K

1. Explanation :

Ans .

(e) M

1. Explanation :

Ans .

(d) L

1. Explanation :

In this case we have to assume that the particular product is advertised only once otherwise the question does not make any sense since if we allow two advertising weeks for most products we would be able to see that they can be advertised in any of the four weeks (except perhaps product O which cannot be advertised in two weeks since it is advertised in week 3).

Once we make this assumption, we get the following thought:

H cannot be advertised in week 4 (as J has to follow H);

J cannot be advertised in week 1 (as H has to be advertised before J);

K has to be advertised in one of the first two weeks, so we cannot take it to weeks 3 and 4;

O has to be advertised in week 3, hence cannot be feasibly advertised in any of the four weeks.

From amongst the options it only leaves us with L which can be advertised in any of the four weeks.

Hence, Option (d) is correct.

Ans .

(e) M and O

1. Explanation :

Directions for Questions 13-17:

In a game, 'words' (meaningful or meaningless) consist of any combination of at least five letters of the English alphabets. A 'sentence' consists of exactly six words and satisfies the following conditions:

The six words are written from left to right on a single line in alphabetical order. The sentence can start with any word, and the successive word is formed by applying exactly one of three operations to the preceding word: delete one letter; add a letter; replace one letter with another. At the most three of the six words can begin with the same letter. Except for the first word, each word is formed by a different operation used for the preceding word.

Ans .

(b) Crobek croeek roeek soeek sxoeek xoeek

1. Explanation :

Ans .

(e) z

1. Explanation :

There is no constraint that restricts the starting letter of the sentence's first word. Hence, the last possible letter for the first word's beginning letter is 'z'. Option (e) is correct.

Ans .

(e) Elicit

1. Explanation :

We need to see which word can get changed to 'licit' in one operation. From the options, we can see that if 'Elicit' is the third word, we can get 'licit' as the fourth word by using the rule of deletion. Option (e) is correct.

Ans .

(e) Third, fourth, fifth, sixth

1. Explanation :

What can be noticed in moving from 'clean' to 'learn' is that the number of letters is same. Also, there is a deletion of 1 letter and addition of 1 letter between clean and learn. The following movements are possible from clean to learn:

clean Æ lean Æ learn (so learn can be the third word);

clean Æ tlean Æ lean Æ learn (so learn can be the fourth word) clean Æ tlean Æ tlearn Æ mlearn Æ learn (so learn can be the fifth word);

In the above moves, we have used: 1 addition and 1 deletion in the first case;

1 replacement, 1 addition and 1 deletion in the second case;

2 replacements, 1 addition and 1 deletion in the third case;

If we want to make learn as the 6th word that means we need 5 operations from clean to learn. In order to do this we need to try to think of one of two ways:

(i) 3 replacements and 1 deletion and 1 addition
(ii) 2 deletions, 2 additions and 1 replacement (note since the number of letters in clean is equal to the number of letters in learn, the number of deletions we use should be equal to the number of additions)

The first of the above ways means we have to use a sequence of either:

Replacement - addition - replacement - deletion- replacement OR

Replacement - deletion - replacement - addition - replacement

The required result can be achieved through the following string:

Clean Æ tlean Æ tleahn Æ cleahn Æ leahn Æ learn

And we can see clearly that we have used the sequence of operations:

Replacement - addition - replacement - deletion - replacement to get learn as the sixth word in the sentence.

The following alternative also exists in this case:

Clean Æ lean Æ tlean Æ mlean Æ mlearn Æ earn

Here we have used: Deletion - addition - replacement - addition - deletion. Thus, we see that learn can be the sixth word too.

Hence, option (e) is the correct answer

Ans .

(d) Seven

1. Explanation :

We can follow the following sequence to get the maximum number of letters in the fifth word: 1st word = 5 letters; followed by addition Æ 2nd word = 6 letters; followed by replacement Æ 3rd word = 6 letters; followed by addition Æ 4th word = 7 letters; followed by replacement Æ 5th word = 7 letters.

We can also see that there is no way to exceed 7 letters in this case, as we cannot fit in an additional addition operation till the 5th word. Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Directions for Questions 18-21:

Professor Mukhopadhay works only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. She performs four different activities-Lecturing, conducting quizzes, evaluating quizzes and working on consultancy projects. Each working day she performs exactly one activity in the morning and exactly one activity in the afternoon. During each week her work schedule MUST satisfy the following restrictions: She conducts quizzes on exactly three mornings.
If she conducts quizzes on Monday, she does not conduct a quiz on Tuesday.
She lectures in the afternoon on exactly two consecutive calendar days.
She evaluates quizzes on exactly one morning and three afternoons.
She works on consultancy project on exactly one morning.
On Saturday, she neither lectures nor conducts quizzes.

Ans .

(c) Conduct a quiz in the morning and lecture in the afternoon.

1. Explanation :

The question is asking about what can be true about Wednesday. Looking at both the possibilities we have created we can clearly see that on Wednesday morning she is necessarily conducting quizzes, while on Wednesday afternoons she could be either lecturing or evaluating quizzes. Option (c) is the correct answer

Ans .

(e) She lectures on one of the days on which she conducts quizzes

1. Explanation :

The question is asking us about which of the options must be true; thus we are looking for a situation which we cannot avoid in any possibility. Checking each of the options we see that:

Option (a): There is one day on which she evaluates quizzes both in the morning and in the afternoon-is not necessarily true as this is a possibility but not necessarily true.

Option (b): She works on the consultancy project on one of the days on which lectures. Again this can happen but is not necessary if we place Consultancy on Saturday along with evaluating quizzes.

Option (c): She works on consultancy project on one of the days on which she evaluates quizzes-is also not necessary because we can place Consultancy on Monday morning and match it with Lecturing on Monday afternoon.

Option (d): She lectures on one of the days on which evaluates quizzes. Again this can happen but is not necessary.

Option (e): She lectures on one of the days on which she conducts quizzes. This is something that must be true since we have to place two consecutive lectures in the afternoons between the first four days and we cannot avoid having at least one of the lectures on a day on which she is conducting quizzes in the morning.

Hence, option (e) is the correct answer

Ans .

(d) Seven

1. Explanation :

From the above it is definite that she definitely evaluates quizzes on Saturday afternoons. Her possible schedule about Evaluating quizzes would depend on the following variables:

(i) Whether she evaluates quizzes on Monday or Saturday morning.

(ii) On the two consecutive days we choose for the afternoon lectures, and for instance if we choose Monday and Tuesday for lectures, evaluating quizzes would happen in the afternoons on Wednesday and Friday; If we choose Tuesday and Wednesday for lectures, evaluating quizzes would happen in the afternoons on Monday and Friday;

Matching the options with these possibilities we see that evaluating quizzes cannot happen on the schedules mentioned in options (a) [because it does not have Saturday afternoon]; option (b) [because it gives us evaluating quizzes on two mornings which contradicts the given conditions]; option (c) [because it shows that she is evaluating quizzes on Monday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, and that leaves on Tuesday and Friday afternoon for the two lectures. We cannot place the lectures on these two afternoons as it contradicts the condition that lectures occur on two consecutive afternoons.]; Option (d) [because Wednesday morning is fixed for conducting quizzes]; Option (e) is a possibility because in that case we get the following grid which is a distinct possibility as it does not contradict any of the clues

Ans .

(b) Wednesday

1. Explanation :

Since she lectures on two consecutive calendar days, she can do so either on Monday and Tuesday afternoons OR on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. In either case, Tuesday afternoon is fixed for a lecture. Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Read the following situation and choose the best possible alternative

Directions for Question 22:

The surnames of four professionals are: Bannerji, Chatterji, Mukherji and Pestonji. Their professions are accountant, lawyer, dentist and doctor (not necessarily in this order). The accountant and lawyer work in their offices, while the dentist and doctor work in their nursing homes. The accountant looks after Mukherji's and Chatterji's account. Chatterji, does not know Bannerji, although his nursing home is in the same street as Bannerji's office. Chatterji is not a doctor.
What are the occupations of the four people?

Ans .

(d) Bannerji-Lawyer, Chatterji-Dentist, Mukherji-Doctor and Pestonji-Accountant

1. Explanation :

Go through the situation and the accompanying table, and pick up the best alternative to answer Question Nos. 23-24

Directions for Questions 23-24:

There are five sets of digits-Set A, Set B, Set C, Set D and Set E as shown in given table. Set A contains one digit, Set B contains two digits, Set C contains three digits, Set D contains two digits and Set E contains one digit. Rearrange the digits, across the sets such that the number formed out of digits of Set C is a multiple of the numbers formed from digits in the sets on either side. For example; in the given diagram, Set C is a multiple of digits in Set A and Set B but not of Set D and Set E

Ans .

(d) 3

1. Explanation :

We require 3 interchanges in order to get to the final situation with 156 in the middle cell. Option (d) is correct

Ans .

(a) 2 and 4

1. Explanation :

The digits in set A and E would be 2 and 4 respectively. Option (a) is correct

Directions for Questions 25-28:

Read the following situations and choose the best possible alternative

Ans .

(a) Apologize and fix up the bug for all customers even if it has to incur losse

1. Explanation :

The question asks for the most ethical option for the company. The obvious answer for the same is option (a) as apologizing and fixing the bug even if it has to incur losses would ensure that the losses of the customers are minimised. Options (b), (c) and (d) are not ethical, while option (e) is not as good as option (a) since apologizing to customers would not take care of their inconveniences. Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(b) Sell its products under different brand names to middle and poor classes.

1. Explanation :

It is evident that the company is missing out on 80% of the market size and hence, there is a potential of making the sales go up to 5 times the current sales value. This can be done in two ways suggested under options (a) and (b)-if it sells the same products at lower prices to middle and poor classes OR if it Sells its products under different brand names to the middle and poor classes. The second strategy is better since it safeguards the current business interests of the company and at the same time gives them a strong business growth possibility. This strategy is likely to work and is warranted since the sales growth is stagnating in the rich classes. Hence, option (b) is correct

Ans .

(b) Reduce the number of female employees as it is a business requirement. She should not let anything affect her business.

1. Explanation :

As a conscientious female entrepreneur, her first objective is to ensure the well being of her business. If there are certain jobs that are not suited to women employees, and due to that she is forced to reduce the number of her female staff, then she is not showing a lack of conscience in doing so. Especially since the circumstances defined in the question talk about her having expanded to 8 cities it is likely that her business would involve the employees need to travel more and more. Hence, option (b) is the strongest answer.

Option (c) is not warranted as she has to do something to tackle the business situation and maintaining the status quo would definitely not be good for her business.

Similarly, options (d) and (e) are too drastic and hence are totally uncalled for. Option (a) is something she must have already explored and found infeasible, otherwise she would not have been facing the pressure if something like that were implementable in her business situation.

Option (b) is the correct answer

Ans .

(e) I would hire him for the job he is good at, and provide training in other areas.

1. Explanation :

Option (e) is the best course of action in the given situation as hiring him for what he is good at makes sense along with providing training in other areas in which he is not good at, so that it gives him a chance to improve his basic skills.

Directions for Questions 29-31:

Go through the table that follows and pick up the best alternative to answer the questions that follow.

Teams A, B, C and D are participating in a cricket tournament. Team A has to pick up five batsmen out of ten available. All batsmen have played 100 matches each in the past. Past data indicates that C beats A 8 out of 10 times. B beats A 5 out of 10 times and D beats A 1 out of 10 times. The conditions for the series are likely to be normal and bowling strength of all the teams is same. Manager of Team A, based on his past experience feels that the team should take high risk against stronger opponents and low risk against weaker opponents for maximising chances of winning the game. The average score of the top 10 batsman of Team A is provided in the table given below.

Ans .

(c) ST, RD, MK, MD, SG

1. Explanation :

Solutions for Questions 29-31:

The situation defined in the problem clearly states that for playing against weaker opposition, the strategy has to be risk averse-where you depend on players who you know would deliver close to their average, while for playing against stronger opposition you need to be risk taking in your decision making-by opting for players who would represent a higher risk but win you matches by their performance on the day.

A quick scan through the players and their profiles shows for instance that someone like RD is a safe performer as he delivers close to his average 70% of the time, and though he does not do anything spectacular (as borne out by 3 centuries in 100 matches), he is what can be called a dependable player.

Someone like RU or VS on the other hand, represent high risk players with their century rate being< high, but at the same time their rate of failure is also very high. VS, for instance, fails 50% of the time. RU fails 55% of the time. However, this is offset by their returns when they succeed as shown by 15% and 12% rate of scoring a century for them.

Based on this understanding we can move to the questions in the set.
29. Team B is a team which is more or less of the same strength as Team A. Hence, the team A should choose dependable players as the risk required to maximize the winning chances is low.

If we look at the options in the question what can be definitely rejected is any selection involving RU, since RU would not be a wise choice in this match against B. Hence, options (a), (b) and (e) are rejected. Similarly, in option (d) the player VS is getting selected and he is also a high risk player. Thus, this is also not the appropriate selection.

Option (c): Selection of RD, ST, SG, MD and MK represent the best set of players who are likely to perform close to their average with the least chance of failure. Hence, option (c) is the correct answer

Ans .

(e) ST, VS, RU, MD, SG

1. Explanation :

In a match against the strongest team C, we need to take risks with our selection. RD should definitely not be there in the team as he is a low risk choice. Options (a) and (c) get rejected as they include RD in the choice.

both VS and RU should be part of the team as they represent the highest risk and high returns, if the risk pays off (as they have the highest rates of hitting centuries amongst the players). All the remaining options include both VS and RU in the team. If we compare options (d) and (e) we see that in option (e), ST and SG replace YS and MK from option (d). If we look at the statistics of ST and SG in comparison with YS and MK, it is obvious that even in a high risk situation ST and SG are a better choice (as their century conversion rates are equal, but at the same time their reliability is also higher). So the extra risk in YS and MK is not justified as it does not yield any better returns than ST and SG. Hence, option (e) is the correct answer

Ans .

(d) ST, RD, VV, SG, MD

1. Explanation :

In a match against a weak opposition, we need to be risk averse and choose reliabe players. ST, SG, RD, MD and VV is the most risk averse choice as they perform close to their average the maximum number of times (per 100 matches). Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative (Question 32-37):

Mr. Rajiv Singhal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Loha India Ltd., (a steel manufacturing company) had just been visited by several other directors of the company. The directors were upset with recent actions of the company president, Mr. Ganesh Thakur. They demanded that the board consider firing the president.

Mr. Thakur, recently appointed as president, had undertaken to solve some of the managementemployees problems by dealing directly with the individuals, as often as possible. The company did not have a history of strikes or any other form of collective action and was considered to have a good work culture. However, Mr. Thakur felt that by dealing directly with individuals, he could portray the management's concern for the employees. An important initiative of Mr. Thakur was to negotiate wages of the supervisors with each supervisor. In these negotiation meetings he would not involve anyone else, including the Personnel Department which reported to him, so as to take an unbiased decision. After negotiation, a wage contract would be drawn up for each supervisor. This, he felt, would recognise and reward the better performers. Mr. Thakur successfully implemented the process for most of the supervisors, except those working in the night shift. For them he had drawn up the contracts unilaterally benchmarking the wages of supervisors of night shift with that of supervisors of the day shift.

For several days Ram Lal a night shift supervisor, had been trying to seek an appointment with Mr. Thakur about his wages. He was disgruntled, not only over his failure to see the president, but also over the lack of discussions about his wage contract prior to its being effected. As a family man with six dependents, he felt his weekly wage should be higher than that granted to him.

Last Thursday afternoon Ram Lal stopped by the president's office and tried to see him. Mr. Thakur's secretary refused his request on the grounds that Mr. Thakur was busy. Infuriated, Ram Lal stormed into the president's office and confronted the startled Mr. Thakur, with his demands for a better wage. Mr. Thakur stood up and told Ram Lal to get out of his office and express his grievance through official channel. Ram Lal took a swing at the president who in turn punched Ram Lal on the jaw and knocked him unconscious.

Ans .

(a) Involvement of company's president in wage problems of employees will lead to a better goodwill towards the management among the workers

1. Explanation :

From what is given in the caselet, it is evident that option (a) can be inferred. The premise that the involvement of the company's president in wage problems of employees would lead to a better goodwill towards the management among the workers. This is clearly inferable from the third sentence in the second paragraph of the passage which states: "However, Mr. Thakur felt that by dealing directly with individuals, he could portray the management's concern for the employees."

Each of the other options can be easily rejected based on an understanding of the central theme of the situation. Hence, option (a) is correct

Ans .

(b) His being in the night shift had worked to his disadvantage as he could not interact with the management regarding his problem.

1. Explanation :

Ram Lal's grievance is brought about in the last two paragraphs of the passage. A close reading of this should make you realise that Ram Lal's principal grievance was due to the fact that since he was in the night shift, he did not get a chance to interact with the management regarding his wage fixation and his problems. Option (b) is the correct answer

Ans .

(d) Inconsistent dealings of Mr. Thakur with supervisors

1. Explanation :

The causal factor is clearly the inconsistent approach of Mr.Thakur where he is not consistent towards giving time to each of the supervisors in the company. It is this inconsistent approach of Mr. Thakur that has led to Ram Lal's grievance and the subsequent escalation of the episode to an ugly one. Option (d) is the correct answer

Ans .

(e) 2, 3, 1, 4

1. Explanation :

The best option is in the second intervention, i.e. creating a process for supervisors working in the night shift so that they could have an opportunity to interact with him. This would have solved the issue from the root and would in fact not allowed the issue to have cropped up at all.

The intervention in 3, is the next best one as it would have given Ram Lal an opportunity to meet Mr. Thakur without facing the red tapism of his secretary. Consequently, Ram Lal's grievances would have been heard and it would not have allowed the situation to escalate. The only option which starts with interventions 2 and 3, is option (e). Hence, option (e) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(d) 1 + 2 + 5

1. Explanation :

From the given options, it is clear that there is a valid reason for the production department to feel aggrieved as Mr.Thakur has not consulted them regarding the behavior of the supervisors on the shop floor. Similarly, the Finance department is also affected as suggested in point number 2, while the Personnel department would definitely feel aggrieved and hence disgruntled as Mr. Thakur has ignored and even bypassed them in fixing wages of supervisors directly.

Hence, 1+2+5 represents the correct set of departments which have the most justified reasons for feeling disgruntled. Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(e) Emotional stability under pressure

1. Explanation :

Mr. Thakur, clearly lacks emotional stability under pressure, as is borne out from his reaction to Ram Lal's action. As a president of the company he is supposed to behave in a more refined and stable manner and not be hitting employees no matter what the provocation is. Hence, option (e) is the correct answer

Directions for Questions 38-43:

Go through the caselets below and answer the questions that follow.

Directions for Questions 38 and 39:

According to recent reports, CEOs of large organisations are paid more than CEOs of small organisations. It does not seem fair that just because a CEO is heading a big organisation he/she should be paid more. CEOs salary should be related to performance, especially growth in terms of sales and profits. Of course, big organisations are more complex than the small, but all CEOs require significant amount of energy and time in managing organisations. There is no proof that CEOs of big organisations are more stressed than CEOs of small organisations. All CEOs should be paid according to their performance.

Ans .

(b) Managing big organisation is more challenging than small.

1. Explanation :

The argument argues for paying equally to all CEOs and link pay to performance rather than whether the organization they lead is big or small. In order to refute the argument we need to argue that CEOs of big companies are justified in getting paid more.

The best argument from amongst the options is from option (b) which states that 'managing a big organisation is more challenging than managing small organization.' If this argument were to be true, it would oppose the argument of the author effectively.

The other options given can be rejected based on the following thinking:

Option (a) is actually supporting the argument of the author and not refuting it.
Option (c) does not refute the argument because it might be that the CEO who is traveling more might be the CEO of a small organisation.
Option (d) is too vague as an argument, because small companies to become big, typically take years and decades; and even if the CEO of a small company performs well his company might not become big during his reign as the CEO. Hence, this argument is not very effective.
Option (e) also does refute the author's argument as linking pay to qualification does not necessarily guarantee that the CEO of large companies would be paid more.

Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(a) CEOs of small organisations come from good educational background

1. Explanation :

In order to strengthen the argument of the speaker we need to show that his argument of paying CEOs of all organisations equally is a valid and strong argument. Option (c) is rejected since if CEOs of big organisations were difficult to hire, it directly means that they should in fact be paid more than CEOs of small organisations. This ends up weakening the author's argument. Option (b) is irrelevant to the validity or strength of the argument and hence can be rejected as something that would strengthen the author's argument. Option (d) is again mostly irrelevant to the argument's strength since if big organisations did indeed contribute more towards moral development of society-it is a non-economic logic and should not have any bearing on their pay. Option (e) if true weakens the argument, since it can be reasoned that if it were true that CEOs of big organisations took much longer to reach the top, as compared to their counterparts in small organisations, it means that they should be paid more. Hence it can be seen to weaken the argument.

Only option (a) in some ways helps the argument that all CEOs should be paid equally, since if it were true that CEOs of small organisations came from good educational background, there is a logic for paying them more and this extra payment should balance out the higher payment that CEOs of big organisations get due to the expected complexity of handling big organisations. The result would be to equate payments of CEOs of big organisations and small organisations. Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Directions for Questions 40 and 41:

Hindi ought to be the official language of India. There is no reason for the government to spend money printing documents in different languages, just to cater to people who cannot read/write Hindi. The government has better ways to spend tax payers' money. People across India should read/write Hindi or learn it at the earliest.

Ans .

(b) Hindi is the most difficult language in the world to speak

1. Explanation :

In order to weaken the speakers argument we can either show that the cost the speaker is talking about is insignificant in the context of the benefits of making Hindi the official language of India OR if we can show that his argument and his subsequent suggestion is impractical to implement.

Looking through the options, you should be able to see that the logic in option (b), if true [i.e. Hindi is the most difficult language in the world to speak], would make the speakers suggestion highly impractical. None of the other options come close to this option in terms of their weakening effect on the speaker's argument. Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(c) The point above is similar to speaker's argument.

1. Explanation :

The speaker's argument in the previous question was to make Hindi the official language of India, using the lack of justification for spending tax payers money on printing documents in multiple languages-something which at best was a frivolous logic to base the argument on. The point given in this question, talks about making Hindi the official language of the United Nations, based on the logic that India being the most populous nation on the planet would contribute the maximum amount to the UN, something which at best is a frivolous logic to argue that Hindi should be made the official language of the UN.

Hence, we can see that both the arguments are similar in nature. Note that we cannot say that the argument is an extension of the speaker's because the two arguments are unrelated to each other, even though they both talk about making Hindi compulsory in different domains. Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

Directions for Questions 42 and 43:

The Bistupur-Sakchi corner needs a speed-breaker. Loyola school children cross this intersection, on their way to the school, and many a times do not check out for traffic. I get to read regular reports of cars and other vehicles hitting children. I know that speedbreakers are irritating for drivers, and I know that children cannot be protected from every danger, but this is one of the worst intersections in town. There needs to be a speed-breaker so that vehicles have to slow down and the children be made safer

Ans .

(b) Emotive-referring to the safety of children to get people interested

1. Explanation :

The argument creates a visual image for the reader/listener to imagine school children crossing the road in front of speeding vehicles in the absence of speed breakers near their school. This is clearly an emotive appeal to get the reader/listener interested.

The answer gets confirmed as you can clearly see that there is no analogy used in the argument, no statistical analysis used, no personalisation used and no attack on people who are against speed breakers used in the argument. Hence, option (b) is the correct answer

Ans .

(b) It extends the speaker's argument using statistical data.

1. Explanation :

The paragraph given in this question is clearly using statistical data. This then leads us to consider options (b) and (e). Between these, option (e) can be rejected because it is not contradicting the speaker's argument for constructing a speed breaker at the Bistupur-Sakchicorner. Similarly, the other options can also get rejected on the basis of: Option (a) is rejected since the paragraph is in no way similar to the speaker's argument (of the previous question);
Option (c) is rejected since there is clearly no use of an analogy in the paragraph;
Option (d) is also rejected because neither is this a conclusion of the speaker's argument nor is there a use of personalisation.

Hence, option (b) is the correct answer

Directions for Questions 44 and 45:

History, if viewed as a repository not merely of anecdotes or chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science by which we are now possessed. That image has previously been drawn, even by scientists themselves, mainly from the study of finished scientific achievements as these are recorded in the classics and, more recently, in the textbooks from which each new scientific generation learns to practice its trade.

Ans .

(c) Different ways of looking at history can produce altogether different knowledge.

1. Explanation :

A summary is the best encapsulation of the idea contained in the original paragraph. Since the question asks us to summarise the paragraph we are looking for the option that conveys to the user the same idea as the original paragraph. The principal argument in the paragraph is that if we look at history in a way different than what we have been doing till date, can produce a transformed knowledge base about science. From amongst the options, option (c) is the summary which is closest to this logic. Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(e) History of science can present multiple interpretations to people regarding the process of scientific developments.

1. Explanation :

The author is most likely to agree with the statement given to us in option (e) because the statement 'history of science can present multiple interpretations to people regarding the process of scientific developments' is closest to his own argument, which asks that history should be viewed in a different light from a different angle. Hence, option (e) is the correct answer

Directions for Questions 46 and 47:

Go through the caselets below and answer the questions that follow

Ans .

(c) Core competence can be used for furthering company's interests.

1. Explanation :

Giving top priority to core competence of production and marketing of tea does not mean that the company already possesses these core competences. This is the thinking that removes option (a) as a possible answer to the question.
Similarly, option (b) can be rejected [the causality drawn between increase in production to enhancing core competence is not implied in the passage];
Option (d) can also be rejected because the cause effect relationship is clearly upside down in option (d). It is likely that modernisation would lead to core competency and not the other way around as stated by this option;
and Option (e) can also be rejected as there is nothing to correlate the net profit of  5.49 crore to giving top priority to production.
Only option (c) is an implication that can be drawn from the given caselet as it is obviously implied that the company would try to increase core competence in order to further it's own interests.
Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

Ans .

(c) reviewing an article or a book on Blue Ocean strategy

1. Explanation :

The paragraph clearly hints at something that an 'author' is reflecting on and then goes on to talk about what the author has said. Thus, this is clearly a review of an article or a book (we don't know which) on Blue Ocean strategy. Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.