Para Summary Home Assignment5795003

PARASUMMARY
Passage: The recent bankruptcy filing in New York by China’s property giant Evergrande, coming close on the heels
of a default on bond interest payments by the country’s biggest developer, Country Garden, are significant
developments in the brewing crisis in China’s real estate industry. The distress is widespread, with several mid-
sized developers also facing mounting losses. In fact, the strain on the real estate sector – which accounts for 25- 30
percent of China’s gross domestic product and has been a major driver of its growth – is arguably the biggest
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uncertainty facing the economy. Official data show that investment in the sector fell 8.5 per cent during January to
July compared with a year ago, and both prices and sales tumbled. There are no easy policy options to arrest the
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sector’s decline. So far, the government has relaxed restrictions on property buyers, the People’s Bank of China has
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eased monetary policy and commercial banks have cut deposit rates to encourage spending rather than saving. But
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with surveys indicating that consumers expect property prices to decline further, they are holding back on their
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purchases. Given that the majority of household wealth is held in the form of property, consumers are also increasing
their precautionary savings.
1. Which of the following best represents the summary of the above passage?
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(a) China’s real estate turmoil intensifies as Evergrande declares bankruptcy; policy solutions remain elusive.
apprehension.
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(b) Evergrande's bankruptcy signifies the culmination of China's property market decline, causing widespread
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(c) As China’s property magnates falter, the nation grapples with declining investment and reticent consumers.
(d) Amidst an economic downturn, China’s property sector, representing a GDP chunk, faces its gravest challenge.
Passage: These are

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trying times. People are working harder and earning less. They’re buffeted by terrifying
headlines and grim predictions. They’re having less sex and living with parents longer. And they’re burrowing under
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weighted blankets and escaping into the childish comforts of colouring books (or the fairytale fantasies of corporate
theme parks and video games). If life in the 1930s was marked by a Great Depression, and the 2010s by a Great
Recession, one might say our current decade is marked by a Great
tr-5C7BRegression.
9E5E0K0J3G This return to childhood manifests in
the things we consume, in how we spend our time, even in the ways our societies are governed. Is this a crisis? Or
just more of the usual intergenerational grumbling, as when Joan Didion scathingly critiqued the foibles of young
Boomers in the 1960s? ‘We were the last generation to identify with adults,’ she declared of her own Silent
Generation. In time, the Boomers set upon Generation X, portraying them as slackers. Then, adults of all ages
dumped on Millennials for being entitled, oversensitive ‘baby-people’. Inevitably, Gen Z now finds itself in the same
crosshairs. But this time, at this moment in history, things feel different. The Great Regression cuts across
generational lines and national borders.
(a) Generational rifts are perennial, but the current era’s regression is unprecedented and widespread.
(b) Generations have always grumbled about subsequent ones, underscoring age-old societal issues.
(c) The shift to childlike behaviors transcends borders, heralding a universally observed regression.
(d) The Great Regression primarily affects Gen Z, making them the most childlike generation to date.
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Passage: By 200 BCE, the proliferation of urban settlements, the rise of non-Vedic religions such as Buddhism and
Jainism, and the new Indo-Hellenic cultural discourse following Alexander’s invasion in 327 BCE gave rise to a great
tradition of textual codification and exegesis on ‘dharma’ as a lived practice. This enterprise would go on until the
18th century and birth a vast collection of works called Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras – the treatises and
formulae to instantiate dharma and verify the fidelity to its practice. Thus arose a vast set of conventions and rules
on how to live, how to organise society, whom to marry, what to eat, and more – all of which were formulations on
social hierarchies and establishment of order. The overwhelming set of duties imposed in these texts is on the
householder. These duties emphasise moderation, and a heightened and explicit concern for one’s spouse, child, the
priests, the animals, one’s own labours, one’s own community, and the gods. There is no ambition to evangelise
another into one’s own way of life – in fact, illicit relationships are a perpetual horror in these texts.
(a) Urbanization and non-Vedic religions catalysed Dharmashastras, setting forth societal obligations, notably for
householders.
(b) The emergence of Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras, codifying dharma, outlined societal norms with an
emphasis on householders.
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(c) From Alexander’s invasion, societal codification led to Dharmashastras addressing societal norms, spurning
proselytisation.
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without evangelizing intent.
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(d) The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, post-Alexander’s era, predominantly focus on householder's duties
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Passage: To see why our ancestors cut their day short rather than continuing to gather food, we need to go beyond
time and consider another currency: energy. Over the past 10 years, there has been a revolution in our
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understanding of human energetics. At the forefront of this movement is the anthropologist Herman Pontzer at
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Duke University in North Carolina, who has conducted physiological research showing that humans are a high-
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energy ape. Even with the reduced energy costs associated with smaller gut size, humans burn more energy per unit
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of body mass than our great ape cousins. ‘The way we take those calories in and burn them off shapes every aspect
of our existence,’ writes Pontzer in his book Burn (2021). In this case, hunting and gathering literally transformed
technological 7T9N5Q0Q0O
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how our cells and organs process energy. For a long time, scholars thought that gains in foraging efficiency from
and low-cost locomotion provided early humans with the extra energy to fuel that most
expensive and important organ: our brains. In 1991, the anthropologists Robert Foley and Phyllis Lee wrote that
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‘some early hominids had greater amounts of energy available to them because they were able to exploit resources
more efficiently and at lower energetic costs. This in turn provided the energetic basis for high rates of
encephalisation.’ The idea is tempting and intuitive, but untiltr-recently
5C7B9E5Ewe
Which of the following best represents the summary of the above passage?
0K0Jdidn’t
3G know if it was true.
(a) Early humans exploited energy efficiently through advanced foraging techniques, directly boosting
encephalisation.
(b) Pontzer's research at Duke emphasized that humans' metabolic rate is unconnected to our larger brain size.
(c) Humans have higher energy consumption than other apes, affecting cellular function, influenced by hunting and
gathering.
(d) Technological progress in foraging wasn't the exclusive contributor to the energetic demands of human brain
evolution.
Passage: All his life, Darwin was interested in the power of huge numbers of small things – acting slowly, over years,
decades, and centuries piled upon centuries – to have enormous impacts. In this, he was inspired by the work of Sir
Charles Lyell, who had argued that geological change takes place through slow, gradual processes accumulated over
vast spans of time. Darwin took that idea and applied it to biology, making it the unifying insight of his work on
corals, evolution and worms. It’s a simple insight, yet one that is strangely hard to develop a feeling for. The human
brain has evolved to think in terms of hours, days, months, perhaps a few years. Conceiving of changes summed over
decades, centuries, millennia and on into the dizzying spans of Earth history – that’s far more difficult and elusive.
A single earthworm has no particular significance. But given enough worms and time, Darwin argued, entire
landscapes0Qwould
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(a) Darwin's life work elucidates the significant influence of singular entities on biological and geological scales.
(b) Darwin's theories offer a perspicuous examination of biological diversity stemming from the potency of
individual organisms.
(c) Darwin emphasizes the cumulative effects of numerous supposedly insignificant factors over vast temporal
landscapes in affecting major change.
(d) Darwin primarily contributes to the understanding of species diversification through the lens of infinitesimal
causal agents.
Passage: Dover Priory, 16 November 1535: at a modest monastic establishment on the edge of one of England’s
main working ports, the nearest to the continent of Europe, the abbot signs a ‘deed of surrender’, turning over the
establishment and all its property from the Church to the king. For centuries, since its foundation in the 12th century,
the priory had served the needs of its small community of monks, whose main purpose was to work a small parcel
of common lands, and to pray (in Latin, ora et labora). Music-making beyond that necessary for the daily cycle of
prayer fit neither category, so the priory’s brothers employed musicians from the neighbourhood, among them the
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young Thomas Tallis (born c1505), who served as their organist and trained young boys in music in the priory’s
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school. Perhaps Tallis would have been working with the boys, or playing music at one of the liturgical hours with
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the monks, when the king’s commissioners arrived to turn out the brothers, and seized the priory’s buildings and
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land in the first phase of Henry VIII’s dissolution of England’s monasteries.
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devotions.
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(a) The priory, a religious establishment, served as a sanctuary for monks engaged in agrarian pursuits and
(b) The historic dissolution of Dover Priory embodies the royal appropriation of ecclesiastical assets during Henry
VIII’s reign.
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(c) Thomas Tallis, a seminal figure, honed his musical skills by serving as an organist and instructor in Dover Priory.
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(d) Dover Priory, located near a significant port, was instrumental in the liturgical and musical education of its
community.
Passage: Whether you

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are reading a scientific paper, a musical score, a DIY manual, text on an art gallery wall, or a
20-page terms and conditions document for a new toaster, you will be familiar with this sort of locution: ‘First, to
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define terms …’ We seem to take it for granted that, in order for us all to get on the same page as each other, in order
for us as speakers to be clear, we need to define our terms. Defining our terms is especially common in science,
where just about every term that isn’t carried over from standard English
tr-5C7B has,
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of a circle’s circumference to its diameter; Yorkshire terriers are dogs with specific heritage. These are normally
precise definitions: π is not the ratio of an almost-circular oval, and it is not an approximation (it is not 3.14); if an
ostensible Yorkie does not have the requisite level of genetic purity, then it is a mixed breed, no matter how much
it may look like a Yorkie (and contrariwise, a Yorkie that has unusual coloration is still a Yorkie, even if it will not
win conformation shows).
(a) The utility of semantic elucidation is paramount in various fields for the sake of clarity.
(b) Scientific nomenclature necessitates unequivocal definitions to avoid misinterpretation.
(c) Establishing lexical definitions serves as a foundational step in effective communication.
(d) Terms in specialized disciplines often diverge from standard linguistic interpretations.
Passage: So, does art contribute to political conversations, or simply reflect them? We can begin to offer an answer.
Art, perhaps uniquely among the forms of political discourse available to us, allows for audiences to contemplate
issues at the heart of political clashes, while temporarily suspending the judgment of right and wrong. The space of
aesthetics is therefore neither fully political nor anti-political. The aesthetic realm sits, rather, askance to politics; it
allows us to attend to politics but relieves us from the weight of taking on a political position. None of this is to
suggest, of course, that this aesthetic, inconclusive mode is better than either objectivity or activism. Instead, the
suggestion0Q is that the democratic public sphere requires a plurality of these different modes of discourse, among
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which the arts play their distinctive role. To conclude – as is customary in philosophical speculation – let’s take up
a few objections. The first, commonly encountered by philosophers: where is the evidence, where is some empirical
experiment that evidences the supposed benefits of the arts I have described? For instance, if we were to return to
the magical-realist Polish film, Never Gonna Snow Again (2020), how would we be able to show that it made some
measurable difference to the debate around climate change, either for individual viewers, or in society more
broadly?
(a) Art provides an objective lens to view political issues without the constraints of judgment.
(b) The aesthetic realm functions tangentially to politics, offering a reprieve from overt activism.
(c) Art serves to engender democratic discourse through its unique mode of non-partisan engagement.
(d) The value of art in political discussions remains elusive due to the lack of empirical evidence.
Passage: This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and
South Africa, and over the past 25 years, the two countries have withstood changes in the international landscape
and seen leapfrog development in bilateral ties. President Xi Jinping's state visit to South Africa is his fourth as
Chinese president. During the visit, the two heads of state agreed to jointly push China-South Africa comprehensive
strategic partnership to a new level and jointly build a high-level community with a shared future. Their talks before
the 15th BRICS Summit helped build consensus and push forward the expected outcomes of the BRICS summit.
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President Xi said the two countries should be strategic partners with a high degree of mutual trust, development
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partners for common progress, friendly partners for mutual understanding and amity, and global partners for
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upholding justice. The accurate positioning of China-South Africa relations paves the way for deepening bilateral
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practical cooperation.
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(a) China-South Africa's diplomatic trajectory underscores an intricate matrix of symbiotic evolution.
(b) A quarter-century of Sino-South African ties has been emblematic of resilient geopolitical congruence.
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(c) The bilateral confluence between China and South Africa is predicated upon strategic and global alignments.
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(d) South Africa and China’s partnership, evolved over 25 years, seeks to recalibrate global diplomatic paradigms.
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Passage: While forced migration of a general population has been studied in many contexts, the ability to emigrate
may differ for highly skilled individuals. Though the literature has suggested how the dismissal of Jewish scientists
Jewish academics
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affected German universities and innovation in destination countries, much less is known about the fate of the
and about the mechanism underlying the emigration of highly skilled populations in
the face of persecution. In a recent paper, we study the emigration of academics of Jewish origin from Weimar
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Germany. They include some of the greatest scientific luminaries of the 20th century – Nobel laureates Albert
Einstein, Max Born, and Fritz Haber – as well as social scientists and philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and
Theodor Adorno. German universities were among the world’s tr-5Cbest in0Kmany
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that flourished in Germany came to a sudden halt when the Nazi party gained power in 1933. After only a few months
in power, the new regime started dismissing academics of Jewish origin. By 1939, virtually all Jewish academics had
lost their jobs. In Becker et al., we examine whether and how professional academic networks and social capital
helped German Jewish academics escape through emigration.
(a) After 1933, due to Nazi persecution, German Jewish scientists significantly impacted global innovations.
(b) The rise of the Nazi regime led to the dismissal of Jewish academics, diminishing Germany's intellectual prowess.
(c) Becker et al. investigates if academic networks aided Jewish German scholars to emigrate post-Nazi ascendancy.
(d) Jewish academics, including Einstein and Haber, contributed immensely to the global academic landscape
before 1933.
Passage: Ambitious climate policies disproportionately impact asset valuations of emission-intensive companies,
because these companies would have to make costly adjustments to alter their production processes to reduce
emissions or could even end up having to discontinue operations. If investors are rational and demand to be
compensated for bearing additional risk in their portfolios, emission-intensive companies have to generate higher
expected returns as a result of growing climate policy risk, feeding into a carbon risk premium. Empirical evidence
of the existence of such a carbon risk premium is however highly mixed. Studies that look at the effects of policy
announcements often find that stock prices of carbon-intensive firms react to the expectation of stricter climate
policies. Furthermore,
tr-5T7T9N5Q 0Q0O3R some studies also find evidence of a carbon risk premium. Results are not robust however,
as studies focusing on diversified long-short portfolios generally find no evidence of markets structurally pricing
climate policy risk.
(a) Carbon risk premiums often emerge due to strict policy measures against emission-intensive firms.
(b) Policy announcements consistently lower the stock prices of carbon-intensive firms.
(c) Mixed empirical evidence exists about the market's valuation of climate policy risk.
(d) Long-short portfolios always exhibit the absence of a carbon risk premium.
Passage: Decades of research and hundreds of studies have linked tobacco smoke to multiple types of cancer and
to cardiovascular disease. However, far fewer studies have been done on the long-term effects of cannabis smoke.
Since cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, it is more challenging for scientists to study. It has been
particularly hard to study health outcomes that may take a long time and heavier exposure to develop. Recent
reviews of research on cannabis and cancer or cardiovascular disease found those studies inadequate because they
contained relatively few people with heavy exposure, didn’t follow people for a long enough time or didn’t properly
account for cigarette smoking. Many advocates point to the lack of clear findings on negative health effects of
cannabis smoke exposure as proof of its harmlessness. However, my colleagues and I feel that this is an example of
the famous scientific quote that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Scientists have identified hundreds
of chemicals in both cannabis and tobacco smoke, and they share many of the same carcinogens and toxins.
into the lungs and cause tissue damage.
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Combustion of tobacco and cannabis, whether by smoking or vaping, also releases particles that can be inhaled deep
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(a) Cannabis smoke contains carcinogens, proving its long-term health risks are substantial.
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(b) While tobacco is linked to diseases, the harmlessness of cannabis smoke remains validated.
(c) Scientific challenges hinder conclusive studies on the extensive effects of cannabis smoke.
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(d) Combustion of substances, especially tobacco, unequivocally harms lungs more than cannabis.
Passage: Humans would not be here but for pregnancy and childbirth. It is true for each of us and, more importantly,
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true for all of us, collectively. These uncomfortable, protracted and wonderful challenges not only shepherd us into
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the world, but also shape our behaviour, social structure and the trajectory of our evolution itself. The surprising
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part is that, while pregnancy and childbirth are fundamental and defining traits of mammals, they have driven us
fundamental traits and 0O

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processes,
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humans to be very un-mammalian indeed. Popular notion often has it that natural selection works by seizing on
and optimising them with each new beat of the generations and species. But that’s
not always true. Instead of functioning as a refining, perfecting tool, evolution in the real world is all about trade-
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offs: life has limitations, and big changes in one area often mean sacrifices in others. We humans are the smartest,
most complex animals on the planet, but we do not have the best or most optimised biology by any stretch, especially
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(a) Pregnancy and childbirth epitomize mammalian traits optimized by natural selection in humans.
(b) Humans represent an apogee of biological refinement, particularly evident in reproductive processes.
(c) Pregnancy and childbirth in humans are paradoxically un-mammalian, reflecting evolutionary trade-offs rather
than optimization.
(d) Evolution functions primarily as a perfecting tool, rendering human reproduction as a pinnacle of biological
achievement.
Passage: A little over 50 years ago, at the dawn of the global environmental movement, supporters were convinced
that they were going to save the planet from pollution, overpopulation, and a vaguely understood threat called
ecological imbalance. On the other hand, the society of the time, geared towards waste, saw nature conservation as
a utopian alternative. The movement’s concerns were foreign to the vast majority. This was despite the fact that
there were already international initiatives, such as the first United Nations conference on the human environment
and the creation of non-governmental conservation organizations. Perhaps we needed to face extreme situations
for environmental problems to become part of the collective imagination. Although denial tendencies still circulate
in the media and on social networks, concern for the future of nature is increasing every day. The Chernobyl and
Fukushima nuclear accidents, the increasingly devastating intensity of hurricanes and typhoons, the voracious
forest fires at different latitudes, the omnipresence of microplastics and the alarm sounded by the Covid-19
pandemic are some of the many catastrophic events that show we are entering the Anthropocene — a new geological
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change and the accelerated loss of biodiversity — put our future at risk.
(a) The Anthropocene delineates humanity's negligent reaction to climate change and dwindling biodiversity.
(b) Environmental concerns evolved post major global incidents leading to the conceptualization of the
Anthropocene epoch.
(c) Early environmentalism sought refuge from societal waste, culminating in the introduction of the Anthropocene.
(d) Anthropocene represents ecological mishaps while underlining global environmental endeavors of the past.
Passage: The idea of harmony and rhythm, musically and physically, has been the subject of careful attention from
philosophers. In Book III of the Republic, Plato is careful to distinguish between the concept of language on the one
hand, and the concept of harmony and rhythm on the other – although he needed both to better articulate the
meaning of the human soul. He claimed that there is a natural rhythm, grace and harmony for all things: ‘weaving,
embroidery, architecture, and every kind of manufacture; also nature, animal and vegetable. In all of them there is
grace or the absence of grace.’ This extends to acts in service of the community. I often think Plato might not get
enough credit for his communally oriented thinking; but, then again, he might have borrowed some of this from
indigenous cultures before him too. For Plato, if the youth are to do what they’re good at – to add their individual,
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natural talents to the collective – they must also make harmony and grace ‘their perpetual aim’. Nonetheless, they
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can’t get lost in mystical chants or sad songs. Aristotle thought that the aulos made a disgusting sound, and Socrates
and Plato frowned upon it too.
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(a) Plato’s ideology on harmony and rhythm is ingrained in the individualistic pursuits of the youth.
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(b) Plato's theories underscore the universality of grace and harmony across different domains, advocating for a
communally oriented approach.
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(c) Socrates and Plato maintained a disdain for specific musical instruments due to their interference with cognitive
equilibrium.
music and harmony.
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(d) Aristotle's critique of the aulos reveals a philosophical discord between him and Plato concerning the nature of
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Passage: As the shorter summer evenings signal the start of a new academic year, a chilling wind of anxiety will
take hold for many university
that is causing them
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students. But it’s not necessarily school-related stress or nerves about leaving home
to worry. It’s something more fundamental: for an increasing number of students the question
troubling them is “Where am I going to live?” Student housing – a residence room, a shared house, a small flat – was
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once a given. It is no longer, with the issue now an emblem of how our society is failing younger generations. A global
look at student housing conditions makes for bleak reading, as large financial investors increasingly buy up purpose-
built student housing for their next big win. In the UK, average tr-5Cstudent
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government-offered student loans. In Canadian cities like Toronto and Calgary, where student residences are full
and rents are soaring, some have little choice but to sleep in their cars or in homeless shelters. Last year, dozens of
Erasmus exchange students in Italy, unable to secure housing, were forced to sleep on the streets.
(a) The paradigm shift in student housing costs is a byproduct of financial speculation and investments.
(b) Housing insecurity is eclipsing traditional academic stressors for university students globally.
(c) Government policies on student loans are increasingly inadequate to cover the rising cost of student housing.
(d) Rising rents in specific cities are exacerbating the housing crisis for local and international students.
Passage: When floods swept Europe in July 2021, killing more than 200 people in Germany, Belgium and
neighbouring countries, it was a disaster that came as the climate crisis was moving to the top of Europe’s political
agenda. All of a sudden, climate was no longer an abstract threat that could be batted into a distant future; it was
already here, causing shocking weather events, destroying lives and leaving people homeless. In northern Europe
especially, spurred by the Fridays for Future school strikes, the climate crisis had already spilled into politics,
pushing policy into action. But in 2021, measurable progress towards the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 began
to be made. The EU didn’t just limit itself to ambitious targets, enshrined in laws and regulations. It also put its
money where its mouth was. Neither the pandemic nor Russia’s subsequent invasion of Ukraine distracted its focus.
On the contrary,
0O3REurope used these crises to put flesh on the bones of a green deal, accelerating its race to net zero.
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As a result of the pandemic, the EU agreed to channel 37% of its economic recovery funds to the energy transition,
while in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis it unleashed, European countries stepped up
their investments in renewables and energy efficiency as they strived to wean themselves off Russian gas.
(a) The EU leveraged calamities to expedite its green agenda, diverging from Russian energy dependency.
(b) The EU's focus on climate change was a direct corollary of the Fridays for Future strikes.
(c) The floods of 2021 coerced the EU to relegate all other political agendas in favor of climate change.
(d) The EU remained ambivalent on climate change, despite rising environmental crises.
Passage: Eighteenth-century Europe is often said to have elevated the epistemic status of vision above that of the
other senses – hence the optical metaphor of ‘enlightenment’ – but it also made sound an object of empirical
research, commerce and artistic exploration. The public’s preoccupation with new auditory experiences was
especially evident in the music world. The flourishing of the sonata (Italian for ‘sounded’) typified the new
popularity of music without words. Alongside melody and harmony, audiences began focusing on timbre, which
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – who was not only a philosopher but a composer, too – described as a sound’s ‘je ne sais
quoi’. What truly brought acoustic concerns to the fore, though, was the building of theatres, for both operas and
spoken plays. Theatre stood at the centre of pre-revolutionary French culture, a key site for philosophical reflection,
political struggle and the construction of the self. It was also big business. The end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763
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triggered a boom in domestic projects such as the construction of performance halls, which might contain 2,000
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seats or more. Urban stages were graced by celebrity actors such as David Garrick and Clair Josèphe Hippolyte Leris
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(known as La Clairon), whose larger-than-life reputations were built up through published theatre criticism.
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(a) Eighteenth-century Europe's emphasis on visual epistemology overpowered its nascent interest in auditory
exploration, demonstrated by Rousseau's philosophy.
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(b) Amidst the Eighteenth-century's visual 'enlightenment', Europe witnessed an auditory renaissance with
theatres central to its cultural, philosophical, and economic milieu.
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sonata in European music.
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(c) The end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763 led directly to a heightened focus on timbre and the growth of the
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(d) Celebrity actors like David Garrick and La Clairon were solely responsible for the boom in performance halls
following the Seven Years’ War.
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Passage: Traditional
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buildings are designed to provide protection against a savage world, with us safe on one side
and our waste on the other. Architects have long relied on ‘hard’ materials such as masonry, aluminium and glass,
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specifically chosen to prevent the outside environment from getting in. Impermeability was, and is, a driving goal.
It is time to rethink that approach. Our current built environment squanders too much fresh water and other vital
resources, and tips too many poisonous substances into tr-our 5C7Bsurroundings.
9E5E0K0J3G To develop a more sustainable
relationship with the natural world, we need to allow chemical exchanges that take place within our living spaces,
and between the inside and the outside. We need to embrace permeability. Until the rise of modernity, a certain
amount of the outside world always leaked into our living spaces, entering through crumbling brickwork, broken
seals and open windows and doors. However, with the rapid growth of industrial cities in the mid-19th century,
pollution, overcrowding and disease posed new external threats. The remedy was to exert tighter control over our
habitats, with the result that buildings became true barriers.
(a) Modern architecture's imperviousness, spurred by industrial challenges, curtailed interaction with nature.
(b) Industrial cities in the 19th century prompted impenetrable designs to fend off urban challenges.
(c) Buildings, traditionally shielding against externalities, now require a permeable approach for environmental
symbiosis.
(d) The evolution of architecture from porous structures to impenetrable designs denotes societal progression.
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Passage: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s recently published comments on Singapore’s reserves, for which an apt
metaphor is “rainy day money”, affirm one of the financial fundamentals of the nation: Its refusal to be held hostage
to adverse economic circumstances in a world whose workings lie outside its control. Since independence, the
reserves have been built up assiduously to provide the financial buffer that Singapore would need to weather global
economic and political downturns. The reserves were a lifeline during emergencies such as the global financial crisis
and the coronavirus pandemic, a body blow that was overcome by the Government spending more than $40 billion.
Covid-19 was a terrible time, but worse times could come. There are rainy days, and there are days when it rains
even more heavily. In the circumstances, it is difficult to understand why questions should be raised at all over the
extent of Singapore’s reserves, implying that they are too large for the probable needs of the nation. After all, no
family would conceivably worry that its savings are too large – simply because it cannot possibly know what is in
store for it.
(a) PM Lee emphasizes Singapore's reserves as essential buffers against global adversities.
(b) Singapore's considerable reserves prove vital, aiding in financial crises like the Covid-19 pandemic.
(c) Questions on Singapore's extensive reserves neglect the unpredictability of future calamities.
(d) Since independence, Singapore's assiduously cultivated reserves counter external economic shifts.
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Passage: Long before it entered the urban playgrounds of the 20th century, the swing was a ritual instrument of
healing, punishment and transformation. Through repetitive, vertigo-inducing movements, the swing was used to
celebrate gods and legendary beings, to ward off evil, alleviate suicidal impulses, heal mental illness, express sexual
e
dominance or torment those accused of occult practices. But its deeper use has always been one of transformation:
as it holds us in its oscillating spell, the swing calls into question the world we know, with its established hierarchies
k
and rhythms. To swing is not only to play, but to open disorienting passages into transgressive spaces. What does it
n
mean to tell the story of this instrument? The history of the swing reveals how an object of disorientation became
a
instrumentalised across the long arc of human culture, appearing in different territories and cultures throughout
r
time. But this history is not just the story of an object. It’s also one of many untold histories of bodies in motion that
seek to unveil forgotten, overlooked or concealed gestures – human history is not only populated with words and
21.
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objects. The swing allows us to begin telling the long cultural story of moving back and forth through time and space.
o
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(a) The swing's multifaceted roles across time and cultures underscore its transformative power.
(b) The swing serves primarily as a ritualistic object in ancient societies, imparting healing and punishment.
(c) The swing oscillates through history as an object that merely entertains
tr-5C7B 9E5E0K0J3Gand disorients.
(d) The swing is fundamentally an object of disorientation that transgresses established cultural norms.
Passage: In 2009, Heath Ledger posthumously received an Academy Award for his performance as the Joker in
Christopher Nolan’s film The Dark Knight (2008). To say that Ledger earned the recognition of his peers is to vastly
understate his accomplishment. Ledger’s unflinching and disquieting performance as an anarchic sociopath –
ostensibly, he played a comic-book villain, but his performance far transcended the source material – earned near-
universal praise from critics and audiences alike. By the time filming wrapped up, Ledger had completed his
professional transition from ingenu to serious actor. As his final director, Terry Gilliam, remarked. ‘I think we all
thought that this was somebody, without a doubt, who was going to be the greatest actor of his generation.’ During
post-production, Ledger, who reportedly suffered from insomnia, accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills and died,
aged 28. In the wake of Ledger’s untimely death, his performance – and the events leading up to it – were
voyeuristically scrutinised. His dedication to the craft of acting was well-known, as were rumours of his ill-health
during filming. He prepared obsessively for the role of the Joker, isolating himself from public life to ‘galvanise’ the
character in his own mind. And he said that his work took its toll on his sleep. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that his
performance was mythologised and his cause of death psychologised. To put it cynically: people like a good tragedy.
(a) Heath Ledger's Joker role marked a career apogee, transcending its comic-book origins through critical acclaim.
(b) Heath 0QLedger’s
3R tragic demise colored the perception and mythologization of his role as the Joker.
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(c)
tr-5TLedger's performance as the Joker was a transformative endeavor, crystallizing his evolution as an actor.
(d) Heath Ledger’s intense preparation for his role exemplifies the personal toll of artistic dedication.
Passage: On a moonless January night in 2003, Olivier de Kersauson, the French yachtsman, was racing across the
Atlantic Ocean, trying to break the record for the fastest sailing voyage around the world, when his boat
mysteriously came to a halt. There was no land for hundreds of miles, yet the mast rattled and the hull shuddered,
as if the vessel had run aground. Kersauson turned the wheel one way, then the other; still, the gunwales shook
inexplicably in the darkness. Kersauson ordered his crew, all of whom were now running up and down the deck, to
investigate. Some of the crew took out spotlights and shone them on the water, as the massive trimaran—a three-
hulled, hundred-and-ten-foot boat that was the largest racing machine of its kind, and was named Geronimo, for the
Apache warrior—pitched in the waves.
(a) Olivier de Kersauson sails solo, encountering an unexplained halting of his boat Geronimo during a transatlantic
voyage.
(b) Olivier de Kersauson and his crew, aboard the trimaran Geronimo, experience an inexplicable cessation in their
quest to set a sailing record.
(c) Olivier de Kersauson’s boat Geronimo, in a solo mission to break a world record, encounters an unforeseen
obstacle causing it to stop.
(d) Olivier de Kersauson and his team attempt a world record on Geronimo but are thwarted by equipment failure
during their journey.
o m
Passage: The signs of the death of human rights are omnipresent. Western governments are working hard to shield
c
the Israeli apartheid from accountability, while criminalising Palestinians resisting Israel’s oppression and those
rs .
supporting their liberation struggle. The leading social media companies of the Global North are allowing dangerous
misinformation targeting already marginalised and under threat populations to fester on their platforms. European
countries are still selling a toxic pesticide – banned in the EU because of its proven harms to children and unborn
e
babies – to countries in the Global South. And the list goes on. All the while, the West continues to try and sell itself
as the one true defender of human rights. Western nations regularly condemn and even sanction the likes of Russia,
k
China and Iran for violating the human rights of their citizens and those living in their influence zones. They often
24. n
make foreign aid conditional on recipients making improvements on human rights protections, and some have even
a
launched military interventions under the guise of addressing human rights violations in the past.
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Palestinians.
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(a) Western nations, despite claiming human rights advocacy, paradoxically support Israel and penalize
(b) Western nations espouse human rights values but their actions reveal inconsistencies and selective application.
(c) The passage elucidates the hypocrisy of the West in condemning non-Western countries for human rights
abuses.
practices. T
(d) Western nations uphold human rights only superficially, exemplified by their economic and geopolitical
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Passage: Pakistan has introduced measures against modern slavery with mixed success. Climate change, however,
is reinforcing the most egregious abuses due to mounting personal debt, and the economic relationship between
sharecroppers and small farmers on the one hand, and landlords and local merchants on the other. While
sharecropping has declined significantly in Pakistan’s largest and wealthiest province, Punjab, it continues in more
rural Sindh and Balochistan. Tenant farmers borrow to cover the expenses of a crop cycle. Since loans from
microfinance banks require collateral and identity documentation, farmers prefer less formal arrangements with a
landlord or local moneylender. Landlords and sharecroppers split the costs of cropping, with the former providing
credit for seeds, fertiliser, and other inputs. The farmer repays the landlord out of the profits from the yield. If the
income is insufficient, the debt is rolled over to the following harvest. Successive years of crop failure create
interminable cycles of debt, which are transferred from generation to generation: Many sharecroppers are still
paying off their ancestors’ loans. Powerful landlords even detain their indebted farmers in private prisons until they
repay through unpaid labour, only occasionally resulting in police action. By some estimates, more than three
million Pakistanis are trapped in debt bondage.
(a) Climate change exacerbates debt bondage primarily in rich provinces of Pakistan like Punjab, entangling
sharecroppers in a cycle of intergenerational debt.
(b) Pakistan's efforts to combat modern slavery are undermined by pervasive economic imbalances between
landlords and tenant farmers.
(c)
tr-5TThe dynamics
7T9N5Q 0Q0O3R between landlords and sharecroppers in Pakistan foster a labyrinthine debt cycle, exacerbated
by climatic shifts.
(d) Pakistani sharecroppers primarily avoid formal financing due to stringent microfinance collateral
requirements, leading to debt bondage.
c o m
rs .
k e
r an
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ANSWER KEY
1. a 2. a 3. b 4. c 5. c 6. b 7. c 8. b 9. b 10. c
11. c 12. c 13. c 14. b 15. b 16. b 17. a 18. b 19. c 20. a
21. a 22. c 23. b 24. b 25. c
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Passage: These are

Passage: Whether you

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