VARC

DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 4: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

Recruiting managers desperately need new tools, because the existing ones aren’t very effective. The newest development in hiring, promising
and worrying, is the rise of data science-driven algorithms to find and assess job candidates. … Unfortunately, data science – which is still in its
infancy when it comes to recruiting and hiring – is not yet the panacea employers hope for.
Vendors of these new tools promise they will help reduce the role that social bias plays in hiring… But these tools may also identify and promote
the use of predictive variables that are troubling.
Because most data scientists seem to know so little about the context of employment, their tools are often worse than nothing. For instance, an
astonishing percentage build their models by simply looking at attributes of the “best performers” in workplaces and then identifying which job
candidates have the same attributes... But a failure to check for any real difference between high-performing and low-performing employees on
these attributes limits their usefulness…
Another problem with machine learning approaches is that few employers collect the large volumes of data that the algorithms require to make
accurate predictions. Although vendors can aggregate data from many employers, they don’t really know whether individual company contexts are
so distinct that predictions based on data from the many are inaccurate for the one.
Yet another issue is that all analytic approaches to picking candidates are based on outcomes that have already happened... As Amazon learned,
the past may be very different from the future you seek. It discovered that the hiring algorithm it had been working on since 2014 gave lower scores
to women – even to attributes associated with women, such as participating in women’s studies programs – because historically the best
performers in the company had disproportionately been men. So, the algorithm looked for people just like them… The company stopped using the
algorithm in 2017…
The underlying challenge for data scientists is that hiring is simply not like trying to predict, say, when a ball bearing will fail... Hiring is so
consequential that it is governed not just by legal frameworks but by fundamental notions of fairness. The fact that some criterion is associated with
good job performance is necessary but not sufficient for using it in hiring.
Take a variable that data scientists have found to have predictive value: commuting distance to the job. According to the data, people with longer
commutes suffer higher rates of attrition. However, commuting distance is governed by where you live – which is governed by housing prices,
relates to income, and also relates to race. Picking whom to hire on the basis of where they live most likely has an adverse impact on protected
groups such as racial minorities.
…In the end, the drawback to using algorithms is that we’re trying to use them on the cheap: building them by looking only at best performers
rather than all performers, using only measures that are easy to gather, and relying on vendors’ claims that the algorithms work elsewhere rather
than observing the results with our own employees. Not only is there no free lunch here, but you might be better off skipping the cheap meal
altogether.
Q1. Which of the following best represents the logical sequence of ideas discussed in the passage?

a) Hiring – data science – social bias – data collection – regressive predictions

b) Recruitment – algorithms – prejudice – sexism – technology
c) Employees – social bias – data collection – commuting – performance
d) Job candidates – social bias – data collection – science – predictive values

Q2. Amazon scrapped their hiring algorithm because they most probably believed that

a) women can perform as well as men do.

b) it is impossible for women to do worse than men on some parameters like participation in women’s studies programs.
c) the best performers in the past were predominantly men because of their overwhelming numbers rather than just their
talent.
d) Amazon algorithms were not picking even the best candidates among women.
Q3. Which of the following is an assumption made by the author in the penultimate para of the passage?

a) Employees do not prefer to commute longer distances.

b) Members of racial minorities tend to live together.
c) Higher salaries do not offset the extra commuting time spent by employees.
d) People with similar income levels cluster in the same area of a city.

Q4. In the last line of the passage, the author implies that

a) Data science-driven algorithms aren’t as effective as they are made out to be.
b) Data science–driven algorithms can get better if vendors don’t try to be cost-effective.
c) Data science is not useful in hiring as long as they are built on prejudiced data of the past.
d) Data science-driven algorithms aren’t ready to replace the existing tools of hiring.
DIRECTIONS for questions 5 to 8: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

No aspect of the art world gets more media attention than art crime. Fakes and forgeries are topics of frequent and agitated discussion in the art world. For
criminologists, this interest shifts to art fraud because of its fit with issues of non-authentic art. While fraud shares with the wider interests the need to
demonstrate deception (an obvious aspect of a fake), a successful prosecution will require in addition that the defendant be shown to be dishonest (the
deception is intentional), that there is harm as a consequence, and that the victim was actually deceived. Actual cases of art fraud are exceptionally rare,
although cases of “mistaken identity” are reasonably common. …
Many leading eighteenth-century portrait painters personally concentrated on the overall composition together with the face and perhaps hands, leaving
the greater part of the canvas to be filled in by others. But when a particular composition proved especially successful or popular many leading artists were
more than happy to create and sell additional versions within the studio, probably with even less personal involvement than before (though there are
examples where a subsequent version, though substantially the same, may be regarded as the superior version). All these possibilities not only present
significant historical and ethical problems in terms of identification and attribution, but perhaps raise important legal issues as well. It may not be easy to
define exactly the boundaries between a perhaps mistaken opinion made in good faith, reckless and unsupported exaggeration of an identification or
attribution (either of which might be open to legal challenge in the civil courts for compensation), and a deliberate deception which is clearly criminal.
.... In art, an important sort of case arises with fakes. We are asked what difference it makes if a work is produced exactly like the genuine one. Obviously,
the distinction between genuine and fake must be established with reference to factors external to the works themselves – for example, with reference to
their histories. However, the serious question is whether knowledge of these differences in any way impinges upon our appreciation of a work whose
structure underdetermines the difference between authenticity and trumpery, or whether it makes no difference. I think one cannot say in advance whether
it makes a difference or not. Consider the possibility of duplicating persons. Suppose a man is killed in an automobile accident, but the widow is promised
delivery, in say three weeks, of someone exactly like her husband in all obvious respects. Would it matter? Is she required to love, honour and obey the
exact simulacrum of her husband, or what? Would the known history of this reconstituted mate make a difference or not? I am certainly unprepared to say,
but the feeling is that it would make an enormous difference, and my philosophical point is that the possibility of doubles, in which the pairs are exactly
alike relative to some schedule of descriptions, may reveal factors outside this set with reference to which our attitudes towards one or the other of the
counterparts may differ. The method of philosophical duplication is a powerful lever for lifting factors into consciousness which otherwise never would have
been alive – presumptions upon which our attitude towards the world has always depended though we might not have realized their crucial role since it
never had been challenged. These factors will always be logically external to the thing in question.
Q5. According to the passage, how is a case of art fraud different from a case of mistaken identity?

a) Art fraud raises significant historical and ethical problems whereas the latter does not.
b) Art fraud is a criminal offence while a case of mistaken identity is not open to legal challenge in the civil courts for
compensation.
c) A case of mistaken identity lacks the deception and intentionality required of art fraud.
d) The deceptive skills required for a successful art fraud are rarely observed while the deceptive skills employed in a
case of mistaken identity are commonly exposed.

Q6. Which of the following can be inferred to be a significant historical and ethical problem with reference to a work
of art, as discussed in the second para of the passage?

a) Is a work of art genuine only when the original is, entirely, the work of the artist?
b) What happens when a subsequent version of a work of art becomes the superior version?
c) The deceptive skills required of a successful art faker are actually rarely observed or achieved.
d) Any work of art will be appreciated, whether genuine or not.
Q7. Which of the following can be understood from the passage?

a. It is difficult to say a priori whether the knowledge of the differences between a genuine and fake work of art makes a
difference or not.
b. An art work is important because of its conception and its representation is mere execution.
c. There is not much difference between the original and the duplicate in the case of art.
d. Duplication of a work of art can help us understand the relevance/importance of those factors that differentiate the
duplicate from the original.
e. Difficulties in identification and attribution of art can lead to historical, ethical and legal problems.

a) a and d
b) b, c and e
c) a, d and e
d) b and d

Q8. What can be said to be the author’s point of view when he speaks about the possibility of duplicating people?

a) Humans are not similar to art works and cannot be duplicated.

b) There are certain overlapping factors that influence and enhance the duplication of artworks and humans.
c) The duplicate artwork belongs to a different era as the original and there are many factors which are improved upon in
the duplicate.
d) There are certain crucial factors that might be missed during the duplication process, but these external factors are
important as our attitude towards duplicates is based on these factors.
DIRECTIONS for questions 9 to 12: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to each question.…

In January 2009, as the United States [tried] to make sense of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression, Alice Cooper stated “It
used to be said: As GM goes, so goes America,” she declared. “Now it’s: As Starbucks goes, so goes America.” During GM’s reign as the nation’s
financial bellwether, business in the United States revolved around production, employment, and consumption – making things, creating good jobs, and
selling big-ticket items…During the days that the nation moved in tandem with Starbucks and latte sales, the American economy turned almost entirely
on buying alone, not the trio of production, jobs, and purchasing. Through this epoch, buying drove the nation’s economic engine, and even more, it
shaped the daily lives identities, and emotions of the country’s citizenry.
During the years that America went as Starbucks went, a period spanning roughly 1992 to 2007, most business analysts remained tied to the past,
wedded to a GM-era kind of thinking. At no time was this more evident than when Starbucks itself started to falter. As the coffee company’s stock price
dropped and foot traffic in its stores fell in 2006, two years before the full onset of the “New Depression”, commentators on MSNBC and in
the Wall Street Journal explained the changes by relying on traditional, straightforward economic logic. They did so again in 2008, and in 2009, when
Starbucks announced that after a fifteen-year uninterrupted run of nonstop growth, it would close hundreds of U.S. stores and lay off thousands of
employees. Pundits blamed Starbucks’ reversal of fortunes on the rising price of gasoline, competition from McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, the
mortgage crisis, and a new frugality bred by rising joblessness. But the experts had it largely wrong, in terms of both the timing and the causes of
Starbucks’ decline. That’s because they repeatedly fell back on culturally uninformed, old school economic reasoning to explain Starbucks’ slip. More
than they might be willing to admit, they expected buying decisions to revolve around utility, cost, and the physical qualities of a product but, as
Starbucks’ spectacular success had demonstrated, buying in post-GM, postindustrial America turned on more than price or functionality....
Starbucks’ hold on many in the United States grew out of another more fundamental and far-reaching transformation: the nearly wholesale replacement
of civic society by a rapacious consumer society. Under the post-Reagan era, Milton Friedman-inspired free-market political economy of neoliberal,
deregulated capitalism, brand-induced consumption oozed into every aspect of daily life. Yet hefty doses of buying, advertising, and marketing certainly
weren’t new to America. Neither was the branding of everything from fun runs to urinal covers to rock concerts. Nor was the commodification of
consumers’ deepest anxieties, desires, and aspirations all that new. It wasn’t even that Americans suffered, in business writer Lucas Conley’s telling
phrase, from “obsessive branding disorder.” What was new was the withering of nonmarket relationships and the public institutions that in the past had
pushed back against the market and brands to challenge them for people’s allegiances and identities.
Q9. Which of the following does the author mention in support of his claim that “business analysts remained tied to the
past”?

a) They failed to notice that the American economy moved in tandem with latte sales.
b) They relied on traditional economic reasoning to explain why the American economy slowed down.
c) They used old school metrics and logic to present the reason for Starbucks’ reversal of fortune.
d) They erroneously believed that the American economy depended on production, jobs and purchasing.

Q10. Which of the following is a similarity between GM and Starbucks?

a) Both the companies determined the direction in which the American economy moved.
b) Both the companies symbolized what the American economy depended on.
c) Both the companies were significant contributors to the growth of the American economy.
d) Both the companies shaped the daily lives and emotions of the country’s citizenry.
Q11. Which of the following can be inferred about Starbucks from the passage?

a) Competition from other companies resulted in the fall of Starbucks’ stock price.
b) The affordability of Starbucks’ products is not the only reason for its spectacular success.
c) The stock price of Starbucks increased every year from 1992 till 2006.
d) Starbucks was instrumental in changing the nature of buying.

Q12. Which of the following can be inferred to be a feature of a “rapacious consumer society”?

a) Public institutions do not counter markets and brands.

b) Markets and brands fulfil all the functions of the public institutions.
c) The civic society depends on branding to function efficiently.
d) Neither the markets and brands nor the public institutions function efficiently.
DIRECTIONS for questions 13 to 16: The passage given below is accompanied by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

[While] the universe is now expanding, the pull of gravity could slow that expansion… Researchers have tried to work out whether there is
enough matter to cause it to one day collapse on itself, or whether it will expand forever. In 1998 two teams of astronomers peered across an
enormous gulf of time and space to answer that fundamental question — and amazed even themselves with what they found.
Not only is there too little matter in the universe to ever halt the expansion, but the outward motion appears to be speeding up. The simplest
explanation for the accelerating expansion is a bizarre energy that counteracts gravity... The discoveries suggest that most of the energy of the
universe is in this form, which Einstein called the cosmological constant, or lambda.
Back in 1917, Einstein proposed it, believing that the universe was static. He put the cosmic repulsion into his equations to prevent the
universe from collapsing on itself from the gravitational pull of the matter inside it. But by 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble startled the scientific
world by discovering that the universe is in fact expanding... From our vantage point in the Milky Way, the speed at which any other galaxy is
moving away can be clocked using the “redshift” of its light––a drop in frequency and increase in wavelength akin to the dip in pitch of a
receding train's whistle. But gauging a galaxy's actual distance is difficult. Hubble managed it by observing the apparent brightness of stars
called Cepheid variables, whose intrinsic brightness is known; these stars can thus be used as “standard candles” to measure distance, as
more distant Cepheids appear dimmer. Hubble compared the redshifts with the distances and discovered the expansion.
Einstein accepted Hubble's find. But he reasoned that if the expansion was a relic of a primeval explosion, the cosmological constant––which
he felt made the equations unaesthetic –– wasn't needed. He withdrew the idea, calling it his “biggest blunder.” Cosmologists working with the
notion of an expanding cosmos, concluded that over the 12- to 15-billion-year life of the universe, the expansion would slow, thanks to the pull
of gravity that every galaxy exerts on every other. But spotting such a change requires probing deep into the past by looking at stars glittering
billions of light-years away––too far away for Cepheids to be seen.
So, astronomers turned to a new kind of standard candle: the brightest kind of supernova, which happens nearly the same way each time... To
find enough of them, astronomers make electronic images of large swaths of sky in a single night, capturing tens of thousands of distant
galaxies, and then image the same areas a few weeks later. Once the images are overlaid and subtracted on a computer, any new supernovae
leap out and can be observed until they fade away.
The two teams collected their supernova data to find out by how much gravity was slowing cosmic expansion. But, both teams announced that
their expectations had been turned upside down: The relative dimness of the supernovae showed that they are 10% to 15% farther out than
expected even in a universe with little matter, indicating that the expansion has accelerated over billions of years, […] resurrecting a mysterious
repulsion that counteracts gravity, with lambda as the most likely candidate… Einstein is proved right, albeit for reasons he could not have
foreseen.
Q13. Which of the following statements, if true, weakens the ‘reasons’ Einstein could not have foreseen (last sentence
of the passage)?

a) A small error in the way the brightness of the supernova is measured can distort calculations massively.
b) The universe doesn’t have enough matter for gravity to pull it back.
c) The mysterious repulsion that counteracts gravity hasn’t yet been proven.
d) There is a high degree of uncertainty in calculating the intrinsic brightness of the supernova.

Q14. Cepheid variables cannot help scientists prove that the expansion of the universe would slow over 12 to 15 billion
years because

a) the Cepheid variables are relatively younger stars.

b) the slowing expansion of the universe can only be proved by light from stars billions of light years away.
c) Cepheid variables are too close to our galaxy.
d) Cepheid variables billions of light years away from us aren’t bright enough for us to spot them.
Q15. It can be inferred from the third para that

a) the distance of galaxies can be understood from the perceived brightness of Cepheid variables.
b) that galaxies are moving away can be established by studying the brightness of Cepheid variables.
c) Einstein proved that the universe won’t collapse under the gravitational pull of the matter inside it.
d) the dimming of a Cepheid variable compared to its known intrinsic brightness helped establish the universe’s expansion
contrary to Einstein’s theory.

Q16. Einstein withdrew the idea of lambda because

a) Einstein agreed with Hubble that the universe was not static.
b) the cosmic repulsion constant made Einstein’s equations unaesthetic.
c) the outward expansion of the universe may have been the consequence of an earlier explosion.
d) there isn’t enough matter for gravitational pull to counter the expansion of the universe anyway.
Q17. DIRECTIONS for question 17: The sentences given in the question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent
paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a number. Decide on the proper order for the four sentences and key in the
sequence of four numbers as your answer, in the input box given below the question.

1.Commentaries such as these played an important role in preserving and advancing ancient Greek works at a time when
such works were seen by many as “pagan” and opposed to Christian ideals.
2.If you wanted to learn math and astronomy in Alexandria, it helped if your dad was Theon, the last known member of
Alexandria’s museum.
3.Many historians believe that at least one of the commentaries attributed to her father, the third book of Theon’s version of
th
Ptolemy’s Almagest, an astronomical text used widely until the 16 century, was actually written by Hypatia.
4.Theon taught Hypatia and sought her help with some of his commentaries - republications of someone else’s work with
notes interpreting and explaining various parts.
Q18. DIRECTIONS for question 18: Four alternative summaries are given below the text. Choose the option that best
captures the essence of the text.

Our cultural backgrounds influence not only how we marry but how we make choices in nearly every area of our lives. From
early on, members of individualistic societies are taught the special importance of personal choice. Even a walk through the
grocery store becomes an opportunity to teach lessons about choosing, particularly in the United States, where stores
routinely offer hundreds of options. A parent will probably narrow down the number of choices and explain the differences
between this cereal and that one, or that toy and this one, but the child would be encouraged to express a preference. By
contrast, members of collectivist societies place greater emphasis on duty. Children are often told, “If you are a good child,
you'll do what your parents tell you,” and the parents need not explain themselves. From what you eat to what you wear, the
toys you play with to what you study, it is what you are supposed to do that is most important.

a) Individualistic societies stress more on the individual and are more self-centered, whereas collectivist societies stress
more on social units such as families and are unselfish.
b) Children of individualist societies become accustomed to making their own decisions, whereas children in collectivist
societies such as India prefer to let their elders decide for them.
c) Culture influences choice making. Individualistic societies emphasize personal choice, while collectivist societies
emphasize duty.
d) Culture influences choice making. Individualistic societies are taught the importance of personal choice, while collectivist
societies emphasize that what you eat, what you play with, what you study etc., should be determined by society and
should not be left to the whims of the individual.
Q19. DIRECTIONS for questions 19 and 20: The sentences given in the question, when properly sequenced, form a
coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a number. Decide on the proper order for the four sentences and
key in the sequence of four numbers as your answer, in the input box given below the question.

1.The spaces and species that have been erased from urban visions and values now find themselves the subject of a
‘greening’ of urban policy that has gathered some momentum.
2.But things are brewing in cities.
3.This gathering of energies has found expression in unprecedented policy investment in what has become known as
the ‘urban green’.
4.Against the cartographic opposition between cities and natures in modern western societies the idea of urban
ecology has seemed little more than a contradiction in terms.
Q20. DIRECTIONS for questions 19 and 20: The sentences given in the question, when properly sequenced, form a
coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a number. Decide on the proper order for the four sentences and
key in the sequence of four numbers as your answer, in the input box given below the question.

1.The difference may be attributed to where the macrophages come from.

2.Perhaps nowhere in the body is the ability to repair damaged tissue more important than in the heart.
3.Studying heart repair in mouse foetuses, researchers have learned that, while macrophages are often responsible
for the development of fibrosis in adults, they also play a starring role in scar-free repair.
4.Although foetal mammals are typically able to regenerate heart tissue without scarring, most species lose that
ability as adults, for reasons scientists still don’t fully understand.
Q21. DIRECTIONS for question 21: There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph
and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence: The book showed that Dick's politics could not be simplified into a straightforward description of left
or right, as he was biting in his attacks on both the McCarthy-
esque witch hunts of the period as well as the more evangelical leanings of communism.

Paragraph: Dick's work often had a political dimension, too. The Man in the High Castle, for example, imagines an
alternative history in which the Nazis won World War Two. _____(1)_____ In lesser-known works such as Eye in the Sky
(1957), this politics is more of its period. _____(2)_____ In the novel, a group of people become stuck in various different
worlds conjured by each individual, thanks to a malfunctioning particle accelerator. The narrative focuses especially on a
world dreamed up by a communist member of the group who has been dismissed from the laboratory for holding such
beliefs. _____(3)_____ The twist is that the world conjured with obvious over-the-top Marxist leanings is, in fact, the
product of the lab security chief who is also a communist but in secret. _____(4)_____

a) Option 1
b) Option 2
c) Option 3
d) Option 4
Q22. DIRECTIONS for question 22: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the
option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The subject of the art is often a red herring. In other words, as Beckett might have said, it’s not what is said, but how it is
said. However outdated that concept is, I fully adhere to it. We are so tied to biography at the present moment, and
content before form, as well as that diabolical charge, what is relevant. We base so much on the surface temple of
personality, but the true artists have let go – their personality has no meaning, only the art – and people are left grasping
at a phantom.

a) True art reveals the subconscious aspect of an artist’s thought, rather than what he or she is consciously trying to
narrate.
b) The art of true artists is beyond the superficial concepts of content and relevance.
c) When an artist lets go of his or her own personality, art becomes just a phantom.
d) Genuine art evolves unconsciously rather than subscribing to a specific form.
Q23. DIRECTIONS for question 23: There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph
and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence: After all, in no period has the highest level of some specific cognitive capability held by any entity in th
e terrestrial biosphere shrunk; the entire biosphere has never lost the ability to engage in certain kinds of cognitiv
e capability.

Paragraph: The capabilities of future terrestrial organisms will likely exceed the current level of our digitally augmented
intelligence. _____(1)_____ This sense of cognitive expansion is not unique to our current moment in history. Think about
the collective cognitive capability of all organisms living on Earth. Imagine a graph showing this collective capability
changing over billions of years. _____(2)_____ Arguably, no matter what precise time-series analysis technique we use,
and no matter how we formalise ‘cognitive capability’, we will conclude that the trend line has a strictly positive slope.
_____(3)_____ Also, there is not just growth over time in the degree of each cognitive capability among all terrestrial
species, but a growth in the kinds of cognitive capability. Life has become only smarter, and smarter in different ways.
_____(4)_____ If we simply extrapolate this trend into the future, we’re forced to conclude that some future organisms will
have cognitive capabilities that no currently living Terran species has – including us.

a) Option 1
b) Option 2
c) Option 3
d) Option 4
Q24. DIRECTIONS for question 24: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option
that best captures the essence of the passage.
Social information is clearly valuable – it is worth foraging, often receives privileged attention over other types of
information, and is inherently rewarding. The social environment is rife with information and tinged with uncertainty, and as
a result much of our mental machinery is applied to reducing the cognitive load of social interaction. Social behaviours
impact evolutionary fitness, suggesting they are critical for survival and reproduction. Biological mechanisms that primarily
functioned to mediate non-social behaviours in the ancestral state have been repurposed in some species, like humans
and rhesus macaques, to mediate social behaviour.

a) Social behaviour, which needs greater cognitive resources, is critical to evolutionary fitness, and some species have
diverted biological mechanisms to address it.
b) Humans and monkeys adapted to divert greater resources towards the cognition needed for social behaviour.
c) Species that indulge in social behaviour have at some point evolved to address its higher dependence on mental
machinery.
d) The importance of social information can be understood from the way humans and monkeys have repurposed biological
mechanisms originally wired to non-social behaviours.
LRDI
DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Answer these questions on the basis of the information given below.

Fresla is a grocery store that has exactly six employees – Busk, Dusk, Fusk, Gusk, Husk and Lusk. The monthly salaries of the six
employees are $347, $476, $538, $627, $836, and $968, not necessarily in the same order. In addition to the monthly salary, the
employees may also be paid a bonus, which can be paid at any time during the year. The monthly income of any employee for a month is
defined as the sum of the monthly salary of that employee for that month and any bonus that may have been received in that month.
Further, the annual income of any employee is defined as the sum of the monthly incomes paid to the employee during the twelve months
of the year, i.e., from January to December.
In September of a particular year, Elmond Rusk, the owner of Fresla, decided that he would give a bonus to each of the six employees
such that the annual income of each employee would become an integral multiple of $1000. Elmond Rusk paid the bonus to all the six
employees in the month of September itself, ensuring that each employee was paid the least possible bonus. No other bonus was paid to
any employee during the year.
It is also known that
1.the bonus paid to Dusk was the same as the monthly salary of Busk; the bonus paid to Gusk was the same as the monthly salary of
Fusk.
2.the difference between the monthly salary and the bonus was not the least for Lusk, while the monthly income in September of Busk was
less than the monthly salary of either Husk or Gusk.
Q1. DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.What was the annual income of Gusk?

a) $5000
b) $8000
c) $11000
d) Either $11000 or $5000

Q2. DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.What is the difference between the
bonus paid to Dusk and the monthly salary of Fusk?

a) $492
b) $360
c) Either $360 or $492
d) Either $360 or $621

Q3. DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.Which of the following statements is
true regarding the bonus paid to Lusk?

a) It is less than the bonus paid to Fusk.

b) It is less than the monthly salary of Dusk.
c) It is the same as the monthly salary of Gusk.
d) It is greater than the monthly income of Husk for September.
Q4. DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.The monthly income for September of
which of the six persons is a multiple of 11?

a) Fusk
b) Gusk
c) Either Dusk or Gusk
d) Dusk

Q5. DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.For which employee is
their monthly income for September as a proportion of their annual income the highest?

a) Husk
b) Lusk
c) Dusk
d) Fusk
DIRECTIONS for questions 6 to 10: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
All the students of Class X of a school wrote four exams, each in a different subject among Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Three students,
Ram, Lalit and Kishore, are from this class.
Chart-1 below provides the marks scored by each of Ram, Lalit and Kishore in each subject, while Chart-2 provides the number of students in the class
who scored more than each of the three students in each subject. It is known that, in any exam, no two students received the same mark.
Q6. DIRECTIONS for question 6: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.How many students scored more than 30 but less
than 60 in Physics?

a) 10
b) 9
c) 20
d) 19

Q7. DIRECTIONS for question 7: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.What is the minimum number of
students in the class?

Q8. DIRECTIONS for question 8: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.If in exactly n subjects, the mark that any student
received is a positive integer, what is the maximum possible value of n?

a) 4
b) 3
c) 2
d) 1
Q9. DIRECTIONS for questions 9 and 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.If the marks received by any
student in one of the subjects is a positive integer, what is the maximum possible number of students in the class?

Q10. DIRECTIONS for questions 9 and 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.If the number of students who
scored more than Lalit in one of the subjects is the same as the number of students who scored less than Kishore in another subject, what is the
maximum number of students in the class?
DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 15: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.

On each day, Harish, the warden of a hostel, decides the subjects to be read by each of the 194 students in his hostel on that day. He
assigns one or more subjects among Civics, History and Economics to each student.
On a particular day, Day 1, 40 students were assigned only History, 20 students were assigned only Economics and 24 students were
assigned only Civics. The number of students who were assigned only History and Economics was twice the number of students who were
assigned all the three subjects which, in turn, was twice the number of students who were assigned only Economics and Civics. The
number of students who were assigned History was 141.

On Day 2 and Day 3, Harish assigned the subjects in the following manner:
1.Half the students who were assigned only History the previous day were additionally assigned Economics but not Civics.
2.Half the students who were assigned only Economics the previous day were additionally assigned Civics but not History.
3.Half the students who were assigned only Civics the previous day were additionally assigned both History and Economics.
4.One third of the students who were assigned all the three subjects the previous day were assigned only History; one-third were assigned
only Economics; one-third were assigned only Civics.
Q11. DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 13: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.How many students were
assigned Economics on Day 2?

Q12. DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 13: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.How many students were
assigned Economics and History on Day 3?

Q13. DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 13: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.What is the difference
between the number of students who were assigned only History on Day 3 and the number of students who were assigned Civics on Day
2?
Q14. DIRECTIONS for questions 14 and 15: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.On which of the given days were the
number of students who were assigned Civics less than that who were assigned Economics?

a) Only Day 3
b) Both Day 2 and Day 3
c) Both Day 1 and Day 2
d) None of Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3

Q15. DIRECTIONS for questions 14 and 15: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.What is the maximum number of
students who would have been assigned only History on all the three days?

a) 10
b) 13
c) 20
d) 7
DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 20: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
In an archery tournament, each player gets exactly one attempt to hit the target in each round of the tournament. The tournament
comprises n rounds in total. In any round, if a player hits the target, points are awarded, and if he misses the target, points are deducted. The
manner in which the points are awarded/deducted is given below:

Awarding of points: For the first round in which a player hits the target, he is awarded three points. For every consecutive round that he
continues to hit the target, the number of points awarded to him for the round increases by 1. If he misses the target in any round(s) and then
hits the target in the successive round, only three points are awarded for the round in which he hits the target, and from this round onwards,
for every consecutive round that he continues to hit the target, the number of points awarded to him for the round again increases by 1. The
points are awarded in a similar manner for all the rounds in which the player hits the target.
Deducting of Points: For the first round in which a player misses the target, he is penalized one point (i.e., one point is deducted). For every
consecutive round that he continues to miss the target, the number of points that he is penalized for the round increases by 1. If he hits the
target in any round(s) and then misses the target in the successive round, he is penalized only one point for the round in which he misses the
target, and from this round onwards, for every consecutive round that he continues to miss the target, the number of points that he is
penalized for the round again increases by 1. The player is penalized in a similar manner for all the rounds in which he misses the target.
Q16. DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 20: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.If n = 10, and the player missed the target
in exactly three rounds, what is the minimum possible score of the player?

a) 21
b) 23
c) 19
d) 36

Q17. DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 20: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.If n = 10 and the player hit the target in
exactly two rounds, what is the minimum possible score of the player?

a) –28
b) –29
c) –30
d) None of the above

Q18. DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 20: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.If n = 10 and the player scored exactly 26
points, what is the maximum number of rounds in which he missed the target?

a) 3
b) 5
c) 6
d) 4
Q19. DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 20: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.If n = 60 and the player hit the target in
exactly four rounds, what is the maximum possible score of the player?

a) –1578
b) –408
c) –330
d) –264

Q20. DIRECTIONS for questions 16 to 20: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.It is known that n = 95 and the player hit
the target in exactly five rounds. If the score of the player was the maximum possible, in which of the following rounds must he have hit the
target?

a) 19th round
b) 80th round
c) 20th round
d) Either 19th round or 20th round
QA
Q1. DIRECTIONS for question 1: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
A right-angled triangle is cut along a line parallel to the hypotenuse of the triangle, such that the length of the hypotenuse of the smaller
triangle is 35% less than that of the initial triangle. If the area of the smaller triangle is x percent of the area of the initial triangle, find the
value of x, rounded off to the nearest whole number.

a) 42
b) 35
c) 12
d) 65

Q2. DIRECTIONS for question 2: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
If f (n) = 1(1!) + 2(2!) + 3(3!) +…..+ n(n!), find the remainder when f (117) + f (111) is divided by 100.

Q3. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 9: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
What is the minimum number of integers from 7 to 77 (both inclusive) that must be chosen so that at least one multiple of 3 is included?

a) 3
b) 58
c) 59
d) 49
Q4. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 9: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
If |x – 3|.(y – 4x + 4) < 0, which of the following is definitely true?
2

a) –2 < x < 3
b) y > 2
c) –2 < y < 1
d) x > 1

Q5. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 9: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
Two vessels, A and B, contain a mixture of kerosene and petrol in the ratio 4 : 3 and 8 : 11 respectively. If the contents of A and B are mixed,
which of the following cannot be the ratio of kerosene and petrol in the mixture thus formed?

a) 13 : 17
b) 11 : 9
c) 10 : 7
d) 7 : 9
Q7. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 9: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
Consider the following three equations:
2x + 3y + 4z = 33
4x + 2y + 3z = 29
3x + 4y + 2z = 28

Which of the following equations is inconsistent with the above equations?

a) x + y + z = 10
b) 6x + 5y + 7z = 62
c) y + z – 2x = 4
d) 5x + 3y + z = 23

Q8. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 9: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
If x ≠ 0, what is the product of the roots of the equation = 4?

a) 4
b) –24
c) 12
d) –6
Q9. DIRECTIONS for questions 3 to 9: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
Tarun and Varun invested in a business in the ratio of 4 : 5, at the beginning of a year. If Tarun withdrew from the partnership after eight
months, what percentage of the annual profit will Tarun receive?

a) 34.78%
b) 33.33%
c) 29.63%
d) 35%

Q10. DIRECTIONS for question 10: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
A transport agency has five carriers, each of capacity ten tonnes. The carriers are scheduled such that the first carrier makes a trip every day,
the second carrier makes a trip every second day, the third makes a trip every third day and so on. Find the maximum number of times in a
year that it is possible to dispatch a total shipment of 50 tonnes in a single day. The operations start on the 7th of January and continue till the
end of the year, i.e., the 31st of December, without any holidays.

Q11. DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 13: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
A country wanted to select four mixed-doubles tennis teams for the upcoming Olympics from 6 female players and 6 male players available for
selection. If the selection panel chose the players at random, then in how many ways they could have done that? (A mixed-doubles tennis
team comprises one male and one female player)

a) 129600
b) 64800
c) 5400
d) 1800
Q12. DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 13: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
If the equations of the two tangents drawn to a circle C from a point P are 4x + 3y – 7 = 0 and 3x – 4y + 1 = 0, then the centre of the circle C
will definitely lie on the pair of straight lines represented by

a) (x + 6y – 7) (6x + y – 7) = 0.
b) (x + 7y – 8) (7x – y – 6) = 0.
c) (x – 6y + 5) (6x + y – 7) = 0.
d) (x – 7y + 6) (7x + y – 8) = 0.

Q13. DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 13: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
The number of bacteria in a laboratory doubles at the end of every 20 minutes. If the number of bacteria is 364 at 8 a.m., which of the
following is the earliest time at which the number of bacteria will be 10,000 or more?

a) 9:00 a.m.
b) 9:20 a.m.
c) 9:40 a.m.
d) 10:00 a.m.

Q14. DIRECTIONS for questions 14 and 15: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
In Hitami theatre, the price of a ticket, which is paid for just before exiting the theatre, varies as P = Ax + By + C, where P is the price of the
ticket, x is the number of hours spent inside the theatre and y is the number of popcorns purchased, with A, B and C being constants. Today,
Ram spent three hours inside the theatre and purchased seven popcorns. He would have spent ₹300 less on the ticket had he either spent
2.5 hours less and bought three popcorns more OR spent 1.5 hours more and purchased five popcorns less.
What is the maximum number of hours that Ram could have spent inside the theatre with the amount that he spent?
Q15. DIRECTIONS for questions 14 and 15: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
The difference between the simple interest and the compound interest accrued in two years on a certain sum at a certain rate of interest is
₹80. If the simple interest for the second year is ₹1000, find the sum (in ₹).

Q16. DIRECTIONS for question 16: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
2 2 2
The pair of straight lines y = 2x meet the graph of y = 4x at the origin and also at points P and P', forming two closed loops. The ratio of the
area of the upper loop to that of the lower loop is

a) 1 : 2.
b) 1 : 1.
c) 4 : 1.
d) 2 : 1.

Q17. DIRECTIONS for question 17: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
If 1 + 3 + 5 +…. + (2n – 1) = 1 + m(m+1)(m+2)(m+3), where m and n are natural numbers, find the value of n, when m = 25.
Q19. DIRECTIONS for question 19: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
The total age of a few eight-year-old children and a few seven-year-old children is 70 years. If there is at least one eight-year-old and at least one
seven-year-old, in how many ways can a team be selected from these children, such that the sum of the ages of the children in the team is 54?
Q20. DIRECTIONS for questions 20 and 21: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
Given below are two statements I and II:
1.The ratio of the altitudes of a triangle ABC is 2 : 5 : 6.
2.The ratio of the altitudes of a triangle DEF is 3 : 4 : 8.
Which of the above two statements can be true?

a) Only I
b) Only II
c) Both I and II
d) Neither I nor I

Q21. DIRECTIONS for questions 20 and 21: Select the correct alternative from the given choices.
Maaldar Reddy bequeathed his property comprising ‘A’ acres of land to his three sons, such that the areas of the shares of land given to the
sons were in geometric progression. If the maximum difference between the shares of any two sons is 385 acres and the least possible sum of
the shares of any two sons is 770 acres, then find the value of A.

a) 650
b) 975
c) 1463
d) 1580

Q22. DIRECTIONS for question 22: Type in your answer in the input box provided below the question.
If P is 30% more efficient than Q and can complete a certain job in 46 days, how many days would P and Q together take to complete the
same job?