Paragraph Summary || Verbal Ability || CAT 2021 || 16 June for CAT & MBA Exams

Question 1

Direction: Read the given passage carefully. Choose the most appropriate option from the given alternatives which expresses the summary of the passage.

Poverty is real in India but not begging. Begging in India has become a big racket in the country. For many, begging is just like any other profession. They go out to earn money, not by working, but by begging. In some cases, we find the entire family is involved in begging. The family members keep on increasing with marriage and birth and each of them gets into begging on streets or temples. Here, poverty is one big reason for such a situation. The beggars are trained to become very persistent while begging that you are bound to give them money. This is especially true for foreigners when they do not know how to react in such situations and ultimately give money to the beggars. Some of the young beggars also become anti-social elements of the country. To buy drugs, they slowly graduate to pickpocketing and then move on to bigger scams like robbing and killing.

Question 2

Direction: Choose the option that best captures the essence of the text.

Kids can be creatures of habit. Much like how they can watch the same movie over and over, some kids will stick to one author or genre of book that they’ve fallen in love with. But does it matter if they're always reading the same type of book? After all, isn't their love of reading in itself, enough? Reading builds their imagination, develops their critical thinking skills, and improves their communication skills, amongst many other benefits. Well, while a love of reading of any sort is to be nurtured, when a child only reads the same author or type of book, their growth and the benefits they gain may not be as broad if they were to explore more types of books. Coaxing them to open up to reading other genres can be a big advantage for them in the long term.

Question 3

Direction: Read the given passage carefully. Choose the most appropriate option from the given alternatives which expresses the summary of the passage.

Mental health and illnesses have been a topic that has particularly suffered the brunt of silence for the longest time. In India, this silence is deafening. According to a recent report released by the World Health Organization, nearly 100 million Indians suffer from various mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. Conversations around mental health are sadly lacking. The deadly cocktail of stigma, taboo and ignorance does not encourage people with mental health illness to share their struggles and any attempt is shoved the under the carpet.

Question 4

Direction: Choose the option that best captures the essence of the text.

As another academic year got under way at Imperial College London, a senior professor was bemused at the absence of one of her students. He had worked in her lab for three years and had one more left to complete his studies. But he had stopped coming in. Eventually, the professor called him. He had left for a six-figure salary at Apple. It is not an isolated event. According to a Guardian survey of Britain’s top ranking research universities, tech firms are hiring AI experts at a prodigious rate, fuelling a brain drain that has already hit research and teaching.

Question 5

Direction: Which of the following best captures the essence of the paragraph?

If one were to think beyond the immediate fortunes and electoral outcomes, what does one make of small parties? There is an easy and romantically democratic approach to small parties that says the more the merrier and small is beautiful; that many small parties would mean much more effective representation of many small interests. The other, more guarded approach would be to be cautious about the fragmentation, not just of parties, but of the idea of representation and of public interest.

Question 6

Direction: Which of the following best captures the essence of the paragraph?

But the good news is quieter, and more durable: the relationship between the two nations has grown progressively closer over the past two decades: under three US presidents and three Indian prime ministers, representing the full range of both countries’ political spectrums. There will be ups and there will be downs; in international policy, there always are. But the warming trend in Indo-US relations is almost certain to continue—no matter who sits in the White House, or who comes calling at South Block.

Question 7

Direction: Read the given passage carefully. Choose the most appropriate option from the given alternatives which expresses the summary of the passage.

The world is changing, so is the internet, or perhaps it’s the other way round. The internet continues to create new business and social opportunities that massively scale and widely interconnect. The increasing depth and volume of personal and corporate data makes it a more rewarding target for cyber crooks and state-sponsored espionage or sabotage. At the same time, greater connectivity provides more potential attack vectors. This makes industry, governments and individuals uneasy and unsure how to prepare. Predicting the exact nature of future threats and how to combat them is difficult.

Question 8

Direction: Choose the option that best captures the essence of the text.

If I speak about my childhood in Monghyr, you might have a better idea about one aspect of my character. I get easily tired with the mundane life in Kolkata. The thronging crowds, the hustle and bustle of trams and buses, the obstreperousness, and the hardships of daily life—sometimes I wish I could just run away from all that. In fact, I did run away several times after I bought the car. On several occasions, during holidays, I headed to Diamond Harbour, sometimes I went to Port Canning, and once I actually took Dum Dum Road and went straight to Hasnabad. In all these trips I had to travel alone, since I never found anybody else interested in these outings.

Question 9

Direction: Read the given passage carefully. Choose the most appropriate option from the given alternatives which expresses the summary of the passage.

Plastic bags, which El-Habr says take between 500 to 1,000 years to break down, also enter the human food chain through fish and other animals. In Nairobi’s slaughterhouses, some cows destined for human consumption had 20 bags removed from their stomachs. “This is something we didn’t get 10 years ago but now it’s almost on a daily basis,” said county vet Mbuthi Kinyanjui as he watched men in bloodied white uniforms scoop sodden plastic bags from the stomachs of cow carcasses. Kenya’s law allows police to go after anyone even carrying a plastic bag. But Judy Wakhungu, Kenya’s environment minister, said enforcement would initially be directed at manufacturers and suppliers.

Question 10

Direction: Choose the option that best captures the essence of the text.

I was hostile to my weird uncle who had just come back from America. He tried to force me to become a vet. I was firm and said, “I want to pursue literature.” First he just gaped then turning to my mother he asked if her daughter was crazy. He mentioned that I was going to break the family tradition. For generations our family profession had been the practice of medicine. I was good at keeping quiet so did not say anything. He was an absolute wizard with my Alsatian and later on I was touched to see his love for any animal. I realized his becoming a vet was a bliss for animals and the best way to serve society.