1 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following sentences are grammatically CORRECT ?
1. Have you any clothes to dispose of?
2. I saw a pleasant dream last night.
3. I have done it many a times safely.
4. Students struggle to cope up with academic pressure.
5. You need not give negative feedback to your employees.

2 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the poem carefully, and answer the following question.
I smiled at you because I thought that you
Were someone else; you smiled back; and there grew
Between two strangers in a library
Something that seems like love; but you loved me
(If that’s the word) because you thought that I
Was other than I was. And by and by
We found we’d been mistaken all the while
From that first glance, that first mistaken smile

Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from the poem?

3 XAT 2022 - VALR

Carefully read the following statement:
The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it_____ for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that _____ are notinformed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody alwayslies to you, the ________ is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobodybelieves anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to bechanged, and a lying government has ________ to rewrite its own history.

Which of the following options will BEST fill up the above blanks meaningfully?

4 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
Geologists have been investigating a potential cycle in geological events for a longtime. Back in the 1920s and 30s, scientists of the era had suggested that thegeological record had a 30-million-year cycle, while in the 1980s and 90s researchersused the best-dated geological events at the time to give them a range of the lengthbetween 'pulses' of 26.2 to 30.6 million years. Now, everything seems to be in order -27.5 million years is right about where we'd expect. A study late last year suggestedthat this 27.5-million-year mark is when mass extinctions happen, too.

Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?

5 XAT 2022 - VALR

Carefully read the following statement:
When I ask people to name three recently implemented technologies that mostimpact our world today, they usually propose the computers, the Internet and thelaser. All three were unplanned, ___________, and_____________ upon theirdiscovery and remained __________ well after their initial use.

Which of the following options will BEST fill up the above blanks meaningfully?

6 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following sentences have INCORRECT usage of preposition?
1. The manager was sitting at the desk.
2. My work is superior to yours.
3. I prefer coffee than tea.
4. She was accused for stealing gold.
5. This is an exception to the rule.
6. They are leaving to England soon.

7 XAT 2022 - VALR

Arrange the following sentences in a LOGICAL sequence:
1. But when it comes to companies that lack computer programmers, thegovernment is far more sympathetic.
2. As a result, limited access to foreign talent is a common gripe of tech foundersand venture capitalists.
3. And, demand for the latter has soared among British startups.
4. This is less inconsistent than it may seem.
5. An HGV driver takes between six and ten weeks to train; a competent coderseveral years.

8 XAT 2022 - VALR

Arrange the following sentences in a LOGICAL sequence:
1. In America, primary-age pupils are on average five months behind where theywould usually be in maths, and four months in reading,
according to McKinsey, aconsultancy.
2. As a new school year gets under way in many countries, the harm caused bymonths of closure is becoming ever clearer.
3. The crisis will accelerate that trend.
4. The damage is almost certainly worse in places such as India and Mexico, wherethe disruption to schooling has been greater.
5. Even before pandemic, parents around the world were growing more willing to payfor extra lessons in the hope of boosting their
children’s education.

9 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.
One theory of accidents is what experts call the Swiss Cheese model. A slab of Swiss cheese has several holes, randomly and unevenly distributed over its surface. If several slabs are stacked together, it would be impossible for something to slip through unless all the holes happen to line up. If even one slab doesn’t align, the impending catastrophe will meet a layer ofresistance, and the worst is averted. Aviation professionals will tell you that planecrashes never happen for a single reason. There may be an identifiable primaryfactor, but it’s usually a chain of events, an array of circumstances neatly piling up.

Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?

10 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the passage carefully and answer the THREE questions that follow.

Stupidity is a very specific cognitive failing. Crudely put, it occurs when you don’t have the right conceptual tools for the job. The result is an inability to make sense of what ishappening and a resulting tendency to force phenomena into crude, distorting pigeonholes. This is easiest to introduce with a tragic case. British high command during the First WorldWar frequently understood trench warfare using concepts and strategies from the cavalrybattles of their youth. As one of Field Marshal Douglas Haig’s subordinates later remarked,they thought of the trenches as ‘mobile operations at the halt’: i.e., as fluid battle lines withthe simple caveat that nothing in fact budged for years. Unsurprisingly, this did not servethem well in formulating a strategy: they were hampered, beyond the shortage of material resources, by a kind of ‘conceptual obsolescence’, a failure to update their cognitive tools tofit the task in hand. In at least some cases, intelligence actively abets stupidity by allowingpernicious rationalisation. Stupidity will often arise in cases like this, when an outdated conceptual framework isforced into service, mangling the user’s grip on some new phenomenon. It is important todistinguish this from mere error. We make mistakes for all kinds of reasons. Stupidity is rather one specific and stubborn cause of error. Historically, philosophers have worried agreat deal about the irrationality of not taking the available means to achieve goals: Tomwants to get fit, yet his running shoes are quietly gathering dust. The stock solution to Tom’squandary is simple willpower. Stupidity is very different from this. It is rather a lack of thenecessary means, a lack of the necessary intellectual equipment. Combatting it will typicallyrequire not brute willpower but the construction of a new way of seeing our self and our world. Such stupidity is perfectly compatible with intelligence: Haig was by any standard as mart man.

Question:

Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the author's view on stupidity?

11 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following statements BEST explains why stupidity for a smart person is “perfectly compatible with intelligence”?

12 XAT 2022 - VALR

Based on the passage, which of the following can BEST help a leader avoid stupidity?

13 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the excerpt carefully and answer the following question.
The over-whelming pre ponderance of people have not freely decided what to believe, but, rather, have been socially conditioned (indoctrinated) into their beliefs. They are unreflective thinkers.
Which of the following statements CANNOT be concluded from the excerpt?

14 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the passage carefully and answer the THREE questions that follow.

What bullshit essentially misrepresents is neither the state of affairs to which it refers nor the beliefs of the speaker concerning that state of affairs. Those are what lies misrepresent,by virtue of being false. Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so,either about the facts or about what he takes the  facts to be. What he does necessarilyattempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to. This is the crux ofthe distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falselyas endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving usabout that. But the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead usaway from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believesomething he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on theother hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; whatwe are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.This does not mean that his speech is anarchically impulsive, but that the motive guidingand controlling it is unconcerned with how the things about which he speaks truly are. It isimpossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshitrequires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he isto that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believesto be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers hisstatements to be false.

Questions:

Which of the following statements can be BEST inferred from the passage?

15 XAT 2022 - VALR

Why does the author say that the bull shitter’s intention “is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it?”

16 XAT 2022 - VALR

When will a liar BEST turn into a bullshitter?

17 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the passage carefully and answer the THREE questions that follow.

What does a good life look like to you? For some, the phrase may conjure up images of aclose-knit family, a steady job, and a Victorian house at the end of a street arched with oaktrees. Others may focus on the goal of making a difference in the world, whether by workingas a nurse or teacher, volunteering, or pouring their energy into environmental activism.According to Aristotlean theory, the first kind of life would be classified as “hedonic”—onebased on pleasure, comfort, stability, and strong social relationships. The second is“eudaimonic,” primarily concerned with the sense of purpose and fulfilment one gets bycontributing to the greater good. The ancient Greek philosopher outlined these ideas in histreatise Nicomachean Ethics, and the psychological sciences have pretty much stuck themever since when discussing the possibilities of what people might want out of their time onEarth. But a new paper, published in the American Psychological Association’sPsychological Review, suggests there’s another way to live a good life. It isn’t focused onhappiness or purpose, but rather it’s a life that’s “psychologically rich.” What is a psychologically rich life? According to authors Shige Oishi, a professor ofpsychology at the University of Virginia, and Erin Westgate, an assistant professor ofpsychology at the University of Florida, it’s one characterized by “interesting experiences in which novelty and/or complexity are accompanied by profound changes in perspective.” Studying abroad, for example, is one way that college students often introduce psychological richness into their lives. As they learn more about a new country’s customsand history, they’re often prompted to reconsider the social mores of their own cultures. Deciding to embark on a difficult new career path or immersing one’s self in avant-garde art(the paper gives a specific shout-out to James Joyce’s Ulysses) also could make a personfeel as if their life is more psychologically rich. Crucially, an experience doesn’t have to be fun in order to qualify as psychologically enriching. It might even be a hardship. Living through war or a natural disaster might makeit hard to feel as though you’re living a particularly happy or purposeful life, but you can stillcome out of the experience with psychological richness. Or you might encounter lessdramatic but nonetheless painful events: infertility, chronic illness, unemployment.Regardless of the specifics, you may experience suffering but still find value in how yourexperience shapes your understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Question:

Which of the following statements BEST contrasts Hedonic from Eudaimonic?

18 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following statements BEST defines a “psychologically rich life”?

19 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?

20 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the passage carefully and answer the THREE questions that follow.

What Arendt does for us is to remind us that our “publicness” is as important to our flourishing as our sociability and our privacy. She draws a distinction between what itmeans to act “socially” and what is means to act “politically.” The social realm for Arendt isboth the context where all our basic survival needs “are permitted to appear in public” andalso the realm of “behaviour.” One of the things she fears about modern societies is thatsociety - focused on how we behave and what we will permit for ourselves and others -becomes the realm of conformism. This is worrying not just because we don’t really getvibrant societies out of conformism and sameness, but also,
Arendt says because there is arisk that we think this is all there is to our living together. We lose ourselves in the tasks ofmanaging behaviour and forget that our true public task is to act, and to distinguishourselves in doing so. The risk, says Arendt, is therefore that we confuse behaviour with action , that in modern liberal societies “behaviour replaces action as the foremost mode ofhuman relationship.” This confusion can happen in any area of our modern lives andinstitutions, secular or faith-based. None is immune.
Arendt wants to drive home the point that the healthy public life requires that we do not justsee ourselves as social actors but also as fully public persons, committed to judging andacting as members of a common world we want to inhabit and pass on. Arendt tells us that public action is action in which we stand out, are individuated, become in some wayexcellent in a manner that is of service to others and a greater good. This is the spacewhere we take risks, subject our common life to scrutiny, seek justice (that sometimesrequires us to transgress what seem like accepted laws) in order to be increasingly open tothe claims and needs of other humans - ones who are not our household and our kin.

Question: 

According to the passage, who can be BEST categorised as a “public person”?

21 XAT 2022 - VALR

Based on the passage, which of the following options BEST describes “publicaction”?

22 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following is the BEST reason for focusing on behaviour instead ofacting in public?

23 XAT 2022 - VALR

Read the poem carefully, and answer the TWO questions that follow.

It hurts to walk on new legs:
The curse of consonants. The wobble of vowels.
And you for whom I gave up a kingdom
Can never love that thing I was.
When you look into my past
You see
Only weeds and scales.
Once I had a voice.
Now I have legs.
Sometimes I wonder
Was it a fair trade?

Questions:

Which of the following statements BEST reflects the theme of the poem?

24 XAT 2022 - VALR

What does the author BEST mean by “Once I had a voice. /Now I have legs?”

25 XAT 2022 - VALR

Which of the following conditional sentences are grammatically INCORRECT?
1. If Sandhya had started from the hotel on time, she would have not missed theflight.
2. The students wouldn’t have completed their assignment even if the professorwould have been there.
3. I had travelled across Europe if I weren’t afraid of airplane crashes.
4. Saurav won’t join music classes unless his father will ask him.
5. Should you wish to join the party, you must let me know by this evening.
6. We would be stupid if we shared our strategy with her.

26 XAT 2022 - VALR

Labouring is simply what we do to survive. We labour to eat. To keep our bodieshealthy. To keep roof over our heads, and to keep life reproducing. All animalslabour, with or without coaxing…. There’s nothing special about labour, save for thefact that without it we would die.
Work, on the other hand, gives collective meaning to what we do. When we work to produce something we both put something into and leave something lasting in theworld: a table, a house, a book, a car, a rug, a high precision piece of engineering with which we can order the days into time, or keep a body breathing.

Which of the following statements can be BEST concluded from the passage?