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CAT VARC Practice Test 11

CAT VARC • Medium • 12 Questions
Progress 0 / 12
25:00

The Myth of the Lone Genius

Popular history likes the story of the lone genius: a single inventor who, in a flash of insight, changes the world. The light bulb, the telephone and the theory of evolution are often told this way. Historians of science tell a different story. Most important ideas emerged from many people working on similar problems at the same time, and several inventions were made independently by rival teams within a few years of each other.

This pattern, sometimes called multiple discovery, suggests that ideas become possible when the necessary knowledge, tools and demand are in place. The person remembered is often the one who patented first, publicised most effectively or built a working product that people could buy. Their contribution was real, but it rested on a network of predecessors, collaborators and competitors whose names are rarely recorded.

The myth is not harmless. It encourages institutions to fund star individuals rather than the teams and infrastructure that make discoveries possible, and it may discourage people who do not see themselves as geniuses from contributing at all. A more accurate history would not diminish great achievers; it would show how achievement depends on the conditions that a society chooses to create.

Passage 1 Questions Questions 1-4
1

The central argument of the passage is that:

2

The idea of multiple discovery suggests that:

3

According to the passage, the person who is remembered for an invention is often the one who:

4

Why does the author say the myth is 'not harmless'?

The Value of Boring Infrastructure

New bridges, stations and stadiums attract ribbon cutting ceremonies; the repair of old ones rarely does. Politicians gain more credit for opening a project than for maintaining one, and budgets reflect this. Maintenance is often the first item to be cut when money is short, because the consequences of neglect appear only years later, long after the decision makers have moved on.

Engineers point out that this is a false economy. A pipe or road that is repaired regularly lasts far longer than one that is left until it fails, and emergency repairs cost much more than planned ones. Failures also carry hidden costs: lost working hours, disrupted supply chains and, in the worst cases, injury and loss of life.

Some cities have responded by setting aside a fixed share of their budgets for maintenance that cannot be diverted, and by publishing the condition of their assets so that neglect is visible to voters. These measures do not make maintenance glamorous, but they make it harder to ignore.

Passage 2 Questions Questions 5-8
5

According to the passage, maintenance is often the first item to be cut because:

6

Engineers call cutting maintenance a 'false economy' because:

7

Which of the following is mentioned as a hidden cost of failure?

8

Publishing the condition of assets is intended to:

Type in the answer for the para-jumble and odd-sentence questions. For the rest, choose the best option.

Verbal Ability Questions Questions 9-12
9

The four sentences below, labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4, form a coherent paragraph when arranged in the right order. Type the correct order as a four-digit sequence (for example, 1234). 1. Many of them report ordinary memories before they learned specific techniques. 2. Most people assume that a good memory is something you are born with. 3. Their skill, in other words, is mostly trained rather than inherited. 4. Research on memory champions suggests otherwise.

10

Four of the five sentences below form a coherent paragraph; one is out of place. Type the number of the odd sentence. 1. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. 2. Some species can grow by nearly a metre in a single day. 3. Because it regrows quickly after cutting, it is used as a renewable building material. 4. The giant panda is native to the mountains of central China. 5. Builders value it for being both light and strong.

11

Choose the option that best summarises the following paragraph. Online reviews help shoppers compare products they cannot inspect in person. Yet reviews are not a neutral record: people with very good or very bad experiences are more likely to write them, and some reviews are written by sellers themselves. Reading many reviews and looking for detailed, specific comments gives a fairer picture than an average star rating.

12

Choose the option that best summarises the following paragraph. Cities that built wide roads to reduce traffic often found that traffic soon returned to its old level. New capacity made driving more attractive, so more people drove, and the roads filled up again. Planners call this induced demand and argue that improving alternatives such as public transport is more effective than widening roads.

What is in this test

  • Passage 1, questions 1-4
  • Passage 2, questions 5-8
  • Verbal Ability, questions 9-12

12 questions in 25 minutes, marked +3 for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong multiple choice answer, with no penalty on type in the answer questions. When you finish you get your marks, a section breakdown and a written explanation for every question. Learn the method first on the topic practice pages and keep the formula sheet handy while you review.