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CAT VARC Practice Test 13

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

Citizen Science

For centuries, much scientific observation was carried out by amateurs: clergy recording the weather, farmers noting the first swallows of spring. Professional science later pushed such contributions to the margins. Today they are returning under the name citizen science, in which members of the public collect or analyse data for research projects, from counting birds to classifying galaxies in telescope images.

The advantages are scale and reach. Volunteers can gather observations across whole continents and over many years, something no research team could afford. Online projects allow thousands of people to examine images that would take a single scientist a lifetime. The disadvantage most often raised is quality: untrained volunteers may misidentify species or record data inconsistently.

Projects have developed ways to manage this. Simple tasks, clear instructions and the use of several independent volunteers for the same item allow errors to be detected and averaged out. Studies comparing volunteer and expert data have often found them close enough to be useful, especially when the design accounts for known weaknesses. Citizen science works best, in other words, when it is designed around what volunteers can do reliably.

Passage 1 Questions Questions 1-4
1

The passage is mainly about:

2

According to the passage, the main advantage of citizen science is:

3

Using several independent volunteers for the same item helps because:

4

The final sentence suggests that citizen science works best when:

The Decline of Letter Writing

The handwritten letter has become a rarity. Messages are now typed, sent instantly and often read within seconds. Something has been gained: distance no longer delays conversation, and families separated by migration can talk every day. But historians worry about what will be lost, because letters have been among their richest sources.

A letter written to be read days later tends to be more considered than a quick message. Writers explained their circumstances, described events in full and reflected on their feelings, because they could not rely on an immediate reply to clarify. Letters were also kept: families stored them in boxes and libraries collected them, preserving private lives that would otherwise be invisible to history.

Digital messages are more numerous but more fragile. They are stored on platforms that may close, in formats that may become unreadable, and they are rarely selected for keeping. The challenge for archivists is not a shortage of records but an excess of them, scattered and unorganised. Whether future historians will know more or less about our private lives depends on choices about preservation being made now.

Passage 2 Questions Questions 5-8
5

The historians' main concern in the passage is that:

6

According to the passage, letters tended to be more considered because:

7

Digital messages are described as fragile because they:

8

The challenge for archivists is described as:

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. This lack of crystal structure is what makes glass transparent. 2. Sand, soda and lime are heated together until they melt. 3. Glass is made from some of the most common materials on Earth. 4. As the mixture cools, it hardens without forming crystals.

10

Four of the five sentences below form a coherent paragraph; one is out of place. Type the number of the odd sentence. 1. Tides are caused mainly by the pull of the Moon's gravity. 2. The Sun also affects tides, though less strongly. 3. When the Sun and Moon line up, tides are especially high. 4. Many coastal towns hold festivals in the summer months. 5. These large tides are known as spring tides.

11

Choose the option that best summarises the following paragraph. Children who are praised for being clever may avoid difficult tasks, because failure would threaten that label. Children praised for effort and strategy are more likely to persist when work becomes hard. The type of praise, not only its amount, shapes how children approach challenges.

12

Choose the option that best summarises the following paragraph. Supermarkets place staple goods such as milk and bread at the back of the store, so that shoppers walk past many other products to reach them. Sweets are often placed near the tills, where waiting customers make quick decisions. Store layouts are designed to encourage purchases that shoppers did not plan.

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.