The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

Nature has all along yielded her flesh to humans. First, we took nature's materials as food, fibers, and shelter. Then we learned to extract raw materials from her biosphere to create our own new synthetic materials. Now Bios is yielding us her mind-we are taking her logic.

Clockwork logic-the logic of the machines-will only build simple contraptions. Truly complex systems such as a cell, a meadow, an economy, or a brain (natural or artificial) require a rigorous nontechnological logic. We now see that no logic except bio-logic can assemble a thinking device, or even a workable system of any magnitude.

It is an astounding discovery that one can extract the logic of Bios out of biology and have something useful. Although many philosophers in the past have suspected one could abstract the laws of life and apply them elsewhere, it wasn't until the complexity of computers and human-made systems became as complicated as living things, that it was possible to prove this. It's eerie how much of life can be transferred. So far, some of the traits of the living that have successfully been transported to mechanical systems are: self-replication, self-governance, limited self-repair, mild evolution, and partial learning.

We have reason to believe yet more can be synthesized and made into something new. Yet at the same time that the logic of Bios is being imported into machines, the logic of Technos is being imported into life. The root of bioengineering is the desire to control the organic long enough to improve it. Domesticated plants and animals are examples of technos-logic applied to life. The wild aromatic root of the Queen Anne's lace weed has been fine-tuned over generations by selective herb gatherers until it has evolved into a sweet carrot of the garden; the udders of wild bovines have been selectively enlarged in a "unnatural" way to satisfy humans rather than calves. Milk cows and carrots, therefore, are human inventions as much as steam engines and gunpowder are. But milk cows and carrots are more indicative of the kind of inventions humans will make in the future: products that are grown rather than manufactured.

Genetic engineering is precisely what cattle breeders do when they select better strains of Holsteins, only bioengineers employ more precise and powerful control. While carrot and milk cow breeders had to rely on diffuse organic evolution, modern genetic engineers can use directed artificial evolution-purposeful design-which greatly accelerates improvements.

The overlap of the mechanical and the lifelike increases year by year. Part of this bionic convergence is a matter of words. The meanings of "mechanical" and "life" are both stretching until all complicated things can be perceived as machines, and all self-sustaining machines can be perceived as alive. Yet beyond semantics, two concrete trends are happening: (1) Human-made things are behaving more lifelike, and (2) Life is becoming more engineered. The apparent veil between the organic and the manufactured has crumpled to reveal that the two really are, and have always been, of one being.

01.

The author claims that, "Part of this bionic convergence is a matter of words". Which one of the following statements best expresses the point being made by the author?

• A. 

  "Bios" and "Technos" are both convergent forms of logic, but they generate meanings about the world that are mutually exclusive.

• B. 

  A bionic convergence indicates the meeting ground of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence.

• C. 

  "Mechanical" and "life" are words from different logical systems and are, therefore, fundamentally incompatible in meaning.

• D. 

  "Mechanical" and "life" were earlier seen as opposite in meaning, but the difference between the two is increasingly blurred.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

“The overlap of the mechanical and the lifelike increases year by year. Part of this bionic convergence is a matter of words . The meanings of “mechanical” and “life” are both stretching until all complicated things can be perceived as machines, and all self-sustaining machines can be perceived as alive.”

 

From the above line, the author tries to show the increasing similarities between ‘mechanical’ and ‘lifelike’ with the passage of time. He states that this increase in similarities will continue till the meanings and the perception of the words become synonymous.

 

Option A: This option states the opposite of what the author tried to convey and hence is not the correct option. Option B: This option is distorted and can be rejected on the same grounds as option A.

 

Option C: This is a distorted inference, and the author did not use the above statement to show the meeting grounds of ‘genetic engineering’ and ‘mechanical engineering’. Thus, this is not the correct option.

 

Option D: This option aptly expresses the point made by the author in the last paragraph, and hence is the correct option. Thus, the correct option is D. 

02.

Which one of the following sets of words/phrases best serves as keywords to the passage?

• A. 

  Complex systems; Carrots; Milk cows; Convergence; Technos-logic

• B. 

  Nature; Bios; Technos; Self-repair; Holsteins

• C. 

  Nature; Computers; Carrots; Milk cows; Genetic engineering

• D. 

  Complex systems; Bio-logic; Bioengineering; Technos-logic; Convergence

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

The starting two paragraphs discuss the complexity of the biosphere and how it is impossible to build a thinking device without bio-logic in the next paragraphs, the author describes how with the increasing complexity of human-made systems(not until it was comparable to living things), it has become possible to transfer these traits into mechanical systems. Examples of these are bioengineering and genetic engineering. Then in the concluding paragraph, the author discusses about the convergence of these two logics(Biologic and Techno logic).

 

Options B and C do not talk about the conclusion of the passage(convergence of the logics), and hence can be eliminated. Out of options A and D, we should select the option with bio-logic and techno-logic instead of carrots and cows, because the broader idea is about bio and techno, not carrots and cows.

 

Thus, the correct option is D. 

03.

None of the following statements is implied by the arguments of the passage, EXCEPT:

• A. 

  purposeful design represents the pinnacle of scientific expertise in the service of human betterment and civilisational progress.

• B. 

  the biological realm is as complex as the mechanical one; which is why the logic of Bios is being imported into machines.

• C. 

  genetic engineers and bioengineers are the same insofar as they both seek to force evolution in an artificial way.

• D. 

  historically, philosophers have known that the laws of life can be abstracted and applied elsewhere.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

"Although many philosophers in the past have suspected one could abstract the laws of life and apply them elsewhere, it wasn't until the complexity of computers and human-made systems became as complicated as living things that it was possible to prove this."

 

Option A can be easily rejected from the above excerpt from the passage. Also, it can be inferred that now(not before), since the complexity of computers and human-made systems are comparable, the logic of Bios can be applied to machines. Although option C seems to convey the same meaning, it generalises the complexity and is a distorted inference.

 

The author has nowhere mentioned or implied in the passage that purposeful design represents the pinnacle of scientific expertise in the service of human betterment and civilisational progress.

 

Thus, option D can also be rejected.

 

"Genetic engineering is precisely what cattle breeders do when they select better strains of Holsteins, only bioengineers employ more precise and powerful control. While carrot and milk cow breeders had to rely on diffuse organic evolution, modern genetic engineers can use directed artificial evolution—purposeful design—which greatly accelerates improvements."

 

From the above excerpt from the penultimate paragraph, it can be inferred that although genetic engineering has less control over the products than bioengineering, they both try to evolve the product artificially. Thus, option B can be inferred from the passage.

 

Thus, the correct option is B. 

04.

The author claims that, "The apparent veil between the organic and the manufactured has crumpled to reveal that the two really are, and have always been, of one being." Which one of the following statements best expresses the point being made by the author here?

• A. 

  Scientific advances are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between organic reality and manufactured reality.

• B. 

  Apparent reality and organic reality are distinguished by the fact that the former is manufactured.

• C. 

  Organic reality has crumpled under the veil of manufacturing, rendering the apparent and the real as the same being.

• D. 

  The crumpling of the organic veil between apparent and manufactured reality reveals them to have the same being.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option A is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

"Yet beyond semantics, two concrete trends are happening: (1)Human-made things are behaving more lifelike, and (2) Life is becoming more engineered. The apparent veil between the organic and the manufactured has crumpled to reveal that the two really are, and have always been, of one being .."

 

The main argument made by the author in the last paragraph is regarding the increasing similarities between manufactured and organic(lifelike) reality. According to the author, the growing similarities(because of the scientific advances) have distorted the understanding of the realities and have made us think that perhaps these two are and have always been the same.

 

Option A: This is a distorted inference. It is not that the Organic reality has crumpled under the veil of manufacturing; instead, their meanings are converging mutually. Thus, this is not the correct option.

 

Option B: This is again a distorted inference. It is not the organic veil that has crumpled; instead, it is the apparent veil. Similarly, in the second half of the option, the organic reality is replaced with the apparent reality.

 

Option C: This option aptly expresses the main point of the author and is the correct option.

 

Option D: The author nowhere stated or implied this, and hence this option can be easilyeliminated. Thus, the correct option is D. 

The schematic diagram below shows 12 rectangular houses in a housing complex. House numbers are mentioned in the rectangles representing the houses. The houses are located in six columns – Column-A through Column-F, and two rows – Row-1 and Row-2. The houses are divided into two blocks - Block XX and Block YY. The diagram also shows two roads, one passing in front of the houses in Row-2 and another between the two blocks.

Some of the houses are occupied. The remaining ones are vacant and are the only ones available for sale.

The road adjacency value of a house is the number of its sides adjacent to a road. For example, the road adjacency values of C2, F2, and B1 are 2, 1, and 0, respectively. The neighbour count of a house is the number of sides of that house adjacent to occupied houses in the same block. For example, E1 and C1 can have the maximum possible neighbour counts of 3 and 2, respectively.

The base price of a vacant house is Rs. 10 lakhs if the house does not have a parking space, and Rs. 12 lakhs if it does. The quoted price (in lakhs of Rs.) of a vacant house is calculated as (base price) + 5 × (road adjacency value) + 3 × (neighbour count).

The following information is also known.
1. The maximum quoted price of a house in Block XX is Rs. 24 lakhs. The minimum quoted price of a house in block YY is Rs. 15 lakhs, and one such house is in Column-E.

2. Row-1 has two occupied houses, one in each block.

3. Both houses in Column-E are vacant. Each of Column-D and Column-F has at least one occupied house.

4. There is only one house with parking space in Block YY.

01.

How many houses are vacant in Block XX?

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Answer : 3

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

    

 

02.

Which of the following houses are definitely occupied?

• A. 

  F2 and A2

• B. 

  D2 and B2

• C. 

  D2 and B1

• D. 

  A1 and D2

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

    

 

03.

Which of the following options best describes the number of vacant houses in Row-2?

• A. 

  Either 3 or 4

• B. 

  Either 2 or 3

• C. 

  Exactly 3

• D. 

  Exactly 2

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

    

 

04.

What is the maximum possible quoted price (in lakhs of Rs.) for a vacant house in Column-E?

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Answer : 21

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

    

 

05.

Which house in Block YY has parking space?

• A. 

  F2

• B. 

  F1

• C. 

  E2

• D. 

  E1

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

    

 

Princess, Queen, Rani and Samragni were the four finalists in a dance competition. Ashman, Badal, Gagan and Dyu were the four music composers who individually assigned items to the dancers. Each dancer had to individually perform in two dance items assigned by the different composers. The first items performed by the four dancers were all assigned by different music composers. No dancer performed her second item before the performance of the first item by any other dancers. The dancers performed their second items in the same sequence of their performance of their first items.

The following additional facts are known.

i) No composer who assigned item to Princess, assigned any item to Queen.
ii) No composer who assigned item to Rani, assigned any item to Samragni.
iii) The first performance was by Princess; this item was assigned by Badal.
iv) The last performance was by Rani; this item was assigned by Gagan.
v) The items assigned by Ashman were performed consecutively. The number of performances between items assigned by each of the remaining composers was the same.

01.

Which of the following is true?

• A. 

  The third performance was composed by Ashman.

• B. 

  The second performance was composed by Dyu.

• C. 

  The second performance was composed by Gagan.

• D. 

  The third performance was composed by Dyu.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

02.

Which of the following is FALSE?

• A. 

  Queen did not perform in any item composed by Gagan.

• B. 

  Rani did not perform in any item composed by Badal.

• C. 

  Samragni did not perform in any item composed by Ashman.

• D. 

  Princess did not perform in any item composed by Dyu.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option A is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

03.

The sixth performance was composed by:

• A. 

  Gagan

• B. 

  Ashman

• C. 

  Badal

• D. 

  Dyu

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

04.

Which pair of performances were composed by the same composer?

• A. 

  The third and the seventh

• B. 

  The first and the seventh

• C. 

  The first and the sixth

• D. 

  The second and the sixth

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

A supermarket has to place 12 items (coded A to L) in shelves numbered 1 to 16. Five of these items are types of biscuits, three are types of candies and the rest are types of savouries. Only one item can be kept in a shelf. Items are to be placed such that all items of same type are clustered together with no empty shelf between items of the same type and at least one empty shelf between two different types of items. At most two empty shelves can have consecutive numbers.

The following additional facts are known.
1. A and B are to be placed in consecutively numbered shelves in increasing order.
2. I and J are to be placed in consecutively numbered shelves both higher numbered than the shelves in which A and B are kept.
3. D, E and F are savouries and are to be placed in consecutively numbered shelves in increasing order after all the biscuits and candies.
4. K is to be placed in shelf number 16.
5. L and J are items of the same type, while H is an item of a different type.
6. C is a candy and is to be placed in a shelf preceded by two empty shelves.
7. L is to be placed in a shelf preceded by exactly one empty shelf.

01.

In how many different ways can the items be arranged on the shelves?

• A. 

  2

• B. 

  1

• C. 

  4

• D. 

  8

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

02.

Which of the following items is not a type of biscuit?

• A. 

  B

• B. 

  A

• C. 

  L

• D. 

  G

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

03.

Which of the following can represent the numbers of the empty shelves in a possible arrangement?

• A. 

  1,7,11,12

• B. 

  1,5,6,12

• C. 

  1,2,6,12

• D. 

  1,2,8,12

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option C is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

04.

Which of the following statements is necessarily true?

• A. 

  There are two empty shelves between the biscuits and the candies.

• B. 

  All candies are kept before biscuits.

• C. 

  All biscuits are kept before candies

• D. 

  There are at least four shelves between items B and C.

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Five vendors are being considered for a service. The evaluation committee evaluated each vendor on six aspects – Cost, Customer Service, Features, Quality, Reach, and Reliability. Each of these evaluations are on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (perfect). The evaluation scores on these aspects are shown in the radar chart. For example, Vendor 1 obtains a score of 52 on Reliability, Vendor 2 obtains a score of 45 on Features and Vendor 3 obtains a score of 90 on Cost

01.

On which aspect is the median score of the five vendors the least?

• A. 

  Cost

• B. 

  Quality

• C. 

  Reliability

• D. 

  Customer Service

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

02.

A vendor's final score is the average of their scores on all six aspects. Which vendor has the highest final score?

• A. 

  Vendor 1

• B. 

  Vendor 3

• C. 

  Vendor 4

• D. 

  Vendor 2

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

03.

List of all the vendors who are among the top two scorers on the maximum number of aspects is:

• A. 

  Vendor 1 and Vendor 2

• B. 

  Vendor 2, Vendor 3 and Vendor 4

• C. 

  Vendor 2 and Vendor 5

• D. 

  Vendor 1 and Vendor 5

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

 

04.

List of all the vendors who are among the top three vendors on all six aspects is:

• A. 

  None of the Vendors

• B. 

  Vendor 1

• C. 

  Vendor 1 and Vendor 3

• D. 

  Vendor 3

Correct Answer Explanatory Answer

Option D is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer