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01.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

02.

Read the following information carefully, analyze it, and answer the question based on it.

There are only four neighbourhoods in a city - Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto. During the onset of a pandemic, the number of new cases of a disease in each of these neighbourhoods was recorded over a period of five days. On each day, the number of new cases recorded in any of the neighbourhoods was either 0, 1, 2 or 3.

The following facts are also known:

1. There was at least one new case in every neighbourhood on Day 1.
2. On each of the five days, there were more new cases in Kitmisto than in Pesmisto.
3. The number of new cases in the city in a day kept increasing during the five-day period. The number of new cases on Day 3 was exactly one more than that on Day 2.
4. The maximum number of new cases in a day in Pesmisto was 2, and this happened only once during the five-day period.
5. Kitmisto is the only place to have 3 new cases on Day 2.
6. The total numbers of new cases in Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto over the five-day period were 12, 12, 5 and 14 respectively.

01.

What BEST can be concluded about the total number of new cases in the city on Day 2?

A.
Either 6 or 7
B.
Exactly 8
C.
Exactly 7
D.
Either 7 or 8

Option B is the correct answer.

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

From statement 6, it can be concluded that the total number of new cases is equal to 12+12+5+14 = 43.

Also, since the total number of cases in Kitmisto is 14, it can be concluded that the number of cases each day is either 2 or 3, where 3 cases are recorded on 4 days and 2 cases are recorded on 1 day.

From statement 4, it can be concluded that the number of new cases for Pesmisto will be 0,1,1,1, and 2, in any order(Since the total number of cases is 5, and the maximum number of new cases is 2).

In statement 3, it is given that the number of new cases kept increasing during the 5-day period.

Now, as it is already known that the maximum number of cases for Pesmisto is 2, the maximum total number of cases in a day(or on day 5) will be less than 12.

Let us consider the maximum number of cases on Day 5 as 10.

Thus the maximum number of cases possible for the remaining days will be 9, 8, 7, and 6. So, the total number of maximum cases possible for this case will be 40(less than 43).

Thus, the number of cases on Day 5 will be 11(i.e., b/w 10 and 11)

Now, if the number of cases on Day 4 is 9, the maximum number of cases possible for the remaining days will be 8, 7, and 6. Thus, the maximum number of cases, in this case, will be 41(less than 43).

So, the number of cases on day 4 will be 10.

Now, if the number of cases on Day 3 is 8, the number of cases on day 2 will be 7, and the maximum possible number of cases on Day 1 will be 6.

Thus, the number of cases, in this case, will be 42(less than 43).

Thus, the number of cases on day 3 will be 9, the number of cases on day 2 will be 8, and the number of cases on day 1 will be 5.

Since all the neighbourhood has at least one case on Day 1, the only possible combination will be 1, 1, 1, and 2 for Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto, respectively.

Now, for the other 4 days, the number of cases in Kitmisto will be 3.

For day 5, the number of cases will be 3, 3, 2, and 3 for Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto, respectively(since the maximum number of cases in Pesmisto is 2).

And since Pesmisto only has the maximum number of cases on one day, the number of cases on day 4 will be 3, 3, 1, and 3 for Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto, respectively.

On day 2, since Kitmisto is the only neighbourhood to have 3 cases, the number of cases on day 2 will be 2, 2, 1, and 3 for Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto, respectively.

Now, on day 3, the number of cases will be 3, 3, 0, and 3 for Levmisto, Tyhrmisto, Pesmisto and Kitmisto, respectively. Thus, the final table will be as follows:

From the data, it can be concluded that the total number of cases on Day 2 is equal to 8. Thus, the correct option is D.

02.

What BEST can be concluded about the number of new cases in Levmisto on Day 3?

A.
Exactly 3
B.
Either 2 or 3
C.
Exactly 2
D.
Either 0 or 1