CAT 50 Day Streak – Day 24
30 questions across VARC, DILR & QA · +3 for a correct answer · −1 for a wrong MCQ · no negative marking for TITA
VARC · Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension
It is hard to find a politician who doesn’t have some sort of plan for energy independence, but we will never see true independence from foreign sources of energy without making the kind of sacrifices that elected officials are loath to mention. For example, virtually every politician campaigning for national office touts biofuels, especially ethanol, as a solution to our nation’s energy dependence. However, the actual energy that can be harvested from these sources is minuscule compared to our current level of consumption—about 20 million barrels of oil and gasoline per day.
We need to take serious, even drastic, steps now. Nuclear fuel, despite all its promise, is understandably controversial, and the problem of dealing with radioactive waste will not go away anytime soon. We might find an acceptable method of drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Alaskan wilderness, but this too will take some time, and will only take us so far down the road to energy independence.
Thus, it is the level of consumption, rather than our sources of energy, that needs to change; putting our resources into developing alternative energy sources will only obscure this unavoidable fact. One way policymakers might affect the level of energy consumption is by increasing taxes on gasoline. In accordance with the principles of a free-market economy, such as that of our own nation, if the price of gasoline were to double due to the addition of such taxes, oil consumption would drop by 3 to 5 million barrels per day.
We also need to overhaul the way in which we move goods around the country. Using gas-guzzling trucks for cross-country trips is extremely inefficient. Moving away from the use of trucks for long-haul trips will require significant governmental and private investment in new water transport and electric railway infrastructure. Once this infrastructure is in place, however, these methods of shipping will be much more energy efficient for all but local transportation of goods.
These and other real solutions to our energy dependence issues will be unpopular in many quarters. Car and truck manufacturers will use their considerable political muscle to fight not only significant gas tax hikes, but also stringent fuel efficiency requirements on vehicles. The move away from trucking will be resisted by both the “big-box” retail outlets, which depend on trucks for the delivery of goods, and by the trucking industry itself. The farming industry will do everything it can to push for the widespread use of ethanol and other plant-based fuels. But it is consumer resistance that most needs to be overcome. Too many of us believe that the guarantee of cheap fuel is an inalienable right, and balk at funding public transportation.
Recently, there has been a gradual change in attitude as people start to connect their daily habits with larger environmental concerns. Until enough of us make that connection and are willing to make a few lifestyle changes accordingly, we have no business complaining about our energy dependence on other countries.
Paragraph 2 looks at two possible sources, nuclear fuel (controversial, waste problem) and drilling in sensitive areas (slow, limited), and points out the drawbacks of each.
A: the tone is measured, not mocking. B is a broader claim than this paragraph makes. C: there is no history.
Politicians tout ethanol, but the energy it yields is “minuscule compared to our current level of consumption.” A matches this.
B: the farming industry pushes ethanol rather than blocking it. C is never said. D: biofuels add supply; they don’t reduce our energy needs.
“It is consumer resistance that most needs to be overcome.” Until enough of us make lifestyle changes, “we have no business complaining.”
A, B and D name obstacles or policy steps, but the author singles out consumers as the key.
“In accordance with the principles of a free-market economy … if the price of gasoline were to double … oil consumption would drop.” The tax works through market price signals.
A: the issue is political will, not politicians’ understanding. C gets the units and timeframe wrong (3–5 million barrels per day). D: no such precondition is given.
D follows the passage’s whole arc: the goal (move past “protracted mistrust”), the means (be transparent, share shortcomings and lessons learned), and the payoff (resilience and the “confidence to take healthy risks”).
A contradicts “within their organization and ecosystem”. B is the opposite of the passage. C adds ideas the passage doesn’t contain (“traditional secrecy”, “marketplace”) and drops the central problem of mistrust.
“We spend less time tossing around questions and playing with problems” → “There’s less of a chance to merely wonder about things” continues the list of downsides. Then “Of course, there are some major perks” turns to the upside.
At 1 the downsides haven’t been introduced. At 2 the sentence would interrupt the move from instant answers to less problem-play. At 4 it would sit among the perks.
- Invention has been suffocated in authoritarian countries with choke holds on academic freedom.
- South Korea was a military dictatorship up to the 1980s, and then became a democracy.
- In Iran, restrictions on gender studies, religious critique, and internet freedom have weakened its academic institutions and discouraged global collaboration.
- These restrictions have limited open inquiry in the social sciences and humanities.
- In China, despite major investments in research and higher education, topics such as political reform, Tiananmen, and human rights are taboo.
The coherent paragraph is 1 → 5 → 4 → 3:
- 1: Authoritarian control over academic freedom suffocates invention.
- 5: China: taboo topics despite heavy investment.
- 4: “These restrictions” limit open inquiry.
- 3: Iran: restrictions weaken academic institutions.
Sentence 2 is about South Korea’s political transition to democracy. It isn’t an example of academic restrictions under current authoritarian rule.
Buffon and Lamarck recognised that life shapes minerals, but Darwin was the first to measure the changes and had “the clearest sense of why.” A captures both halves.
B: “largely theoretical until” overreaches. C: “built on” and “revolutionary view” aren’t stated. D contradicts the passage’s point about Darwin.
The paragraph describes the setup in order: the project, its neutral teams, the methods and the tasks. “The results” can only come after the experiment has been fully described, so the sentence goes at the end.
At 1–3 the results would be reported before the method is complete.
- And the nearly seven-foot-tall, nut-cracking Diatryma strutted through ancient forests of western North America in search of ripe fruit and nutritious seeds 45 million years ago.
- The sharp-beaked “terror birds” of prehistoric South America were formidable carnivores for tens of millions of years.
- Often framed as laboratories of evolution, islands can provide some insight into the aviary of big birds our planet continues to host.
- Ten-foot-tall elephant birds strutted across Madagascar until a thousand years ago.
- During the past 66 million years, repeated on different continents and islands all over the world, avian dinosaurs have reached prodigious sizes and even become apex predators in their ancient habitats.
The coherent paragraph is 5 → 4 → 2 → 1:
- 5: Over 66 million years, avian dinosaurs grew huge and became apex predators.
- 4: Elephant birds in Madagascar.
- 2: Terror birds in South America.
- 1: “And” Diatryma in North America closes the list.
Sentence 3 turns to islands as “laboratories of evolution” and birds alive today, which breaks the list of giant prehistoric birds.
DILR · Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning
A commentator met five cricketers. They are the top five rankers in the world. When the commentator asked them about their ranks, they made the following comments.
- Joe: Yashasvi is the fifth ranker. Kane is the first ranker.
- Steve: I am not the first ranker. Harry’s rank is better than mine.
- Harry: Steve’s rank is better than my rank. Joe’s rank is better than Yashasvi’s rank.
- Kane: Yashasvi is not the fourth ranker. My rank is better than Joe’s rank.
He did not speak to Yashasvi. It is also known that each of these cricketers who commented about the ranks made one true and one false statement.
- Steve vs Harry. Steve’s 2nd statement (Harry better) and Harry’s 1st (Steve better) contradict, so exactly one is true. If Steve’s 2nd were true, his 1st would be false, making Steve 1st, yet Harry better than Steve ✗. So Steve is better than Harry, Steve ≠ 1st, and Harry’s 2nd is false: Yashasvi is better than Joe.
- Joe. “Yashasvi is 5th” is false (Yashasvi beats Joe), so “Kane is 1st” is true.
- Kane. “Better than Joe” is true (he’s 1st), so “Yashasvi is not 4th” is false: Yashasvi is 4th. Then Joe is 5th, Steve 2nd and Harry 3rd.
| Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Kane | Steve | Harry | Yashasvi | Joe |
Yashasvi is 4th.
From the table in Q11, Steve is 2nd.
- A: Joe is 5th, Steve 2nd ✗
- B: Kane is 1st, Harry 3rd ✗
- C: “Joe is better than Yashasvi” is false ✗
- D: “Yashasvi is 5th”, “Joe is better than Yashasvi” and “Yashasvi is not 4th” are all false ✓
Without Joe, the Steve–Harry analysis still gives: Steve better than Harry, Steve ≠ 1st, and Yashasvi better than Joe. So Steve and Yashasvi can never be 5th.
The others can be: Joe (K, S, H, Y, J), Harry (Y, S, J, K, H) and Kane (Y, S, J, H, K) all satisfy Kane’s one-true-one-false rule. Answer: all except Yashasvi and Steve.
Dora, the explorer, went to a hill station that had 10 places worth visiting, namely A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J. These places fall in a line, but not in the given order. The table below gives the distance (in km) between the different pairs of places:
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | 230 | 150 | 25 | 90 | 115 |
| G | 295 | 215 | 90 | 155 | 180 |
| H | 25 | 105 | 230 | 165 | 140 |
| I | 55 | 25 | 150 | 85 | 60 |
| J | 95 | 15 | 110 | 45 | 20 |
Put F at 0 with A on the positive side. G is exactly 65 km farther from every place than F, so G = −65. The other distances from F and G then fix each place, and the H, I, J rows confirm them.
| Place | G | F | C | D | E | J | B | I | A | H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position (km) | −65 | 0 | 25 | 90 | 115 | 135 | 150 | 175 | 230 | 255 |
Starting at one end (G or H) and walking to the other covers everything: 255 − (−65) = 320 km.
From B (150), go first to the nearer end, H (255): 105 km. Then go all the way to G (−65): 320 km. Total = 425 km. Going to G first would cost 215 + 320 = 535.
255 − 135 = 120 km.
The best 100-km stretch runs from D (90) to I (175), covering D, E, J, B, I in 85 km. No other stretch of 100 km or less holds more than 5 places. Answer: 5.
C (25) to I (175) passes D and J on the way: 150 km.
Pairs less than 50 km apart: F–C (25), D–E (25), D–J (45), E–J (20), E–B (35), J–B (15), J–I (40), B–I (25), A–H (25). That is 9 pairs.
QA · Quantitative Ability
Start: 96 coffee and 24 chicory. Replacing 20 kg with chicory gives 80 coffee and 40 chicory. After selling 25%: 60 coffee and 30 chicory.
Adding x kg at 5 : 1 to get back to 4 : 1: 60 + 5x/6 = 4(30 + x/6), so x/6 = 60 and x = 360 kg.
Vieta: p + q + r = 1, pq + qr + rp = −14, pqr = −24.
Sum = 1 − 14 − 24 = −37.
Each month the deposit is (members)2. Months 1–4: N members. Months 5–7: 0.55N members. Months 8–12: 0.55N × 5/11 = 0.25N members (54.54% = 6/11).
Total = 4N2 + 3(0.3025N2) + 5(0.0625N2) = 5.22N2 = 8352, so N2 = 1600 and N = 40.
d1d2 = 2 × 384 = 768 and d12 + d22 = 4 × 202 = 1600.
(d1 + d2)2 = 1600 + 1536 = 3136, so d1 + d2 = 56. Perimeter = 2 × 56 = 112 units.
Integers can be negative. −54, −53, …, 54 sum to 0, and adding 55 gives 55. That is 110 integers, which is the maximum (n consecutive integers summing to 55 need n to divide 110).
Rates: j + a = 4v and a + v = 5j. Substituting a = 4v − j gives 5v = 6j, so j = 5v/6 and a = 19v/6.
j + v = 11v/6 = 1/38, so v = 3/209 and a = 19/6 × 3/209 = 1/22. Agni alone takes 22 hours.
56x−4 − 56x−6 = 56x−6(25 − 1) = 24 × 56x−6 = 3000, so 56x−6 = 125 = 53.
6x − 6 = 3, so x = 3/2.
Prices keep rising, so the last 10 tickets are the most expensive. Their average must be above the overall average of 3000. Only Rs. 3100 qualifies.
Let a ≤ b ≤ c with a + b + c = 20. The triangle inequality needs c < 10, and c ≥ 7.
- c = 9: (2, 9), (3, 8), (4, 7), (5, 6) → 4
- c = 8: (4, 8), (5, 7), (6, 6) → 3
- c = 7: (6, 7) → 1
Total = 8.
In one round of C, A gains 3 rounds, so A runs 4 rounds: A = 4C. In one round of B, C gains 5 rounds: C = 6B.
A : B = 24 : 1, so the answer is 24 : 1.
Correct: 0 · Wrong: 0 · Accuracy: 0%
Keep the streak alive. See you tomorrow for Day 25.
