CAT 50 Day Streak Day 37

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CAT 50 Day Streak – Day 37

30 questions across VARC, DILR & QA · +3 for a correct answer · −1 for a wrong MCQ · no negative marking for TITA

0/30Attempted

0Correct

0Wrong

0Score / 90

VARC · Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

Q1 – Q10 0/10

Passage · Q1 – Q4

England’s overseas trading companies are often thought of as vehicles for promoting English interests abroad, whether of a commercial or diplomatic nature. Across the 17th-century Atlantic, companies facilitated English migration, transported forced labour, established plantations and formed new colonies, from West Africa and Bermuda, to Virginia and Massachusetts. Beyond the Atlantic, the East India Company is perhaps the most infamous example of an English trading company, especially in light of its conquest of much of the Indian subcontinent in the later 18th and 19th centuries.

It would be wrong, however, to slip into a teleological trap when trying to understand the expansion of the British Empire in Asia. By the 19th century, the Company was more than capable of projecting its power over the subcontinent to violently refashion Indian society to meet the colonial demands of the British state. But for much of the Company’s longer early history, the reverse was true. In the 17th and 18th centuries, England’s – and from 1707 onwards Britain’s – presence in Asia was largely determined by the more dominating interests of the powerful states and communities that it encountered.

The initial voyages of the ‘Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies’ were spectacularly successful when it launched in 1600, realising dizzying profits and claiming for England a key stake in the lucrative spice trade to rival even the Dutch and Portuguese. Company fleets established factories right across Asia in the early years of the 17th century, including at Bantam and Jambi on the Indonesian archipelago, at Hirado in Japan and at Masulipatam and Surat in India. Company servants purchased a wide variety of lucrative goods, all in high demand in European markets, such as pepper, nutmeg, mace, cloth, silk, coffee and indigo. But, while they hoped to exchange these for English woollens, outside of some interest ‘by great men to cover their elephants and make saddles for their horses’, England’s principal export was unpopular and the Company was almost always forced to pay for Asian goods with bullion.

Nonetheless, by the 1620s, the English could survey their growing Asian presence with some degree of satisfaction. They had managed to challenge the Portuguese through a series of naval engagements, which, while largely inconclusive, undermined Portugal’s reputation for invincibility in the eyes of several Asian powers. In alliance with the Persian shah in 1622, the English even captured the Portuguese stronghold of Hormuz in the Gulf. There was less success when it came to the Dutch, however, and in the following year, the population of the English factory on the island of Amboyna in the Maluku archipelago was massacred by Dutch forces.

The effort to establish an Asian-wide network of factories and shipping – all while taking on the mighty Portuguese and contesting Dutch power in the Spice Islands – was a herculean effort. By 1630, the Company was struggling to maintain the staggering £3m in capital required to sustain its operations. Furthermore, a general economic downturn in Europe restricted liquidity, making borrowing more difficult.

Q1MCQ

The primary purpose of the passage is to:

Aprovide a comprehensive history of the East India Company's activities in Asia.

Banalyze the economic factors that led to a "general economic downturn in Europe" in the 1630s.

Cdocument the EIC's naval conflicts with the Dutch and Portuguese in the 17th century.

Dchallenge a common historical perspective by contrasting the EIC's later colonial power with its earlier, more precarious position in Asia.

Solution Answer: D

The author warns against a “teleological trap”: reading the Company’s 19th-century dominance back into its early years. The rest of the passage shows a Company shaped by powerful Asian states, unable to sell its main export, and short of capital.

A: the passage covers only the early period and makes an argument rather than a full history. B: the European downturn is one supporting detail. C: the naval conflicts are examples, not the point.

Q2MCQ

What is the relationship between the first and second paragraphs?

AThe first paragraph presents a historical argument, and the second paragraph provides a specific example.

BThe first paragraph introduces a theory, and the second paragraph details the evidence supporting it.

CThe first paragraph presents a widely held view, and the second paragraph introduces the author's central thesis, which revises that view.

DThe first paragraph focuses on the Atlantic, and the second paragraph argues that the Atlantic is more important than Asia.

Solution Answer: C

Paragraph 1 states how trading companies “are often thought of”: as vehicles of English power. Paragraph 2 opens with “It would be wrong, however…” and argues that the early Company was shaped by Asian powers. That is a common view followed by the author’s revision.

A and B describe support, not correction. D: the second paragraph is about Asia, not Atlantic versus Asia.

Q3MCQ

The passage suggests the EIC's naval victories over the Portuguese were significant chiefly because:

Athey allowed the EIC to establish a monopoly on the Asian spice trade, replacing the Portuguese.

Bthey altered the diplomatic and political perceptions of Asian states, demonstrating that a rival European power's dominance was contestable.

Cthey proved to the Dutch that the English were a superior naval power, leading to the Amboyna massacre.

Dthey led directly to the alliance with the Persian shah and the capture of Hormuz.

Solution Answer: B

The engagements were “largely inconclusive” but “undermined Portugal’s reputation for invincibility in the eyes of several Asian powers”. Their importance lay in how Asian states saw the Portuguese.

A: no monopoly is mentioned. C: Amboyna is linked to Dutch power, not caused by English victories. D: Hormuz is mentioned alongside the victories, not as their direct result.

Q4MCQ

The passage lists all of the following as challenges faced by the EIC in the early 17th century EXCEPT:

The refusal of the powerful Asian states to allow the establishment of factories in their territories.
The high capital cost required to maintain its operations.
The inability to exchange its primary export goods for Asian products.
A difficult economic environment in Europe that restricted borrowing.

AOnly I

BOnly III

COnly II and IV

DOnly I and IV

Solution Answer: A

Statement I is not a listed challenge. Company fleets “established factories right across Asia”, from Bantam to Surat.

II matches the “staggering £3m in capital”. III matches the unpopular woollens, which forced payment in bullion. IV matches the European downturn that made borrowing harder.

Q5MCQ

There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence In my teens, I read The Iliad and The Odyssey in Robert Fitzgerald’s poetic English renderings and was swept away by their epic accounts of heroism and adventure.

Paragraph Greek myths were among my favorite stories when I was little, thanks to Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire’s charmingly illustrated collection of retellings for children. ___(1)___. When I was older, Edith Hamilton’s nonfiction and Mary Renault’s novels introduced me to the society that invented those myths. ___(2)___. Several decades later, however, I began to have mixed feelings about these literary cornerstones. ___(3)___. While I was reading the myths to a son not long past his toddler years, it occurred to me that the Greek gods were, in essence, all-powerful, immortal two-year-olds. ___(4)___.

AOption 1

BOption 2

COption 3

DOption 4

Solution Answer: B (Option 2)

“These literary cornerstones” needs a specific antecedent, and that is The Iliad and The Odyssey. Placed at blank 2, the sentence names them just before the author’s later “mixed feelings”. Being “swept away” in the teens also sets up the contrast with “however”.

At blank 1, “these literary cornerstones” would have to point back across the Hamilton and Renault sentence, which is about a society, not books. At blanks 3 and 4 the narrative has already moved decades later.

Q6TITA

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.

For example, warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with the continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice.
Warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe, though the nature of these regional changes is uncertain.
Environmentalists have been warning that an increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise, changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation, and a probable expansion of subtropical deserts.
Other likely effects of the warming would include more frequent occurrences of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfalls, as well as the extinction of species and changes in agricultural yields.

Solution Answer: 3214

The order runs like this:

3: The general warning about the effects of global warming.
2: The effects will vary by region.
1: “For example”, warming is strongest in the Arctic.
4: “Other likely effects” extend the list.

Q7TITA

Five jumbled-up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

He had left the ballroom by a crowded passageway, shaking hands with supporters and hotel staff, when a man stepped out in front of him and fired shots from a .22 calibre revolver at the Senator.
Kennedy played with his children on the beach before being driven in the evening to a suite in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to await the results.
The next day, voting day in the primary, it was foggy and cold.
News of his victory came in, and around midnight, he went down to the hotel ballroom to speak to a crowd of supporters gathered there.
The two Kennedy brothers were assassinated within five years of each other.

Solution Answer: 5

The coherent paragraph is 3 → 2 → 4 → 1:

3: Voting day was foggy and cold.
2: Kennedy spent the day on the beach, then went to the Ambassador Hotel.
4: News of victory came, and around midnight he spoke in the ballroom.
1: Leaving the ballroom, he was shot.

Sentence 5 is a broad historical summary about both brothers. It sits outside this hour-by-hour account of a single day.

Q8MCQ

There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence A soldier who stands firm in battle out of fear of corporal punishment or dishonour is not truly courageous; the truly courageous person, in contrast, stands firm in battle precisely because it is noble to do so in that moment.

Paragraph ___(1)___. The courageous person has something to lose. ___(2)___. But they have something to gain, too: the achievement of a kalon action. ___(3)___. We can extend this account and think of modern examples for something akin to Aristotle’s distinctive conception of bravery. ___(4)___. Firefighters rush into a burning building to save lives, at risk to their own, because it is the right course of action.

AOption 1

BOption 2

COption 3

DOption 4

Solution Answer: A (Option 1)

The sentence sets out the definition everything else depends on: true courage means standing firm because it is noble. The paragraph then builds on it. The courageous person has something to lose, but gains a kalon (noble) action, and the idea is extended to modern firefighters.

At blank 2 it would split the “something to lose / something to gain” pair. At blanks 3 and 4 a battlefield soldier would clash with the move to “modern examples”.

Q9TITA

When the steel plough ran field hands off the farm, they could find new work in factories.
Nevertheless, in every past wave of automation, it was at least theoretically possible for the disemployed to secure better-paying jobs by updating their skills.
When industrial robots shouldered manufacturing workers off the assembly line, they could, hypothetically, as the saying goes, “learn to code.”
AI-generated mass unemployment is still the stuff of science fiction.
Even as machines rendered humans uncompetitive at certain tasks, they facilitated the discovery of new economically useful endeavours.

Solution Answer: 4

The coherent paragraph is 2 → 1 → 3 → 5:

2: In past waves of automation, displaced workers could reskill.
1: Example: the steel plough sent farm hands to factories.
3: Example: industrial robots, and “learn to code”.
5: Generalisation: machines opened up new useful work.

Sentence 4 is a claim about AI and the present. The paragraph is about what happened in past waves of automation, and “Nevertheless” in 2 contrasts with something outside this excerpt, not with sentence 4.

Q10MCQ

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Passage At its core, Batchelor’s Buddha, Socrates, and Us may be read as a response to a simple, yet important observation: everything in life tends to fall into patterns, to settle into habits and routines. Not even matters of the spirit—religion and philosophy, beliefs and ideas, thinking and writing—seem to escape this fate. Such mindless repetition makes our lives easier and more comfortable, at least on the outside, but to do things mechanically and unthinkingly is to invite emptiness and meaninglessness into our existence. The older we get, the more spiritually ossified we become. Eventually, if nothing challenges us, our slumbered existence will be indistinguishable from spiritual death.

ABatchelor argues that people should reject all habits and traditions to live a more authentic and liberated life.

BThe central idea of Batchelor’s work is that spiritual fulfilment can only be achieved through strict routines and disciplined repetition.

CBatchelor’s work warns that habitual living leads to stagnation and loss of meaning unless we remain consciously engaged.

DThe book highlights how religion and philosophy help people find comfort and stability amid the repetitive patterns of everyday life.

Solution Answer: C

The passage warns that mindless repetition invites emptiness and, “if nothing challenges us”, spiritual death. C captures both the warning and the condition.

A overstates (“reject all habits”). B reverses the argument. D treats religion and philosophy as a remedy, but the passage says even they fall into mechanical patterns.

DILR · Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

Q11 – Q20 0/10

Set 1 · Q11 – Q14

Six candidates, Yuvraj, Omkar, Ganesh, Edwin, Sanket, and Harshal, appeared in an exam. It started at 12 pm and lasted for 2 hours. There are 3 sections in the exam with the following sectional times:

Quantitative Skills (QS) – 52 minutes
Logical Reasoning (LR) – 40 minutes
Language Skills (LS) – 28 minutes

The students can choose the order of sections in which they wish to attempt the paper. Each of these students chose a different order of sections.

Initially, each one of them was given a rough sheet. Between the exam, the students asked for extra rough sheet(s) from the invigilator. The table below gives the time at which different students asked the invigilator for extra sheets.

Time	Student(s)
12:15 PM	Ganesh
12:20 PM	Yuvraj, Harshal
12:35 PM	Yuvraj
12:45 PM	Sanket
12:50 PM	Harshal
1:00 PM	Ganesh
1:05 PM	Omkar
1:15 PM	Yuvraj

One doesn’t need a rough sheet for the LS section and wouldn’t ask for it while attempting the section.
None of the students asked for multiple sheets while attempting the LR section.

Q11MCQ

Which section did Omkar attempt in the end?

ALS

BLR

CQS

DCannot be determined

Solution Answer: D

Six students take the six possible orders. Section windows, in minutes after 12:00:

Order	1st section	2nd section	3rd section	Student
QS–LR–LS	QS 0–52	LR 52–92	LS 92–120	Yuvraj
QS–LS–LR	QS 0–52	LS 52–80	LR 80–120	Harshal
LR–QS–LS	LR 0–40	QS 40–92	LS 92–120	Ganesh
LR–LS–QS	LR 0–40	LS 40–68	QS 68–120	Edwin
LS–QS–LR	LS 0–28	QS 28–80	LR 80–120	Sanket / Omkar
LS–LR–QS	LS 0–28	LR 28–68	QS 68–120	Omkar / Sanket

Yuvraj (20, 35, 75). No request can fall in LS, and at most one can fall in LR. Only QS–LR–LS works (QS, QS, LR).
Ganesh (15, 60). Of the remaining orders, only LR–QS–LS works.
Harshal (20, 50). Only QS–LS–LR works (both in QS).
Sanket (45) and Omkar (65). Under LR–LS–QS both requests would fall in LS, so neither can take it. That order goes to Edwin, and Sanket and Omkar share the last two in either arrangement.

Omkar ends with LR or QS, so it cannot be determined.

Q12MCQ

Which two students started their paper by attempting the QS section first?

AYuvraj and Harshal

BYuvraj and Ganesh

CEdwin and Sanket

DEdwin and Harshal

Solution Answer: A

From the table in Q11, the two QS-first orders belong to Yuvraj and Harshal.

Q13MCQ

If Sanket asked for a rough sheet while he was attempting QS, in what order did he attempt the paper?

AQS, LS, LR

BLR, QS, LS

CLS, QS, LR

DQS, LR, LS

Solution Answer: C

Sanket’s request was at 12:45 (minute 45). Of his two possible orders, minute 45 falls in QS only for LS–QS–LR (QS runs 28–80). So his order is LS, QS, LR.

Q14MCQ

What is the order of the sections in which Edwin attempted the paper?

ALS, LR, QS

BLR, LS, QS

CQS, LR, LS

DCannot be determined

Solution Answer: B

From Q11, LR–LS–QS can’t belong to Sanket or Omkar, because their requests would fall in LS. So it is Edwin’s: LR, LS, QS.

Set 2 · Q15 – Q20

There are 100 doors in a row, and all doors are initially closed. People walk through all doors and toggle (if open, then closed, if closed, then opened) them in the following way:

The first person toggles every door.
The second person toggles every second door, i.e., 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, …
The third person toggles every third door, i.e. 3rd, 6th, 9th, …
The fourth person toggles every fourth door, i.e. 4th, 8th, 12th, and so on.

This goes on until the 100th person.

Q15TITA

Once the process is complete, how many doors are open?

Solution Answer: 10

Door n is toggled once for each divisor of n. It ends open if it has an odd number of divisors, which happens only for perfect squares.

The perfect squares from 1 to 100 are 1, 4, 9, …, 100, so 10 doors are open.

Q16MCQ

How many doors were visited by only two persons?

A50

B40

C33

D25

Solution Answer: D

A door visited by exactly two people has exactly two divisors, so it is a prime. There are 25 primes up to 100.

Q17TITA

How many people visit exactly three doors?

Solution Answer: 8

Person k visits ⌊100/k⌋ doors. This equals 3 for k = 26 to 33, so 8 people.

Q18MCQ

How many doors were open after the 60th person had completed the process?

A44

B40

C37

D35

Solution Answer: A

Doors 1–60: every divisor is at most 60, so these doors are finished. Only perfect squares are open: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, which is 7 doors.

Doors 61–100: every divisor except n itself is at most 50, so each has been toggled d(n) − 1 times. A door is open when d(n) − 1 is odd, i.e. d(n) is even, i.e. n is not a perfect square. That is 40 − 3 (64, 81, 100) = 37 doors.

Total open = 7 + 37 = 44.

Q19MCQ

Which of these doors was touched the maximum number of times?

A27

B30

C32

D45

Solution Answer: B

Number of touches = number of divisors: 27 has 4, 30 has 8, 32 has 6 and 45 has 6. Door 30 was touched most.

Q20TITA

What is the maximum number of times a door was touched?

Solution Answer: 12

The most divisors any number up to 100 has is 12 (for 60, 72, 84, 90 and 96). The maximum is 12 touches.

QA · Quantitative Ability

Q21 – Q30 0/10

Q21MCQ

Solve the inequality: log_0.5 (log₈ (x² − 2xx − 3)) < 0

A(−∞, 2) ∪ (3, ∞)

B(−∞, 0.5) ∪ (3, 4)

C(3, 4) ∪ (6, ∞)

D(0.5, 3) ∪ (4, 6)

Solution Answer: C

Since the base 0.5 is less than 1, log_0.5(t) < 0 means t > 1. So log₈((x² − 2x)/(x − 3)) > 1, which means (x² − 2x)/(x − 3) > 8.

Rearranging: (x² − 10x + 24)/(x − 3) > 0, i.e. (x − 4)(x − 6)/(x − 3) > 0.

The sign analysis gives x ∈ (3, 4) ∪ (6, ∞).

Q22MCQ

In a project, there are 120 employees. Each employee works in either the marketing or content, or media department. 60 employees work in marketing, 50 employees work in content, and 50 employees work in media. 20 employees work in both marketing and content, 15 employees work in both content and media, 10 employees work in both marketing and media. Find the ratio of employees who work in only marketing and those who work only in content.

A4:1

B5:2

C1:3

D7:4

Solution Answer: D

Inclusion–exclusion: 120 = 160 − 45 + (all three), so 5 employees work in all three.

Only marketing = 60 − 20 − 10 + 5 = 35. Only content = 50 − 20 − 15 + 5 = 20.

Ratio = 35 : 20 = 7 : 4.

Q23TITA

Four two-digit odd integers, A, B, C, and D, are all less than 30, such that A + D = B + C. B and C are multiples of 3, where B > C. If D − A = 16, find the sum A + B + C + D.

Solution Answer: 84

Odd two-digit multiples of 3 below 30 are 15, 21 and 27. So B + C is 36, 42 or 48.

With A + D = B + C and D − A = 16, A = (B + C − 16)/2. That gives A = 10 (even ✗), 13 (D = 29 ✓) or 16 (even ✗).

So B + C = 42, and A + B + C + D = 2 × 42 = 84.

Q24MCQ

There are 5 seats in the front row of an award function, with seat numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These seats can be acquired by either actors or actresses such that no two actresses sit next to each other. How many different arrangements are possible if none of the seats are empty?

A330

B324

C360

D312

Solution Answer: B

Detailed solution coming soon.

Q25TITA

The two roots of the equation ax⁴ + bx³ − 7x² + dx + 24 = 0 are 1 and 2. Find the sum of a and b if a and b are positive integers.

Solution Answer: 5

x = 1: a + b − 7 + d + 24 = 0, so a + b + d = −17. x = 2: 16a + 8b − 28 + 2d + 24 = 0, so 8a + 4b + d = 2.

Subtracting: 7a + 3b = 19. The only positive-integer solution is a = 1, b = 4. a + b = 5.

Q26MCQ

How many perfect cubes from 1 to 1000 (both inclusive) have an even number of factors?

Solution Answer: C

A number has an odd number of factors only if it is a perfect square. The cubes n³ for n = 1 to 10 are squares only when n is itself a square (n = 1, 4, 9).

So 10 − 3 = 7 cubes have an even number of factors.

Q27MCQ

Sheetal invested a total of 65000 across three different schemes, A, B, and C, that offered simple interest of 6%, 8%, and 9%, respectively. The total interest received after 2 years was 10180. If the amount invested in scheme A was 72% of the amount invested in scheme C, how much was invested in scheme B?

A18000

B22000

C21000

D20000

Solution Answer: B

Annual interest = 10180/2 = 5090. With A = 0.72C and B = 65000 − 1.72C:

0.0432C + 0.08(65000 − 1.72C) + 0.09C = 5090, so −0.0044C = −110 and C = 25000.

A = 18000, so B = 65000 − 18000 − 25000 = 22000.

Q28MCQ

In an isosceles triangle ABC, the vertex A is at (6, 1), and the equation of the base BC is 2x + y = 4. Let the point B lie on the line x + 3y = 7. If (P, Q) is the centroid of ABC, then what is the value of 5(P + Q)?

A17

B15

C21

D20

Solution Answer: A

B lies on both 2x + y = 4 and x + 3y = 7, so B = (1, 2).

In an isosceles triangle, the foot of the perpendicular from A to BC is the midpoint M of BC. Projecting (6, 1) onto 2x + y = 4 gives M = (2.4, −0.8), so C = 2M − B = (3.8, −3.6).

Centroid = ((6 + 1 + 3.8)/3, (1 + 2 − 3.6)/3) = (3.6, −0.2). 5(P + Q) = 5 × 3.4 = 17.

Q29TITA

Paavan gave Raavan a head start of 40 metres and was able to beat him by 60 metres in a 1-km race. Raavan gave Saavan a head start of 30 metres and was able to beat him by 30 metres in a 500-metre race. How many metres of head start should Paavan give Saavan in a 500-metre race to finish the race in a dead heat?

Solution Answer: 104

While Paavan runs 1000 m, Raavan runs 1000 − 40 − 60 = 900 m, so P : R = 10 : 9. While Raavan runs 500 m, Saavan runs 500 − 30 − 30 = 440 m, so R : S = 25 : 22.

P : S = (10/9) × (25/22) = 125 : 99. In the time Paavan runs 500 m, Saavan runs 500 × 99/125 = 396 m.

Head start = 500 − 396 = 104 m.

Q30MCQ

In triangle ABC, DE is parallel to BC, where the point D is on AB and the point E is on AC. If ADE is an equilateral triangle with the length of the side being 6 units and AE:EC = 1:3, find the area of the quadrilateral DECB.

A120√3 sq units

B90√3 sq units

C150√3 sq units

D135√3 sq units

Solution Answer: D

AE : AC = 1 : 4, so triangle ABC is triangle ADE scaled by 4, and its area is 16 times larger.

Area of ADE = (√3/4) × 36 = 9√3, so area of ABC = 144√3.

Area of DECB = 144√3 − 9√3 = 135√3 sq units.

Day 37 complete! 🔥

0 / 90

Correct: 0 · Wrong: 0 · Accuracy: 0%

Keep the streak alive. See you tomorrow for Day 38.