XAT 2013 had 18 questions on Reading comprehension passages out of 30 in Verbal Ability section. This part in Verbal Ability is capable enough to get you through the written one in Verbal. Since you never know the level of difficulty it will not be a wise decision not to be prepared for other questions as well.
MBAUniverse.com in the series of cracking the Reading comprehension questions brings before you the learning tips from Prof. S.K. Agarwal an expert and mentor in Verbal Ability, on how to solve different types of RC passages in XAT.
Four passages of Reading Comprehension in XAT are of four types. You may have Scientific, technical, biological, abstract idea based, economics or any other type of passage that you may or may not imagine. The common aspect among all the passages is that all the passages are rich in vocabulary and literary language. They are inclined more toward philosophical thought, even if the contents were based on business and economy. Answers to the questions are little direct than in CAT which has more indirect questions and can be understood by close reading of the passages.
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How to improve reading practice and solve the tricky questions
Whatever may be the contents of the passage, you are supposed to go for a close reading of the same in order to get the general idea. Read again, a little slowly so as to understand the details. Now write down a summary in your own words. Try to be as precise as you can. The length of summary shouldn’t be more than one third of the original passage. Please remember if you can prepare the summary, you can crack the questions with lesser difficulty.
When you write the summary use complete sentences and make a chart on time consumed in reading and writing the summary of the passage. Find out whether the time is getting reduced day by day.
Words as used in the passage may be unfamiliar, but are the parts of the sentence and paragraph which can be understood in general, so nothing to worry. The options and the reference that you have made would, in all probability, be correct, if the general meaning is understood.
You may keep a paper and pen while reading the passage and go on writing difficult and important words. By the time you finish reading it, general understanding of the passage will be clear to you and you will be ready to answer the question.
Model RC exercise: Type-1 –
Directions for questions 1 to 5- Read the short passages below and answer the questions
It is frequently said by top managers that were they ever inclined to ask themselves if there might be problems or opportunities deserving their attention other than those continuously arising from the daily round, they would at once send for some reputable firm of business consultants-company doctoral management professors, experts from Boston, confidential advisors, and so forth. The Idea that what might be lacking is something personal to the top managers themselves, something, moreover, that they alone might one day be able to put right, would strike them as very strange. It would be even stranger to them to suggest that, not only were they themselves alone in being able to put things right, but that only they, too, could discover the avenues to successful amendment, But since there can be no learning without action and no action without learning, If change is to be brought about by the purchased services of outsiders, independently of any involvement at a personal level of the top managers who commission those outsiders, then there can be no learning-that is, no preparation among those at present in charge to meet the recurrent challenges of the future. The enterprise will therefore become dependent upon its external advisors until it can no longer afford to meet their fees and expenses-a condition now frequently encountered. Nor is this all, the external consultant generally claims expertise in such-and-such a field, and, on this account, will diagnose the affliction (or interpret the hope) of his client management in terms of it; for a month or more everything will go as he predicts, the pattern uncovered will fit the forecast already made, and the plan of action will build upon the personal enthusiasms of members of the host management. The outside consultants who have prepared the plan-not seldom by piecing together fragments of their past prescriptions to other clients-will gradually ‘phase themselves out’, leaving those on the spot to implement what still needs to be done. With their wide connections across a fast professional culture, the itinerant experts are able quickly to find the super-specialist needed (it might seem) to advice upon some highly technical obstruction to success…
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The assignment of a visiting fellow from another enterprise also anxious to do something about its more obstinate and ill-structured embarrassments has battle in common with the engagement of professional experts. Were the fellows of the Inter University Programme to carry visiting cards to widen their possibilities of future employment, they would endorse them in red capitals: ‘Our strength, just like your own, lies in our ignorance of your troubles.’ For, while the expert may pretend that his first desire is to see the problem as it is seen by the management that needs to do something about it, he is in his particular business for quite a different reason; the visiting fellow, on the other hand, is clearly another manager in fact, anxious to interpret the trouble as a manager among managers, and to learn from his hosts as much as they are to learn from him. He does not seek to prolong his engagement with his hosts, or to withhold unpleasant advice that may prejudice the willingness of his clients to meet their financial obligations-since there are none. He is not hoping, as are many consultants that he may be offered an appointment in the firm he is setting out to help, so that his advice will not be coloured by quite adventitious possibilities having nothing to do with the original reasons for his being in the action learning programme at all. Faced with a temporary check, the visiting fellow has no headquarters office he may ring for instant support from another itinerant expert; he will need to open up some fresh line of questioning with his hosts. Unlike the professional consultant, he will not be spending a lot of his time trying to find out what the most powerful person in the receiving organization believes the problem to be in order to present to him a solution based upon that interpretation; the visiting fellow will, laboriously and with little thanks, be trying to reconcile the myriad views and experiences of large numbers of his new colleagues in such a manner that these now start to suggest to him what might be going on and how it may be improved upon. While in practice the expert consultant is desperately striving to use every interview he conducts as a means of assembling every shared of an idea from others into what he will claim as his own solution, he must be very cautious about creating the impression that he is circulating as the thirstiest of learners; his official status is a teller of others, an instructor of babes, a guide to the foolish, an enlightened dispelling the darkness, a leader of the blind, and so forth, He must be extremely cautious about giving an impression that there is anything he has to learn. The visiting fellow, on the other hand, gets his authority to help his new colleagues from his own eagerness to learn by recording the explanations of what they themselves imagine to be wrong, as the supreme non-expert, he is, at least at the outset, in no position to question what they say, nor to stem their desire to say it-and hence to learn from what they are trying to tell him about that which, they feel, seems to pass their own understanding, As Saint Paul reminded us all. ‘Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemed to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.’ It is one of the texts upon which action learning is founded, but rarely seen on the Christmas cards from experts.
Q.1. According to the writer, the top managers send for the outside experts to put things right as-
A. They do not believe in the capability level of their company staff.
B. It appears to them, as the waste of time to get their own company staff involved.
C. They do not wish to get themselves shouldered with such involvements and personal responsibilities in such situations.
D. They think that outside companies/firms have better skilled expertise in the area.
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D
Q.2. As per the passage, it would be better in the interest of the company –
A. If the top managers are not involved in such situations of putting the right, as it might distract them from their other important role.
B. If the job of correction and putting the things right is handled by the staff of the host company, with an active involvement of top managers, to enable them to have proper knowledge & skills. It will gear them up to face the problems which might arise later on.
C. If the job of putting things right is given to outside companies, within the fixed time frame since they have better expertise.
D. To award the jobs of putting things right to outside companies as the charges paid to the outside companies are much less than those that might be incurred on own experts.
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D
Q.3. Which of the following messages does the writer desire to convey by using the phrases ‘ Our strength, just like your own, lies in our ignorance of your troubles’
- The host company is full of ignorant people, it would be better to put them to action learning programmed.
B. The visiting expert is equally ignorant but cunning enough to buy time and getting the things put right by gathering knowledge from the host company.
C. The expert from outside company is also a manager and can very well put the things right with his knowledge & skill.
D. The visiting expert would be making strenuous efforts to get things right in order to get a job in the company, he is visiting.
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D
Q.4. – ‘Phase themselves out’ as described in the passage means –
A. The ignorance and working style of outside consultants might put the host company in trouble.
B. The expert company/firm will prolong the work to buy time only.
C. The work will ultimately have to be managed by the host team whole the visiting expert will move out of the role.
D. Right from the beginning, the outside expert will not be of much help and the entire work will be accomplished by the employees of Host Company.
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D
Q. 5. The writer firmly believes that –
A. The managers at the top level should not be involved in action learning programmes.
B. It is better to have the & skill from outside agencies than involving the own staff.
C. The managers & operational staff of the host company must go for operational learning to face recurring problems and is critical of outside agencies.
D. The visiting expert will solve the problem without wasting the time of host company managers, thus avoiding the trouble of their personal responsibilities.
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D
Answers to RC-passage-Type-1
Q.1 3.C They do not wish to get themselves shouldered with such involvements and personal responsibilities in such situations.
Q.2 2.B If the job of correction and putting the things right is handled by the staff of the host company, with an active involvement of top managers, to enable them to have proper knowledge & skills. It will gear them up to face the problems which might arise later on.
Q.3 2.B The visiting expert is equally ignorant but cunning enough to buy time and getting the things put right by gathering knowledge from the host company.
Q.4 3.C The work will ultimately have to be managed by the host team whole the visiting expert will move out of the role.
Q.5 3.C The managers & operational staff of the host company must go for operational learning to face recurring problems and is critical of outside agencies.
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Type-2
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow
The first and most important rule of legitimate or popular government, that is to say, of government whose object is the
good of the people, is therefore, as I have observed, to follow in everything the general will. But to follow this will it is necessary to know it, and above all to distinguish it from the particular will, beginning with one's self: this distinction is always very difficult to make, and only the most sublime virtue can afford sufficient illumination for it. As, in order to will, it is necessary to be free, a difficulty no less great than the former arises — that of preserving at once the public liberty and the authority of government. Look into the motives which have induced men, once united by their common needs in a general society, to unite themselves still more intimately by means of civil societies: you will find no other motive than that of assuring the property, life and liberty of each member by the protection of all. But can men be forced to defend the liberty of any one among them, without trespassing on that of others? And how can they provide for the public needs, without alienating the individual property of those who are forced to contribute to them? With whatever sophistry all this may be covered over, it is certain that if any constraint can be laid on my will, I am no longer free, and that I am no longer master of my own property, if anyone else can lay a hand on it. This difficulty, which would have seemed insurmountable, has been removed, like the first, by the most sublime of all human institutions, or rather by a divine inspiration, which teaches mankind to imitate here below the unchangeable decrees of the Deity. By what inconceivable art has a means been found of making men free by making them subject; of using in the service of the State the properties, the persons and even the lives of all its members, without constraining and without consulting them; of confining their will by their own admission; of overcoming their refusal by that consent, and forcing them to punish themselves, when they act against their own will? How can it be that all should obey, yet nobody take upon him to command, and that all should serve, and yet have no masters, but be the more free, as, in apparent subjection, each loses no part of his liberty but what might be hurtful to that of another? These wonders are the work of law. It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ of the will of all which establishes, in civil right, the natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment, and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political rulers should speak when they command; for no sooner does one man, setting aside the law, claim to subject another to his private will, than he departs from the state of civil society, and confronts him face to face in the pure state of nature, in which obedience is prescribed solely by necessity.
Q.1 The paradox in line 28 is resolved according to the author when an individual
- submits to the rule of law and thus is at liberty to do anything that does not harm another person
B. behaves according to the natural rights of man and not according to imposed rules
C. agrees to follow the rule of law even when it is against his best interests
D. belongs to a society which guarantees individual liberty at all times
E. follows the will of the majority
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D 5.E
Q.2. The author’s attitude to law in this passage is best conveyed as
A. respect for its inalienable authority
B. extolling its importance as a human institution
C. resignation to the need for its imposition on the majority
D. acceptance of its restrictions
E. praise for its divine origin
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D 5.E
Q.3.The author would agree with all of the following except
A. government must maintain its authority without unduly compromising personal liberty
B. individual freedom is threatened in the absence of law
C. justice cannot be ensured in the absence of law
D. political leaders should use the law as their guide to correct leadership
E. the law recognizes that all men are capable of recognizing what is in the general interest
1. A 2.B 3.C 4.D 5.E
Q.1 Correct Answer: 1.A
Explanation: All the paradoxes in this section of the extract are resolved in the sentence, “These wonders are the work of law.” But the law is such that “each loses no part of his liberty but what might be hurtful to that of another”, making A the best answer
Q.2 Correct Answer: 2.B
Explanation: The author uses words such as sublime, and celestial which indicate his tendency to glorify the institution of law, making praise or extolling possible choices. He clearly refers to the law as a human institution.
Q.3 Correct Answer: 5.E
Explanation: In “except” questions, find the four true statements first. A, B, C and D are true. Answer E is not true (and therefore the correct answer) because the author clearly states in sentence two that it is difficult to recognize the general will and to distinguish it from the personal. He states that only the “most sublime virtue” can make this distinction, and hence the word all in answer E is sufficient to identify the answer as wrong
Important tip
Time Management is must. Not more than ten-twelve minutes should be given to thoroughly read and understand the passages besides marking the answers. If you are unable to understand the passage, don’t waste time on it as you have two more passages to solve. Devoting more time on one passage will deprive you of the opportunity to answer other questions which are equally important.
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