CAT 2021 VA and RC - Slot 1
CAT 2021 Quantitative Ability Slot 01
(Total questions: 24)
Directions for questions 01 to 04: The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The sleights of hand that conflate consumption with virtue are a central theme in A Thirst
for Empire, a sweeping and richly detailed history of tea by the historian Erika Rappaport. How did tea evolve from an obscure "China drink" to a universal beverage imbued with civilising properties? The answer, in brief, revolves around this
conflation, not only by profitmotivated marketers but by a wide variety of interest groups. While abundant historical records have allowed the study of how tea itself moved from east to west, Rappaport is focused on the movement of the idea
of tea to suit particular purposes.
Beginning in the 1700s, the temperance movement advocated for tea as a pleasure that cheered but did not inebriate, and industrialists soon borrowed this moral argument in advancing their case for free trade in tea (and hence more open
markets for their textiles). Factory owners joined in, compelled by the cause of a sober workforce, while Christian missionaries discovered that tea "would soothe any colonial encounter". During the Second World War, tea service was presented
as a social and patriotic activity that uplifted soldiers and calmed refugees.
But it was tea's consumerdirected marketing by importers and retailers “and later by brands “that most closely portends current trade debates. An early version
of the "farm to table" movement was sparked by antiChinese sentiment and concerns over trade deficits, as well as by the reality and threat of adulterated tea containing dirt and hedge clippings. Lipton was soon advertising "from the Garden
to Tea Cup" supply chains originating in British India and supervised by "educated Englishmen". While tea marketing always presented direct consumer benefits (health, energy, relaxation), tea drinkers were also assured that they were participating
in a larger noble project that advanced the causes of family, nation and civilization.
Rappaport's treatment of her subject is refreshingly apolitical. Indeed, it is a virtue that readers will be unable to guess her political orientation:
both the miracle of markets and capitalism's dark underbelly are evident in tea's complex story, as are the complicated effects of British colonialism. Commodity histories are now themselves commodities: recent works investigate cotton, salt,
cod, sugar, chocolate, paper and milk. And morality marketing is now a commodity as well, applied to food, "fair trade" apparel and ecotourism. Yet tea is, Rappaport makes clear, a world apart “an astonishing success story in which tea marketers
not only succeeded in conveying a sense of moral elevation to the consumer but also arguably did advance the cause of civilisation and community.
I have been offered tea at a British garden party, a Bedouin campfire, a Turkish carpet shop
and a Japanese chashitsu, to name a few settings. In each case the offering was more an idea “friendship, community, respect “than a drink, and in each case the idea then created a reality. It is not a stretch to say that tea marketers have
advanced the particularly noble cause of human dialogue and friendship.
Question 01: The author of this book review is LEAST likely to support the view that:
(a) tea drinking was sometimes promoted as a patriotic
duty.
(b) the ritual of drinking tea promotes congeniality and camaraderie.
(c) tea drinking has become a social ritual worldwide.
(d) tea became the leading drink in Britain in the nineteenth century.
For choice 2 and 3 refer the last para of the passage - “I have been offered tea at a British garden party, a Bedouin campfire, a Turkish carpet shop and a Japanese chashitsu, to name a few settings. In each case the offering was more
an idea “friendship, community, respect” than a drink, and in each case the idea then created a reality. - This makes choice 2 and 3 correct.
For choice 1 refer the last para of the passage - “During the Second World War, tea service
was presented as a social and patriotic activity that uplifted soldiers and calmed refugees”.
The author, however, does not say that tea became the leading drink in Britain in the nineteenth century. So, the author is least likely
to support option 4.
Question 02: This book review argues that, according to Rappaport, tea is unlike other "morality" products because it:
(a) appealed to a universal group and not just to a niche section of people.
(b) had an actual beneficial
effect on social interaction and society in general.
(c) was actively encouraged by interest groups in the government.
(d) was marketed by a wide range of interest groups.
Refer para 4 - “Yet tea is”, Rappaport makes clear, “a world apart”, an astonishing success story in which tea marketers not only succeeded in conveying a sense of moral elevation to the consumer but also arguably did advance the cause
of civilisation and community. ‘Advance the cause of civilisation and community’ is the same as ‘beneficial effect on social interaction and society in general’. Hence the correct answer is choice 2.
Question 03: According to this book review, A Thirst for Empire says that, in addition to "profitmotivated marketers", tea drinking was promoted in Britain by all of the following EXCEPT:
(a) factories to instill sobriety in
their labour.
(b) tea drinkers lobbying for product diversity.
(c) manufacturers who were pressing for duty-free imports.
(d) the anti-alcohol lobby as a substitute for the consumption of liquor.
Refer para 2 - “Beginning in the 1700s, the temperance movement advocated for tea as a pleasure that cheered but did not inebriate, and industrialists soon borrowed this moral argument in advancing their case for free trade in tea (and
hence more open markets for their textiles). Factory owners joined in, compelled by the cause of a sober workforce, while Christian missionaries discovered that tea "would soothe any colonial encounter". During the Second World War,
tea service was presented as a social and patriotic activity that uplifted soldiers and calmed refugees”. Choice 1,3, and 4 are clearly mentioned in the para. Hence the correct answer is choice 2.
Question 04: Today, "conflating consumption with virtue" can be seen in the marketing of:
(a) sustainably farmed foods.
(b) ergonomically designed products.
(c) travel to pristine destinations.
(d) natural health supplements.
Conflating consumption with virtue means promoting consumption of something as virtuous. The consumption of sustainably farmed foods is marketed as the right thing to do as it does not harm the environment. Hence the correct answer is
choice 1.
Directions for questions 05 to 08:: For the Maya of the Classic period, who lived in Southern Mexico and Central America between 250 and 900 CE, the category of 'persons' was not coincident with human beings,
as it is for us. That is, human beings were persons “but other, nonhuman entities could be persons, too. In order to explore the slippage of categories between 'humans' and 'persons', I examined a very specific category of ancient Maya images,
found painted in scenes on ceramic vessels. I sought out instances in which faces (some combination of eyes, nose, and mouth) are shown on inanimate objects. Consider my iPhone, which needs to be fed with electricity every night, swaddled
in a protective bumper, and enjoys communicating with other fellowphonebeings. Does it have personhood (if at all) because it is connected to me, drawing this resource from me as an owner or source? For the Maya (who did have plenty of other
communicating objects, if not smartphones), the answer was no. Nonhuman persons were not tethered to specific humans, and they did not derive their personhood from a connection with a human. It's a profoundly democratising way of understanding
the world. Humans are not more important persons “we are just one of many kinds of persons who inhabit this world.
The Maya saw personhood as 'activated' by experiencing certain bodily needs and through participation in certain social activities.
For example, among the faced objects that I examined, persons are marked by personal requirements (such as hunger, tiredness, physical closeness), and by community obligations (communication, interaction, ritual observance). In the images
I examined, we see, for instance, faced objects being cradled in humans' arms; we also see them speaking to humans. These core elements of personhood are both turned inward, what the body or self of a person requires, and outward, what a community
expects of the persons who are a part of it, underlining the reciprocal nature of community membership.
Personhood was a nonbinary proposition for the Maya. Entities were able to be persons while also being something else. The faced objects
I looked at indicate that they continue to be functional, doing what objects do (a stone implement continues to chop, an incense burner continues to do its smoky work). Furthermore, the Maya visually depicted many objects in ways that indicated
the material category to which they belonged “drawings of the stone implement show that a persontool is still made of stone. One additional complexity: the incense burner (which would have been made of clay, and decorated with spiky appliques
representing the sacred ceiba tree found in this region) is categorised as a person “but also as a tree. With these Maya examples, we are challenged to discard the person/nonperson binary that constitutes our basic ontological outlook. The
porousness of boundaries that we have seen in the Maya world points towards the possibility of living with a certain uncategorisability of the world.
Questions 05: Which one of the following, if true about the Classic
Maya, would invalidate the purpose of the iPhone example in the passage?
(a) The personhood of the incense burner and the stone chopper was a function of their usefulness to humans.
(b) Classic Maya songs represent both humans and non-living
objects as characters, talking and interacting with each other.
(c) The clay incense burner with spiky appliques was categorised only as a person and not as a tree by the Classic Maya.
(d) Unlike modern societies equipped with mobile
phones, the Classic Maya did not have any communicating objects.
Refer para 1 and 2 - ‘Consider my iPhone, which needs to be fed with electricity every night, swaddled in a protective bumper, and enjoys communicating with other fellow-phone-beings. Does it have personhood (if at all) because it is connected
to me, drawing this resource from me as an owner or source? For the Maya (who did have plenty of other communicating objects, if not smartphones), the answer was no. Nonhuman persons were not tethered to specific humans, and they did
not derive their personhood from a connection with a human. It's a profoundly democratising way of understanding the world. Humans are not more important persons “we are just one of many kinds of persons who inhabit this world. The
Maya saw personhood as 'activated' by experiencing certain bodily needs and through participation in certain social activities.’
Here the author uses the example of an iPhone to explain the idea that non-human persons did not derive
their personhood simply because of their human connection or their usefulness to humans. The Maya would not have regarded the iPhone as a nonhuman person; personhood would be 'activated' only when the nonhuman person experiences certain
bodily needs or participates in certain social activities. Now if choice 1 were true “if the incense burner and stone chopper were regarded as persons just because of their usefulness to humans,” then the purpose of the iPhone example
would be invalidated. Hence the correct answer is choice 1.
Question 06: Which one of the following, if true, would not undermine the democratising potential of the Classic Maya worldview?
(a) They believed that animals like cats and dogs that live in proximity to humans have a more
clearly articulated personhood.
(b) They understood the stone implement and the incense burner in a purely human form.
(c) While they believed in the personhood of objects and plants, they did not believe in the personhood of rivers
and animals.
(d) They depicted their human healers with physical attributes of local medicinal plants.
Please note that this question is asking that what would not undermine the democratizing potential of the Classic Maya worldview. Here the word democratization is a near equivalent of equality. It is now take up all the choices one by
one. Choice 1 says that cats and dogs can have more clearly articulated person hold because they live in proximity to humans. Not this goes against the spirit of equality. Hence this choices incorrect the second choice says that Maya
understood the stone implement and the incense burner in a purely human form. This goes against the non binary proposition of the Maya about person Hood. Choice 3 says that Maya did not believe in the person hold of rivers and animals.
This was against the equality principal and Hans destroices incorrect. Choice 4 is correct because it says that Maya depicted their human helers with physical attributes of local medicinal plant that means human and plants considered
equal.
Question 07: On the basis of the passage, which one of the following worldviews can be inferred to be closest to that of the Classic Maya?
(a) A tribe that perceives its hunting weapons as sacred person-artefacts because
of their significance to its survival.
(b) A futuristic society that perceives robots to be persons as well as robots because of their similarity to humans.
(c) A tribe that perceives plants as person-plants because they form an ecosystem
and are marked by needs of nutrition.
(d) A tribe that perceives its utensils as person-utensils in light of their functionality and bodily needs.
Refer para 2 - ‘The Maya saw personhood as ‘activated’ by experiencing certain bodily needs and through participation in certain social activities. For example, among the faced objects that I examined, persons are marked by personal requirements
(such as hunger, tiredness, physical closeness), and by community obligations (communication, interaction, ritual observance).’ Personhood was not based on the usefulness of nonpersons to humans or their similarity to humans. Now refer
para 1 -‘ Nonhuman persons were not tethered to specific humans, and they did not derive their personhood from a connection with a human. It's a profoundly democratising way of understanding the world.’
When we read them together,
choices 1 & 2 prove to be wrong. Choice 4 is also wrong as it talks about ‘functionality’, something which has been denied in para 1 and is not in line with the Classic Maya worldview. Choice 3 is correct because firstly it talks
about bodily needs like nutrition and secondly because it says that plants form an ecosystem which relates to the idea of social participation. Plants form an Ecosystem, thereby participating in a community.
Question 08: Which one of the following best explains the "additional complexity" that the example of the incense burner illustrates regarding personhood for the Classic Maya?
(a) The example adds a new layer to the nonbinary
understanding of personhood by bringing in a third category that shares a dissimilar relation with the previous two.
(b) The example complicates the nonbinary understanding of personhood by bringing in the sacred, establishing the porosity
of the divine and the profane.
(c) The example provides an exception to the nonbinary understanding of personhood that the passage had hitherto established.
(d) The example adds a new layer to the nonbinary understanding of personhood
by bringing in a third category that shares a similar relation with the previous two.
Refer last para - “One additional complexity: the incense burner (which would have been made of clay, and decorated with spiky appliques representing the sacred ceiba tree found in this region) is categorised as a person “but also as a
tree. With these Maya examples, we are challenged to discard the person/nonperson binary that constitutes our basic ontological outlook. The porousness of boundaries that we have seen in the Maya world points towards the possibility
of living with a certain uncategorisability of the world’’.
The passage gives the example of the incense burner to explain the 'additional complexity' in such a way that, in addition to being categorised as a person, it was also
categorised as a tree as it was decorated with spiky appliques representing the sacred ceiba tree. The third categorisation as a tree is on par and similar to the other two categorisations; the same object is a tree and a person-tool.
Therefore choice 4 is the correct answer.
Directions for questions 09 to 12: We cannot travel outside our neighbourhood without passports. We must wear the same plain clothes. We must exchange our houses every ten years. We cannot avoid labour. We
all go to bed at the same time. We have religious freedom, but we cannot deny that the soul dies with the body, since 'but for the fear of punishment, they would have nothing but contempt for the laws and customs of society'. In More's time,
for much of the population, given the plenty and security on offer, such restraints would not have seemed overly unreasonable. For modern readers, however, Utopia appears to rely upon relentless transparency, the repression of variety, and
the curtailment of privacy. Utopia provides security: but at what price? In both its external and internal relations, indeed, it seems perilously dystopian.
Such a conclusion might be fortified by examining selectively the tradition which
follows More on these points. This often portrays societies where 'it would be almost impossible for man to be depraved, or wicked'. This is achieved both through institutions and mores, which underpin the common life. The passions are regulated
and inequalities of wealth and distinction are minimized. Needs, vanity, and emulation are restrained, often by prizing equality and holding riches in contempt. The desire for public power is curbed. Marriage and sexual intercourse are often
controlled: in Tommaso Campanella's The City of the Sun (1623), the first great literary utopia after More's, relations are forbidden to men before the age of twentyone and women before nineteen. Communal childrearing is normal; for Campanella
this commences at age two. Greater simplicity of life, 'living according to nature', is often a result: the desire for simplicity and purity are closely related. People become more alike in appearance, opinion, and outlook than they often
have been. Unity, order, and homogeneity thus prevail at the cost of individuality and diversity. This model, as J. C. Davis demonstrates, dominated early modern utopianism. And utopian homogeneity remains a familiar theme well into the twentieth
century.
Given these considerations, it is not unreasonable to take as our starting point here the hypothesis that utopia and dystopia evidently share more in common than is often supposed. Indeed, they might be twins, the progeny of the same parents.
Insofar as this proves to be the case, my linkage of both here will be uncomfortably close for some readers. Yet we should not mistake this argument for the assertion that all utopias are, or tend to produce, dystopias. Those who defend this
proposition will find that their association here is not nearly close enough. For we have only to acknowledge the existence of thousands of successful intentional communities in which a cooperative ethos predominates and where harmony without
coercion is the rule to set aside such an assertion. Here the individual's submersion in the group is consensual (though this concept is not unproblematic). It results not in enslavement but voluntary submission to group norms. Harmony is
achieved without harming others.
Question 09: Following from the passage, which one of the following may be seen as a characteristic of a utopian society?
(a) A society without any laws to restrain
one's individuality.
(b) Institutional surveillance of every individual to ensure his/her security and welfare.
(c) A society where public power is earned through merit rather than through privilege.
(d) The regulation of homogeneity
through promoting competitive heterogeneity.
Refer para 1 - “For modern readers, however, Utopia appears to rely upon relentless transparency, the repression of variety, and the curtailment of privacy. Utopia provides security: but at what price?” Reading this will make us agree
with choice 2 because, institutional surveillance (curtailment of privacy) in the name of security can be seen as a characteristic of a Utopian society. It will also prove choice 4 wrong because utopia appears to rely upon repression
of variety and choice 4 talks about utopia promoting competitive heterogeneity. Choice 1 and 3 also speak against the definition of utopia as described above, and therefore are wrong.
Question 10: Which sequence of words below best captures the narrative of the passage?
(a) Curtailment of privacy - Dystopia - Utopia - Intentional community.
(b) Relentless transparency - Homogeneity - Utopia - Dystopia.
(c)
Utopia - Security - Dystopia - Coercion.
(d) Utopia - Security - Homogeneity - Intentional community.
The ideas of Utopia - Security - Homogeneity is discussed in this order in the 1st and 2nd para. The idea of Intentional community is discussed in the last para. Hence choice 4th is correct.
Question 11: All of the following statements can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT that:
(a) it is possible to see utopias as dystopias, with a change in perspective, because one person's utopia could be seen as another's
dystopia.
(b) utopian and dystopian societies are twins, the progeny of the same parents.
(c) utopian societies exist in a long tradition of literature dealing with imaginary people practicing imaginary customs, in imaginary worlds.
(d) many
conceptions of utopian societies emphasise the importance of social uniformity and cultural homogeneity.
choice 1 can be inferred from para 1 - “Utopia provides security: but at what price? In both its external and internal relations, indeed, it seems perilously dystopian”. Choice 3 can be inferred from para 2 which describes More’s and Tommaso
Campanella's conception of “imaginary people practicing imaginary customs, in imaginary worlds”. Choice 4 can be inferred from the last para- “For we have only to acknowledge the existence of thousands of successful intentional communities
in which a cooperative ethos predominates and where harmony without coercion is the rule to set aside such an assertion. Here the individual's submersion in the group is consensual (though this concept is not unproblematic). It results
not in enslavement but voluntary submission to group norms. Harmony is achieved without harming others”.
Choice 2 cannot be inferred from the passage because the last para says - “utopia and dystopia evidently share more in common
than is often supposed. Indeed, they might be twins, the progeny of the same parents. Insofar as this proves to be the case, my linkage of both here will be uncomfortably close for some readers. Yet we should not mistake this argument
for the assertion that all utopias are, or tend to produce, dystopias. Those who defend this proposition will find that their association here is not nearly close enough”. In other words, utopias are not dystopias and the two cannot
be regarded as exactly alike, or twins. Hence choice 2 is the correct answer.
Question 12: All of the following arguments are made in the passage EXCEPT that:
(a) in More's time, there was plenty and security, so people did not need restraints that could appear unreasonable.
(b) the tradition of utopian
literature has often shown societies in which it would be nearly impossible for anyone to be sinful or criminal.
(c) there have been thousands of communities where homogeneity and stability have been achieved through choice, rather than
by force.
(d) in early modern utopianism, the stability of utopian societies was seen to be achieved only with individuals surrendering their sense of self.
For Choice 1 refer para 1- “In More's time, for much of the population, given the plenty and security on offer, such restraints would not have seemed overly unreasonable”. But choice 1 says- in More's time, there was plenty and security,
so people did not need restraints that could appear unreasonable. Choice 1 alters a few words and changes the meaning of what is stated in the passage. The passage does not say people need restraints. Hence choice 1 is not the argument
made in the passage, and therefore it is the correct answer.
The 2nd para contains the argument made in choice 2 and 4. The last para contains the argument made in choice 3.
Directions for questions 13 to 16: Cuttlefish are full of personality, as behavioral ecologist Alexandra Schnell found out while researching the cephalopod's potential to display self-control. "Self-control is thought to be the
cornerstone of intelligence, as it is an important prerequisite for complex decision-making and planning for the future," says Schnell.
Schnell's study used a modified version of the "marshmallow test". During the original marshmallow test,
psychologist Walter Mitchel presented children between age four and six with one marshmallow. He told them that if they waited 15 minutes and didn't eat it, he would give them a second marshmallow. A long-term follow-up study showed that the
children who waited for the second marshmallow had more success later in life. The cuttlefish version of the experiment looked a lot different. The researchers worked with six cuttlefish under nine months old and presented them with seafood
instead of sweets. (Preliminary experiments showed that cuttlefishes' favorite food is live grass shrimp, while raw prawns are so-so and Asian shore crab is nearly unacceptable.) Since the researchers couldn't explain to the cuttlefish that
they would need to wait for their shrimp, they trained them to recognize certain shapes that indicated when a food item would become available. The symbols were pasted on transparent drawers so that the cuttlefish could see the food that was
stored inside. One drawer, labeled with a circle to mean "immediate," held raw king prawn. Another drawer, labeled with a triangle to mean "delayed," held live grass shrimp. During a control experiment, square labels meant "never."
"If
their self-control is flexible and I hadn't just trained them to wait in any context, you would expect the cuttlefish to take the immediate reward [in the control], even if it's their second preference," says Schnell and that's what they did.
That showed the researchers that cuttlefish wouldn't reject the prawns if it was the only food available. In the experimental trials, the cuttlefish didn't jump on the prawns if the live grass shrimp were labeled with a triangle” many waited
for the shrimp drawer to open up. Each time the cuttlefish showed it could wait; the researchers tacked another ten seconds on to the next round of waiting before releasing the shrimp. The longest that a cuttlefish waited was 130 seconds.
Schnell
says that the cuttlefish usually sat at the bottom of the tank and looked at the two food items while they waited, but sometimes, they would turn away from the king prawn "as if to distract themselves from the temptation of the immediate reward."
In past studies, humans, chimpanzees, parrots and dogs also tried to distract themselves while waiting for a reward.
Not every species can use self-control, but most of the animals that can share another trait in common: long, social lives.
Cuttlefish, on the other hand, are solitary creatures that don't form relationships even with mates or young. "We don't know if living in a social group is important for complex cognition unless we also show those abilities are lacking in
less social species," says comparative psychologist Jennifer Vonk.
Question 13: All of the following constitute a point of difference between the "original" and "modified" versions of the marshmallow test EXCEPT that:
(a)
the former correlated self-control and future success, while the latter correlated self-control and survival advantages.
(b) the former was performed over a longer time span than the latter.
(c) the former had human subjects, while the latter had cuttlefish.
(d) the former used verbal communication with its subjects, while the latter had to develop
a symbolic means of communication.
Choice 1 states correctly about ‘original’ marshmallow test - “the former correlated self-control and future success”. This is clearly stated in para 2- “A long-term follow-up study showed that the children who waited for the second marshmallow
had more success later in life”. But choice 1 does not state correctly about ‘modified’ versions of marshmallow test. The passage does not say that the modified version of the marshmallow test aimed to correlate self-control with survival
advantages. Hence choice 1 does not constitute a point of difference between the "original" and "modified" versions of the marshmallow test, and therefore it is the correct answer.
The points of difference between the "original"
and "modified" versions of the marshmallow test as described in the other choices 2,3 and 4 are clearly mentioned in the passage.
Question 14: Which one of the following, if true, would best complement the passage's findings?
(a) Cuttlefish wait longer than 100 seconds for the shrimp drawer to open up.
(b) Cuttlefish live in big groups that exhibit
sociability.
(c) Cuttlefish cannot distinguish between geometrical shapes.
(d) Cuttlefish are equally fond of live grass shrimp and raw prawn.
Choice 1 does not add up to the passage's findings as the passage already says cuttlefish waited up to 130 sec for the shrimp to be released. Hence it is wrong.
Choice 2 says - “Cuttlefish live in big groups that exhibit sociability”.
However, the main conclusion of the experiment is that cuttlefish exhibit self-control. And according to the passage, species that exhibit self-control are usually social. Cuttlefish are not social but are solitary creatures that don't
form relationships even with mates or young. But if it were true that cuttlefish exhibit sociability, one could conclude that like most other social creatures, cuttlefish, too, exhibit self-control. So, if choice 2 were true, the findings
of the passage would be in line with what is generally observed. So, in this way, it would complement the passage's findings. And therefore Choice 1 is the correct answer.
Choice 3 is wrong because if the cuttlefish cannot recognise
shapes, then the basic premise of the experiment that they see the shape pasted on the drawer and decide whether to wait is nullified.
Choice 4 is wrong because if the cuttlefish are equally fond of shrimp and prawn, there is no
reason for them to wait.
Question 15: In which one of the following scenarios would the cuttlefish's behaviour demonstrate selfcontrol?
(a) Asian shore crabs and raw prawns are simultaneously released while a live grass shrimp drawer labelled with
a triangle is placed in front of the cuttlefish, to be opened after one minute.
(b) raw prawns are released while a live grass shrimp drawer labelled with a square is placed in front of the cuttlefish.
(c) live grass shrimp are released
while two raw prawn drawers labelled with a circle and a triangle respectively are placed in front of the cuttlefish; the triangle-labelled drawer is opened after 50 seconds.
(d) raw prawns are released while an Asian shore crab drawer
labelled with a triangle is placed in front of the cuttlefish, to be opened after one minute.
Choice 1 is correct because according to the passage, cuttlefish were trained to recognise circle to mean 'immediate', triangle to mean 'delayed' and square to mean 'never'. The passage also states that cuttlefishes' favorite food is live
grass shrimp, while raw prawns are so-so and Asian shore crab is nearly unacceptable. So, the cuttlefish would demonstrate self -control if they waited for live grass shrimp labelled with a triangle to be opened while other food was
readily available.
All other choices are incorrect as they would not contain scenarios where the cuttlefish's behaviour would demonstrate self-control.
Question 16: Which one of the following cannot be inferred from Alexandra Schnell's experiment?
(a) Intelligence in a species is impossible without sociability.
(b) Like human children, cuttlefish are capable of self-control.
(c)
Cuttlefish exert self-control with the help of diversions.
(d) Cuttlefish exercise choice when it comes to food.
Refer last para- Not every species can use self-control, but most of the animals that can share another trait in common: long, social lives. Cuttlefish, on the other hand, are solitary creatures that don't form relationships even with
mates or young. "We don't know if living in a social group is important for complex cognition unless we also show those abilities are lacking in less social species,"
The passage states that 'most of the animals' that can exercise
self-control are social. Cuttlefish exhibit self-control and are not social. Therefore, choice 1 cannot be inferred from Alexandra Schnell's experiment. So choice 1 is the right answer.
Choice2,3 and4 are easily inferred from the
information given in the passage and so are wrong.