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RC discussion for CAT 2010 (Closed)

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abhi.kamble

Reply #721 01:41 AM, 24 Sep '10

Passage A9 Most economists in the united States seem captivated by the spell of the free market.

Consequently, nothing seems good or normal that does not accord with the requirements of

the free market. A price that is determined by the seller or, for that matter, established by

anyone other than the aggregate of consumers seems pernicious. Accordingly, it requires a

major act of will to think of price-fixing (the determination of prices by the seller) as both

normal and having a valuable economic function. In fact, price-fixing is normal in all

industrialized societies because the industrial system itself provides, as an effortless

consequence of its own development, the price-fixing that it requires. Modern industrial

planning requires and rewards great size. Hence, a comparatively small number of large firms

will be competing for the same group of consumers. That each large firm will act with

consideration of its own needs and thus avoid selling its products for more than its

competitors charge is commonly recognized by advocates of free-market economic theories.

But each large firm will also act with full consideration of the needs that it has in common

with the other large firms competing for the same customers. Each large firm will thus avoid

significant price-cutting, because price-cutting would be prejudicial to the common interest in

a stable demand for products. Most economists do not see price-fixing when it occurs

because they expect it to be brought about by a number of explicit agreements among large

firms; it is not. Moreover, those economists who argue that allowing the free market to

operate without interference is the most efficient method of establishing prices have not

considered the economies of non-socialist countries other than the United states. These

economies employ intentional price fixing, usually in an overt fashion. Formal price-fixing

by cartel and informal price-fixing by agreements covering the members of an industry are

common-place. Were there something peculiarly efficient about the free market and

inefficient about price-fixing, the countries that have avoided the first and used the second

would have suffered drastically in their economic development. There is no indication that

they have. Socialist industry also works within a frame-work of controlled prices. In the early

1970s, the Soviet Union began to give firms and industries some of the flexibility in adjusting

prices that a more informal evolution has accorded the capitalist system. Economists in the

United States have hailed the change as a return to the free market. But Soviet firms are no

more subject to prices established by a free market over which they exercise little influence

than are capitalist firms; rather, Soviet firms have been given the power to fix prices.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) refute the theory that the free market plays a useful role in the development of

industrialized societies

(B) suggest methods by which economists and members of the government of the United

States can recognize and combat price-fixing by large firms

(C) show that in industrialized societies price-fixing and the operation of the free market are

not only compatible but also mutually beneficial

(D) explain the various ways in which industrialized societies can fix prices in order to

stabilize the free market

(E) argue that price-fixing, in one form or another, is an inevitable part of and benefit to the

economy of any industrialized society

2. The passage provides information that would answer which of the following questions

about price-fixing? .What are some of the ways in which prices can be fixed?

. For what products is price-fixing likely to be more profitable that the operation of the free

market?

.Is price-fixing more common in socialist industrialized societies or in nonsocialist

industrialized societies?

(A) only

(B) only

(C) and only

(D) and only

(E) ,,and

3. The authors attitude toward Most economists in the United States can best be

described as (A) spiteful and envious

(B) scornful and denunciatory

(C) critical and condescending

(D) ambivalent but deferential

(E) uncertain but interested

4. It can be inferred from the authors argument that a price fixed by the seller seems

pernicious because (A) people do not have confidence in large firms

(B) people do not expect the government to regulate prices

(C) most economists believe that consumers as a group should determine prices

(D) most economists associate fixed prices with communist and socialist economies

(E) most economists believe that no one group should determine prices

5. The suggestion in the passage that price-fixing in industrialized societies is normal

arises from the authors statement that price-fixing is (A) a profitable result of economic development

(B) an inevitable result of the industrial system

(C) the result of a number of carefully organized decisions

(D) a phenomenon common to industrialized and non industrialized societies

(E) a phenomenon best achieved cooperatively by government and industry

6. According to the author, price-fixing in non socialist countries is often (A) accidental but productive

(B) illegal but useful

(C) legal and innovative

(D) traditional and rigid

(E) intentional and widespread

7. According to the author, what is the result of the Soviet Unions change in economic

policy in the 1970s (A) Soviet firms show greater profit.

(B) Soviet firms have less control over the free market.

(C) Soviet firms are able to adjust to technological advances.

(D) Soviet firms have some authority to fix prices.

(E) Soviet firms are more responsive to the free market.

8. With which of the following statements regarding the behavior of large firms in

industrialized societies would the author be most likely to agree? (A) The directors of large firms will continue to anticipate the demand for products

(B) The directors of large firms are less interested in achieving a predictable level of profit

than in achieving a large profit.

(C) The directors of large firms will strive to reduce the costs of their products

(D) Many directors of large firms believe that the government should establish the prices that

will be charged for products

(E) Many directors of large firms believe that the price charged for products is likely to

increase annually.

9. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with (A) predicting the consequences of a practice

(B) criticizing a point of view

(C) calling attention to recent discoveries

(D) proposing a topic for research

(E) summarizing conflicting opinions

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aroraraman

Reply #722 01:51 AM, 24 Sep '10

RC pg 73 aroraraman

My take

2

2

1

1

3

4

will post the OA after some have attempted it

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Akshayestoneage

Reply #723 02:00 AM, 24 Sep '10

PASSAGE--29 Albert Einstein once said: I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.

One aspect of the future that can never come soon enough is that of greater

autonomy.

b,a,c,a,

oa passage---29

5-b 6-a 7-c 8-a

Got them correct : ) All right, second time in a row after a8.

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aroraraman

Reply #724 02:00 AM, 24 Sep '10

A 10 Skepticism quite properly forbids us to speculate beyond the content of our present

experience and memory,

yet we find it entirely natural to believe much more than that. Hume held that these

unjustifiable beliefs can be explained by reference to custom or habit. That's how we learn

from experience. When I observe the constant conjunction of events in my experience, I grow

accustomed to associating them with each other.

Although many past cases of sunrise do not guarantee the future of nature, my experience of

them does get

me used to the idea and produces in me an expectation that the sun will rise again tomorrow.

I cannot prove

that it will, but I feel that it must.

Remember that the association of ideas is a powerful natural process in which separate ideas

come to be

joined together in the mind. Of course they can be associated with each other by rational

means, as they are in the relations of ideas that constitute mathematical knowledge. But even

where this is possible, Hume argued, reason is a slow and inefficient guide, while the habits

acquired by much repetition can produce a powerful conviction independently of reason.

Although the truth of "9 12 = 108" can be established rationally in principle, most of us

actually learned it by reciting our multiplication tables. In fact, what we call relative

probability is, on Hume's view, nothing more than a measure of the strength of conviction

produced in us by our experience of regularity.

Our beliefs in matters of fact, then, arise from sentiment or feeling rather than from reason.

For Hume, imagination and belief differ only in the degree of conviction with which their

objects are anticipated. Although this positive answer may seem disappointing, Hume

maintained that custom or habit is the great guide of life and the foundation of all natural

science.

According to Hume, our belief that events are causally related is a custom or habit acquired

by experience:

having observed the regularity with which events of particular sorts occur together, we form

the association of

ideas that produces the habit of expecting the effect whenever we experience the cause. But

something is

missing from this account: we also believe that the cause somehow produces the effect. Even

if this belief is

unjustifiable, Hume must offer some explanation for the fact that we do hold it. His technique

was to search

for the original impression from which our idea of the necessary connection between cause

and effect is

copied. The idea does not arise from our objective experience of the events themselves. All

we observe is that

events of the "cause" type occur nearby and shortly before events of the "effect" type, and

that this recurs

with a regularity that can be described as a "constant conjunction." Although this pattern of

experience does

encourage the formation of our habit of expecting the effect to follow the cause, it includes

no impression of

a necessary connection.

Nor do we acquire this impression (as Locke had supposed) from our own capacity for

voluntary motion.

Here the objective element of constant conjunction is rarely experienced, since the actions of

our minds and

bodies do not invariably submit to our voluntary control. And even if volition did always

produce the intended

movement, Hume argued, that would yield no notion of the connection between them. So

there is no impression of causal power here, either.

Still, we do have the idea of a necessary connection, and it must come from somewhere. For a

(non-justificatory) explanation, Hume refers us back to the formation of a custom or habit.

Our (non-rational) expectation that the effect will follow the cause is accompanied by a

strong feeling of conviction, and it is the impression of this feeling that is copied by our

concept of a necessary connection between cause and effect. The force of causal necessity is

just the strength of our sentiment in anticipating efficacious outcomes.

66. According to Hume, the linking of an effect to a cause is based on all of the following

except

(1) Our rational thinking. (2) Our expectation.

(3) Our feeling of conviction. (4) The initial impression that we carry

(5) Our sentiment.

67. What is the primary purpose of the passage?

(1) To highlight Hume's theory of the predominance of custom or habit over reason in

shaping beliefs

and ideas

(2) To demonstrate the preponderance of belief and reason over sentiments and superstitions

(3) To show the role of the constant conjunction in the formation of ideas about cause and

effect

relations

(4) To discuss Hume's theory regarding objective and subjective experience

(5) To differentiate between the role played by custom and habits in beliefs and imagination

68. Hume would agree with which of the following statements ?

(1) Association of ideas produces habit.

(2) Ideas cannot be associated by rational means.

(3) The self is immaterial in nature.

(4) Expectation of something leads to its experience.

(5) A cause cannot produce an effect.

69. The passage is most probably an extract from:

(1) A treatise on modern sociology

(2) A personal view on the formation of beliefs and ideas

(3) A novel from the Victorian period

(4) A book on the history of philosophy

(5) A work on existentialism

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niharika1503

Reply #725 02:10 AM, 24 Sep '10

answers of a8

B D E D C A D E D

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aroraraman

Reply #726 02:17 AM, 24 Sep '10

my take on a10

1

1

1

5

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Akshayestoneage

Reply #727 02:24 AM, 24 Sep '10

Passage 30- B,E,A

It was difficult to grasp as compared to other passages. Would like to go back at it again.

Rightly pointed out before, must be XAT stuff.

gudakesh Says

the answers have already been provided .. so you can check your attempts

Posting here makes doing an RC worth one's spirits : )

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Akshayestoneage

Reply #728 02:32 AM, 24 Sep '10

PASSAGE--30

9th and 10th can be B and C too. Facing a bit difficulty in grasping question 10. Awaiting the

OA and more-so, the explanations to this set of questions.

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Akshayestoneage

Reply #729 02:46 AM, 24 Sep '10

RC pg 73 aroraraman Look around you. On the train platform, at the bus stop, in the car pool lane:

these days someone there is

probably faking it,

70-1

71-2

72-1

73-2

74-3

75-4

Interesting Passage.

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aroraraman

Reply #730 03:06 AM, 24 Sep '10

guys pls hv a look at q no. 35 nd 36 in aimcat 1111

why ans is option 2 nt 4 in 35

nd why ans is 4 nt 2 in 36

i knw its so much to expect to read a rc fr just a single q bt

pls if ny one can help

i hv no resource fr discussing VA apart frm pg

q35. less than that meets the eye means that what appears is more than what it actually is.

hype part in 2 relates well with it. opt 4 is more of a reason not an understanding.

q36. it's only asia n europe not rest of the world.

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akansh_1

Reply #731 08:23 AM, 24 Sep '10

RC PG 73

70 - 3

71 - 2

72 - 1

73 - 2

74 - 3

75 - 2

Approx time - 8 mins

Passage A9

1-c

2-b

3-e

4-c

5-a

6-d

7-d

8-a

9-e

Approx Time-17 mins

Most difficult part is after having failed for umpteenth time & still saying,"Best is yet to

come!"

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rahicecream