After successfully completing the CAT 2016 sprint series and the SNAP 2016 sprint series, we are back with the XAT 2017 sprint preparation series – Verbal 7 to boost your prep. This series will consist of 10 sets of questions from past year XAT papers, leading to XAT 2017 and covered almost all the question types that you needed to know come the 8th of January.
XAT 2017 sprint preparation series – Verbal 7
Read the following passage and provide appropriate answers for the questions 1-4
The idea of demarcating certain areas within the country as special economic zones to promote investment and growth is not new. A large country unable to provide the kind of facilities and environment that can attract foreign investment throughout the country often finds it feasible and attractive to carve up some of its areas where such facilities can be provided. The laws and procedures for setting up new industries are waived to make the area business-friendly with developed infrastructure and a one-window interaction with government. In addition, huge tax benefits are promised to lure investors. China’s experience shows that if chalked out and implemented with care such a policy can accelerate the flow of capital and technology from abroad and thereby speed up growth.
However, SEZs may not be the best option in all situations to clear the bottlenecks in growth.
India’s experience with export processing zones (EPZs) bears this out. They have failed in India for the simple reason that the factors that made the SEZs successful in China have been absent here. In India, as in China, EPZs were thought of as a way of providing an escape route from the stranglehold of control that prevailed over the Indian economy. But even while promising to ease the rigours of controls, Indian policy-makers could not give up their penchant for micromanaging from the centre and undoing the promised relaxations with all kinds of qualifications and “guidelines”.
Over last two decades India has evolved into a market economy and much of governmental control has disappeared, but the flow of foreign direct investment has not reached anywhere near the levels of China.
Besides, infrastructure building has fallen far short of what is required. Even after three years of the enactment of the Electricity Act (2003), private investment in electricity generation is still a trickle with the states refusing to give up the monopoly of their electricity boards in the matter of purchase of the power generated. While swearing by growth, governments at both the centre and the states cite the fiscal responsibility laws to plead their helplessness in making the required investments to improve infrastructure.
Given the situation, the SEZs have apparently been thought of as a simple way out. In its enthusiasm for SEZs the commerce ministry forgot two critical lessons of the Chinese experience, viz., that an SEZ must be of an adequate size to provide opportunities for reaping the benefits of large-scale operations and their number should be few. Every industry or economic activity worth its name is now seeking SEZ status. Proposals are now being floated to invite foreign educational institutions to come to India with promises of SEZ treatment! The finance ministry apprehends a loss of nearly Rs. 1,75,000 crore in direct taxes, customs duties and excise duties over the next five years.
1.The objective of the author in writing the above passage seems to be to
A.highlight the failure of Indian policy makers regarding EPZs
B.narrate the pros and cons of SEZs
C.compare between the Indian EPZs and Chinese
D.oppose the proliferation of SEZs in India
E.argue that India should imitate the Chinese policies regarding SEZs
2.The author’s arguments suggest the following conclusions, except
A.SEZs may be the best option for countries unable to provide infrastructure and business environment to attract foreign direct investment
B.SEZs must be large enough to house large scale operations
C.fiscal responsibility laws actually limit the investment on infrastructure by the Government of India
D.government of India must limit the number of SEZs
E.SEZs cause loss of tax revenue for the central Government
3.The author does not oppose
A.SEZ treatment of foreign educational institutes in India
B.qualifiers undoing relaxation of government control
C.tax benefits to strategically promote SEZs
D.monopoly of state electricity boards in power purchase
E.lack of Government initiative in infrastructure development
4.The passage was most likely written in the year:
A.1991
B. 2001
C. 2003
D. 2006
E. 2011
Read the following passage and provide appropriate answers for the questions 5 – 6.
This is one of the unanswered questions that I want to explore. I believe that this is certainly one of the deeper questions about technology. Why do I say so? Without evolution technologies seem to be born independently and improve independently. Each must come from some unexplained mental process, some form of creativity or thinking outside the box that brings it into existence and separately develops it. With evolution, new technologies would be birthed in some precise way from previous ones, albeit with considerable mid-wifing, and develop though some understood process of adaptation. In other words, if we could understand evolution, we could understand the most precious of processes: innovation. But, let me define evolution before I proceed further. The word evolution has two general meanings. One is the gradual development of something, as with the evolution of ballet or the English madrigal. The other is the process by which all objects of some class are related by ties of common descent from the collection of earlier objects. The latter is what I mean by evolution.
5.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
1.The author’s main concern is to develop a theory of innovation.
2.The author is interested in putting forth a theory of technological evolution
3.The author believes before developing a theory of technological evolution, one needs to investigated whether technology evolves at all
4.Evolution, as the author puts it, is a sense of common relatedness.
A. 1 and 2
B. 1 and 4
C. 2 and 4
D. 1 , 2 and 3
E.All the above statements
6.
1.In 1867 , S.Colum Gilfillan, a sociologist traced the evolution of ships from the dugout canoe to the modern steamship of the day.
2.Many theories propose the existence of a technology in many From these variations, some perform better and are selected for further use and development.
3.Till date the people who have thought hardest about the general questions of technology have only been social They have viewed technology from the outside as stand- alone objects without studying earlier technologies.
4.Some technologies, for example, the laser, the jet engine, the radar, the quick sort algorithm and the locomotive just appear, or at least they seem to just appear unlike novel biological species which are versions of earlier objects
5.Radar descends from radio but you can vary 1930s radio circuits as radically you like but you will never get Radar requires a different principle.
Assuming the above statements are true, which option would most strengthen the author’s premise that the question that he has identified has not been solved as yet?
A.I and III
B. II and III
C.I, III and IV
D.II, V and III
E.IV, V and III
7.Choose the most appropriate option after reading the following statements.
1.Whether due to haste or design, the new laws are marked by vagueness, leaving officials all down the organization’s bureaucratic chain great latitude in enforcing them.
2.The opacity of the language leaves the law open to manipulation on political grounds.
A.Statement 2 can be induced from statement 1
B.Statement 1 can be induced from statement 2
C.Statement 2 can be deduced from statement 1
D.Statement 1 can be deduced from statement 2
E.Statement 1 and 2 are independent
8.Choose the most appropriate option after reading the following statements.
1.If there is any endeavor whose fruits should be freely available, that endeavor is surely publicly financed science
2.There is a widespread feeling that the journal publishers who have mediated the scientific exchange for the past century or more are becoming an impediment to free distribution of knowledge
3.Internet revolution is happening, making knowledge transfer cheaper. Technology permits it; researchers and politicians want it, more public money can be spent on it.
A.Statement 2 definitely illustrates statement 1
B.Statement 3 is a facilitating condition for statement 1
C.Statement 3 states a condition under which statement 1 would be invalid
D.Statement 2 can be deduced from statement 3 but independent of Statement 1
E.Statement 1, 2 and 3 are necessarily independent
9.Choose the most appropriate option after reading the following statements.
1.Business schools are ideally positioned to point out when an action that provides a benefit for an individual comes at a cost to society, but in reality they rarely bother
2.It is part of the malaise that has befallen the political debate on capitalism, which has been taken over by special interest and people who have no faith in a real market-based system
3.When governments favours the private sector it is all too often by being ”pro-business” rather than ”pro-market”, meaning that favourable conditions are provided to particular institutions rather than to institutions broadly
A.Statements 1 and 2 are necessarily dependent
B.Statements 2 and 3 are necessarily dependent
C.Statements 2 and 3 may be dependent
D.Statements 1, 2 and 3 cannot be independent
E.All the three statements are necessarily independent
Directions for questions 10 . Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate option that follows.
10.____________ wolf, meeting with _________ lamb astray from__________ fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to _________ lamb ____________ wolfs right to eat him.
A.a, a, the, the, the
B.the, a, the, a, the
C.a, a, a, the, the
D.the, the, the, the, the
E.the, a, the, a, a
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