VA Guide for CAT 2008

[td31]

Originally Posted by medulla

Please help me with the following doubts...

Q2]Which of the following best completes the passage below?
In opposing government regulation of business, conservatives often appeal to the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government, expressing the wish that government would “get off the backs of the American people.” Yet, paradoxically, many of these same conservatives address questions of private morality, such as those dealing with sexual behavior, by calling for______
(A) a return to the restrictive sexual morality of the Victorian era
(B) a strengthening of the role of the family in setting moral norms for society
(C) a limitation on the amount of sexually provocative material appearing in books, motives, and television shows
(D) greater freedom for individuals to choose their own way of handling sexual issues
(E) an increased governmental role in the regulation and control of private sexual behavior


Isn't option E a bit extreme? Control of private sexual behavior is beyond a limit of any government. I feel option C is correct. Anything government can do is control media. Or is it that i have not understood the contextual usage of any statement??


Q4]The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry. Trucks represent only about 10 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads. Yet road use taxes assessed on trucks amount to almost half the taxes paid for highway upkeep and repair.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

(A) The trucking industry has enjoyed record after-tax profits in three of the past four years.
(B) Because of their weight, trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage sustained by highway surfaces each year.
(C) Without an economically viable trucking industry, the cost of goods in the United States would rise significantly.
(D) Road use taxes paid by trucking companies have decreased by 3 percent over the past five years.
(E) Due to years of neglect, U.S. highways today are badly in need of major repairs and rebuilding.

The first statement talks about the burden of maintaining US highway system. Now option 2 strengthens it. So i think the argument which weakens it is A...

Puys... Please give the explanation...

Hi Medulla,

Clarifying your two doubts
In the first query, as you mentioned you have mis-understood the contextual usage
the extract talks about How the conservatives oppose Govt interference in Business.Conservatives also say that "Govt should get off the backs of the American people"

The main point to understand here is the word Paradoxically
What this implies is that even though the conservatives oppose Govt regulation in Business, they call for Govt Role in regulation and control of Private sexual behaviour

U are talking about the Govt ACTUALLY controlling private sexual behaviour and its feasibility , which is not what the passage intends to say


QUERY 2

The argument being made in the sentence is that Trucks are UNFAIRLY paying a lot of taxes for highway upkeep even though they constitute only 10% of the vehicles.
The argument is that Trucks paying so much tax is UNFAIR
So we have to find a statement that weakens the argument and proves a point that trucks paying so much tax is FAIR

option B which says that trucks, because of their weight cause 50% of the damage proves that it is indeed fair to tax the trucks as anyway it is the trucks which cause the most damage to the roads

Hope Its clear

[poojadatta]

Q2]Which of the following best completes the passage below?
In opposing government regulation of business, conservatives often appeal to the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government, expressing the wish that government would "get off the backs of the American people." Yet, paradoxically, many of these same conservatives address questions of private morality, such as those dealing with sexual behavior, by calling for______
(A) a return to the restrictive sexual morality of the Victorian era
(B) a strengthening of the role of the family in setting moral norms for society
(C) a limitation on the amount of sexually provocative material appearing in books, motives, and television shows
(D) greater freedom for individuals to choose their own way of handling sexual issues
(E) an increased governmental role in the regulation and control of private sexual behavior

Hi Medulla
As far as I understood I dn't get the whole meaning of para but my assumption went like this though its crude but it gave me right answer as we are mostly taking about govt role and its participation. one side it is telling "limited government, expressing the wish that government " and pardoxically it is saying "an increased governmental role in the regulation and control of private sexual behavior" so one side it tellin limited govt role and other side it is asking govt to ake role which give a paradoxical statment. Hence E

C cannot be as it does not form a pardoxical sentence.

Q4]The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry. Trucks represent only about 10 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads. Yet road use taxes assessed on trucks amount to almost half the taxes paid for highway upkeep and repair.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

(A) The trucking industry has enjoyed record after-tax profits in three of the past four years.
(B) Because of their weight, trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage sustained by highway surfaces each year.
(C) Without an economically viable trucking industry, the cost of goods in the United States would rise significantly.
(D) Road use taxes paid by trucking companies have decreased by 3 percent over the past five years.
(E) Due to years of neglect, U.S. highways today are badly in need of major repairs and rebuilding.

As the para says that though truck give much of the taxes "almost half the taxes paid for highway " still it does not maintain highway for trucks. By saying "trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage" it says that it will compensate the taxes it gives hence it weaken the main statment.
While A just talk about the definite period. Hence A cannot be answer

[Ambuj Chat]

Hi Pooja,
Let me give u an example, suppose I am standing on in the balcony of my house and I see 10 species of birds flying in the sky. After some time I went in the park and again I see 10 species of birds flying in the sky. Thus from this I can assume that since I have seen 10 species of birds when I was in my house and 10 species of birds when I was in the park so there are lots of birds species in my area.
Here, I am actually assuming that numbers of bird species are increasing in my area as I have seen a total of 20 bird species. But there can be a case that the bird species which I have seen when I was in the house are the same ones that were there flying above the Park.
On the similar lines, the argument states that “the number of bird species seen in and around London has increased dramatically”. Here, the argument is assuming that after air pollution regulation, more and more bird species are sighted in and around London which is a good sign so air pollution regulations should be imposed on other cities. But there can be a case when same species of birds are sighted by people in and around London and they are incorrectly assuming that the Bird species are actually increasing. So (E) is the correct assumption.
Hope I have addressed your doubt

[aky_akshay]

My take:

1. E
2. E
3. C
4. B
5. A

[poojadatta]

Hi Everyone
This thread has helped a lot in VA, so let me contribute something.
Past mocks which I gave I saw sentence correction could have made made one score more, but after talking to few of my friends I found that most of them did not attempt that, I know that was small statastic to make it general but still let me do this. I hope it will be helpful for some.

As per my observation most of the sentence correction are either preposition mis placement or article missing.

So would like to put some basic on them, I know most of you must be knowing it but no harm in revising it. I am posting only which is needful according to me.
Preposition
In: mostly used in two context one for a certain period of time.
e.g In a year(mean certain definite time)
and second when something is inside(moving or rest motion)
e.g Running in a park
into: to move inside something
e.g went into the class room
between: between only for two person
e.g Fight was between that two people
Among: is used for more than two
e.g Fight was among this boys.
From: it states a definite point of time
e.g class will start from monday.
on: is used when you talk about something which is stationary.
He walked on the road.

Aticles
An is used in front of vowels and uncountable noun
A is used in front of the consonants and countable noun.
A is used with the proper noun.
e.g Ram is a shakespeare
A is used with numbers a hunderend....
A is used with uncountable if its preceded by noun
e.g a drop of oil.
A is used to show quantity, a couple, a lot.....
The:
is used to refer thing that is unique(the sun, the moon)
is used to put before adj to refer as whole( the poor, the deaf....)
is used in front of comparative and superlative degree( the most smart,,,,)
is used in front of well know books names, ocean,countries,historical place, mountain,deserts......

Mostly a is the article which missing when it comes to sentence correction.
Hope its useful to some... if not please ignore...
Suggesstion are welcomed...if some one can post the question as I dont' have set of questions with me now.
Correct me if i am wrong

[shivam_01]

Hi Pooja,

Thanks a lot for such a lovely,helping and concise post. I hope u will keep posting such themes and let the process of knowledge sharing flowing...
The post actuallly removed some of my doubts on the use of determiners

but can u elaborate more on the use of use of THE with superlative degree and comparative degrees. Thanks in advance.....

Also thanks for discusssing on the questions on PC.....

keep rocking PG.....

[poojadatta]

Thanks for the response.

Regarding the superlative degree

When you want to specify the person quality specifically you use the

E.g He is the shortest boy in the room.
He is the smartest boy in the class.

That mean no one is as short as him.

Comparative when you want to compare two person,thing, place....

e.g Of the two sisters, She is more beautiful.

Hope I made it clear....correct me if am wrong....

[devils_own]

Originally Posted by poojadatta

Thanks for the response.

Regarding the superlative degree

When you want to specify the person quality specifically you use the

E.g He is the shortest boy in the room.
He is the most smartest boy of all the remaining boys in the class.

That mean no one is as short as him.

Comparative when you want to compare two person,thing, place....

e.g She is the more beautiful of the two sister.

Hope I made it clear....

Hi Pooja...
Let me know if am wrong, but as far as my knowledge goes, the sentence:
"He is the most smartest boy of all the remaining boys in the class."
is incorrect...as smartest in itself is in superlative degree and hence cannot be preceded by 'most'.
The correct sentence would be:
He is the smartest boy in the class. --This sentence not ony compares our boy with the others in his class but also says that he is the smartest.

Please note that one cannot use qualifiers such as more, most etc. with adjectives that are already in the superlative degree.

Of course , while using words that do not have a superlative degree, say for eg: , worse , which is comparitive, you can use more .
Even in the eg: that u have presented:
"She is the more beautiful of the two sister."
the sentence would be grmatically wrong.
The correct one would be : -She is more beautiful than her sister, note the use of "than " when using comparitive degrees. (this is the general case)

Others, please correct me if am wrong.

[poojadatta]

Hi Devils_own

Thanks for pointing out mistake...yup you are right I am wrong...
I meant the same thing but typed wrongly....

And this is what I wanted contribution...even I am not so good in grammer but I wanted people to share there knowledge...Now as you have pointed out my mistake neither will I forget this funda nor the one who is reading this...

Thanks a lot..

I have made changes in main..can you please check it and let me know...

He is the smartest boy in the class.

Hey folks this is an important concept to be remember asked many time in sentence correction as pointed out by devils_own

Please note that one cannot use qualifiers such as more, most etc. with adjectives that are already in the superlative degree.

[devils_own]

Originally Posted by poojadatta

Hi Devils_own

Thanks for pointing out mistake...yup you are right I am wrong...
I meant the same thing but typed wrongly....

And this is what I wanted contribution...even I am not so good in grammer but I wanted people to share there knowledge...Now as you have pointed out my mistake neither will I forget this funda nor the one who is reading this...

Thanks a lot..

I have made changes in main..can you please check it and let me know...

He is the smartest boy of all the remaining boys in the class.
She is the most beautiful of the two sister.
or would it be She is the most beautiful between the two sister.

Hey folks this is an important concept to be remember asked many time in sentence correction as pointed out by devils_own

Please note that one cannot use qualifiers such as more, most etc. with adjectives that are already in the superlative degree.

@pooja:

u yourself think
look at the sentences framed by you below:

He is the smartest boy of all the remaining boys in the class.
-- here, "of all the remaining boys" , is just a repetition , it makes the sentence wordy/verbose...because when u say you are the smartest in the class, it is implicitly understood that you are being compared to the rest of the class.
Hence the correct form wud be:
He is the smartest boy in the class/
he is the smartest of all/
He is smarter than the boys in his class.

She is the most beautiful of the two sister.

Here , again , there are only 2 people-one 'She ' and the other her 'sister'.
Since the sentence involves only 2, "She is more beautiful than her sister" would be appropriate.
or , another way you can put it is:" Of the two sisters, She is more beautiful."

If it were more than 2, say 5, then it would be correct to say,
"Of the 5 sisters, she is the most beautiful"
or, "Among the 5 sisters, she is the most beautiful one."


I hope you are clear now.