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1. "

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

In 2002, the cognitive scientist Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University won the Nobel Prize in Economics for work done with his longtime collaborator Amos Tversky (who died in 1996). Their work had to do with judgement and decision-making—what makes our thoughts and actions rational or irrational. They explored how people make choices and assess probabilities, and uncovered basic errors that are typical in decision-making.

The thinking errors they uncovered are not trivial mistakes in a parlor game. To be rational means to adopt appropriate goals, take the appropriate action given one's goals and beliefs, and hold beliefs that are commensurate with available evidence. It means achieving one's life goals using the best means possible. To violate the thinking rules examined by Kahneman and Tversky thus has the practical consequence that we are less satisfied with our lives than we might be. Research conducted in my own laboratory has indicated that there are systematic individual differences in the judgement and decision-making skills that Kahneman and Tversky studied.

Ironically, the Nobel Prize was awarded for studies of cognitive characteristics that are entirely missing from the most well-known mental assessment device in the behavioral sciences: intelligence tests. Scientists and laypeople alike tend to agree that “good thinking” encompasses sound judgment and decision-making – the type of thinking that helps us achieve our goals. Yet assessments of such good (rational) thinking are nowhere to be found on IQ tests.

Intelligence tests measure important things, but they do not assess the extent of rational thought. This might not be such a grave omission if intelligence were a strong predictor of rational thinking. But my research group found just the opposite: it is a mild predictor at best, and some rational thinking skills are totally dissociated from intelligence.

To an important degree, intelligence tests determine the academic and professional careers of millions of people in many countries. Children are given intelligence tests to determine eligibility for admission to school programs for the gifted. Corporations and the military depend on assessment and sorting devices that are little more than disguised intelligence tests.

Perhaps some of this attention to intelligence is necessary, but what is not warranted is the tendency to ignore cognitive capacities that are at least equally important: the capacities that sustain rational thought and action.

Critics of intelligence tests have long pointed out that the tests ignore important parts of mental life, mainly noncognitive domains such as socio-emotional abilities, empathy, and interpersonal skills. But intelligence tests are also radically incomplete as measures of cognitive functioning, which is evident from the simple fact that many people display a systematic inability to think or behave rationally despite having a more than adequate IQ. For a variety of reasons, we have come to overvalue the kinds of thinking skills that intelligence tests measure and undervalue other important cognitive skills, such as the ability to think rationally.

Psychologists have studied the major classes of thinking errors that make people less than rational. They have studied people's tendencies to show incoherent probability assessments; to be overconfident in knowledge judgments; to ignore the alternative hypothesis; to evaluate evidence with a “my side” bias; to show inconsistent preferences because of framing effects; to over-weigh short-term rewards at the expense of long term well-being; to allow decisions to be affected by irrelevant context; and many others.

All of these categories of failure of rational judgment and decision-making are very imperfectly correlated with intelligence—meaning that IQ tests tend not to capture individual differences in rational thought. Intelligence tests measure mental skills that have been studied for a long time, whereas psychologists have only recently had the tools to measure the tendencies toward rational and irrational thinking. Nevertheless, recent progress in the cognitive science of rational thought suggests that nothing—save for money—would stop us from constructing an “RQ” test.

Such a test might prove highly useful. Suboptimal investment decisions have, for example, been linked to overconfidence in knowledge judgments, the tendency to over-explain chance events, and the tendency to substitute affective valence for thought. Errors in medical and legal decision-making have also been linked to specific irrational thinking tendencies that psychologists have studied.

There are strategies and environmental fixes for the thinking errors that occur in all of these domains. But it is important to realize that these thinking errors are more related to rationality than intelligence. They would be reduced if schools, businesses, and government focused on the parts of cognition that intelligence tests miss. Instead, these institutions still devote far more attention and resources to intelligence than to teaching people how to think in order to reach their goals. It is as if intelligence has become totemic in our culture. But what we should really be pursuing is development of the reasoning strategies that could substantially increase human wellbeing.

According to the passage, which of the following is an example of thinking errors uncovered by psychologists?

Big mistakes committed in a parlour game.

Consistent probability assessments.

Confidence in one's knowledge.

Evaluation of alternative hypothesis.

None of these.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

The thesis put forward by the author in defence of Daniel Kahneman would be less supportable if which of the following was true?

Success of rational judgments is imperfectly correlated with intelligence.

A reliable test to measure rational decision making skills cannot be constructed.

If institutions and government devoted more funds and attention to the development of intelligence.

Failure of rational judgments is imperfectly correlated with intelligence.

None of these.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

The passage supports which of the following inferences? A. People are less satisfied with their lives than they need to be. B. IQ tests do not provide an accurate measure of one's intelligence. C. It is not possible to design a test that would accurately measure one's decision making skills. D. For activities such as research and management high IQ scores are not very relevant. E. A person with more than adequate IQ is likely to be overconfident in knowledge judgments.

A only

A and C

C only

B, C, and D

None of the above

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

Choose the most suitable title for the passage.

Cognition and Psychometrics.

Judgment under Uncertainty.

Psychological Science.

Rationality and Intelligence.

Sensibility versus Intelligence.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words are given bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions.

According to the passage, intelligence tests at their best... A. are measures of cognitive functioning. B. ignore important cognitive capacities. C. are incomplete measures of one's intelligence. D. ignore one's suitability for academic and professional careers. E. are poor indicators of the capacity for right action.

A, B, and E

A, C, and D

B, D, and E

B and E

A and C

Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Indira Gandhi's 100th birth anniversary is coming up on 19 November. Her long and eventful stint as India's prime minister—barring a three-year gap between 1977 and 1980, she served continuously from 1966- 84—has ensured that a lot of current debates continue to be informed by her policy choices. But any attempt at a dispassionate analysis of Gandhi's legacy is immensely difficult given the polarizing figure that she was. The highs of the 1971 military victory over Pakistan have to be reconciled with the lows of the Emergency. ________________________________________________________

The Allahabad high court verdict which nullified her election to Parliament was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Even Lal Bahadur Shastri—Gandhi's immediate predecessor—had realized the need for liberalization to overcome the chronic shortages that the Indian economy was constantly dealing with.

Her various other moves like bank nationalization and Operation Blue Star continue to evoke strong views.

The move was met with a strong domestic backlash.

Her centralized political administration increased the frequency and magnitude of, and therefore the fiscal costs of handling, regional turbulences.

Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Redeeming a gift voucher at a neighbourhood store is a familiar transaction; a digital coupon is a slight tweak. Even new smartphone users—regardless of age or literacy—won't leave money on the table at their grocer. Besides, digital payments have already become so simple in India that small retailers who don't accept cards can also very easily redeem QRcode-based vouchers. Alphabet Inc.'s Google has pioneered an audio-QR-based payment mechanism for India that rides on instant person-to-person or person-to-merchant payments. _________________________________

The payday Amazon and its homegrown rival, Flipkart, are waiting for will come after new users' buying habits change.

It's reasonable to expect that Indians' familiarity with digital payments will grow more quickly than their penchant for online shopping.

As Ambani rolls out his strategy, expect the current two-way battle between Amazon and Flipkart to turn into a three-horse race.

So long as the discounts come from brands, the cost of such an e-commerce push is also going to be more manageable than for pure-play digital marketplaces.

India has 432 million internet users, but only 60 million online shoppers.

Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

South India has always been highly dependent on the monsoon, which is uncertain and risky. Over the past few decades, the south-west monsoon has become unpredictable and has reduced in intensity. What does this mean for the Cauvery? _______________________________________________. In good years, when the river receives enough rainfall, there is no discord between the two States. In bad years, like the one we are facing now, it turns into a gargantuan political crisis. Unfortunately, the number of bad years is only going to worsen.

We need to pay attention to land use at the regional level.

Despite warnings from environmentalist groups and farmer coalitions, and interventions by the court, this practice continues unchecked.

Rapid urbanisation has converted fertile agriculture, forests and wetlands into concreted areas that are unable to retain rainwater or channel them into tributary streams that feed the Cauvery.

Siltation in dams and connecting river channels has reached alarming proportions.

The amount of water the river receives during the summer rains is becoming increasingly unreliable.

Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

What's been the policy response so far? One of jawdropping inefficiency and political bickering. ______________________________________________. On the one hand, paddy farmers in neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, having harvested the rice, start burning the leftover stubble in order to prepare the farms for winter sowing. At the same time, asclimate scientist Krishna Achuta Rao writes in a recent article, “Like Los Angeles and Mexico City, Delhiites are cursed by geography to be prone to a meteorological phenomenon called inversion where warm air rests above the colder air closer to the ground, preventing it from mixing upwards, thereby trapping all that we put into it—almost like a lid.”

In Delhi, air pollution is seasonal: with the onset of the winter, two things happen.

This is an annual affair, but the policy response has been marked by a complete lack of preparedness.

Delhiites are a beleaguered lot and a degree of resignation characterizes the popular response to this health crisis.

Yet, pollution masks are now far more ubiquitous than they were a year ago.

That Delhi's air is among the foulest is well known—it's close to being declared a hardship assignment for foreign diplomats.

10.

Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which one sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Despite this evidence, and given the scale of the challenge of delivering quality education for all, governments have progressively looked to the private sector for support. However, mechanisms to track the quality of education in private schools have historically tended to be weak or absent, even in developed countries. _____________________. The report concluded that “overseeing private schools may be no easier than providing quality schooling” and that “governments may deem it more straightforward to provide quality education than to regulate a disparate collection that may not have the same objectives”.

Data for relatively richer countries also shows that systems with low levels of competition have higher social inclusion and that upward social mobility is higher in government systems.

Private schools appear better since they enroll children from relatively advantaged backgrounds who are able to pay, not because they deliver better quality.

The long-term solution lies in strengthening the public education system in its complexity and ensuring that all of India's children receive quality education.

Building this regulatory capacity requires significant financial and human resource investments.

The road to reform is fraught with challenges but the cost of inaction will be much higher.

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