CAT Verbal Questions - Text Completion

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  1. Child Rearing

    More often than not, mothers are ____________ for oddities of behavior in their offspring. ____________, single mothers’ children, raised even in the most difficult of times, do not display ‘outrageous’ patterns of behavior, as do those of nuclear families.

    1. appreciated, consequently
    2. berated, therefore
    3. praised, in the same manner
    4. blamed, interestingly enough
  2. Treating Depression

    In measuring electrical activity in different parts of the brain, researchers found that people who describe themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal lobe of their brains than do other people. Therefore, a medication for ____________ the left prefrontal lobe of the brain would be an ____________ treatment for clinical depression.

    1. suppressing, ineffective
    2. stimulating, effective
    3. improving, impressive
    4. challenging, practical
  3. Crossed Hands

    Researchers found that when people's hands were crossed to other side of their bodies, it confused the brain by ____________ the processing of information incoming from multiple regions. Lead researcher says the confusion results from a ____________ between the brain's external mapping of where it normally assumes the hands will be (on the appropriate side of the body) and its internal map of the physical source of the new pain information.

    1. quickening, alignment
    2. transmitting, connection
    3. interrupting, misalignment
    4. hindering, alignment
  4. Race, Gender and Religion

    ________around race, gender and religion sometimes seems to have gone beyond ___________ in academic circles. The world would do better if we could all speak with a lighter heart more often about these things.

    1. insensitivity, the pale
    2. sensitivity, parody
    3. sensitivity, the pale
    4. insensitivity, reality
  5. Democracy

    Democracy is better ___________through the ballot box than it is through the crowding of main squares, which is a _______________ image, but a misleading representation of the “people’s will”.

    1. focused, ineffective
    2. affected, moving
    3. effected, powerful
    4. realized, fleeting
  6. Muhmud of Ghazni

    ______________ Muhmud of Ghazni made 17 raids of India, he did not make any_____________effort to capture India. ___________, he may be seen as the founder of Turkish rule in India to the extent that his expeditions opened India to conquest from the north-west.

    1. Because, systemic, therefore
    2. Although, systematic, however
    3. Albeit, repeated, consequently
    4. Even though, systemic, nevertheless
  7. Economic Recovery

    Citing an improvement in exports and government spending, the nation’s central bank has said that an ________economic recovery is under way. However, many economists remain skeptical as to whether the economy is picking up after more than a year of ________ economic growth.

    1. incipient, anaemic
    2. slow, weak
    3. insipient, steady
    4. insipid, astounding
  8. The Hold-Out Problem

    The "hold-out problem” crops up whenever a single buyer has to negotiate in sequence with many sellers for the _________plots of land it needs for, say, a flyover or a factory. Even where sellers are________, the costs of bargaining with them in series can kill a project.

    1. continuous, naive
    2. separate, crafty
    3. abutting, astute
    4. contiguous, less shrewd
  9. Free Speech

    Unfettered free speech is good for humanity. Defending free speech means defending speech you __________________; otherwise it’s just _________________, not principle.

    1. like, dogma
    2. don't like, partisanship
    3. don't like, antipathy
    4. like, candor
  10. Luxury

    The Western culture’s relationship with luxury is ____________ from that in emerging markets.___________ great shows of ostentatious wealth are considered crass in the UK, they are de rigueur in Russia.

    1. strikingly different, however
    2. not different, just as
    3. marginally different, whilst
    4. starkly different, whereas
  11. Stone Tools

    It had long been presumed that stone tool-making was a hallmark of our ______________, Homo. _______________,the recent discovery, in northwestern Kenya, of 3.3-million-year-old stone tools that are 7,00,000 years older than any other such stone tools ever found suggests it was the more ancient human ancestors who made the cognitive leap needed for crafting such implements.

    1. genius, per contra
    2. genius, additionally
    3. genus, after all
    4. genus, however
  12. Sharing Chores

    Even in the____________ Nordic countries, household chores are still not evenly distributed, but at least the language is changing. When a reporter asked a young Swedish father whether he helped with the child care, she was __________________ for asking the wrong question. He did not “help”: he did his share.

    1. elitist, reprimanded
    2. egalitarian, rebuked
    3. prejudiced, admonished
    4. non partisan, condemned
  13. The Romans

    ___________ they gained control of Italy and defeated the Carthaginians, the Romans became the strongest power in the Mediterranean. They greatly benefited from the _____________ nature of Mediterranean politics, oftentimes getting help from local allies to defeat a far-off enemy.

    1. though, fractious
    2. after, facetious
    3. once, factious
    4. since, factitious
  14. The Government Shutdown

    It is __________________ rhetoric that the government "shutdown" was devastating. In actuality only seventeen percent of the federal government was actually shutdown as a result of partisan _______________.

    1. efficacious, discord
    2. specious, disagreement
    3. spurious, comity
    4. facile, agreement
  15. Appreciating Sport

    Connoisseurs ____ sport know an uber moment when they have witnessed one. __________ greatness does not require a quorum, as the stands erupted that Friday on the Centre Court, Wimbledon welcomed with open arms Roger Federer, a player who can turn prose into poetry.

    1. into, since
    2. of, while
    3. in, though
    4. on, now
  16. Concept of Justice

    The belief in _______________justice is the expectation that the universe is designed to ensure that evil is punished and virtue rewarded. _______ being exclusive to traditional societies, these beliefs pervade large-scale modern societies.

    1. immanent, far from
    2. inherent, normally
    3. imminent, besides
    4. eminent, not
  17. The Archaeological Treasures of Paris

    Archaeologists have unearthed 150 skeletons that they think may have been part of a "mass mortality crisis" like Bubonic plague beneath a Paris supermarket. The long-buried mass grave is a reminder that Paris, for all its surface grandeur, is still ___________ with undiscovered archaeological treasures, some grand, others much more __________.

    1. replete, grisly
    2. teeming, grizzly
    3. awash, gristly
    4. tempered, grizzled
  18. Of Borrowers and Lenders

    Shakespeare’s tragedies may have drawn inspiration more from ancient Rome than Greece. Yet, in “Hamlet,” Polonius offers _____________advice: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Greece might have saved the Eurozone some grief had it followed Polonius' __________.

    1. fatuous, caution
    2. germane, council
    3. apposite, counsel
    4. opposite, consul
  19. Religion and Ideology

    Religious belief is fluid and protean, _________ ideology is procrustean, enforcing uniformity. Religion can be syncretic ________ ideology is restrictive.

    1. while, whereas
    2. hence, but
    3. similarly, yet
    4. by contrast, likewise
  20. George Orwell

    One writer who has, for more than half a century, been admired for his searing honesty is George Orwell. He is never ___________, but he is never __________. He says it as it is and yet says it as it has not been said before.

    1. candid, clichéd
    2. recondite, trite
    3. arcane, unorthodox
    4. lucid, singular
  21. Language and Cognition

    The link between language and cognition is a ___________. ___________, the manifest reality of thinking by nonlinguistic creatures argues against the importance of language.

    1. can of worms, ironically
    2. grey area, yet
    3. elephant in the room, nevertheless
    4. red herring, indeed
  22. Childhood


    1. mistake, still
    2. reject, yet
    3. conflate, however
    4. opt, besides
  23. Use of Adjectives in Reporting

    Reporters are ________________ to lending color and emotion to stories. Hence their temptation to _____________ to adjectives. But adjectives convert news into views.

    1. wont, resort
    2. accustomed, revert
    3. loath, recourse
    4. averse, turn
  24. Inflation and Growth Rates

    The argument by the Finance Minister that high inflation is the necessary price for high economic growth is clearly _____________. ______________China has been growing at close to double-digit rates for more than a decade, inflation has been either low or falling through most of these years.

    1. ingenious, while
    2. ingenuous, after all
    3. dissentious, considering
    4. disingenuous, though
  25. Sound Effects in Comics

    Comics are in the peculiar position of needing to ______________ sounds through images, making it the only medium where the audience regularly sees sound instead of hearing it. A comic with the sound effects removed might be a significantly different reading experience, almost as though a central character had been _______________.

    1. evince, purged
    2. imply, excised
    3. convey, revamped
    4. infer, expunged
  26. Covering Up a Shiny Pate

    For as long as men have had access to mirrors, they’ve been fretting about their scalps going ____________. It was a particular obsession of Julius Caesar; the wreath of laurels he wore was less a _____________ to Roman tradition than an attempt at covering up his shiny pate.

    1. barren, bow
    2. barred, blow
    3. bare, nod
    4. bared, note
  27. Cetus

    Cetus is a very large constellation that can be readily recognized from the peculiar ____________ of its _______________ stars.

    1. confirmation, predominant
    2. configuration, principle
    3. composition, prominent
    4. conformation, principal
  28. Massive Agitation

    ________ of protesters joined the agitation and did not heed the repeated requests by the police not to ________ the barricades.

    1. Hordes, breach
    2. Hordes, breech
    3. Hoards, breach
    4. Hoards, breech

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