XAT 2020 Question Paper | XAT VALR

XAT Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning | XAT 2020 Question Paper

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XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following is a grammatically CORRECT sentence?
1. You had better told her everything, or else you will lose a friend.
2. You had better tell her everything, or else you will lose a friend.
3. You had better told her everything, or else you would lose a friend.
4. You better had tell her everything, or else you would lose a friend.
5. You better had tell her everything, or else you will lose a friend.
Choice B
You had better tell her everything, or else you will lose a friend.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Carefully read the paragraph below:
__________, medicine has been operated by trial and error, in other words, __________. We know by now that there can be entirely_________ connections between symptoms and treatment, and some medications succeed in medical trials for mere random reasons.
From the options below, choose the one that MOST appropriately fills up the blanks.
1. Formerly, randomly, accidental
2. Periodically, logically, arbitrary
3. Traditionally, analytically, casual
4. Historically, arbitrarily, fortuitous
5. Initially, statistically, unexpected
Choice D
Historically, arbitrarily, fortuitous
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Carefully read the paragraph below:
A map is a useful metaphor for our brain when talking about _______ because at its most basic level our brain __________to be our atlas of sorts, a system of routes _______to navigate us toward just one destination: staying alive!
From the options below, choose the set that MOST appropriately fills up the blanks.
1. Understanding, progressed, shaped
2. Comprehension, metamorphosed, designed
3. Connections, changed, molded
4. Design, developed, shaped
5. Perception, evolved, designed
Choice E
Perception, evolved, designed
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following sentences and answer the question that follows:
1. I have good knowledge of German.
2. Except for Rajiv, everybody was there.
3. Whole Delhi was celebrating Independence Day.
4. Neither the dog, nor is the cat responsible for this mess.
5. He knows to swim.
6. I look forward to seeing you.

Which of the above are grammatically INCORRECT?
1. 4,5,6
2. 1,2,5
3. 3,5,6
4. 1,3,5
5. 2,4,6
Choice D
1,3,5
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Go through the statements below and answer the question that follows:
P. Surabhi’s Instagram profile has 1.4 million followers. It is filled with pictures of her posing in different settings.
Q. In India, reports suggest that WhatsApp (Much more than Facebook or Twitter) is the primary tool for the dissemination of political communication.
R. Political campaigns pay social media companies to promote their content.
S. Political advertising on social media comes in many forms and remains underexamined in India.
T. Social media influencers are used for the dissemination of content.

Which of the following combinations is the MOST logically ordered?
1. PRSTQ
2. QRTPS
3. SRQTP
4. QRSTP
5. SQRTP
Choice C
SRQTP

Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:

Once, during a concert of cathedral organ music, as I sat getting gooseflesh amid that tsunami of sound, I was struck with a thought: for a medieval peasant, this must have been the loudest human-made sound they ever experienced, awe-inspiring in now-unimaginable ways. No wonder they signed up for the religion being proffered. And now we are constantly pummeled with sounds that dwarf quaint organs. Once, hunter-gatherers might chance upon honey from a beehive and thus briefly satisfy a hardwired food craving. And now we have hundreds of carefully designed commercial foods that supply a burst of sensation unmatched by some lowly natural food. Once, we had lives that, amid considerable privation, also offered numerous subtle, hard-won pleasures. And now we have drugs that cause spasms of pleasure and dopamine release a thousandfold higher than anything stimulated in our old drug-free world.
An emptiness comes from this combination of over-the-top nonnatural sources of reward and the inevitability of habituation; this is because unnaturally strong explosions of synthetic experience and sensation and pleasure evoke unnaturally strong degrees of habituation. This has two consequences. First, soon we barely notice the fleeting whispers of pleasure caused by leaves in autumn, or by the lingering glance of the right person, or by the promise of reward following a difficult, worthy task. And the other consequence is that we eventually habituate to even those artificial deluges of intensity. If we were designed by engineers, as we consumed more, we’d desire less. But our frequent human tragedy is that the more we consume, the hungrier we get. More and faster and stronger. What was an unexpected pleasure yesterday is what we feel entitled to today, and what won’t be enough tomorrow.

XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following options BEST reflects the author’s understanding of human perception of pleasure?
1. Pleasure comes from whatever we are exposed to for the first time
2. Pleasure comes from what appears to be a valuable discovery or invention
3. Pleasure comes from what we are accustomed to
4. Pleasure comes from what we are deprived of
5. Pleasure comes from what is perceived to be extraordinary
Choice E
Pleasure comes from what is perceived to be extraordinary
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Going by the author, which of the following options BEST answers the question “how can one sustain the pleasure derived from any experience?"
1. Periodic displeasure with synthetic experiences leads to sustaining pleasure
2. Awareness of a habituation moment helps sustain pleasure
3. The closer the experience is to nature, the more sustainable it is
4. Training to appreciate sweet whispers and fleeting moments of joy to sustain pleasure
5. The harder to replicate, the more sustainable the pleasure from that experience
Choice E
The harder to replicate, the more sustainable the pleasure from that experience
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following options BEST describes “emptiness” as described in the passage?
1. A feeling, evoked by the carefully designed commercial foods, alluring us to them
2. The inevitability of habituation that one gets from repeated consumption of manmade foods or drugs
3. A feeling of absence of sources of pleasure when extant sources are in abundance
4. Yearning for newer sources of pleasure when extant sources are in abundance
5. A feeling of weariness around extant sources of pleasure that are in abundance
Choice C
A feeling of absence of sources of pleasure when extant sources are in abundance
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
“People who work in law, hotel and food services, and technology were found the most likely to skip breakfast daily, according to a recent study. As for people who do eat breakfast and prefer a savoury type (like an egg), the study found they tend to make more money, be night owls and prefer cats over dogs. If you prefer a sweet breakfast like a donut you tend to be a morning person, like romcoms and are a dog person”.

Which of the following can be BEST inferred based on the above paragraph?
1. A preference for cats as pets over dogs, usually, is a result of eating eggs for breakfast daily.
2. Among regular breakfast eaters, early risers have more sugar in their breakfast than late risers.
3. IT professionals, who eat eggs for breakfast, are more likely to make more money than their counterparts who eat donuts for breakfast.
4. Lawyers, who eat savory breakfast daily, make more money than those lawyers who have early breakfast daily.
5. Hoteliers who eat regular breakfast are more likely to make more money than those who watch romcoms regularly.
Choice C
IT professionals, who eat eggs for breakfast, are more likely to make more money than their counterparts who eat donuts for breakfast.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Go through the statements below and answer the question that follows:
P. Fast food intake for more than three times a week is associated with greater odds of atopic disorders such as asthma, eczema or rhinitis. Thus, it should be definitely and strictly controlled in children as it does no good.
Q. Regular junk food intake can lead to physical and psychological issues among children.
R. Lack of Vitamins such as A and C, and minerals such as magnesium and calcium, encourage the development of deficiency diseases and osteoporosis, as well as dental caries due to higher intake.
S. Junk food, which are rich in energy with lots of fat and sugar, are relatively low in other important nutrients such as protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals.
T. Emotional and self-esteem problems, along with chronic illnesses in later life due to obesity, are the issues associated with the junk food.

Which of the following combinations is the MOST logically ordered?
1. RSQPT
2. TSQRP
3. QSRTP
4. QRSPT
5. TQSRP
Choice C
QSRTP
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
Global surface temperatures in 2019 are on track to be either the second or third warmest since records began in the mid-1800s, behind only 2016 and possibly 2017. On top of the long-term warming trend, temperatures in 2019 have been buoyed by a moderate El Nino event that is likely to persist through the rest of the year.

Which of the following statements can be BEST inferred based on the above paragraph?
1. Global surface temperatures are increasing at a constant rate for three years.
2. A moderate El Nino event increases temperature more than a weak El Nino event.
3. El Nino event did not affect temperatures in 2016 and 2017.
4. El Nino event causes global surface temperatures to rise in the long-term.
5. The long-term trend of global surface temperatures is unrelated to El Nino.
Choice E
The long-term trend of global surface temperatures is unrelated to El Nino

Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:
It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen. Sure, in the old inefficient socialist states like the Soviet Union, where employment was considered both a right and a sacred duty, the system made up as many jobs as it had to. (This is why in Soviet department stores it took three clerks to sell a piece of meat.) But, of course, this is the very sort of problem market competition is supposed to fix. According to economic theory, at least, the last thing a profit-seeking firm is going to do is shell out money to workers they don’t really need to employ. Still, somehow, it happens. While corporations may engage in ruthless downsizing, the layoffs and speed-ups invariably fall on that class of people who are actually making, moving, fixing, and maintaining things. Through some strange alchemy no one can quite explain, the number of salaried paper pushers ultimately seems to expand, and more and more employees find themselves—not unlike Soviet workers, actually—working forty- or even fifty-hour weeks on paper but effectively working fifteen hours just as Keynes predicted, since the rest of their time is spent organizing or attending motivational seminars, updating their Facebook profiles, or downloading TV box sets. The answer clearly isn’t economic: it’s moral and political. The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger. (Think of what started to happen when this even began to be approximated in the sixties.) And, on the other hand, the feeling that work is a moral value in itself, and that anyone not willing to submit themselves to some kind of intense work discipline for most of their waking hours deserves nothing, is extraordinarily convenient for them.

XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following options, if true, BEST makes the author’s assertion on pointless jobs erroneous?
1. Pointless jobs add less value to the organization than the jobs of those who are making or fixing things.
2. Pointless jobs decrease the efficiency of the organization since they replace those who are making, fixing and moving things.
3. Workers who carry out pointless jobs are more loyal to the organization than others.
4. Even though the rate of increase in pointless jobs is higher, their absolute number on an average is lower than that of meaningful jobs.
5. Organizations with a higher number of pointless jobs are more profitable than those with less.
Choice E
Organizations with a higher number of pointless jobs are more profitable than those with less.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following can be BEST inferred from the passage?
1. Keeping people employed for longer hours serves the plans of the ruling class.
2. The ruling class abhors leisure so much that they encourage organizations to create unwanted jobs.
3. Pointless jobs are here to stay, regardless of whether they are necessary or not.
4. Work as a moral right is the design of the ruling class to cut down on leisure.
5. For political reasons, profit-making firms sometimes indulge in non-profitable decisions.
Choice A
Keeping people employed for longer hours serves the plans of the ruling class.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following statements will BEST explain the principle underlying the theme of the passage?
1. Keynes predicted that a happy and productive workforce is a force for the good.
2. People unwilling to submit to an intense work discipline deserve nothing.
3. Organizations that create more jobs are rewarded by the government for protecting political values.
4. Peace and order in society require humans to be engaged in some activity most of the time, regardless of its meaninglessness.
5. Work is a moral value in itself
Choice D
Peace and order in society require humans to be engaged in some activity most of the time, regardless of its meaninglessness.

Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:
There is nothing spectacularly new in the situation. Most old-societies-turned-young-nation states learn to live in a world dominated by the psychology and culture of exile. For some, the twentieth century has been a century of refugees. Others like Hannah Arendt have identified refugees as virtually a new species of human being who have come to symbolize the distinctive violence of our time. Refugees as contemporary symbols, however, proclaim something more than a pathology of a global nation-state system. They also represent a state of mind, a form of psychological displacement that has become endemic to modernizing societies. One does not even have to cross national frontiers to become a refugee; one can choose to be seduced by the ‘pull’ of self-induced displacement rather than be ‘pushed’ by an oppressive or violent system at home. It is this changed status of territoriality in human life that explains why, in immigrant societies like the United States, the metaphor of exile is now jaded. Some have already begun to argue that human beings need not have a ‘home’ as it has been traditionally understood in large parts of the world, that the idea itself is a red herring. While the idea of exile begins to appear trite in intellectual circles, an increasingly large proportion of the world is getting reconciled to living with the labile sense of self. Exile no longer seems a pathology or an affliction. Displacement and the psychology of exile are in; cultural continuities and settled communities are out; there is a touch of ennui about them.

XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following options is CLOSEST to the meaning of the phrase “labile sense of self”?
1. Humans are not meant to be shunted around.
2. The self does not belong to a particular geography.
3. Geography does not imprison the self.
4. The self adapts to a new geography.
5. History does not confine the self.
Choice D
The self adapts to a new geography.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Based on the passage, which of the following will the author DISAGREE the MOST with?
1. Intellectuals find the notion of exile irrelevant.
2. Being a refugee is a state of mind.
3. Refugees symbolize exploitation and abuse of our times.
4. A feeling of alienation in modernizing societies is a common phenomenon.
5. One does not have to cross frontiers to become a refugee.
Choice C
Refugees symbolize exploitation and abuse of our times.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Project Affected Families (PAF) are those that are physically displaced due to construction of a large project (dam, factory etc.) in an area where the PAF traditionally resided.
With insights from the passage, what would a project proponent, dealing with PAF, reading the following options agree the MOST with?
1. Don’t worry about PAF, they will eventually resettle and rehabilitate.
2. Emotional estrangement of PAF is not an area of concern.
3. PAF as a concept is irrelevant since human displacement is a historical phenomenon.
4. Industry and government should care equally about profits and people.
5. PAF do not have a labile sense of self.
Choice B
Emotional estrangement of PAF is not an area of concern.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
When asked what the politician will do for the nation’s economy, he attacked the opponent by saying, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious? Nevertheless, we’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS.”

Which of the following statements BEST describes the politician’s intent?
1. To divert attention towards ISIS as compared to the economy
2. To appeal to the macho voters and use fear as a tool to lure voters
3. To make an emotional appeal to the voters
4. To digress and argue that security is more important than economy
5. To make a sexist remark and share his concern about an important issue
Choice C
To make an emotional appeal to the voters

Read the poem below and answer the 2 associated questions:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But, if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following statements will the poet agree with the MOST?
1. Desire overpowers hatred to control humans.
2. Greed can destroy one’s world.
3. Ambition is more powerful than envy.
4. Both desire and hate can create self-doubt.
5. Hatred destroys what desire cannot.
Choice B
Greed can destroy one’s world.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which is the MOST UNSUITABLE title of the poem?
1. Love and Detest- A Tale of Destruction
2. The Annihilation Hypothesis
3. Emotional Destruction of the World
4. Destruction by Fire and Ice
5. How the World Ends
Choice C
Emotional Destruction of the World
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
In Australia, jellyfish are most common between November and May. In Hawaii, jellyfish often show up on south-facing beaches eight days after a full moon. In the Mediterranean, blooms usually appear in the summer. Unfortunately for travellers, there is no worldwide database for recent jellyfish sightings, and tourism officials are sometimes reluctant to publicize jellyfish swarms out of fear that such news will scare off visitors.

Which of the following can be BEST concluded from the above paragraph?
1. Celestial bodies have an influence on jellyfish sightings.
2. Seasonal variations in the marine temperature impact jellyfish sightings.
3. Economic interests influence security advisories.
4. Tourism officials hide the truth about jellyfish sightings.
5. Tourists visiting north-facing beaches in Hawaii do not spot jellyfish.
Choice A
Celestial bodies have an influence on jellyfish sightings.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
In a 2017 survey of 3,915 American workers, my colleagues and I found that workers report experiencing a sizable “voice gap” at work — that is, a gap between how much say or influence they feel they ought to have and how much they actually have — on topics such as wages, working conditions, fair treatment, and input into how they do their work. And now a second study, I have just completed with a new team, finds that today’s workers want forms of voice and representation that go well beyond traditional unions.

Based on the above paragraph, which of the following options would you agree with the MOST?
1. The first study shows the frustration of the American workers and the second study shows the inability of unions in addressing them.
2. The first study highlights the existence of the problem and the second study highlights the need for new ways of solving it.
3. The first study defines the concept and the second study uses the concept in a specific context.
4. The first study shows the intensity of the problem and the second study shows limitations of the existing solutions.
5. The first study focuses on the need for fair representation and the second study discusses forms of representation.
Choice B
The first study highlights the existence of the problem and the second study highlights the need for new ways of solving it.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
If we can send a human to the Moon, why can’t we build sustainable cities? Defeat cancer? Tackle climate change? So, go the rallying cries inspired by one of humanity’s greatest achievements, the US effort that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on 20 July 1969.

Which of the following statements, if true, BEST communicates the intent of the paragraph?
1. America’s moonshot was more about race to the moon and less about solving problems.
2. America’s moonshot initiative was mainly a response to USSR’s competing initiative.
3. The complexity of developing sustainable cities and curing cancer is far more than sending a human to the moon.
4. The reason we celebrate 1969 moonshot is precisely because nothing significant has been done in that domain since then.
5. Moonshot has a definitive ownership, whereas creating sustainable cities and curing cancer are public-good problems.
Choice C
The complexity of developing sustainable cities and curing cancer is far more than sending a human to the moon.

Comprehension: Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:

The nature of knowledge cannot survive unchanged within this context of general transformation. It can fit into the new channels, and become operational, only if learning is translated into quantities of information. We can predict that anything in the constituted body of knowledge that is not translatable in this way will be abandoned and that the direction of new research will be dictated by the possibility of its eventual results being translatable into computer language. The “producers” and users of knowledge must know, and will have to, possess the means of translating into these languages whatever they want to invent or learn. Research on translating machines is already well advanced. Along with the hegemony of computers comes a certain logic, and therefore a certain set of prescriptions determining which statements are accepted as “knowledge” statements. We may thus expect a thorough exteriorisation of knowledge with respect to the “knower,” at whatever point he or she may occupy in the knowledge process. The old principle that the acquisition of knowledge is indissociable from the training (Bildung) of minds, or even of individuals, is becoming obsolete and will become ever more so. The relationships of the suppliers and users of knowledge to the knowledge they supply and use is now tending, and will increasingly tend, to assume the form already taken by the relationship of commodity producers and consumers to the commodities they produce and consume – that is, the form of value. Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange. Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself, it loses its “use-value.”

XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following statements BEST captures the essence of the passage?
1. Knowledge shall no longer be evaluated by its truth but its commercial value.
2. Translation of knowledge into machine language exteriorises it.
3. Market forces have taken over the process of knowledge production.
4. Suppliers and users of knowledge have become its producers and consumers.
5. Knowledge shall be exclusively produced to be sold.
Choice A
Knowledge shall no longer be evaluated by its truth but its commercial value.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Based on the passage, which of the following statements can be BEST inferred?
1. Knowledge as a transactional commodity is indispensable to productive power.
2. Mental discipline is not necessary for learning anymore.
3. The locus of creation and accumulation of knowledge has shifted.
4. Acquisition of knowledge need no longer transform its recipient.
5. For knowledge to acquire an exchange-value, it should cease to have a use-value.
Choice D
Acquisition of knowledge need no longer transform its recipient.
XAT 2020 Question Paper - VALR

Which of the following options will the author agree the MOST with?
1. To get promoted, an unempathetic manager can learn to display empathy.
2. To teach poetry, one must not be a poet.
3. A daughter of a lawyer must become a lawyer.
4. MBA program has a high exchange-value but zero use-value.
5. A person with no passion for singing, if trained, will sing perfectly.
Choice A
To get promoted, an unempathetic manager can learn to display empathy.