XAT 2025 Question Paper | Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning

XAT Previous Year Paper | XAT VALR Questions | Question 24

The best questions to practice for XAT Exam are the actual XAT Question Papers. 2IIM offers you exactly that, in a student friendly format to take value from this. If you would like to take the actual CAT papers inside a testing engine (for Free) head out here: CAT Official Question Mocks. In XAT 2025 we saw some beautiful questions that laid emphasis on Learning ideas from basics and being able to comprehend more than remembering gazillion formulae and shortcuts. Original XAT Question paper is the best place to start off your XAT prep practice. This page provides exactly that. To check out about 1000 CAT Level questions with detailed video solutions for free, go here: CAT Question Bank

Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.

You may laugh at a hat, but what you are making fun of, in this case, is not the piece of felt or straw, but the shape that men have given it, -- the human caprice whose mould it has assumed. It is strange that so important a fact, and such a simple one too, has not attracted to a greater degree the attention of philosophers. Several have defined man as "an animal which laughs." They might equally well have defined him as an animal which is laughed at; for if any other animal, or some lifeless object, produces the same effect, it is always because of some resemblance to man, of the stamp he gives it or the use he puts it to.
Here I would point out, as a symptom equally worthy of notice, the ABSENCE OF FEELING which usually accompanies laughter. It seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled. Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance, or even with affection, but in such a case we must, for the moment, put our affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity. In a society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no more tears, though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter. Try, for a moment, to become interested in everything that is being said and done; act, in imagination, with those who act, and feel with those who feel; in a word, give your sympathy its widest expansion: as though at the touch of a fairy wand you will see the flimsiest of objects assume importance, and a gloomy hue spread over everything. Now step aside, look upon life as a disinterested spectator: many a drama will turn into a comedy. It is enough for us to stop our ears to the sound of music, in a room where dancing is going on, for the dancers at once to appear ridiculous. How many human actions would stand a similar test? Should we not see many of them suddenly pass from grave to gay, on isolating them from the accompanying music of sentiment? To produce the whole of its effect, then, the comic demands something like a momentary anesthesia of the heart. Its appeal is to intelligence, pure and simple.

What does the author BEST mean when they say, โ€œit seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled?โ€

  1. Unless one is emotionally detached from the event, it is impossible to appreciate a comical view.
  2. To appreciate humour with an unsettling tone, people benefit from being in a calm state.
  3. Comics are the most effective when the audience is unaware of the context.
  4. Comical behaviour disturbs those more deeply whose minds are calm and composed.
  5. Relaxed people tend to find edgy or disturbing comedy funnier.

Best CAT Online Coaching
Try upto 40 hours for free
Learn from the best!


2IIM : Best Online CAT Coaching.

Best CAT Coaching in Chennai


CAT Coaching in Chennai - CAT 2022
Limited Seats Available - Register Now!


Explanatory Answer

Coming Soon...


The answer is 'Unless one is emotionally detached from the event, it is impossible to appreciate a comical view.'

Choice A is the correct answer.

CAT Questions | CAT Quantitative Aptitude

CAT Questions | Verbal Ability for CAT


Where is 2IIM located?

2IIM Online CAT Coaching
A Fermat Education Initiative,
58/16, Indira Gandhi Street,
Kaveri Rangan Nagar, Saligramam, Chennai 600 093

How to reach 2IIM?

Mobile: (91) 99626 48484 / 94459 38484
WhatsApp: WhatsApp Now
Email: info@2iim.com