CAT 2025 Lesson : Summary - Selecting the Correct Option

The question below contains a paragraph followed by alternative summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the paragraph.

It is a very complicated business to demonstrate the effects of behaviour on long-term survival prospects. In practice, when we apply the definition to real behaviour, we must qualify it with the word 'apparently'. An apparently altruistic act is one that looks, superficially, as if it must tend to make the altruist more likely (however slightly) to die, and the recipient more likely to survive. It often turns on closer inspection that acts of apparent altruism are really selfishness in disguise. I do not mean that the underlying motives are secretly selfish, but that it has a positive effect on survival prospects.

(1) Being altruistic is good for long-term survival even though it seems selfless on the face of it.

(2) People who are altruistic seem unselfish, but they are actually selfish.

(3) It is difficult to predict which behaviour leads to long-term survival, with some like altruism seeming selfish while they aren't.

(4) People who are altruistic are reducing their chance of survival by helping others.

Solution

In this paragraph, we understand that it is difficult to predict what enhances survival. The author given an example of altruism (meaning helping others selflessly) to prove this. The author explains that altruism seems to harm the altruistic person, but it actually enhances survival.

The key message is captured in option (3). Option (1) is factual, but is not the key point, as altruism is only an example to prove the difficulty.

Option (2) is factually incorrect, the examiner is taking the clause acts of apparent altruism are really selfishness in disguise literally.

Option (4) is also factually incorrect, as we know that altruism has a positive effect on survival.

Therefore, option (3) is the correct choice.

Answer: (3) It is difficult to predict which behaviour leads to long-term survival, with some like altruism seeming selfish while they aren't.

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best summarises the author's position.

Since the emergence of commercial aviation, the phenomenon of boarding aircraft has tortured scientists, passengers, and philosophers around the world. The process has challenged the scientific community’s current understanding of entropy, as well as psychology. Using a mock airport terminal, a flight simulator, and hundreds of volunteers equipped with cranial EEG monitors, a research team from UCLA conducted the experiment. In hundreds of trials, flights would be called to board by gate agents over a PA system. Each time, no matter the airline, destination, or volume of the speaker, chaos would ensue upon boarding. Often, semi-coherent lines would form, until a rogue passenger would spontaneously create a new line, causing other passengers to queue haphazardly. Some passengers yelled at the gate agents. Several volunteers, assigned the gate agent role, left the experiment mid-trial because of the unrelenting stress.

(1) An experiment to understand the boarding process in aircraft had to be abandoned mid-trial due to chaos.

(2) The aircraft boarding process invariably leads to chaos, which has been proven in an experiment.

(3) UCLA researchers were unable to find a suitable process for passengers boarding aircraft in an orderly fashion, despite conducting experiments and simulations.

(4) Scientists are yet to find a suitable process for passengers boarding aircraft in an orderly fashion, even mock-simulations lead to chaos.

Solution

The first sentence in the paragraph describes the key fact – aircraft boarding in an orderly manner is almost impossible (we can infer the impossibility as this is a problem which has tortured scientists, passengers, and philosophers around the world). The next sentence bolsters the first. So difficult is this problem, that even experiments lead to chaos, as demonstrated in the remaining sentences.

This is suitably summarised in option (4), which is likely to be the correct choice.

Option (1) can be eliminated, as it some volunteers abandoned the experiment, whereas the option suggests that the experiment itself was stopped.

Option (2) also summarises the issue, but option (4) has more data points. Option (4) mentions scientists. Secondly, the paragraph does not tell us that UCLA researchers conducted the experiment to prove that aircraft boarding process invariably leads to chaos.

Option (3) only talks about UCLA researchers, whereas the paragraph tells us about scientists, passengers, and philosophers around the world. Therefore, option (4) is the correct choice.

Answer: (4) Scientists are yet to find a suitable process for passengers boarding aircraft in an orderly fashion, even mock-simulations lead to chaos.

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best summarises the author's position.

The pillar of consumer culture hardest hit by lockdown and distancing is the city, the epitome of both proximity and mobility. Cities have been the beating heart of modern consumer culture, and their shops, restaurants, and cultural spaces are the crucial arteries for the circulation of goods and experiences. David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, saw that the pursuit of goods, sociability, and urbanization was symbiotic. The pursuit of “modest” luxuries, like porcelain cups or a fashionable dress, he wrote, made people more demanding and creative. In turn, “the more refined arts advance, the more sociable men become.” Their curiosity and taste will make them flock into cities to share their “knowledge … [and] to show their taste in conversation or living, in clothes or furniture.” They will form clubs and societies and seek to contribute to one another’s pleasure and entertainment.

(1) Lockdown and social distancing has hit the city, the Mecca for consumer culture, the hardest.

(2) People living in cities demand goods and experiences, which in turn make artists more creative.

(3) Cities are the pinnacle of consumer culture, with creative products and experiences enhancing each other symbiotically.

(4) Cities have been harmed the most by the pandemic as the lockdown prevents the pursuit of consumer goods and experience.

Solution

In this paragraph, we learn two key points of note – cities contribute to the modern consumer culture, and that they are impacted the most by the lockdown and social distancing.

The author explains how cities impact consumer culture through the citizens' pursuit of goods and luxury products; and through social interaction.

Option (1) has both these key points. Note that Mecca here is used in its idiomatic meaning. If a place is a Mecca for something, it is a place famous or popular for this.

Option (2) does not capture the context properly, and can be eliminated.

Option (3) covers the impact of cities on culture, but not that cities are impacted by the lockdown.

Option (4) covers the lockdown, but not that cities enhance culture.

Therefore, both these options can be eliminated.

Hence, option (1) is the correct choice.

Answer: (1) Lockdown and social distancing has hit the city, the Mecca for consumer culture, the hardest.