08.03.16

https://www.facebook.com/events/659346777537471/

TITA

1. (A) I doubt that anyone would seriously consider unfairness,
deceit, baseness, uselessness, mediocrity or degeneration to be a
solid foundation for lasting happiness and success.

(B) One way to quickly grasp the self-evident nature of principles is
to simply consider the absurdity of attempting to live an effective
life based on their opposites.

(C) Principles are not values: a gang of thieves can share values, but
they are in violation of the fundamental principles we're talking
about.

(D) They are essentially unarguable because they are self-evident.

(E) Fundamental principles are guidelines for human conduct that are
proven to have enduring, permanent value.


TITA

2. (A) If you were to show an engine or a mechanical drawing or
electronic schematic to a romantic it is unlikely he would see much of
interest in it.

(B) But if you were to show the same blueprint of schematic or give
the same description to a classical person he might look at it and
then become fascinated by it because he sees that within the lines and
shapes and symbols is a tremendous richness of underlying form.

(C) It has no appeal because the reality he sees is its surface. Dull,
complex lists of names, lines and numbers. Nothing interesting.

(D) A classical understanding sees the world primarily as underlying
form itself. A romantic understanding sees it primarily in terms of
immediate appearance.

(E) To summarize, the romantic mode is primarily inspirational,
imaginative, creative, intuitive where feelings rather than facts
predominate, the classic mode, by contrast, proceeds by reason and by
laws – which are themselves underlying forms of thought and behaviour.

(F) Human understanding can be divided into two kinds – classical
understanding and romantic understanding.



3.OMO
a)
A well branded and marketed business will lend itself more readily to
franchising and because many entrepreneurs seek out franchise
opportunities to leverage the equity of an established brand it is
important to create and refine branding before bringing franchisees on
board.
b)
If you own a franchise then branding is a strategic tool to attract
franchisees and expand the business.
c)
Considering branding at an early stage will also give you the
opportunity to establish structures and systems for the successful
implementation and management of branding as the franchise expands.
d)
By creating their own ad formats and marketing materials that deviate
from company branding they can undermine the value of the very brand
that attracted them to buy into the business in the first place.

4. OMO
a)
William Shakespeare was throughout his life greatly indebted to the
patronage and support of royal and noble personages; his royal patrons
were Queen Elizabeth and King James I, both of whom greatly loved the
drama.
b)
Shakespeare lived during a remarkable period of English history, a
time of relative political stability that followed and preceded eras
of extensive upheaval.
c)
Shakespeare was ardently attracted to Elizabeth and her Court, and
proved a faithful servant to his royal mistress and the first evidence
of this is in his fine eulogy of the virgin queen as "a fair vestal
throned by the west" in that most sweetly poetical early drama, A
Midsummer-Night's Dream.
d)
The virgin queen devoted herself to the study of the ancient classical
period, translating some of the tragedies of Euripides from the
original Greek for her amusement, using her influence in the progress
of the English drama, and fostering the inimitable genius of
Shakespeare.


5. OMO

a)
Rewards and punishments came down the hierarchy to the individual, so
that the individual, habitually looking upward at the next rung of the
hierarchical ladder, became conditioned to subservience.
b)
Thus: the wishy-washy organization man – the man without personal
convictions (or without the courage to make them evident). It paid to
conform.
c)
Three of the outstanding characteristics of bureaucracy were, as we
have seen, permanence, hierarchy, and a division of labor.

d)
Power-laden hierarchies, through which authority flowed, wielded the
whip by which the individual was held in line and the organization man
looked within for approval, knowing that his relationship with the
organization would be relatively permanent.

6.OMO
a)
Much that now strikes us as incomprehensible would be far less so if
we took a fresh look at the racing rate of change that makes reality
seem, sometimes, like a kaleidoscope, run wild.
b)
Instant celebrities are vicarious products who burst upon the
consciousness of millions like an image-bomb – which is exactly what
they are.
c)
In a society in which instant food, instant education and even instant
cities are everyday phenomena, no product is more swiftly fabricated
or more ruthlessly destroyed than the instant celebrity.
d)
Nations advancing toward super-industrialism sharply step up their
output of these "psycho-economic" products.

Summary

7. All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have
been and are either republics or principalities. Those states which
when acquired to join to a state long held by the conqueror are either
hereditary, in which the family has been long established; or they are
new. But the difficulties occur in a new principality. And firstly, if
it be not entirely new, but is, as it were, a member of a state which,
taken collectively, may be called composite, the changes arise chiefly
from an inherent difficulty which there is in all new principalities;
for men change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves,
and this hope induces them to take up arms against him who rules:
wherein they are deceived, because they afterwards find by experience
they have gone from bad to worse. This follows also on another natural
and common necessity, which always causes a new prince to burden those
who have submitted to him with his soldiery and with infinite other
hardships which he must put upon his new acquisition. In this way you
have enemies in all those whom you have injured in seizing that
principality, and you are not able to keep those friends who put you
there because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way they
expected, and you cannot take strong measures against them, feeling
bound to them. For, although one may be very strong in armed forces,
yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the
natives.
a)
Principalities are either hereditary or new. There are fewer
difficulties in holding hereditary states, and those long accustomed
to the family of their prince, than new ones; for it is sufficient
only not to transgress the customs of one's ancestors, and to deal
prudently with circumstances as they arise.
b)
Since the hereditary prince doesn't have much reason to offend other
people, he will be loved. Unless he does something very horrible that
will make others hate him, it makes sense to expect that his subjects
will naturally be friendly/helpful with him. During his rule, the
actions that causes change are forgotten, since the effects of his
changes are left for another person to deal with.
c)
Principalities are hereditary, completely new or composite. In new
principalities only, the subjects change their rulers willingly by
taking up arms against him who rules. New princes acquire power and
more enemies are made than friends. They cannot meet the expectations
of their friends in the principalities resulting in overall
discontent.
d)
Principalities are either hereditary, in which the family has been
established; or they are new. The new are entirely new, or members
annexed to the hereditary state of the prince who has acquired them.
In a principality, even if not new, men would want to change their
rulers in the hope of bettering themselves and the new ruler or prince
would make enemies of people from whom he seized the principality and
also end up not satisfying his cronies, nor tackling troublesome ones
since their goodwill would always be of help.

Summary

8. The rise of a global language will have a huge impact on the world.
Ideas will be able to flow far more readily across the planet.
Billions of people will be influenced by the "best" ideas that the
planet has to offer. People's minds will be influenced powerfully, so
that today's nationalist mentalities will be gradually transformed
into tomorrow's globist mentalities. People will be able to compare
their own local customs with those of other cultures and reject their
own if they feel that other countries customs are superior to their
own. People will become more "multi" (i.e., multi-cultured) than
"mono" (i.e., mono-cultured). Multis will increasingly look down on
monos as inferior beings (rather like city-slickers towards
country-bumpkins), considering the monos to be limited as individuals
by the limitations of the single culture that programs them. Today's
governments will no longer be able to brainwash their citizens into
the ideologies of their nationalist leaders. Global education systems
("globiversities") will be established, to educate the poor people of
the world. Internet satellites will be able to beam down education
programs at all levels, from kindergarten to PhD level research
seminars on all topics.
a)
With a global language, the stage is set for global cultural
homogenization. Nationalist tendencies will melt down and humanity
will be pushed into a "globist mentality".
b)
Using the programs beamed down by the internet satellites, the poor
will be able to educate themselves and will have a global mindset.
Multiculturalism will replace monoculturalism and thence a global
language will heavily impact ideologies and people's minds.
c)
A global language will result in an easy flow of ideas across the
world. Parochial nationalist mentalities will give way to broader
globalist mentalities or ideologies. Global cultures will be compared
and integrated into the local culture making it multicultured. Global
education at all educational levels by globiversities through internet
satellites will prevail.
d)
Nationalist ideologies and monocultured way of life will not be strong
enough to counter the rise of global language which will positively
impact the world in terms of a free flow of ideas and a rejection of
local cultures.


SC Correct

9. (a) To be parochial on an astronomical scale sounds like tall
order. Yet people manage it all the time.

(b) When they think about the possibility of life in other parts of
the universe, they think of it happening on planets.

(c) But this is simply local prejudice. Moons, which Earthlings tend
merely to see as adornments to the night sky,

(d) are just so good a place to look for life as planets are, perhaps
even better. Which is why astronomers are trying to spot the moons of
planets around other stars.

(e) And life is just a part of it. To anyone not hung on hierarchies
of who-orbits-whom, moons are in all manner of ways more various and
more intriguing than planets.


SC Correct

10. (a) Like Robert Louis Stevenson I am a cartophiliac, and because
of Stevenson I am an islomaniac.

(b) Maps fire my mind because they offer "the magic of anticipation
without the toil and sweat of realisation".

(c) They give you seven-league boots, allowing you to cover miles in
seconds. On a map, visibility is always more perfect.

(d) Tracing the line of a walk with the point of a pencil, you can
float in gorges and marshes, leap cliff-faces at a single bound,

(e) and ford spatting rivers without getting wet. My father taught me
how to read maps, such that landscapes would rise magical out of them.


SC Correct

11. (a) In the spring and summer, bald eagles are fairly solitary and
each pair will defend their nest site from interlopers. During the
winter, however,

(b) birds will congregate wherever open water sources or food sources
such as carcasses of road-killed deer could be found.

(c) With its dark chocolate brown body and striking white head and
tail, it can be mistaken for the few other birds when its fully grown.
But did you know

(d) that it takes the bald eagle five years to grow into one with
distinctive plumage? And while the bald eagle is one of the largest
birds in North America, with a wingspan


(e) of about 6.5 feet and a height of about 2.5 feet only, it weighs
7-10 pounds – about as much as a housecat – and about 1.5 pounds of
the weight is just its feathers!


SC Correct

12. (a) In 2009, Rupert Murdoch called Google and other search engines
"content kleptomaniacs". Now cash-strapped newspapers want to put

(b) legal pressure on what they see as parasite news aggregators. Some
German newspaper executives say Google benefits from

(c) showcasing its material from search results on its news
aggregator, Google News. In Germany politicians are considering a bill
to extend

(d) copyright protection for excerpts of newspaper articles appearing
in search engines' results, thus enabling publishers to collect
payment for them.

(e) But Jan Malinowski, a media expert at the Council of Europe, says
trying to get Google paying for articles "is like trying to ban
Gutenberg's printing press in order to protect the scribes".

14.(a) On arrival at the hill, I examined the terrain and marked
several locations on my map as potential targets on trails the enemy
might use to assault our position.

(b) While people around the world waited for the far-away words "Eagle
has landed", I listened to the thundering boom of explosive mortar
shells detonating nearby and watched bright pink tracer bullets
suddenly streaking rat-a-tat across the night sky.

(c) Sometime after midnight my radio operator shook me awake, and
together we listened to the muffled whisper of a patrol leader
reporting "movement", meaning enemy soldiers might be approaching on
the trail guarded by his squad.

(d) As Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins hurtled through
space towards mankind's first small steps on the surface of the moon
in July 1969, I crouched on the other side of the world in an isolated
outpost in South Vietnam.

(e) That night we sent out several small patrols to guard the pathways
and protect the hill from surprise attack.

(f) I had only recently arrived in-country as an untested, green
second lieutenant of artillery; the infantry company to which I was
assigned held a strategic hill along an enemy infiltration route
leading to the major city of Da Nang.
a)
fcaebd
b)
feacdb
c)
dafbec
d)
dfaecb

13.(a) So long as the society in which he is embedded is stable or
slowly changing, the images on which he bases his behavior can also
change slowly.

(b) No man's model of reality is a purely personal product; while some
of his images related to reality are based on firsthand observation,
an increasing proportion of them today are based on messages beamed to
us by the mass media and the people around us.

(c) His model must be updated. To the degree that it lags, his
responses to change become inappropriate; he becomes increasingly
thwarted, ineffective.

(d) If society itself were standing still, there might be little
pressure on the individual to update his own supply of images, to
bring them in line with the latest knowledge available in the society.

(e) Thus there is intense pressure on the individual to keep up with
the generalized pace.

(f) But to function in a fast changing society, to cope with swift and
complex change, the individual must turn over his own stock of images
at a rate that in some way correlates with the pace of change.
a)
dbaecf
b)
bdafce
c)
adbcfe
d)
badfec


15.Mercury's bleak, airless surface is similar to the moon's, so
scientists have long been puzzled why the planet reflects so much less
light than our lunar satellite. On average, material blasted across
Mercury's surface by relatively recent impacts of comets, asteroids,
and other small bodies reflects only two-thirds as much light as
freshly excavated material on the moon, previous studies have shown.
One of the prime explanations for this low reflectivity – an abundance
of minerals including the element iron, which strongly absorb certain
wavelengths of light falling upon them—doesn't fit in this instance,
researchers say. That's because Mercury's brightness at one particular
wavelength suggests that there's less than 3% iron in its surface
rocks. Now, a team suggests the blame lies with another element
entirely – carbon. Comets, which by some estimates are about 18%
carbon by weight, are a major source of the element. Buta much larger
source may be a persistent pummelling by tiny carbon-rich meteorites,
which strike Mercury about fifty times more often than they do the
moon.

Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above paragraph?
a)
The large number of collisions of comets with Mercury is the most
significant reason for the presence of high carbon content on the
surface rocks of Mercury.
b)
The low reflectivity of the surface of Mercury is primarily due to the
presence of iron.
c)
The amount of carbon present on the surface of the moon is two-thirds
the amount of carbon present on the surface of Mercury.
d)
The surface of Mercury is most likely covered with significant amounts
of carbon.


16.The problem with election campaigns – the really deep problem, I
mean, behind all the superficial ones, such as not being able to avoid
regularly viewing images of David Cameron's face – is that voters want
impossible combinations of things. Even when a democratic system isn't
corrupted by big business or a partisan press; even when voters don't
believe wildly inaccurate things about the scale of immigration, or
the size of foreign aid; even when the politicians involved aren't
scoundrels whose very hunger for power means they're precisely the
kind of people who shouldn't get anywhere near it… even in such
perfect conditions, voters would still want both a) great public
services and b) not to have to pay for them. Or more houses, but also
no building on the green belt. Or economic growth, without the
environmental consequences. Or super-strict border controls, and also
plentiful cheap foreign labour. And when voters demand the impossible,
it's a rare politician who can resist responding, "Why, certainly!"

Which of the following cannot be understood to be an opinion of the
author according to the passage?
a)
The biased press and the involvement of large corporations has
polluted the democratic system of the country.
b)
That good public services can be provided without charging the public
for them is a reasonable expectation from a government.
c)
Voters are naïve enough to expect outrageous promises from politicians
and usually do not understand the trade-off between various
combinations of things.
d)
Power hungry people are not suitable for politics and should stay away from it.


17.Evidence is growing that conservation – enforced by the creation of
protected areas and policed by anti-poaching squads – leads to the
eviction and abuse of vast numbers of people, especially tribal
peoples, and is also failing to check the deepening environmental
crisis. A new approach is urgently needed.

Tribal peoples are better at looking after their environments than
anyone else – their survival depends on it. When the Maasai were
removed from Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania in 1974, poaching
increased; the eviction of indigenous people from Yellowstone Park in
the United States in the late 19th century led to overgrazing by elk
and bison… the list goes on. There is a simple reason for this: tribal
peoples have managed, protected, nurtured and shaped their land for
generations. They, more than anyone, have the best knowledge and
motivation to protect their land.

Which of the following statements, if true, supports the argument
presented in the excerpt above?
a)
The traditions of indigenous people include frugality in the use of
the resources.
b)
The Maasai regularly received kick-backs from the poachers in
Ngorongoro and their removal from the crater made poaching there more
profitable.
c)
The increasing population of the tribal peoples has escalated the
strain on the resources in their environment.
d)
Tribal herdsman in Africa regularly set fires to promote the growth of
new shoots of fodder for their starved livestock, thereby causing soil
erosion.

18.Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature.
The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to
produce subsistence for man that premature death must in some shape or
other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able
ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army
of destruction; and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But
should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons,
epidemics, pestilence, and plague, advance in terrific array, and
sweep off their thousands and ten thousands. Should success be still
incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with
one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world. Must
it not then be acknowledged by an attentive examiner of the histories
of mankind, that in every age and in every state in which man had
existed, or does now exist, that the increase of population is
necessarily limited by the means of subsistence.

Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
a)
Human population is immensely more powerful than nature and has the
power to withstand any natural calamity.
b)
If mankind is able to successfully reduce their population by
themselves, it will prevent the occurrence of sickly seasons,
epidemics, pestilence and plague.
c)
The war of extermination is the struggle between nature and humans, in
which humans usually prevail.
d)
The population of humans could increase when they are able to utilize
available resources more efficiently or when they discover new
resources.


#RC

It has not yet been possible to measure the gravitational waves
predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. They are so weak
that they get lost in the noise of the measurements. But thanks to the
latest simulations of the merging of binary neutron star systems, the
structure of the sought-after signals is now known. As a team of
German and Japanese theoretical astrophysicists reports in the
Editor's Choice of the current edition of the scientific journal
Physical Review D, gravitational waves have a characteristic spectrum
that is similar to the spectral lines of atoms.

Gravitational waves are generated when masses accelerate. The first
indirect evidence for their existence was detected in 1974 when the
binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 was discovered in the constellation Aquila.
Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor received the 1993 Nobel Prize in
Physics for this discovery. The two rapidly rotating neutron stars are
drifting towards each other in a spiral shape, which is why,
astrophysicists explain, they are losing energy and emitting
gravitational waves. In the meantime, there are now several
large-scale experiments underway for detecting gravitational waves:
the American LIGO experiment, the European Virgo experiment, and the
Japanese KAGRA detector. Experts estimate that signals of
gravitational waves from merging binary neutron star systems will be
detected within the next five years.

"These signals are not easy to detect, because they have an extremely
small amplitude."But despite these difficult conditions, it is
possible to find them, if you know what to look for in advance,"
explained Professor Luciano Rezzolla from the Institute for
Theoretical Physics at Goethe University. Together with a Japanese
colleague from Osaka University, he has studied a number of binary
neutron star systems with the help of the latest simulation techniques
and has discovered that the merging of the stars generates
characteristic gravitational wave spectra. "These spectra correspond,
at least logically, to the electromagnetic spectral lines emitted by
atoms or molecules. From these we can derive information on the
characteristics of the stars," explains Rezzolla.

As the astrophysicists show in two publications with related content
in Physical Review Letters (November 2014) and in the current edition
of Physical Review D, the gravitational waves spectrum is like a
fingerprint for the two stars. If scientists learn how to interpret
these spectra, they will know what the neutron stars are made of and
will be able to determine what their equation of state is, which is so
far unknown. Equations of state describe the thermodynamic properties
of systems as a function of variables, such as pressure, temperature,
volume, or particle number. To this Rezzolla adds: "This is a very
exciting possibility, because then we would be able to solve a riddle
that has remained unsolved for 40 years."

"If the signal is strong and thus the fingerprint is very clear, even
a single measurement would be sufficient," Rezzolla predicts. "The
prospects of solving the riddle of neutron stars have never been this
good. The gravitational waves that we hope to detect in a few years
are already on their way from the farthest reaches of the universe."




19. According to the passage, the simulations studying the merging of
binary neutron stars have contributed to the study of gravitational
waves by
a)
measuring the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein's theory of
general relativity.
b)
enabling scientists to determine the equation of state of such stars.
c)
providing a reference that will help identify the otherwise
indiscernible gravitational waves.
d)
revealing that gravitational waves have spectra similar to atomic spectra.

20. According to the passage, "Experts estimate that signals of
gravitational waves from merging binary neutron star systems will be
detected within the next five years." Which of the following can be
inferred to be the most apposite reason for the delay – of at most
five years – in detecting the signals of gravitational waves?
a)
The level of science and technological setup available for detecting
the signals of gravitational waves is not adequate in its current
state.
b)
The amplitude of the gravitational waves being emitted by the neutron
stars is expected to gradually increase to a detectable level over the
next five years.
c)
The signals of the gravitational waves are not usually strong but
latest simulations of merging binary neutron stars by astrophysicists
have shown that a strong signal will be emitted within the next five
years.
d)
The binary neutron star systems which are a source of gravitational
waves are at least five light years away from earth.

21. After reading the passage, it may be concluded with certainty that
gravitational waves are generated as a result of the merging of two
a)
rapidly rotating stars that are spiralling towards each other.
b)
neutron stars which are part of a binary neutron star system. Your
answer is correct
c)
binary neutron star systems.
d)
stars which are part of a binary star system.


22. According to the passage, which of the following is the reason
that led to Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor winning the 1993
Nobel Prize in Physics?
a)
For the explanation of why two rapidly rotating neutron stars emit
gravitational waves.
b)
For the discovery of binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 in the constellation Aquila.
c)
For identifying the spiral structure of binary neutron stars.
d)
For discovering that gravitational waves are generated when masses accelerate.


#RC

The neologisms 'emic' and 'etic' derive from analogy with the terms
'phonemic' and 'phonetic.' They were coined by the American linguistic
anthropologist Kenneth Pike (1954), who suggested that there are two
approaches to the study of a society's cultural system, just as there
are two approaches to the study of a language's sound system. In both
cases, the analyst can take the point of view of either the insider or
the outsider.

As Pike puts it, the emic approach focuses on cultural distinctions
meaningful to the members of a given society (for example, whether
their culture distinguishes between the natural world and the
supernatural realm). Only the native members of a culture can judge
the validity of an emic description, just as only the native speakers
of a language can judge the accuracy of a phonemic identification.

The etic approach, again as Pike defines it, examines the extrinsic
concepts and categories meaningful to scientific observers (for
example, per capita energy consumption). Only scientists can judge the
validity of an etic account, just as only linguists can judge the
accuracy of a phonetic transcription. British anthropology's etic
perspective, developed between 1850 and 1870 by Lewis H. Morgan,
Edward B. Taylor and then James G. Frazer, was based on the so-called
'comparative method.' Criticisms were brought against this cognitive
style – which opened the way for participant observation (in which a
culture is studied from the perspective of a native) – in Britain by
Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski, and in America by the German
ethnologist Franz Boas (1858–1942), who had emigrated to the United
States. Boas, the founder of cultural anthropology, criticized the
work of Frazer on the grounds that it focused only on certain aspects
of the societies studied, atomizing them and separating them from the
global context. Boas' ethnographic fieldwork conducted after 1880,
first among the Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island in the Pacific
Ocean and then among the Eskimos, profoundly influenced Robert E. Park
and the early period of the Chicago School.

Outstanding representatives of the new methodological climate brought
about by the ethnographic 'turn' were two American anthropologists of
a psychological bent who had received their training from Boas:
Margaret Mead (1901–78) and Ruth Benedict (1887–1948). In contrast to
the atomistic approach of their British colleagues – who still adhered
to a colonial perspective and sought to analyse the function performed
by a particular cultural element (a custom, a belief, a ritual or a
myth, for example) within a society – Mead and Benedict adopted a
holistic approach which conceived a culture as a complex and
integrated system constructed around a dominant theme which
characterized and distinguished one society from another. Mead (1935)
lived for two years among the three peoples of New Guinea (the
Arapesh, Mundugumor and Tchambuli), studying how their different
societies produced differences of 'temperament', that is, differences
in innate individual qualities. Benedict (1934) conducted fieldwork
among the Pueblos Indians of New Mexico, the Dobu living on the island
of the same name off the south-western tip of New Guinea, and the
Kwakiutl Indians, as her teacher Boas had done.

Today most cultural anthropologists agree that anthropological
research should gather both emic and etic knowledge. Emic knowledge is
essential for the intuitive and empathic understanding of a culture,
and also for conducting effective ethnographic fieldwork. Moreover,
emic knowledge is often a valuable source of etic hypotheses. Etic
knowledge, on the other hand, is essential for cross-cultural
comparison. It is indispensable for ethnology, because comparison
necessarily requires standard units and categories.




23. The "ethnographic 'turn'" mentioned in the passage most likely refers to
a)
the ethnographic fieldwork conducted by Franz Boas among Kwakiutl
Indians and Eskimos.
b)
the emic approach gaining prominence in anthropological research.
c)
the increase in criticism of the comparative method.
d)
the approach involving the compartmentalization of various cultures

24. Which of the following studies could most likely have used an etic approach?
a)
Testing the Effect of Risk on Inter temporal Choice in the Chinese
Cultural Context.
b)
The importance of cattle in the Swazi culture.
c)
The Variation in the Development of a Distinctive Identity across
Chinese, Japanese and European cultures.
d)
Constructing Maternal Knowledge Framework in the Nahua tribe.

25. Which of the following statements aptly describes the role of emic
and etic approaches in anthropological research?
a)
Emic approach is primarily used to understand the function of cultural
elements within a local society, whereas etic approach is primarily
used to understand the impact of a society's cultural elements on
other societies.
b)
Emic approach is used to understand advanced cultural systems, whereas
etic approach is used to compare different but relatively primitive
cultures using extrinsic categories.
c)
Emic approach provides information which acts as a source of etic
hypothesis and such information has little value without an etic
approach.
d)
Emic approach is used to observe and understand a culture from within
the culture itself where everything is in context and etic approach
describes cultural elements in constructs that apply across cultures.


26. Who among the following most likely would not have been influenced
by the emic approach promoted by the founder of cultural anthropology?
a)
Robert E. Park
b)
Margaret Mead
c)
Ruth Benedict
d)
Malinowski

#RC

Scientists have come across a potential game-changer in the fight
against drug-resistant superbugs – a new class of antibiotic that is
resistant to resistance. Not only does the new compound – which comes
from soil bacteria – kill deadly superbugs like Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), but also – because of the way it
destroys their cell wall – the pathogens will find it very difficult
to mutate into resistant strains.

Many of the antibiotics in use today were discovered decades ago, and
since then, microbes have evolved into resistant strains that do not
succumb to them. For instance, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO), in 2012, there were about 450,000 new cases of
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) worldwide. And extensively
drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has been identified in 92
countries. Bacteria that cause common infections such as urinary tract
infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections, are also becoming
increasingly resistant and hard to treat. For instance, a high
percentage of hospital-acquired infections are caused by a highly
resistant form of Staph – MRSA. This alarming scenario – coupled with
the fact that there are hardly any new antibiotics in the pipeline –
led the WHO recently to warn we are approaching a "post-antibiotic
era" where people could die from ordinary infections and minor
injuries.

Most of the antibiotics used in human and animal medicine today come
from soil microbes – for millions of years they have been producing
toxic compounds to fight off other enemy microbes. For example
penicillin, the first successful antibiotic, comes from the soil
fungus Penicillium. But there is a major problem with researching soil
microbes – they are very difficult to culture in the lab. This means
that as many as 99% of the microbes on our planet remain
under-researched as sources of new antibiotics because they refuse to
grow in lab cultures. That is until now.

Prof. Kim Lewis, a microbiologist and professor at Northeastern
University in Boston, MA, and colleagues developed a way to culture
bacteria in their natural environment. This uses a device that they
call a "diffusion chamber" where the soil microbes they want to grow
are separated into individual chambers sandwiched between two
semi-permeable membranes. They then bury the device back in the soil.

Thus, through the semi-permeable membranes, the bacteria become
exposed to the highly complex mix of other microbes and compounds of
the soil, and grow readily as if they were in the soil. This way, the
researchers produced bacterial colonies large enough to research back
in the lab. By repeatedly using the diffusion chamber to culture
different species of soil bacteria, the team tested about 10,000
bacterial colonies to see if any produced compounds that could stop
the growth of S. aureus. They found 25 potential antibiotics, of which
one, teixobactin, appeared the most powerful. In the lab, teixobactin,
killed a broad range of pathogenic bacteria, including the
drug-resistant superbugs MRSA and VRE (vancomycin resistant
enterococci). Further tests in mice showed promising results against
bacteria that cause septicemia, skin and lung infections. Teixobactin
breaks down the bacterial cell wall – the pathogen's key defence
against attack. The researchers believe this means the microbe can
mutate all it likes, but its cell walls will always be its Achilles
heel. Prof. Lewis says, "Teixobactin's dual mode of action and binding
to non-peptidic regions of the cell walls suggest that resistance will
be very difficult to develop." He and his colleagues found that
repeated exposure to the drug did not produce any resistant mutations
in Staphylococcus aureus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium
that causes most cases of TB. They conclude: "The properties of this
compound suggest a path towards developing antibiotics that are likely
to avoid development of resistance."

27. According to the passage, how does the new compound deter the
development of drug resistant mutations of pathogens?
a)
The new compound breaks down the cell walls of a pathogen, resulting
in any subsequent mutations of the pathogen having impaired cell
walls.
b)
The new compound damages the cell walls of a pathogen, inhibiting
further mutations of the pathogen.
c)
The new compound destroys the cell walls of a pathogen and also the
cell walls of almost any subsequent mutations of the pathogen.
d)
The new compound binds to the non-peptidic regions of the cell walls
of a pathogen, preventing the pathogen from mutating.

28. In the light of the facts presented in the passage, which of the
following statements, if true, would most support Prof. Lewis's claim
that "resistance will be very difficult to develop"?
a)
Antibiotics that bind to the non-peptidic regions of the cell walls of
pathogens are very rare in nature and extremely difficult to develop
in a laboratory.
b)
The non-peptidic regions of cell walls are the weakest part of any cell wall.
c)
Antibiotics that break down bacterial cell walls can be used to fight
different types of bacteria.
d)
The non-peptidic regions of cell walls consist of lipids and lipid
mutations in cells are extremely rare.


29. According to the passage, which of the following circumstances
have induced WHO to warn that "we are approaching a post-antibiotic
era"?


Identify all that apply, and enter the corresponding letters (in
alphabetical order and in upper case) in the input box given below.



For example, if you think (B) and (D) apply, then enter BD (but not DB
or bd) in the input box.



(a) Various pathogens are developing resistance to antibiotics
resulting in drug resistant mutations.

(b) The antibiotics used for treating various bacterial diseases were
discovered decades ago.

(c) Health care institutions are reluctant to administer new
antibiotics since it can result in pathogens developing further drug
resistance.

(d) Research institutions are not able to develop new antibiotics
because they are very difficult to culture in the laboratory.


30. Which of the following statements best explains the manner in
which the "diffusion chamber", used by Prof. Kim Lewis and colleagues,
overcomes the shortcoming(s) in the existing approach to culture of
soil microbes?
a)
The diffusion chamber contains a complex mix of microbes and compounds
naturally found in the soil, enabling the culture of soil microbes.
Your answer is incorrect
b)
The diffusion chamber provides the soil microbes with an environment
similar to their natural environment, making it possible to culture
soil microbes in the lab.
c)
The semi permeable membrane of the diffusion chamber allows the
exposure of soil microbes to the complex mix of microbes and compounds
found naturally in the soil.
d)
The semi permeable membrane of the diffusion chamber accelerates the
growth of soil microbes because it contains various compounds
necessary for their growth.


#RC

The evolution of sociality among previously non-social entities has
been identified as a major transition in the history of life. An
evolutionary explanation of the emergence of sociality requires to
recognize the selective advantages that a single individual can obtain
by staying in a group or, to say it better, the selective advantages
that being a member of a social group give to an individual, compared
to being a solitary part of a collection of non-related entities.

Here we concentrate on one of those possible advantages, namely the
fact that individuals who live in a group can exploit other
individuals of the same group (co-groupers) as a reliable source of
information about the environment. From the point of view of a social
animal, the other animals that live in the same group share one
obvious characteristic: they are alive. Thus, they will behave, on
average, in an adaptive manner and their behaviour will be
specifically tuned for the environment in which they are living.

From an ethological perspective, the modification of behaviour during
lifetime, by exploiting the interactions with co-groupers, is a useful
definition of what is called social learning.

Human beings heavily rely on social learning for the development of
their behavioural repertoire and they are likely to be the only
species that makes an extensive use of cognitively advanced forms of
social learning, that require both the explicit copy of the results
and actions performed by a model and an active role of the model in
the transmission of information, such as teaching; forms of teaching
have been observed also in other species, even in ants, but the issue
of teaching among other species other than humans remains still
controversial.

Nevertheless, especially in the last twenty years, researches in
animal behaviour have shown how social learning can be significant for
the development of complex behavioural skills in primates and in other
vertebrates like rats, birds, and fish. In addition, even if social
learning studies have been almost entirely focused on vertebrates,
several pieces of evidence indicate that forms of social learning are
also present in insects.

Those ethological findings, taken together, suggest two
considerations. Even if it is likely that the role played by social
learning among human beings is greater than the role it plays among
other species, although the mechanisms that permit the relative
stability of cultural patterns and support cumulative cultural
evolution in human groups still remain not clear, social learning does
not seem restricted to human beings. Hence, the selective advantage of
living in a social group, because of social learning, can be more
pervasive than generally thought.

Besides, the social transmission of behaviours in species different
than humans is often realized without the need of complex cognitive
machineries, but by simple processes that exploit the dynamics between
learning at the individual level, the characteristics of the
environment and of the population, and the genetic evolution at
population level, without an easy-to-trace distinction between
processes.




31. What can be inferred from the phrase "the explicit copy of the
results and actions performed by a model" with regards to social
learning in humans?
a)
Human beings learn behavioural skills from a single archetype which
ensures the replication of such skills across generations.
b)
Human beings learn by mirroring other individuals which results in the
development of behavioural skills.
c)
Human beings teach other individuals behavioural skills which results
in the propagation of selective advantage to all the individuals in a
group.
d)
Human beings use a standard model to impart knowledge to other
individuals in a group.

32. Which of the following situations is least suitable to be used as
an illustration of social learning?
a)
An infant learns to protrude its tongue by watching adults perform the
same task.
b)
Young monkeys witness the fear of snakes in their parents and learn to
fear snakes.
c)
Red squirrels are more successful at opening nuts after observing an
experienced individual.
d)
A pigeon assesses a quality of a neighbourhood and decides on a nesting place.



33. According to the passage, which of the following statements is
definitely true regarding social learning in insects?
a)
In various species of insects, experienced individuals teach other
younger individuals which provides an advantage in the survival of the
younger individuals.
b)
Social learning in insects do not utilize any complex cognitive
machineries as opposed to other vertebrates.
c)
Social learning in insects is understood only to the limited extent
that they learn from other individuals in their group.
d)
Insects can mimic behaviour of other species and learn from these species.


34. Based on the passage, which of the following statements can be
inferred about the evolution and propagation of culture among humans?
a)
Cultural propagation in humans through complex cognitive mechanisms is
only one example among several other parallel instances extant in
various other species.
b)
The evolution of culture in humans is more dependent on social
learning than on any other factor.
c)
Even though social learning plays a significant role in evolution of
culture among humans, the mechanism through which this occurs is
nebulous.
d)
Social learning plays an equally important part in various other
species in addition to human beings for cultural evolution and
propagation.