CAT Previous Years Quantitative, Reasoning and Verbal ability Questions and Answers with Explanation, CAT Aptitude Questions and Answers, CAT Questions and Answers
DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 4: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
In Rangeela land, there are only three types of people: Lalpilas, Pilharas and Haralals. Lalpilas always get confused between red and yellow (i.e. they see yellow as red and vice versa.) and can see any other colour properly. Pilharas always get confused between yellow and green and can see any other colour properly and Haralals always get confused between red and green and can see any other colour properly.
1.Three persons Amar, Akbar and Anthony, who belong to Rangeela land
made the following statements.
Amar : Gabbar Singh is wearing a green shirt.
Akbar : Gabbar Singh is not wearing a yellow shirt.
Anthony : Gabbar Singh is wearing a red shirt.
If none of them is a Haralal, then what is the colour of Gabbar Singh’s
shirt?
(1) Red
(2) Yellow
(3) Green
(4) Cannot be determined
Ans:2
Ex:
2. Two persons – Dhiraj and Suraj, of Rangeela land made the following
statements.
Dhiraj : Feroz is wearing a red hat. Feroz is wearing a yellow shirt.
Suraj : Feroz is wearing a red hat. Feroz is wearing a green shirt.
Suraj is a
(1) Lalpila
(2) Pilhara
(3) Haralal
(4) Such a conversation is not possible.
Ans:4
Ex:
3. Veeru is a
(1) Lalpila
(2) Pilhara
(3) Haralal
(4) Cannot be determined
Ans:2
Ex:
4. What is the colour of Basanti’s saree?
(1) Green
(2) Red
(3) Yellow
(4) Cannot be determined
Ans:1
Ex:
DIRECTIONS for questions 5 to 8: Answer the questions independently of
each other.
5. Each of companies A, B and C – have a tradition of rewarding their
employees with a bonus, once every year, during Ramzan, Christmas or
Deepavali. For each company every year the bonus is paid during the same
time. Use the clues below to answer the following question.
(a) For no two companies is either the amount of bonus paid or the time of
the year when bonus is paid the same
(b) Company B distributes bonus during Deepavali.
(c) The company that gives Rs.5,000 as bonus is in the manufacturing
sector.
(d) Company, A distributes bonus during Christmas.
(e) The company that gives a bonus of Rs.10,000 is not in the IT sector.
(f) The company that gives bonus for Ramzan gives Rs.5,000.
(g) The company that gives bonus for Christmas gives Rs.12,000 as bonus.
Which of the following is true?
(1) Company A gives a bonus of Rs.12,000 for Christmas, company B gives a bonus of Rs.5,000 for Deepavali and Company C gives a bonus of Rs.10,000 and is in the IT sector.
(2) Company B gives a bonus of Rs.10,000 and is in the finance sector.
Company C gives a bonus of Rs.5,000 during Ramzan and company A gives a bonus of Rs.12,000 and is in the manufacturing sector.
(3) Company A gives a bonus of Rs.12,000 and is in the finance sector.
Company B gives a bonus of Rs.5,000 during Deepavali and company C gives a bonus of Rs.10,000 and is in the IT sector.
(4) Company B gives a bonus of Rs.10,000 for Deepavali. Company C gives a bonus of Rs.5,000 and is in the manufacturing sector. Company A gives a bonus of Rs.12,000 and is in the IT sector.
Ans:4
Ex:
6. Seven people, A through G, sit in a row (not necessarily in the same order). Exactly three people sit between A and G, while exactly three people sit between B and E. Exactly four people sit between C and E, while exactly four people sit between D and G. Exactly two people sit between B and D, while exactly two people sit between C and A. Given that either B or A sits to the immediate right of D, then who sits exactly at the middle of the row?
(1) C
(2) B
(3) F
(4) Cannot be determined
Ans:3
Ex:
7. According to probability theory, when a normal dice is thrown a large number of times, the probability of each number turning up will be 1/6. A group of friends decided to try this and got the following results after 50 tries:
All numbers were obtained at least once.
The number of 1’s obtained was an even number.
The number of 2’s obtained was equal to the number of 5’s obtained.
The number of 3’s obtained was five times the number of 1’s obtained.
Exactly six 4’s were obtained.
The number of six’s obtained was twenty-two, which was the highest among
all the numbers obtained.
What was the total number of odd numbers obtained?
(1) 22
(2) 17
(3) 25
(4) 18
Ans:2
Ex:
8. Four friends Ashwath, Charan, Karthik and Srinivas are nicknamed Essi, KK, Kit and Maha, not necessarily in that order.
(i) Karthik is stronger than Essi but can’t run as fast as Kit.
(ii) Essi is stronger than Ashwath but weaker than KK.
(iii) Srinivas is faster than Karthik and slower than Maha but weaker than Essi.
Who is nicknamed Maha?
(1) Karthik
(2) Ashwath
(3) Charan
(4) Srinivas
Ans:2
Ex:
DIRECTIONS for questions 9 to 12: The questions given below are followed by two statements, I and II. Study the information given in the two statements and assess whether the statements are sufficient to answer the questions and choose the appropriate option from among the choices given below.
9. Did more than 50 employees leave Company A in the year 2002?
I. At the start of 2002, the difference between the number of male and
female employees in company A is 90.
II. By the end of 2002, the total number of employees in company A is 50.
(1) Statement I alone is sufficient and statement II alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(2) Statement II alone is sufficient and statement I alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(3) Statements I and II together are sufficient but neither statement alone is sufficient to answer the question.
(4) Both statements I and II together are not sufficient to answer the question and additional data, specific to the problem, is needed
Ans:4
Ex:
10. Six persons – Irfan, Jagan, Karan, Lala, Manoj and Niran -participated in a race in which every participant finished in a different time. At least two persons finished before Jagan. The number of persons who finished before Lala is same as the number of persons who finished after Niran. Irfan finished before Manoj. Who finished the race in second
position?
I. Manoj finished the race in third position.
II. Only Lala finished the race after Karan.
(1) Statement I alone is sufficient and statement II alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(2) Statement II alone is sufficient and statement I alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(3) Statements I and II together are sufficient but neither statement alone is sufficient to answer the question.
(4) Both statements I and II together are not sufficient to answer the question and additional data, specific to the problem, is needed.
Ans:2
Ex:
11. M and N are the father and mother of P respectively. P has four uncles and three aunts. None of the siblings of M and N are married. N has two siblings. How many sisters does M have?
I. N has two brothers.
II. M has a total of 5 siblings.
(1) Statement I alone is sufficient and statement II alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(2) Statement II alone is sufficient and statement I alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(3) Statements I and II together are sufficient but neither statement alone is sufficient to answer the question.
(4) Both statements I and II together are not sufficient to answer the question and additional data, specific to the problem, is needed.
Ans:1
Ex:
12. When J and K run a race, J beats K by 20 seconds. When K and L run the same race, K beats L by 40 seconds. Find the speed of K (in m/s).
I. J beats L by 250 m.
II. The length of the race track is 1 km.
(1) Statement I alone is sufficient and statement II alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(2) Statement II alone is sufficient and statement I alone is not sufficient to
answer the question.
(3) Statements I and II together are sufficient but neither statement alone is sufficient to answer the question.
(4) Both statements I and II together are not sufficient to answer the question and additional data, specific to the problem, is needed.
Ans:3
Ex:
13. Ramu and Somu are competing in a 100 m race. Initially, Ramu runs at twice Somu’s speed for the first fifty metres. After the 50 m mark, Ramu runs at 1/4th his initial speed while Somu continues to run at his original speed. If Somu catches up with Ramu at a distance of ‘x‘ metres from the finish line, then find x.
(1) 37.5
(2) 25
(3) 75
(4) 42.5
(5) Somu will never catch up with Ramu
Ans:2
Ex:
14.When the curves y = 10x and xy = 1 are drawn in the X-Y plane, how many times do they intersect for values of y ³ 2?
(1) Never
(2) Once
(3) Twice
(4) Thrice
(5) More than thrice
Ans:2
Ex:
15. Three circles of equal radii have been drawn inside an equilateral triangle, of side a, such that each circle touches the other two circles as well as two sides of the triangle. Then, the radius of each circle is
Ans:1
EX:
16. What is the minimum value of the sum of the squares of the
roots of the equation x2 – (α – 2)x + (α – 5) = 0, where α is a positive
number?
1)0
2)2
3)5
4)Cannot be determined
Ans:3
Ex:
17. What is the value of the expression given below?
(1) 1.33
(2) 1.25
(3) 1
(4) None of these
Ans:3
Ex:
18. If a four-digit natural number is 7083 more than the number formed by reversing the order of its digits, then how many such natural numbers are possible?
(1) 18
(2) 24
(3) 27
(4) 36
Ans:3
Ex:
19. Ours is a big family. I have thrice as many brothers as sisters and my sister Bharathi has four times as many brothers as sisters. How many children do my parents have?
(1) 15
(2) 16
(3) 21
(4) 20
Ans:3
Ex:
20. A certain sum is invested at simple interest. If the sum becomes k times itself in 16 years and 2k times itself in 40 years, in how many years will it become 4k times itself?
(1) 96 years
(2) 88 years
(3) 80 years
(4) 64 years
Ans:2
Ex:
21. The speeds of Aniket, Brihat and Chatur are in the ratio of 4 : 3 : 2. If Chatur takes half an hour more than Brihat to travel from P to Q, what is the total time taken by Aniket to travel from P to Q and then back from Q to P?
(1) 120 minutes
(2) 90 minutes
(3) 60 minutes
(4) 45 minutes
Ans:2
Ex:
22. DIRECTIONS for Questions 22 to 26: The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph
A. Surrendered, or captured, combatants cannot be incarcerated in razor wire cages; this ‘war’ has a dubious legality.
B. How can then one characterize a conflict to be waged against a phenomenon as war?
C. The phrase ‘war against terror’, which has passed into the common lexicon, is a huge misnomer.
D. Besides, war has a juridical meaning in international law, which has confided the laws of war, imbuing them with a humanitarian content.
E. Terror is a phenomenon, not an entity – either State or non-State.
[1] ECDBA
[2] BECDA
[3] EBCAD
[4] C
Ans:4
23. A. I am much more intolerant of a human being’s shortcomings than I am of an animal’s, but in this respect I have been lucky, for most of the people I have come across have been charming.
B. Then you come across the unpleasant human animal – the District Officer who drawled, ‘We chaps are here to help you chaps,’ and then proceeded to be as obstructive as possible.
C. In these cases of course, the fact that you are an animal collector helps; people always seem delighted to meet someone with such an unusual occupation and go out of their way to assist you.
D. Fortunately, these types are rare, and the pleasant ones I have met more than compensated for them – but even so, I think I will stick to animals.
E. When you travel round the world collecting animals you also, of necessity, collect human beings.
[1] EA CBD
[2] ABDCE
[3] ECBDA
[4] ACBDE
Ans:1
24. A. Four days later, Oracle announced its own bid for PeopleSoft, and invited the firm’s board to a discussion.
B. Furious that his own plans had been endangered, PeopleSoft’s boss, Craig Conway, called Oracle’s offer “diabolical”, and its boss, Larry Ellison, a “sociopath”.
C. In early June, PeopleSoft said that it would buy J .D. Edwards, a smaller rival.
D. Moreover, said Mr. Conway, he “could imagine no price nor combination of price and other conditions to recommend accepting the offer.”
E. On June 12th, PeopleSoft turned Oracle down.
[1] CABDE
[2] CADBE
[3] CEDAB
[4] CAEBD
Ans:1
25. A. A few months ago I went to Princeton University to see what the young people who are going to be running our country in a few decades are like.
B. I would go to sleep in my hotel room around midnight each night, and when I awoke, my mailbox would be full of replies—sent at 1:15 a.m., 2:59 a.m., 3:23 a.m.
C. One senior told me that she went to bed around two and woke up each morning at seven; she could afford that much rest because she had learned to supplement her full day of work by studying in her sleep.
D. Faculty members gave me the names of a few dozen articulate students, and I sent them emails, inviting them out to lunch or dinner in small groups.
E. As she was falling asleep she would recite a math problem or a paper topic to herself; she would then sometimes dream about it, and when she woke up, the problem might be solved.
[1] DABCE
[2] DACEB
[3] ADBCE
[4]AECBD
Ans:3
26. A. To avoid this, the QWERTY layout put the keys most likely to be hit in rapid succession on opposite sides. This made the keyboard slow, the story goes, but that was the idea.
B. A different layout, which had been patented by August Dvorak in 1936, was shown to be much faster.
C. The QWERTY design (patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to Remington in 1873) aimed to solve a mechanical problem of early typewriters.
D. Yet the Dvorak layout has never been widely adopted, even though (with electric typewriters and then PCs) the anti-jamming rationale for QWERTY has been defunct for years.
E. When certain combinations of keys were struck quickly, the type bars often jammed.
[1] BDACE
[2] CEABD
[3] BCDEA
[4] CAEBD
Ans:2
27. DIRECTIONS for Questions 27 to 31: There are two gaps in each of the following sentences. From the pairs of words given, choose the one that fills the gaps most appropriately. The first word in the pair should fill the first gap
Early _____ of maladjustment to college culture is _____ by the tendency to develop friendship networks outside college which mask signals of maladjustment.
[1] treatment, compounded
[2] detection, facilitated
[3] identification, complicated
[4] prevention, helped
Ans:3
28. The British retailer, M&S, today formally _____ defeat in its attempt to _____ King’s, its US subsidiary, since no potential purchasers were ready to cough up the necessary cash.
[1] admitted, acquire
[2] conceded, offload
[3] announced, dispose
[4] ratified, auction
Ans:2
29. Companies that try to improve employees’ performance by _____ rewards encourage negative kinds of behaviour instead of _____ a genuine interest in doing the work well.
[1] giving, seeking
[2] bestowing, discouraging
[3] conferring, discrediting
[4] withholding, fostering
Ans:1
30. A growing number of these expert professionals ________ having to train foreigners as the students end up _____ the teachers who have to then unhappily contend with no jobs at all or new jobs with drastically reduced pay packets.
[1] resent, replacing
[2] resist, challenging
[3] welcome, assisting
[4] are, supplanting
Ans:1
31. The _____ regions of Spain all have unique cultures, but the _____ views within each region make the issue of an acceptable common language of instruction an even more contentious one.
[1] different, discrete
[2] distinct, disparate
[3] divergent, distinct
[4] different, competing
Ans:1
32. DIRECTIONS for Questions 32 to 36: In each of the following sentences the main statement is followed by four sentences each. Select the pair of sentences that relate logically with the given statement.
Either Sita is sick or she is careless.
A. Sita is not sick
B. Sita is not careless.
C. Sita is sick
D. Sita is careless.
[1] AB
[2] AD
[3] BA
[4] DA
Ans:2
33. Ram gets a swollen nose whenever he eats hamburgers.
A. Ram gets a swollen nose.
B. Ram does not eat hamburgers
C. Ram does not get a swollen nose
D. Ram eats hamburgers.
[1] AB
[2] DC
[3] AC
[4] BC
Ans:4
34. Either the employees have no confidence in the management or they are hostile by nature.
A. They are hostile by nature
B. They are not hostile by nature.
C. They have confidence in the management
D. They have no confidence in the management.
[1] BA
[2] DC
[3] AC
[4] BC
Ans:3
35. Whenever Ram reads late into the night, his father beats him up.
A. His father does not beat Ram. B. Ram reads late into the night.
C. Ram reads early in the morning.
D. Ram’s father beats him in the morning.
[1] CD
[2] BD
[3] AB
[4] None of the above
Ans:4
36. All irresponsible parents shout if their children do not cavort.
A. All irresponsible parents do not shout.
B. Children cavort
C. Children do not cavort.
D. All irresponsible parents shout.
[1] AB
[2] BA
[3] CA
[4] All of the above.
Ans:1
37. DIRECTIONS for questions 37 to 40: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow it
Recently I spent several hours sitting under a tree in my garden with the social anthropologist William Ury, a Harvard University professor who specializes in the art of negotiation and wrote the bestselling book, Getting to Yes. He captivated me with his theory that tribalism protects people from their fear of rapid change. He explained that the pillars of tribalism that humans rely on for security would always counter any significant cultural or social change. In this way, he said, change is never allowed to happen too fast. Technology, for example, is a pillar of society. Ury believes that every time technology moves in a new or radical direction, another pillar such as religion or nationalism will grow stronger -in effect, the traditional and familiar will assume greater importance to compensate for the new and untested. In this manner, human tribes avoid rapid change that leaves people insecure and frightened.
But we have all heard that nothing is as permanent as change. Nothing is guaranteed. Pithy expressions, to be sure, but no more than cliches. As Ury says, people don’t live that way from day-to-day. On the contrary, they actively seek certainty and stability. They want to know they will be safe.
Even so, we scare ourselves constantly with the idea of change. An IBM CEO once said: ‘We only re-structure for a good reason, and if we haven’t re-structured in a
while, that’s a good reason.’ We are scared that competitors, technology and the consumer will put us out of business -so we have to change all the time just to stay alive. But if we asked our fathers and grandfathers, would they have said that they lived in a period of little change? Structure may not have changed much. It may just be the speed with which we do things.
Change is over-rated, anyway. Consider the automobile. It’s an especially valuable example, because the auto industry has spent tens of billions of dollars on research and product development in the last 100 years. Henry Ford’s first car had a metal chassis with an internal combustion, gasoline-powered engine, four wheels with rubber tyres, a foot operated clutch assembly and brake system, a steering wheel, and four seats, and it could safely do 18 miles per hour. A hundred years and tens of thousands of research hours later, we drive cars with a metal chassis with an internal combustion, gasoline-powered engine, four wheels with rubber tyres, a foot operated clutch assembly and brake system, a steering wheel, four seats -and the average speed in London in 2001 was 17.5 miles per hour!
That’s not a hell of a lot of return for the money. Ford evidently doesn’t have much to teach us about change. The fact that they’re still manufacturing cars is not proof that Ford Motor Co. is a sound organization, just proof that it takes very large companies to make cars in great quantities -making for ~ almost impregnable entry barrier.
Fifty years after the development of the jet engine, planes are also little changed. They’ve grown bigger, wider and can carry more people. But those are incremental, largely cosmetic changes.
Taken together, this lack of real change has come to mean that in travel -whether driving or flying -time and technology have not combined to make things much better. The safety and design have of course accompanied the times and the new volume of cars and flights, but nothing of any significance has changed in the basic assumptions of the final product
At the same time, moving around in cars or aeroplanes becomes less and less efficient all the time. Not only has there been no great change, but also both forms of transport have deteriorated as more people clamour to use them. The same is true for telephones, which took over hundred years to become mobile, or photographic film, which also required an entire century to change.
The only explanation for this is anthropological. Once established in calcified organizations, humans do two things: sabotage changes that might render people dispensable, and ensure industry-wide emulation. In the 1960s, German auto companies developed plans to scrap the entire combustion engine for an electrical design. (The same existed in the 1970s in Japan, and in the 1980s in France.) So for 40 years we might have been free of the wasteful and ludicrous dependence on fossil fuels. Why didn’t it go anywhere? Because auto executives understood pistons and carburettors, and would be loath to cannibalize their expertise, along with most of their factories.
Which of the following best describes one of the main ideas discussed in the passage?
1. Rapid change is usually welcomed in society.
2. Industry is not as innovative as it is made out to be.
3. We should have less change than what we have now.
4. Competition spurs companies into radical innovation.
Ans: 2.
38. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
1. Executives of automobile companies are inefficient and ludicrous.
2. The speed at which an automobile is driven in a city has not changed much in a century.
3. Anthropological factors have fostered innovation in automobiles by promoting use of new technologies.
4. Further innovation in jet engines has been more than incremental
Ans:2
39. Which of the following views does the author fully support in the passage?
1. Nothing is as permanent as change.
2. Change is always rapid.
3. More money spent on innovation leads to more rapid change.
4. Over decades, structural change has been incremental
Ans:4
40. According to the passage, the reason why we continued to be dependent on fossil fuels is that:
1. Auto executives did not wish to change.
2. No alternative fuels were discovered.
3. Change in technology was not easily possible.
4. German, Japanese and French companies could not come up with
new technologies.
Ans:1