CAT 2024 Previous Year Question Paper

Passage 1

Boredom has an undeserved reputation as the most trivial of emotions. It has produced no great literature of its own, inspires no anthems and is rarely mentioned in accounts of a life well lived. When we notice it at all, we treat it as a minor discomfort to be relieved, preferably at once, by whatever entertainment lies nearest to hand. Yet a growing body of psychological research suggests that boredom is less a void than a signal, and that the habit of silencing it immediately may carry costs we seldom count.

On this view, boredom arises when the activity in which we are engaged fails to occupy us meaningfully, either because it demands too little of our abilities or because we can find no reason for doing it. The unpleasantness of the state is its function. Like hunger, it prompts us to change what we are doing, and it is notably indifferent to how we do so. A bored person may seek a more demanding task, a more meaningful one, or merely a more stimulating distraction. The signal says that something is wrong; it does not say what would be right.

This indifference explains why boredom can lead in opposite directions. Studies have linked it both to creativity, as people search for new ways of engaging their minds, and to impulsive or risky behaviour, as they grab the nearest available stimulation. The difference seems to depend on whether a person treats the feeling as information to be interpreted or as a discomfort to be ended. The first response asks what is missing; the second seeks only relief.

Modern technology has made the second response extraordinarily easy. A device that offers an endless supply of short, varied stimuli can end almost any episode of boredom within seconds. The difficulty is that such relief rarely touches the condition that produced the signal. If boredom at work reflects a lack of meaningful tasks, scrolling through entertainment removes the feeling while leaving its cause untouched, and the feeling returns, often more quickly. Some researchers suspect that constant interruption may even lower the threshold at which boredom is felt, so that ordinary activities come to seem intolerably slow.

None of this is an argument for seeking out boredom, or for treating every restless moment as an occasion for self-examination. Some situations are simply tedious, and distraction is a sensible response to a long queue. But in the parts of life that matter more, it may be worth tolerating the feeling long enough to hear what it has to say. Boredom is uncomfortable because it is trying to tell us something, and the reflex to switch it off before it has finished speaking may be the habit most worth examining.

1. The author compares boredom to hunger in order to suggest that boredom

   1. is a physical rather than a mental state.
   2. can be satisfied only by consuming entertainment.
   3. is more intense than any other emotion.
   4. pushes us to change what we are doing without indicating what the change should be.
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: D (pushes us to change what we are doing without indicating what the change should be.)

   Like hunger, boredom 'prompts us to change what we are doing' and 'is notably indifferent to how we do so'; 'the signal says that something is wrong; it does not say what would be right'.

2. According to the passage, whether boredom leads to creativity or to risky behaviour depends mainly on

   1. how intelligent the bored person is.
   2. whether the person treats the feeling as information to interpret or as a discomfort to end.
   3. how long the episode of boredom lasts.
   4. whether the person is at work or at leisure.
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: B (whether the person treats the feeling as information to interpret or as a discomfort to end.)

   Paragraph three states this directly: 'The difference seems to depend on whether a person treats the feeling as information to be interpreted or as a discomfort to be ended.'

3. The author's main concern about devices that supply endless short stimuli is that they

   1. make people more creative than is healthy.
   2. are too expensive for most people to use.
   3. make long queues more tedious than they used to be.
   4. end the feeling of boredom without addressing what caused it, and may make boredom quicker to arise.
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: D (end the feeling of boredom without addressing what caused it, and may make boredom quicker to arise.)

   Paragraph four: relief 'rarely touches the condition that produced the signal', the feeling 'returns, often more quickly', and interruption may 'lower the threshold at which boredom is felt'.

4. The author would be LEAST likely to agree with which of the following?

   1. Distracting oneself in a long queue is perfectly reasonable.
   2. Boredom can carry useful information about one's activities.
   3. People should deliberately seek out boredom as often as possible.
   4. Frequent interruption may make ordinary activities seem slower.
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: C (People should deliberately seek out boredom as often as possible.)

   The last paragraph says 'None of this is an argument for seeking out boredom'. A, B and D are all stated or endorsed in the passage.

Verbal ability

5. The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage. Many companies now offer unlimited paid leave. In practice, employees under such policies often take fewer days off than those with a fixed allowance. Without a clear entitlement, taking leave feels like a request rather than a right, and nobody wants to appear less committed than their colleagues.

   1. Removing a fixed leave entitlement can reduce the leave people take, because taking it starts to feel like a sign of low commitment.
   2. Unlimited leave policies lead employees to take far more holidays than before.
   3. Employees with fixed allowances are less committed than those with unlimited leave.
   4. Companies should abolish paid leave altogether.
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: A (Removing a fixed leave entitlement can reduce the leave people take, because taking it starts to feel like a sign of low commitment.)

   The passage reports that unlimited leave often reduces leave taken, and explains why: without an entitlement, leave feels like a request and people fear seeming less committed. B reverses the finding; C and D are unsupported.

6. Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not fit and type in its number. 1. Mangroves grow along tropical coasts in salty water that would kill most trees. 2. Their tangled roots trap sediment and blunt the force of waves. 3. Villages behind healthy mangrove belts tend to suffer less damage from storms. 4. Clearing mangroves for shrimp farms has therefore left some coastlines more exposed. 5. Shrimp are a popular ingredient in many coastal cuisines. (type in your answer)

   Answer and explanation

   Answer: 5

   Sentences 1–4 build an argument about mangroves as coastal protection and the cost of clearing them. Sentence 5 picks up the word 'shrimp' but is about cooking, not coastal protection.

7. The paragraph below has a blank marked ( ___ ). Choose the sentence that best completes the paragraph. Early maps of the world were not only tools for navigation but statements about who mattered. Rulers commissioned maps that placed their own capitals near the centre and enlarged familiar territory while shrinking distant lands. ( ___ ) Reading an old map, then, is as much an exercise in understanding its maker as in understanding the world it depicts.

   1. Modern satellite imagery has made such distortions largely impossible.
   2. What a map chose to show, and at what scale, reflected the priorities of those who paid for it.
   3. Sailors often preferred written sailing directions to maps.
   4. Some early maps were painted on silk rather than on paper.
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: B (What a map chose to show, and at what scale, reflected the priorities of those who paid for it.)

   The blank must bridge the examples of distortion and the conclusion ('then') that a map reveals its maker. B generalises the examples into exactly that point. A shifts to the present; C and D introduce unrelated details.

Set 1

Five athletes, A, B, C, D and E, ran three races. In each race all five finished and there were no ties. Points were awarded in each race as follows: 1st place 5 points, 2nd 3 points, 3rd 2 points, 4th 1 point, 5th 0 points. The table gives each athlete's total over the three races. It is also known that C won Race 1, A did not win Race 2, and E finished ahead of D in Race 3.

8. Who finished last in Race 1?

   1. B
   2. D
   3. E
   4. Cannot be determined
   Answer and explanation

   Answer: C (E)

   Each race awards 11 points, 33 in all. A won neither Race 1 nor Race 2, so A's 11 can only be 3 + 3 + 5: 2nd, 2nd, 1st. B cannot win Race 1 or Race 3; without winning Race 2 B could score at most 2 + 2 + 3 = 7, so B won Race 2 and needs 4 more from Races 1 and 3, i.e. 3rd and 3rd, or 4th and 2nd. If B were 3rd in Race 3, someone among C, D, E would be 2nd there (3 points): not C (C has only 2 points outside Race 1), not E (only 2 in total), and not D, since E finished ahead of D in Race 3. So B was 4th in Race 1 and 2nd in Race 3. D and E take 3rd and 5th in Race 1; if E were 3rd, E would have all 2 of its points and be last in Race 3, behind D, which is impossible. So Race 1 was C, A, D, B, E, and E was last.

9. How many different combinations of finishing orders for the three races are consistent with all the information given? (type in your answer)

   Answer and explanation

   Answer: 3

   Race 1 is fixed as C, A, D, B, E. Race 2 begins B, A and Race 3 begins A, B. C needs 2 more points, D needs 1 more and E needs 2 more from Races 2 and 3, with E ahead of D in Race 3. The possibilities are: Race 2 B, A, C, D, E with Race 3 A, B, E, D, C; Race 2 B, A, D, C, E with Race 3 A, B, E, C, D; and Race 2 B, A, D, E, C with Race 3 A, B, C, E, D. That is 3.

10. If D finished 3rd in Race 2, who finished last in Race 3?

    1. C
    2. D
    3. E
    4. Cannot be determined
    Answer and explanation

    Answer: B (D)

    D is 3rd in Race 2 in two arrangements: BADCE with Race 3 ABECD, and BADEC with Race 3 ABCED. In both, D is last in Race 3.

11. For how many of the five athletes can the finishing position in every one of the three races be determined uniquely? (type in your answer)

    Answer and explanation

    Answer: 2

    A (2nd, 2nd, 1st) and B (4th, 1st, 2nd) are fixed. C, D and E change places in Races 2 and 3 across the three valid arrangements. So the answer is 2.

12. A shopkeeper allows a 20% discount on the marked price and still makes a 20% profit. If the article costs him ₹400, what is its marked price in rupees? (type in your answer)

    Answer and explanation

    Answer: 600

    Selling price = 400 × 1.2 = ₹480. This is 80% of the marked price, so the marked price = 480 ÷ 0.8 = ₹600.

13. If A : B = 3 : 4 and B : C = 6 : 5, and C = 40, what is A? (type in your answer)

    Answer and explanation

    Answer: 36

    B = 40 × 6/5 = 48 and A = 48 × 3/4 = 36.

14. If 5x − 3y = 13 and 2x + y = 3, what is x + y?

    1. 1
    2. −1
    3. 0
    4. 2
    Answer and explanation

    Answer: A (1)

    Multiply the second equation by 3: 6x + 3y = 9. Adding to the first: 11x = 22, so x = 2 and y = 3 − 4 = −1. Then x + y = 1.

15. What is the remainder when 2⁴⁰ is divided by 7? (type in your answer)

    Answer and explanation

    Answer: 2

    2³ = 8 leaves remainder 1 on division by 7. 2⁴⁰ = (2³)¹³ × 2, so the remainder is 1 × 2 = 2.

16. The volume of a sphere is 288π cm³. What is its surface area?

    1. 108π cm²
    2. 196π cm²
    3. 144π cm²
    4. 216π cm²
    Answer and explanation

    Answer: C (144π cm²)

    (4/3)πr³ = 288π gives r³ = 216 and r = 6. Surface area = 4πr² = 144π cm².

17. A cyclist covers 36 km in 2 hours 15 minutes. What is the cyclist's average speed in km/h? (type in your answer)

    Answer and explanation

    Answer: 16

    2 hours 15 minutes = 2.25 hours. Speed = 36 ÷ 2.25 = 16 km/h.

18. A fair coin is tossed three times. What is the probability of getting at least one head?

    1. 1/8
    2. 1/2
    3. 7/8
    4. 3/4
    Answer and explanation

    Answer: C (7/8)

    P(no heads) = (1/2)³ = 1/8, so P(at least one head) = 1 − 1/8 = 7/8.

19. The 3rd term of an arithmetic progression is 7 and the 7th term is 19. What is the sum of its first 15 terms?

    1. 315
    2. 330
    3. 345
    4. 360
    Answer and explanation

    Answer: B (330)

    4d = 19 − 7 = 12, so d = 3 and the first term is 7 − 6 = 1. S₁₅ = (15/2)(2 × 1 + 14 × 3) = 7.5 × 44 = 330.

20. Two similar triangles have areas 81 cm² and 144 cm². A side of the smaller triangle is 12 cm. What is the corresponding side of the larger triangle?

    1. 14 cm
    2. 15 cm
    3. 16 cm
    4. 18 cm
    Answer and explanation

    Answer: C (16 cm)

    The ratio of corresponding sides is the square root of the ratio of areas: √(144/81) = 12/9 = 4/3. So the side is 12 × 4/3 = 16 cm.