Free Verbal Reasoning - 12 Practice Test - CAT 

A.   It begins with an ordinary fever and a moderate cough.
B.   India could be under attack from a class of germs that cause what are called atypical pneumonias.
C.   Slowly, a sore throat progresses to bronchitis and then pneumonia and respiratory complications.
D.   It appears like the ordinary flu, but baffled doctors find that the usual drugs don't work.

(CAT1997)

A.   Chemists mostly don't stock it only a few government hospitals do but in limited quantities.
B.   Delhi's building boom is creating a bizarre problem: snakes are increasingly biting people as they emerge from their disturbed underground homes.
C.   There isn't enough anti-snake serum, largely because there is no centralized agency that distributes the product.
D.   If things don't improve, more people could face paralysis, and even death

(CAT1997)

A.   But the last decade has witnessed greater voting and political participation by various privileged sections.
B.   If one goes by the earlier record of mid-term elections, it is likely that the turnout in 1998 will drop by anything between four and six percentage points over the already low polling of 58 percent in 1996.
C.   If this trend offsets the mid-term poll fatigue; the fall may not be so steep.
D.   Notwithstanding a good deal of speculation on this issue, it is still not clear as to who benefits from a lower turnout

(CAT1997)

A.   After several routine elections there comes a 'critical' election which redefines the basic pattern of political loyalties, redraws political geography and opens up the frozen political space.
B.   In psychological jargon they call it realignment.
C.   Rather, since 1989, there have been a series of semi-critical elections.
D.   On a strict definition, none of the recent Indian elections qualifies as a critical election.

(CAT 1997)

A.   Trivial pursuits, marketed by the Congress, is a game imported from Italy.
B.   The idea is to create an imaginary savior in times of crisis so that the party doesn't fall flat on its collective face.
C.   Closest contenders are Mani Shankar Aiyar, Who still hears his master's voice, and V, Geoge, who is frustrated by the fact that his political future remains Sonia and yet so far.
D.   The current champion is Arjun Singh for whom all roads lead to Rome, or in this case, 10 Janpath.

(CAT 1997)

A.   Good advertising can make people buy your products even if it is a fiasco.
B.   A dollar spent on brainwashing is more cost-effective than a dollar spent on product improvement.
C.   That's important because it takes pressure off you to make good products.
D.   Obviously, there's a minimum quality that every product has to achieve:     it should be able to withstand the shipping process without becoming unrecognizable

(CAT 1997)

A.   But, clearly, the government still has the final say.  
B.   In the past few years, the Reserve Bank of India might have wrested considerable powers from the government when it comes to monetary policy.
C.   The RBI's announcements on certain issues become effective only after the government notifies them.
D.   Isn't it time the government vested the RBI with powers to sanction such changes, leaving their ratification for later?

(CAT 1997)

A.   I sat there frowning at the checkered table cloth, chewing the bitter cud of insight.
B.   That wintry afternoon in Manhattan, waiting in the little French restaurant, I was feeling frustrated and depressed.
C.   Even the prospect of seeing a dear friend failed to cheer me as it usually did.
D.   Because of certain miscalculations on my part, a project of considerable importance in my life had fallen through

(CAT 1997)

A.   Perhaps the best known is the Bay Area Writing Project, founded by James gray in 1974.
B.   The decline in writing skills can be stopped.
C.   Today's back-to-basics movement has already forced some schools to place renewed emphasis on the three Rs.
D.   Although the inability of some teachers to teach writing successfully remains a big stumbling block, a number of programmes have been developed to attack this problem

(CAT 1997)

1.   Buddhism is a way to salvation.
A.   But Buddhism is more severely analytical.
B.   In the Christian tradition there is also a concern for the fate of human society conceived as a whole, rather than merely as a sum or network of individuals.
C.   Salvation is a property, or achievement of individuals.
D.   Not only does it dissolve society into individuals, the individual in turn is also dissolved into component parts and instants, a stream of events.
6.   In modern terminology, Buddhist doctrine is reductionist.

(CAT 1998)

1.   The problem of improving Indian agriculture is both a sociological and an administrative one.
A.   It also appears that there is a direct relationship between the size of a state and development.
B.   The issues of Indian development, and the problems of India's agricultural sector, will remain with us long into the next century.
C.   Without improving Indian agriculture, no liberalization and delicensing will be able to help India.
D.   At the end of the day, there has to be a ferment and movement of life and action in the vast segment of rural India.
6.   When it starts marching, India will fly

(CAT 1998)

1.   Good literary magazines have always been good because of their editors.
A.   Furthermore, to edit by committee, as it were, would prevent any magazine from finding its own identity.
B.   The more quirky and idiosyncratic they have been, the better the magazine is, at least as general rule.
C.   But the number of editors one can have for a magazine should also be determined by the number of contributions to it.
D.   To have four editors for an issue that contains only seven contributions is a bit silly to start with.
6.   However, in spite of this anomaly, the magazine does acquire merit in its attempt to give a comprehensive view of the Indian literary scene as it is today.

(CAT 1998)

1.   It's the success story of the Indian expatriate in the US which today hogs much of the media coverage in India.
A.   East and West, the twain has met quite comfortably in their person, thank you.
B.   Especially in it's more recent romancing the NRI phase.
C.   Seldom does the price of getting there "“ more like not getting there "“ or what's going on behind those sunny smiles get so much media hype.
D.   Well groomed, with their perfect Colgate smiles, and hair in place, they appear the picture of confidence which comes from having arrived.
6.   The festival of feature films and documentaries made by Americans of Indian descent being screened this fortnight goes a long way in filling those gaps

(CAT 1998)

1.   A market for Indian art has existed ever since the International art scene sprang to life.
A.   But Interest in architectural conceits is unanticipated fallout of the Festivals of India of the 80s, which were designed to increase exports of Indian crafts.
B.   Simultaneously, the Indian elite discarded their synthetic sarees and kitsch plastic furniture and a market came into being.
C.   Western dealers, unhappy in a market affected by violent price fluctuations and unpredictable profit margins, began to look east, and found cheap antiques with irresistible appeal.
D.   The fortunes of the Delhi supremos, the Jew Town dealers in Cochin and myriad others around the country were made.
6.   A chain of command was established, from the local contacts to the provincial dealers and up to the big boys, who entertain in the Italians and the French, cutting deals worth lakhs in warehouse worth crores.

(CAT 1998)

A.   He was carrying his jacket and walked with his head thrown back.  
B.   As Annette neared the lamp she saw a figure walking slowly.
C.   For while Michael walked on and she followed twenty paces behind.
D.   With a mixture of terror and triumph of recognition she slackened her pace

(CAT 1998)