Test - GRE-Reading Comprehension

Select one answer choice from the given options.

1

Déjà vu is linked to extraordinary temporal lobe activity but there is more to it than that, including a couple of very interesting theories involving past life experiences and an empirical theory which propounds that the human mind knows everything about everything in the universe - past, present and future. Setting aside medical research which suggests that déjà vu is experienced often just before epilepsy attack, for the simple reason that not everyone who has such an experience suffers from epilepsy, the other two paranormal theories offer a lot of food for thought because they go beyond the realm of surface knowledge and delve into the unknown, uncharted and controversial realms of knowledge. Of all the knowledge that we have now, a vast majority was considered heresy and fantasy before it was established with suitable proof. It is important to try and understand these streams of relatively unexplored and nascent fountainheads of alternative knowledge as conventional dogmas alone cannot hope to provide all the answers to the plethora of unanswered mysteries of the world. One possible explanation for the experiences could be the past life theory, juxtaposing which with déjà vu would suggest the linkage of experiences in previous births with a sensation of having been there before in the present birth but a basic but serious flaw in this theory comes from statistical data which suggests that experiences of déjà vu peak in adolescence and taper off rapidly thereafter. As a starting point however, the theory is not so bad as science is nothing but the art of unraveling a badly jumbled up ball of yarn by pulling, tugging every individual strand and all available ends to try and determine the connection between them. Once a connection or knot is revealed, the next step involves getting one ball of yarn through that tunnel and then repeating that step maybe hundreds of times till a pattern begins to emerge.

According to the passage, each of the following is a possible explanation for the feeling of déjà vu EXCEPT:

Out-of-the-ordinary activity in the temporal lobe of the brain

A state of super-consciousness that goes into uncharted realms of knowledge

Wisdom accrued in the past being treated with derision

Possibility of witnessing something that one has seen in a previous birth

Phenomena before an epilepsy attack

Select one answer choice from the given options.

2

Déjà vu is linked to extraordinary temporal lobe activity but there is more to it than that, including a couple of very interesting theories involving past life experiences and an empirical theory which propounds that the human mind knows everything about everything in the universe - past, present and future. Setting aside medical research which suggests that déjà vu is experienced often just before epilepsy attack, for the simple reason that not everyone who has such an experience suffers from epilepsy, the other two paranormal theories offer a lot of food for thought because they go beyond the realm of surface knowledge and delve into the unknown, uncharted and controversial realms of knowledge. Of all the knowledge that we have now, a vast majority was considered heresy and fantasy before it was established with suitable proof. It is important to try and understand these streams of relatively unexplored and nascent fountainheads of alternative knowledge as conventional dogmas alone cannot hope to provide all the answers to the plethora of unanswered mysteries of the world. One possible explanation for the experiences could be the past life theory, juxtaposing which with déjà vu would suggest the linkage of experiences in previous births with a sensation of having been there before in the present birth but a basic but serious flaw in this theory comes from statistical data which suggests that experiences of déjà vu peak in adolescence and taper off rapidly thereafter. As a starting point however, the theory is not so bad as science is nothing but the art of unraveling a badly jumbled up ball of yarn by pulling, tugging every individual strand and all available ends to try and determine the connection between them. Once a connection or knot is revealed, the next step involves getting one ball of yarn through that tunnel and then repeating that step maybe hundreds of times till a pattern begins to emerge.

Which of the following statements can be derived from the passage?

Credibility gaps remain in past life experiences which are responsible for the sensation of déjà vu.

Science, like a jigsaw puzzle, consists of collecting all the pieces and putting them in their proper place to form a picture.

Fantasy forms a parallel stream of comprehension that never merges with conventional knowledge.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

3

Déjà vu is linked to extraordinary temporal lobe activity but there is more to it than that, including a couple of very interesting theories involving past life experiences and an empirical theory which propounds that the human mind knows everything about everything in the universe - past, present and future. Setting aside medical research which suggests that déjà vu is experienced often just before epilepsy attack, for the simple reason that not everyone who has such an experience suffers from epilepsy, the other two paranormal theories offer a lot of food for thought because they go beyond the realm of surface knowledge and delve into the unknown, uncharted and controversial realms of knowledge. Of all the knowledge that we have now, a vast majority was considered heresy and fantasy before it was established with suitable proof. It is important to try and understand these streams of relatively unexplored and nascent fountainheads of alternative knowledge as conventional dogmas alone cannot hope to provide all the answers to the plethora of unanswered mysteries of the world. One possible explanation for the experiences could be the past life theory, juxtaposing which with déjà vu would suggest the linkage of experiences in previous births with a sensation of having been there before in the present birth but a basic but serious flaw in this theory comes from statistical data which suggests that experiences of déjà vu peak in adolescence and taper off rapidly thereafter. As a starting point however, the theory is not so bad as science is nothing but the art of unraveling a badly jumbled up ball of yarn by pulling, tugging every individual strand and all available ends to try and determine the connection between them. Once a connection or knot is revealed, the next step involves getting one ball of yarn through that tunnel and then repeating that step maybe hundreds of times till a pattern begins to emerge.

In stating that "the human mind knows everything about everything in the universe - past, present and future", the author intends to

state his belief that conscious and subconscious form a part of super-consciousness that encapsulates all the knowledge in the universe

acknowledge a hypothesis that the human mind knows everything that there is to know

endorse the theory that since humans know everything, there is no need for formal education

agree to the fact that knowledge of past births combines with awareness of this birth to expand human understanding

acknowledge the validity of such a belief that helps explain why one experiences déjà vu in one's life

Select one answer choice from the given options.

4

The specialist may show how a special commodity can be advertised; but whether from a social point of view it is desirable to reinforce the sale of these goods is no problem for him. If a sociologist insists that it would be better if not so many useless goods were bought, and that the aim ought rather to be to protect the buyer than to help the seller, the specialist would not object. His interest would only be to find the right means to lead to this other social end. He is partisan neither of the salesman nor of the customer, neither of the capitalist nor of the laborer, he is neither Socialist nor anti-Socialist, neither high-tariff man nor free-trader. There are certain goals which are acknowledged on all sides, and which therefore hardly need any discussion. But where the aim is not perfectly a matter of course, the specialist fulfills his task only when he is satisfied with demonstrating that certain means serve a certain end, and that they ought to be applied as soon as that end is accepted.

What is the main idea of the passage?

The desirability of an end does not fall within the domain of the technical specialist.

The specialist must know how to reach an end, whatever it takes.

The specialist is an advertiser's and a lobbyist's best friend.

The specialist must proceed in a certain way towards a certain end.

The specialist moves only when the ends and the means justify each other.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

5

For more than a generation, science-fiction writers and aficionados have speculated about the possibility and imminence of the singularity—that is, the moment when AI will finally eclipse human intelligence. To many, it's meant the robot capable of thinking, and with an intellect surpassing our own. Let me suggest that digital problem-solving has already surpassed human capacity. Indeed, our advanced societies are now being ordered by a digital matrix of data collection, pattern recognition, and decision making that we cannot even begin to fathom—and that is happening every single successive millisecond. The singularity is here—we could call it the era of automation—and its inescapable imprint on our inner lives is already apparent. In pursuit of what John Stankey called more hours a day, the technology metes out its steady stream of tiny pleasures as the reward for your sustained attention. Touch the screen—respond to the offered stimuli like a rat in an experiment—and receive what some are now calling a dopamine rush.
What follows from this engagement with the devices is an education, in which the system absorbs our responses and begins to shape them. The fetishizing modality of the human unconscious, until now ever-elusive, is given ordinal form as the technology channels the nebulous pull of our proverbial id with Cartesian clarity, our deepest currents of desire rerouted toward the system's mercantile ends. This careful, unceasing, inhumanly methodical curation of our pleasure principle becomes a larger force in our psyches. The devices drip-feed us incremental stimulation, which in turn becomes co-extensive with the native ground of our very cognition.

It can be inferred from the passage that when it comes to using technology, which of the following would the author most likely agree with?

The longer we stick around using technology, the greater the yield of information and the more effective its influence.

Our affinities are increasingly no longer our own, but rather are selected for us for the purpose of automated economic gain.

Automating technology is effective in herding opinion in ways not meaningfully different from policing it.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

6

For more than a generation, science-fiction writers and aficionados have speculated about the possibility and imminence of the singularity—that is, the moment when AI will finally eclipse human intelligence. To many, it's meant the robot capable of thinking, and with an intellect surpassing our own. Let me suggest that digital problem-solving has already surpassed human capacity. Indeed, our advanced societies are now being ordered by a digital matrix of data collection, pattern recognition, and decision making that we cannot even begin to fathom—and that is happening every single successive millisecond. The singularity is here—we could call it the era of automation—and its inescapable imprint on our inner lives is already apparent. In pursuit of what John Stankey called more hours a day, the technology metes out its steady stream of tiny pleasures as the reward for your sustained attention. Touch the screen—respond to the offered stimuli like a rat in an experiment—and receive what some are now calling a dopamine rush.
What follows from this engagement with the devices is an education, in which the system absorbs our responses and begins to shape them. The fetishizing modality of the human unconscious, until now ever-elusive, is given ordinal form as the technology channels the nebulous pull of our proverbial id with Cartesian clarity, our deepest currents of desire rerouted toward the system's mercantile ends. This careful, unceasing, inhumanly methodical curation of our pleasure principle becomes a larger force in our psyches. The devices drip-feed us incremental stimulation, which in turn becomes co-extensive with the native ground of our very cognition.

Which of the following best describes the primary function of the highlighted sentence in the passage?

It makes a distinction between two types of reactions - one in animals and the other in humans.

It corrects a common misconception about the role of rewards while using a technological device.

It suggests how responses in humans from use of technology are similar to those in lab rats.

It suggests that tiny pleasures that one receives are merely experimental in nature.

It helps explain a possible role played by stimuli in experiments involving lab rats.

Select one answer choice from the given options.

7

Music means a pleasing modulation of sounds. Poets and novelists have used the term in figurative sense - as the music of forest, the music of the brook. Music has to do with tones, sounds selected on account of their musical quality and relations. These tones again, before becoming music in the artistic sense, must be so joined together, set in order, controlled by the human imagination, that they express sentiment. Every manifestation of musical art has two elements: first a befitting selection of tones and, second, the use of them for expressing sentiments and feelings. Hence, the practical art of music like every other fine art has its two elements: an outer or technical, where trained intelligence rules, and teaching and study are the principal means of progress; and an inner, the imagination and musical feeling, which can indeed be strengthened by judicious experience in hearing, but which when wanting cannot be supplied by the teacher or the laws of their action reduced to satisfactory statement.

According to the passage, each of the following constitutes music EXCEPT:

Tones of nature, stringed together

Trained intelligence applied to a coherent collection of notes

Human imagination and creativity beyond joy, sorrow, love and pride

A rhythm based on varied emotions one goes through

Human artistry to verbalize feelings

Select one answer choice from the given options.

8

Music means a pleasing modulation of sounds. Poets and novelists have used the term in figurative sense - as the music of forest, the music of the brook. Music has to do with tones, sounds selected on account of their musical quality and relations. These tones again, before becoming music in the artistic sense, must be so joined together, set in order, controlled by the human imagination, that they express sentiment. Every manifestation of musical art has two elements: first a befitting selection of tones and, second, the use of them for expressing sentiments and feelings. Hence, the practical art of music like every other fine art has its two elements: an outer or technical, where trained intelligence rules, and teaching and study are the principal means of progress; and an inner, the imagination and musical feeling, which can indeed be strengthened by judicious experience in hearing, but which when wanting cannot be supplied by the teacher or the laws of their action reduced to satisfactory statement.

In the context in which it appears, the phrase "judicious experience" most nearly means

application of the knowledge gained

practical knowledge discerned through inborn talent

the experience of varied tones and rhythms

the experience gained during careful training in music composition

selective assimilation of notes in music passed on by experts

Number	Status	Marked
1	Not answered
2	Not answered
3	Not answered
4	Not answered
5	Not answered
6	Not answered
7	Not answered
8	Not answered

GRE-Reading Comprehension - 8