CAT 2021 Question Paper and Answer Key PDF (Nov 28, 2021) (Slot 1)

CAT 2021 Slot 1 Question Paper and Answer Key PDF are available for download with detailed solutions. The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2021 was conducted by IIM Ahmedabad on November 28, 2021, with Slot 1 held from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM.

CAT 2021 Question Paper and Answer Key PDF

(DIRECTIONS for questions 1-4)

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

The sleights of hand that conflate consumption with virtue are a central theme in A Thirst for Empire, a sweeping and richly detailed history of tea by the historian Erika Rappaport. How did tea evolve from an obscure “China drink” to a universal beverage imbued with civilising properties? Read More

1. The author of this book review is LEAST likely to support the view that:

1. tea drinking has become a social ritual worldwide.

2. tea drinking was sometimes promoted as a patriotic duty.

3. tea became the leading drink in Britain in the nineteenth century.

4. the ritual of drinking tea promotes congeniality and camaraderie.

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2. This book review argues that, according to Rappaport, tea is unlike other “morality” products because it:

1. appealed to a universal group and not just to a niche section of people.

2. had an actual beneficial effect on social interaction and society in general.

3. was actively encouraged by interest groups in the government.

4. was marketed by a wide range of interest groups.

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3. Today, “conflat[ing] consumption with virtue” can be seen in the marketing of:

1. ergonomically designed products.

2. travel to pristine destinations.

3. sustainably farmed foods.

4. natural health supplements.

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4. According to this book review, A Thirst for Empire says that, in addition to “profit-motivated marketers”, tea drinking was promoted in Britain by all of the following EXCEPT:

1. manufacturers who were pressing for duty-free imports.

2. factories to instill sobriety in their labour.

3. the anti-alcohol lobby as a substitute for the consumption of liquor.

4. tea drinkers lobbying for product diversity.

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(DIRECTIONS for questions 5-8)

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

For the Maya of the Classic period, who lived in Southern Mexico and Central America between 250 and 900 CE, the category of ‘persons’ was not coincident with human beings, as it is for us. That is, human beings were persons – but other, nonhuman entities could be persons, too. . . . In order to explore the slippage of categories between ‘humans’ and ‘persons’, I examined a very specific category of ancient Maya images, found painted in scenes on ceramic vessels. Read More

5. Which one of the following best explains the “additional complexity” that the example of the incense burner illustrates regarding personhood for the Classic Maya?

1. The example adds a new layer to the nonbinary understanding of personhood by bringing in a third category that shares a dissimilar relation with the previous two.

2. The example adds a new layer to the nonbinary understanding of personhood by bringing in a third category that shares a similar relation with the previous two.

3. The example provides an exception to the nonbinary understanding of personhood that the passage had hitherto established.

4. The example complicates the nonbinary understanding of personhood by bringing in the sacred, establishing the porosity of the divine and the profane.

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6. Which one of the following, if true about the Classic Maya, would invalidate the purpose of the iPhone example in the passage?

1. The personhood of the incense burner and the stone chopper was a function of their usefulness to humans.

2. Classic Maya songs represent both humans and non-living objects as characters, talking and interacting with each other.

3. Unlike modern societies equipped with mobile phones, the Classic Maya did not have any communicating objects.

4. The clay incense burner with spiky appliques was categorised only as a person and not as a tree by the Classic Maya.

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7. On the basis of the passage, which one of the following worldviews can be inferred to be closest to that of the Classic Maya?

1. A tribe that perceives its hunting weapons as sacred person-artefacts because of their significance to its survival.

2. A tribe that perceives its utensils as person-utensils in light of their functionality and bodily needs.

3. A tribe that perceives plants as person-plants because they form an ecosystem and are marked by needs of nutrition.

4. A futuristic society that perceives robots to be persons as well as robots because of their similarity to humans.

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8. Which one of the following, if true, would not undermine the democratising potential of the Classic Maya worldview?

1. While they believed in the personhood of objects and plants, they did not believe in the personhood of rivers and animals.

2. They understood the stone implement and the incense burner in a purely human form.

3. They depicted their human healers with physical attributes of local medicinal plants.

4. They believed that animals like cats and dogs that live in proximity to humans have a more clearly articulated personhood.

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(DIRECTIONS for questions 9-12)

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

We cannot travel outside our neighbourhood without passports. We must wear the same plain clothes. We must exchange our houses every ten years. We cannot avoid labour. We all go to bed at the same time . . . We have religious freedom, but we cannot deny that the soul dies with the body, since ‘but for the fear of punishment, they would have nothing but contempt for the laws and customs of society’. . . . In More’s time, for much of the population, given the plenty and security on offer, such restraints would not have seemed overly unreasonable. Read More

9. All of the following statements can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT that:

1. many conceptions of utopian societies emphasise the importance of social uniformity and cultural homogeneity.

2. it is possible to see utopias as dystopias, with a change in perspective, because one person’s utopia could be seen as another’s dystopia.

3. utopian societies exist in a long tradition of literature dealing with imaginary people practicing imaginary customs, in imaginary worlds.

4. utopian and dystopian societies are twins, the progeny of the same parents.

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10. Following from the passage, which one of the following may be seen as a characteristic of a utopian society?

1. The regulation of homogeneity through promoting competitive heterogeneity.

2. A society without any laws to restrain one’s individuality.

3. A society where public power is earned through merit rather than through privilege.

4. Institutional surveillance of every individual to ensure his/her security and welfare.

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11. All of the following arguments are made in the passage EXCEPT that:

1. in early modern utopianism, the stability of utopian societies was seen to be achieved only with individuals surrendering their sense of self.

2. in More’s time, there was plenty and security, so people did not need restraints that could appear unreasonable.

3. there have been thousands of communities where homogeneity and stability have been achieved through choice, rather than by force.

4. the tradition of utopian literature has often shown societies in which it would be nearly impossible for anyone to be sinful or criminal.

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12. Which sequence of words below best captures the narrative of the passage?

1. Relentless transparency – Homogeneity – Utopia – Dystopia.

2. Curtailment of privacy – Dystopia – Utopia – Intentional community.

3. Utopia – Security – Homogeneity – Intentional community.

4. Utopia – Security – Dystopia – Coercion.

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(DIRECTIONS for questions 13-16)

The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.

Cuttlefish are full of personality, as behavioral ecologist Alexandra Schnell found out while researching the cephalopod’s potential to display self-control. . . . “Self-control is thought to be the cornerstone of intelligence, as it is an important prerequisite for complex decision-making and planning for the future,” says Schnell . . .Read More

13. All of the following constitute a point of difference between the “original” and “modified” versions of the marshmallow test EXCEPT that:

1. the former was performed over a longer time span than the latter.

2. the former used verbal communication with its subjects, while the latter had to develop a symbolic means of communication.

3. the former had human subjects, while the latter had cuttlefish.

4. the former correlated self-control and future success, while the latter correlated self-control and survival advantages.

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14. Which one of the following cannot be inferred from Alexandra Schnell’s experiment?

1. Cuttlefish exert self-control with the help of diversions.

2. Like human children, cuttlefish are capable of self-control.

3. Cuttlefish exercise choice when it comes to food.

4. Intelligence in a species is impossible without sociability.

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15. In which one of the following scenarios would the cuttlefish’s behaviour demonstrate self-control?

1. live grass shrimp are released while two raw prawn drawers labelled with a circle and a triangle respectively are placed in front of the cuttlefish; the triangle-labelled drawer is opened after 50 seconds.

2. raw prawns are released while an Asian shore crab drawer labelled with a triangle is placed in front of the cuttlefish, to be opened after one minute.

3. Asian shore crabs and raw prawns are simultaneously released while a live grass shrimp drawer labelled with a triangle is placed in front of the cuttlefish, to be opened after one minute.

4. raw prawns are released while a live grass shrimp drawer labelled with a square is placed in front of the cuttlefish.

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16. Which one of the following, if true, would best complement the passage’s findings?

1. Cuttlefish are equally fond of live grass shrimp and raw prawn.

2. Cuttlefish live in big groups that exhibit sociability.

3. Cuttlefish cannot distinguish between geometrical shapes.

4. Cuttlefish wait longer than 100 seconds for the shrimp drawer to open up.

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The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

17. McGurk and MacDonald (1976) reported a powerful multisensory illusion occurring with audio-visual speech. They recorded a voice articulating a consonant ‘ba-ba-ba’ and dubbed it with a face articulating another consonant ‘ga-ga-ga’. Even though the acoustic speech signal was well recognized alone, it was heard as another consonant after dubbing with incongruent visual speech i.e., ‘da-da-da’. The illusion, termed as the McGurk effect, has been replicated many times, and it has sparked an abundance of research. The reason for the great impact is that this is a striking demonstration of multisensory integration, where that auditory and visual information is merged into a unified, integrated percept.
Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

1. The McGurk effect which is a demonstration of multisensory integration has been replicated many times.

2. When the auditory speech signal does not match the visual speech movements, the acoustic speech signal is confusing and integration of the two is imperfect.

3. When the quality of auditory information is poor, the visual information wins over the auditory information.

4. Visual speech mismatched with auditory speech can result in the perception of an entirely different message: this illusion is known as the McGurk effect.

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The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

18. Foreign peacekeepers often exist in a bubble in the poor countries in which they are deployed; they live in posh compounds, drive fancy vehicles, and distance themselves from locals. This may be partially justified as they are outsiders, living in constant fear, performing a job that is emotionally draining. But they are often despised by the locals, and many would like them to leave. A better solution would be bottom-up peacebuilding, which would involve their spending more time working with communities, understanding their grievances and earning their trust, rather than only meeting government officials.
Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

1. Extravagant lifestyles and an aloof attitude among the foreigners working as peacekeepers in poor countries have justifiably make them the target of local anger.

2. Peacekeeping forces in foreign countries have tended to be aloof for valid reasons but would be more effective if they worked more closely with local communities.

3. Peacekeeping duties would be more effectively performed by local residents given their better understanding, knowledge and rapport with their own communities.

4. The environment in poor countries has tended to make foreign peacekeeping forces live in enclaves, but it is time to change this scenario.

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The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

19. Developing countries are becoming hotbeds of business innovation in much the same way as Japan did from the 1950s onwards. They are reinventing systems of production and distribution, and experimenting with entirely new business models. Why are countries that were until recently associated with cheap hands now becoming leaders in innovation? Driven by a mixture of ambition and fear they are relentlessly climbing up the value chain. Emerging-market champions have not only proved highly competitive in their own backyards, they are also going global themselves.
Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

1. Production and distribution models are going through rapid innovations worldwide as developed countries are being challenged by their earlier suppliers from the developing world.

2. Innovations in production and distribution are helping emerging economies compete with countries to which they once supplied cheap labour.

3. Competition has driven emerging economies, once suppliers of cheap labour, to become innovators of business models that have enabled them to move up the value chain and go global.

4. Developing countries are being forced to invent new business models which challenge the old business models, so they can remain competitive domestically.

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20. Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:

1. The legal status of resources mined in space remains ambiguous; and while the market for asteroid minerals is currently nonexistent, this is likely to change as technical hurdles diminish.

2. Outer space is a commons, and all of it is open for exploration, however, space law developed in the 1950s and 60s is state-centric and arguably ill-suited to a commercial future.

3. Laws adopted by the US and Luxembourg are first steps, but they only protect firms from competing claims by their compatriots; a Chinese company will not be bound by US law.

4. Critics say the US is conferring rights that it has no authority to confer; Russia in particular has condemned this, citing the US’ disrespect for international law.

5. At issue now is commercial activity, as private firms—rather than nation states—look to space for profit.

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The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:

21. 1. In the central nervous systems of other animal species, such a comprehensive regeneration of neurons has not yet been proven beyond doubt.
2. Biologists from the University of Bayreuth have discovered a uniquely rapid form of regeneration in injured neurons and their function in the central nervous system of zebrafish.
3. They studied the Mauthner cells, which are solely responsible for the escape behaviour of the fish, and previously regarded as incapable of regeneration.
4. However, their ability to regenerate crucially depends on the location of the injury.
Choose the proper sequence of the sentences.

1. 1234

2. 3412

3. 2341

4. 4123

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The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:

22. 1. A popular response is the exhortation to plant more trees.
2. It seems all but certain that global warming will go well above two degrees—quite how high no one knows yet.
3. Burning them releases it, which is why the scale of forest fires in the Amazon basin last year garnered headlines.
4. This is because trees sequester carbon by absorbing carbon dioxide.
Choose the proper sequence of the sentences.

1. 2143

2. 1324

3. 3421

4. 4213

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The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:

23. 1. The work is more than the text, for the text only takes on life, when it is realized and furthermore the realization is by no means independent of the individual disposition of the reader.
2. The convergence of text and reader brings the literary work into existence and this convergence is not to be identified either with the reality of the text or with the individual disposition of the reader.
3. From this polarity it follows that the literary work cannot be completely identical with the text, or with the realization of the text, but in fact must lie halfway between the two.
4. The literary work has two poles, which we might call the artistic and the aesthetic; the artistic refers to the text created by the author, and the aesthetic to the realization accomplished by the reader.
Choose the proper sequence of the sentences.

1. 3412

2. 4312

3. 3124

4. 2134

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24. Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:

1. There is a dark side to academic research, especially in India, and at its centre is the phenomenon of predatory journals.

2. But in truth, as long as you pay, you can get anything published.

3. In look and feel thus, they are exactly like any reputed journal.

4. They claim to be indexed in the most influential databases, say they possess editorial boards that comprise top scientists and researchers, and claim to have a rigorous peer-review structure.

5. But a large section of researchers and scientists across the world are at the receiving end of nothing short of an academic publishing scam.

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CAT 2021 Slot 1 Important Topics

CAT 2021 Slot 1 covered questions from Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA). Arithmetic and Reading Comprehension were prominent, while DILR included lengthy sets requiring careful selection and time management.

• VARC: Reading Comprehension, Para Jumbles, Para Summary, Odd Sentence Out, and Inference-Based Questions.
• DILR: Tables, Graphical Data Interpretation, Logical Arrangements, Caselets, and Set-Based Reasoning.
• QA: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Number System, Time-Speed-Distance, Ratio and Proportion, and Mensuration.

CAT 2021 Slot 1 Exam Pattern

CAT 2021 Slot 1 was conducted in computer-based mode for a total duration of 120 minutes. The question paper consisted of 66 questions divided into three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (24 questions), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (20 questions), and Quantitative Ability (22 questions). Each section had a time limit of 40 minutes. Candidates received 3 marks for every correct answer, while 1 mark was deducted for each incorrect MCQ response. There was no negative marking for non-MCQ (TITA) questions. The maximum marks were 198.

CAT 2021 Slot 1 Question Paper and Answer Key FAQs

Ques: How many Reading Comprehension passages were asked in CAT 2021 Slot 1?

Ques: Which section was the most time-consuming in CAT 2021 Slot 1?

Ques: How many non-MCQ questions were included in CAT 2021 Slot 1?

Ques: Which topics had the highest weightage in CAT 2021 Slot 1 Quantitative Ability?

Ques: Was there any change in the number of questions in CAT 2021 compared to CAT 2020?