CAT 2023 Answer Key PDF with Detailed Solution (Nov 26, 2023) (Slot 2)

CAT 2023 Slot 2 Answer Key with Detailed Solutions is available here to download in PDF format. CAT 2023 Slot 2 was conducted on November 26, 2023, from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM.

CAT 2023 Answer Key with Detailed Solution; Download PDF

(DIRECTIONS for questions 1-4)

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

The Positivists, anxious to stake out their claim for history as a science, contributed the weight of their influence to the cult of facts. First ascertain the facts, said the positivists, then draw your conclusions from them... This is what may [be] called the common-sense view of history. History consists of a corpus of ascertained facts. Read More

1. If the author of the passage were to write a book on the Battle of Hastings along the lines of his/her own reasoning, the focus of the historical account would be on:

1. providing a nuanced interpretation by relying on the auxiliary sciences.

2. exploring the socio-political and economic factors that led to the Battle.

3. producing a detailed timeline of the various events that led to the Battle.

4. deriving historical facts from the relevant documents and inscriptions.

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2. According to this passage, which one of the following statements best describes the significance of archaeology for historians?

1. Archaeology helps historians to locate the oldest civilisations in history.

2. Archaeology helps historians to ascertain factual accuracy.

3. Archaeology helps historians to interpret historical facts.

4. Archaeology helps historians to carry out their primary duty.

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3. All of the following, if true, can weaken the passage’s claim that facts do not speak for themselves, EXCEPT:

1. a fact, by its very nature, is objective and universal, irrespective of the context in which it is placed.

2. facts, like truth, can be relative: what is fact for person X may not be so for person Y.

3. the order in which a series of facts is presented does not have any bearing on the production of meaning.

4. the truth value of a fact is independent of the historian who expresses it.

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4. All of the following describe the “common-sense view” of history, EXCEPT:

1. only the positivist methods can lead to credible historical knowledge.

2. history can be objective like the sciences if it is derived from historical facts.

3. real history can be found in ancient engravings and archival documents.

4. history is like science: a selective system of cognitive orientations to reality.

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(DIRECTIONS for questions 5-8)

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

Umberto Eco, an Italian writer, was right when he said the language of Europe is translation. Netflix and other deep-pocketed global firms speak it well. Just as the EU employs a small army of translators and interpreters to turn intricate laws or impassioned speeches of Romanian MEPs into the EU’s 24 official languages, so do the likes of Netflix. Read More

5. Based only on information provided in the passage, which one of the following hypothetical Netflix shows would be most successful with audiences across the EU?

1. A trans-Atlantic romantic drama set in Europe and America.

2. An Italian comedy show hosted by an international star.

3. An original German TV science fiction production.

4. A murder mystery drama set in North Africa and France.

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6. The author sees the rise of Netflix in Europe as:

1. an economic threat.

2. a looming cultural threat.

3. filling an entertainment gap.

4. a unifying force.

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7. Based on information provided in the passage, all of the following are true, EXCEPT:

1. national broadcasters dominate in the EU in terms of total television viewing hours.

2. Netflix has been able to transform itself into a truly European entity.

3. only half of Netflix’s original programming in the EU is now produced in America.

4. European television productions have the potential to become global hits.

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8. Which one of the following research findings would weaken the author’s conclusion in the final paragraph?

1. Research shows there is a wide variance in the popularity and viewing of Netflix shows across different EU countries.

2. Research shows that older women across the EU enjoy watching romantic comedies on Netflix, whereas younger women prefer historical fiction dramas.

3. Research shows that Netflix hits produced in France are very popular with North American audiences.

4. Research shows that Netflix has been gradually losing market share to other streaming television service providers.

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(DIRECTIONS for questions 9-12)

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

Over the past four centuries, liberalism has been so successful that it has driven all its opponents off the battlefield. Now it is disintegrating, destroyed by a mix of hubris and internal contradictions, according to Patrick Deneen, a professor of politics at the University of Notre Dame. . . . Equality of opportunity has produced a new meritocratic aristocracy that has all the aloofness of the old aristocracy with none of its sense of noblesse oblige. Read More

9. The author of the passage is likely to disagree with all of the following statements, EXCEPT:

1. if we accept that liberalism is a dying ideal, we must work to find a viable substitute.

2. the essence of liberalism lies in greater individual self-expression and freedoms.

3. claims about liberalism’s disintegration are exaggerated and misunderstand its core features.

4. liberalism was the dominant ideal in the past century, but it had to reform itself to remain so.

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10. All of the following statements are evidence of the decline of liberalism today, EXCEPT:

1. “And technological advances are reducing ever more areas of work into meaningless drudgery.”

2. “. . . the creation of a business aristocracy, the rise of vast companies . . .”

3. “Democracy has degenerated into a theatre of the absurd.”

4. “‘The gap between liberalism’s claims about itself and the lived reality of the citizenry’ is now so wide that ‘the lie can no longer be accepted,’. . .”

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11. The author of the passage refers to “the Davos elite” to illustrate his views on:

1. the unlikelihood of a return to the liberalism of the past as long as the rich continue to benefit from the decline in liberal values.

2. the fact that the rise in liberalism had led to a greater interest in shared futures from unlikely social classes.

3. the hypocrisy of the liberal rich, who profess to subscribe to liberal values while cornering most of the wealth.

4. the way the debate around liberalism has been captured by the rich who have managed to insulate themselves from economic hardships.

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12. The author of the passage faults Deneen’s conclusions for all of the following reasons, EXCEPT:

1. its extreme pessimism about the future of liberalism today and predictions of an ultimate decline.

2. its repeated harking back to premodern notions of liberty.

3. its very narrow definition of liberalism limited to individual freedoms.

4. its failure to note historical instances in which the process of declining liberalism has managed to reverse itself.

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(DIRECTIONS for questions 13-16)

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

The Second Hand September campaign, led by Oxfam . . . seeks to encourage shopping at local organizations and charities as alternatives to fast fashion brands such as Primark and Boohoo in the name of saving our planet. As innocent as mindless scrolling through online shops may seem, such consumers are unintentionally—or perhaps even knowingly—contributing to an industry that uses more energy than aviation. . . .Read More

13. Based on the passage, we can infer that the opposite of fast fashion, ‘slow fashion,' would most likely refer to clothes that:

1. Do not shed microfibers.

2. are sold by genuine vintage stores.

3. are of high quality and long-lasting.

4. do not bleed toxins and dyes.

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14. According to the author, companies like ThredUP have not caught on in the UK for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that:

1. the British don’t buy second-hand clothing.

2. luxury brands do not like their product to be devalued.

3. luxury brands want to maintain their brand image.

4. recycling is currently not financially attractive for luxury brands.

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15. The act of “thrifting”, as described in the passage, can be considered ironic because it:

1. offers luxury clothing at cut-rate prices.

2. has created environmental problems.

3. is an anti-consumerist attitude.

4. is not cost-effective for retailers.

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16. The central idea of the passage would be undermined if:

1. customers bought all their clothes online.

2. second-hand stores sold only high-quality clothes.

3. Primark and Boohoo recycled their clothes for vintage stores.

4. clothes were not thrown and burnt in landfills.

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There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

17. Sentence: And probably much earlier, moving the documentation for kissing back 1,000 years compared to what was acknowledged in the scientific community.
Paragraph: Research has hypothesised that the earliest evidence of human lip kissing originated in a very specific geographical location in South Asia 3,500 years ago.___(1)___. From there it may have spread to other regions, simultaneously accelerating the spread of the herpes simplex virus 1. According to Dr Troels Pank Arbøll and Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, who in a new article in the journal Science draw on a range of written sources from the earliest Mesopotamian societies, kissing was already a well-established practice 4,500 years ago in the Middle East.___(2)___. In ancient Mesopotamia, people wrote in cuneiform script on clay tablets.___(3)___. Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day, and they contain clear examples that kissing was considered a part of romantic intimacy in ancient times.___(4)___. “Kissing could also have been part of friendships and family members' relations," says Dr Troels Pank Arbøll, an expert on the history of medicine in Mesopotamia.

1. Option 4

2. Option 2

3. Option 3

4. Option 1

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There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

18. Sentence: Dualism was long held as the defining feature of developing countries in contrast to developed countries, where frontier technologies and high productivity were assumed to prevail.
Paragraph: ___(1)___. At the core of development economics lies the idea of ‘productive dualism’: that poor countries’ economies are split between a narrow ‘modern’ sector that uses advanced technologies and a larger ‘traditional’ sector characterized by very low productivity.___(2)___. While this distinction between developing and advanced economies may have made some sense in the 1950s and 1960s, it no longer appears to be very relevant. A combination of forces have produced a widening gap between the winners and those left behind.___(3)___. Convergence between poor and rich parts of the economy was arrested and regional disparities widened.___(4)___. As a result, policymakers in advanced economies are now grappling with the same questions that have long preoccupied developing economies: mainly how to close the gap with the more advanced parts of the economy.

1. Option 1

2. Option 2

3. Option 3

4. Option 4

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Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph.

19. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

1. Self-care particularly links to loneliness, behavioural problems, and negative academic outcomes.

2. “Latchkey children” refers to children who routinely return home from school to empty homes and take care of themselves for extended periods of time.

3. Although self-care generally points to negative outcomes, it is important to consider that the bulk of research has yet to track long-term consequences.

4. In research and practice, the phrase “children in self-care” has come to replace latchkey in an effort to more accurately reflect the nature of their circumstances.

5. Although parents might believe that self-care would be beneficial for development, recent research has found quite the opposite.

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Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph.

20. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

1. The banning of Northern Lights could be considered a precursor to censoring books for “moral”, world view or religious reasons.

2. Attempts to ban books are attempts to silence authors who have summoned immense courage in telling their stories.

3. Now the banning and challenging of books in the US has escalated to an unprecedented level.

4. The widely acclaimed fantasy novel Northern Lights was banned in some parts of the US, and was the second most challenged book in the US.

5. The American Library Association documented an unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022, about 2,500 unique titles.

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The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given 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. Like the ants that make up a colony, no single neuron holds complex information like self-awareness, hope or pride.
2. Although the human brain is not yet understood enough to identify the mechanism by which emergence functions, most neurobiologists agree that complex interconnections among the parts give rise to qualities that belong only to the whole.
3. Nonetheless, the sum of all neurons in the nervous system generate complex human emotions like fear and joy, none of which can be attributed to a single neuron.
4. Human consciousness is often called an emergent property of the human brain.

1. 3412

2. 4132

3. 1243

4. 3241

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The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given 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. Contemporary African writing like ‘The Bottled Leopard’ voices this theme using two children and two backgrounds to juxtapose two varying cultures.
2. Chukwuemeka Ike explores the conflict, and casts the Western tradition as condescending, enveloping and unaccommodating towards local African practice.
3. However, their views contradict the reality, for a rich and sustaining local African cultural ethos exists for all who care, to see and experience.
4. Western Christian concepts tend to deny or feign ignorance about the existence of a genuine and enduring indigenous African tradition.

1. 1243

2. 3412

3. 4321

4. 3124

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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.

23. Heatwaves are becoming longer, frequent and intense due to climate change. The impacts of extreme heat are unevenly experienced; with older people and young children, those with pre-existing medical conditions and on low incomes significantly more vulnerable. Adaptation to heatwaves is a significant public policy concern. Research conducted among at-risk people in the UK reveals that even vulnerable people do not perceive themselves as at risk of extreme heat; therefore, early warnings of extreme heat events do not perform as intended. This suggests that understanding how extreme heat is narrated is very important. The news media play a central role in this process and can help warn people about the potential danger, as well as about impacts on infrastructure and society.

1. People are vulnerable to heatwaves caused due to climate change, measures taken are ineffective.

2. News stories help in warning about heatwaves, but they have to become more effective.

3. Heatwaves pose an enormous risk; the media plays a pivotal role in alerting people to this danger.

4. Protection from heat waves is important but current reports and public policies seem ineffective.

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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.

24. People spontaneously create counterfactual alternatives to reality when they think “if only” or “what if” and imagine how the past could have been different. The mind computes counterfactuals for many reasons. Counterfactuals explain the past and prepare for the future, they implicate various relations including causal ones, and they affect intentions and decisions. They modulate emotions such as regret and relief, and they support moral judgments such as blame. The ability to create counterfactuals develops throughout childhood and contributes to reasoning about other people's beliefs, including their false beliefs.

1. Counterfactual alternatives to reality are created for a variety of reasons and is part of one's developmental process.

2. People create counterfactual alternatives to reality for various reasons, including reasoning about other people's beliefs.

3. Counterfactuals help people to prepare for the future by understanding intentions and making decisions.

4. Counterfactual thinking helps to reverse past and future actions and reason out false beliefs.

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CAT Preparation Tips

Candidates preparing for upcoming CAT exams should practise previous year question papers, take mock tests, and focus on improving speed and accuracy. The following CAT preparation tips can help candidates improve their performance:

• Solve Previous Year Papers: Practise CAT 2023 Slot 2 and other previous year question papers to understand the exam pattern and difficulty level.
• Focus on Important Topics: Prepare Reading Comprehension, Para Jumbles, Arithmetic, Algebra, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning.
• Attempt Mock Tests: Take full-length CAT mock tests regularly to improve time management and question selection.
• Analyse Mistakes: Review incorrect answers using the CAT 2023 Slot 2 answer key and detailed solutions, and revise weak topics.
• Improve Section-wise Accuracy: Practise VARC, DILR and QA separately while maintaining the 40-minute sectional time limit.

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CAT Exam Analysis

CAT 2023 Slot 2 was conducted on November 26, 2023, with 66 questions across VARC, DILR and QA. The overall difficulty level was moderate to difficult, based on expert reviews and candidate feedback. The section-wise CAT 2023 Slot 2 analysis is summarised below.

CAT 2023 Slot 2 Key Highlights: VARC included four Reading Comprehension passages and two questions each on Para Jumbles, Para Summary, Paragraph Completion and Odd Sentence Out. DILR contained four sets involving company data, scores and averages, rides and timings, and grid puzzles. QA focused mainly on Arithmetic and Algebra. Careful set selection was important in DILR, while QA required strong conceptual understanding and calculation accuracy.

CAT Answer Key 2023 FAQs

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