CAT 2023 Question Paper and Answer Key PDF (Nov 26, 2023) (Slot 3)

CAT 2023 Slot 3 Question Paper and Answer Key PDF with Detailed Solutions is available here to download and attempt as a test. CAT 2023 Slot 3 was conducted on November 26, 2023, from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM by IIM Lucknow. The evening session included 66 questions carrying 198 marks across VARC, DILR, and Quantitative Aptitude.

CAT 2023 Nov 26 Slot 3 Question Paper PDF with Answer Key

(DIRECTIONS for questions 1-4)

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

In 2006, the Met art museum in the US agreed to return the Euphronios krater, a masterpiece Greek urn that had been a museum draw since 1972. In 2007, the Getty [art museum in the US agreed to return 40 objects to Italy, including a marble Aphrodite, in the midst of looting scandals. And in December, Sotheby’s and a private owner agreed to return an ancient Khmer statue of a warrior, pulled from auction two years before, to Cambodia. Read More

1. From the passage we can infer that the author is likely to advise poor, but archaeologically-rich source countries to do all of the following, EXCEPT:

1. allow foreign countries to analyse and exhibit the archaeological finds made in the source country.

2. adopt China’s strategy of dropping its cultural property laws and carrying out archaeological research through international collaboration.

3. to find ways to motivate other countries to finance archaeological explorations in their country.

4. fund institutes in other countries to undertake archaeological exploration in the source country reaping the benefits of cutting-edge techniques.

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2. It can be inferred from the passage that archaeological sites are considered important by some source countries because they:

1. are subject to strict patrimony laws.

2. are a symbol of Western imperialism.

3. generate funds for future discoveries.

4. give a boost to the tourism sector.

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3. Which one of the following statements, if true, would undermine the central idea of the passage?

1. UNESCO finances archaeological research in poor, but archaeologically-rich source countries.

2. Western countries will have to apologise to countries for looting their cultural property in the past century.

3. Affluent archaeologically-rich source countries can afford to carry out their own excavations.

4. Museums established in economically deprived archaeologically-rich source countries can display the antiques discovered there.

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4. Which one of the following statements best expresses the paradox of patrimony laws?

1. They were aimed at protecting cultural property, but instead reduced new archaeological discoveries.

2. They were intended to protect cultural property, but instead resulted in the withholding of national treasure from museums.

3. They were aimed at protecting cultural property, but instead reduced business for auctioneers like Sotheby’s.

4. They were intended to protect cultural property, but instead resulted in the neglect of historical sites.

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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.

Steven Pinker’s new book, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” offers a pragmatic dose of measured optimism, presenting rationality as a fragile but achievable ideal in personal and civic life. . . . Pinker’s ambition to illuminate such a crucial topic offers the welcome prospect of a return to sanity. . . . It’s no small achievement to make formal logic, game theory, statistics and Bayesian reasoning delightful topics full of charm and relevance. Read More

5. The author endorses Pinker’s views on the importance of logical reasoning as it:

1. equips people with the ability to tackle challenging practical problems.

2. helps people to gain expertise in statistics and other scientific disciplines.

3. focuses public attention on real issues like development rather than sensational events.

4. provides a moral compass for resolving important ethical dilemmas.

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6. According to the author, for Pinker as well as the ancient Greek philosophers, rational thinking involves all of the following EXCEPT:

1. the belief that the ability to reason logically encompasses an ethical and moral dimension.

2. the primacy of conscious sequential reasoning as the basis for seminal human achievements.

3. arriving at independent conclusions irrespective of who is presenting the argument.

4. an awareness of underlying assumptions in an argument and gaps in one’s own knowledge.

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7. The author refers to the ancient Greek philosophers to:

1. show how dreams and visions have for centuries influenced subconscious behaviour and pathbreaking inventions.

2. indicate the various similarities between their thinking and Pinker’s conclusions.

3. highlight the influence of their thinking on the development of Pinker’s arguments.

4. reveal gaps in Pinker’s discussion of the importance of ethical considerations in rational behaviour.

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8. The author mentions Kekulé’s discovery of the structure of benzene and Mozart’s symphonies to illustrate the point that:

1. unlike the sciences, human achievements in other fields are a mix of logical reasoning and spontaneous epiphanies.

2. great innovations across various fields can stem from flashes of intuition and are not always propelled by logical thinking.

3. it is not just the creative arts, but also scientific fields that have benefitted from flashes of creativity.

4. Pinker’s conclusions on sequential reasoning are belied by European achievements which, in the past, were more rooted in unconscious bursts of genius.

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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.

The biggest challenge The Nutmeg’s Curse by Ghosh throws down is to the prevailing understanding of when the climate crisis started. Most of us have accepted . . . that it started with the widespread use of coal at the beginning of the Industrial Age in the 18th century and worsened with the mass adoption of oil and natural gas in the 20th. Read More

9. All of the following can be inferred from the reviewer’s discussion of “The Nutmeg’s Curse”, EXCEPT:

1. academic discourses have always served the function of raising awareness about environmental preservation.

2. the history of climate change is deeply intertwined with the history of colonialism.

3. the contemporary dominant perception of nature and the environment was put in place by processes of colonialism.

4. environmental preservation policy makers can learn a lot from non-European and/or pre-colonial societies.

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10. Which one of the following best explains the primary purpose of the discussion of the colonisation of the Banda islands in “The Nutmeg’s Curse”?

1. To illustrate the first instance in history when the processes responsible for climate change were initiated.

2. To illustrate how systemic violence against the colonised constituted the cornerstone of colonialism.

3. To illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that has led to climate change.

4. To illustrate the role played by the cultivation of certain crops in the plantation mode in contributing to climate change.

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11. Which one of the following, if true, would make the reviewer’s choice of the pronoun “who” for Gaia inappropriate?

1. Ghosh’s book has a different title: “The Nutmeg’s Revenge”.

2. Non-European societies have perceived the Earth as a non-living source of all resources.

3. Modern western science discovers new evidence for the Earth being an inanimate object.

4. There is a direct cause–effect relationship between human activities and global climate change.

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12. On the basis of information in the passage, which one of the following is NOT a reason for the failure of policies seeking to address climate change?

1. The marginalised status of non-European ways of looking at nature and the environment.

2. The greed of organisations benefiting from non-renewable energy resources.

3. The decentralised characteristic of renewable energy resources like solar power.

4. The global dominance of oil economies and international politics built around it.

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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.

Understanding romantic aesthetics is not a simple undertaking for reasons that are internal to the nature of the subject. Distinguished scholars, such as Arthur Lovejoy, Northrop Frye and Isaiah Berlin, have remarked on the notorious challenges facing any attempt to define romanticism. Read More

13. According to the romantics, aesthetics:

1. is primarily the concern of philosophers and artists, rather than of ordinary people.

2. should be confined to a specific domain separate from the practical and theoretical aspects of life.

3. permeates all aspects of human life, philosophical and mundane.

4. is widely considered to be irrelevant to human existence.

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14. According to the passage, recent studies on romanticism avoid “a single definition, a specific time, or a specific place” because they:

1. understand that the variety of romanticisms renders a general analysis impossible.

2. prefer to focus on the fundamental concerns of the romantics.

3. prefer to highlight the paradox of romantic aesthetics as a concept.

4. seek to discredit Lovejoy’s scepticism regarding romanticism.

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15. Which one of the following statements is NOT supported by the passage?

1. Recent studies on romanticism seek to refute the differences between national romanticisms.

2. Characterising romantic aesthetics is both possible and desirable, despite the challenges involved.

3. Many romantics rejected the idea of aesthetics as a domain separate from other aspects of life.

4. Romantic aesthetics are primarily expressed through fragments, aphorisms, and poems.

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16. The main difficulty in studying romanticism is the:

1. elusive and suggestive nature of romantic aesthetics.

2. lack of clear conceptual contours of the domain.

3. absence of written accounts by romantic poets and artists.

4. controversial and scandalous history of romantic literature.

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17. Sentence: For theoretical purposes, arguments may be considered as freestanding entities, abstracted from their contexts of use in actual human activities.
Paragraph : ___(1)___. An argument can be defined as a complex symbolic structure where some parts, known as the premises, offer support to another part, the conclusion. Alternatively, an argument can be viewed as a complex speech act consisting of one or more acts of premising (which assert propositions in favor of the conclusion), an act of concluding, and a stated or implicit marker (“hence”, “therefore”) that indicates that the conclusion follows from the premises.___(2)___. The relation of support between premises and conclusion can be cashed out in different ways: the premises may guarantee the truth of the conclusion, or make its truth more probable; the premises may imply the conclusion; the premises may make the conclusion more acceptable (or assertible).___(3)___. But depending on one’s explanatory goals, there is also much to be gained from considering arguments as they in fact occur in human communicative practices.___(4)___.

1. Option 2

2. Option 1

3. Option 4

4. Option 3

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18. Sentence: Beyond undermining the monopoly of the State on the use of force, armed conflict also creates an environment that can enable organized crime to prosper.
Paragraph: ___(1)___. Linkages between illicit arms, organized crime, and armed conflict can reinforce one another while also escalating and prolonging violence and eroding governance.___(2)___. Financial gains from crime can lengthen or intensify armed conflicts by creating revenue streams for non-State armed groups (NSAGs).___(3)___. In this context, when hostilities cease and parties to a conflict move towards a peaceful resolution, the widespread availability of surplus arms and ammunition can contribute to a situation of ‘criminalized peace’ that obstructs sustainable peacebuilding efforts.___(4)___.

1. Option 4

2. Option 2

3. Option 1

4. Option 3

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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. Although hard skills have traditionally ruled the roost, some companies are moving away from choosing prospective hires based on technical abilities alone.

2. Companies are shaking off the old definition of an ideal candidate and ditching the idea of looking for the singularly perfect candidate altogether.

3. Now, some job descriptions are frequently asking for candidates to demonstrate soft skills, such as leadership or teamwork.

4. That’s not to say that practical know-how is no longer required – some jobs still call for highly specific expertise

5. The move towards prioritising soft skills “is a natural response to three years of the pandemic” says a senior recruiter at Cenlar FSB.

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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. Boa Senior, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo.

2. The indigenous population has been steadily collapsing since the island chain was colonised by British settlers in 1858 and used for most of the following 100 years as a colonial penal colony.

3. Taking its name from a now-extinct tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to pre-Neolithic human settlement of south-east Asia.

4. The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world's oldest cultures.

5. Though the language has been closely studied by researchers of linguistic history, Boa Senior spent the last few years of her life unable to converse with anyone in her mother tongue.

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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. Centuries later formal learning is still mostly based on reading, even with the widespread use of other possible education-affecting technologies such as film, radio, and television.
2. One of the immediate and recognisable impacts of the printing press was on how people learned; in the scribal culture it primarily involved listening, so memorization was paramount.
3. The transformation of learners from listeners to readers was a complex social and cultural phenomenon, and it was not until the industrial era that the concept of universal literacy took root.
4. The printing press shifted the learning process, as listening and memorisation gradually gave way to reading and learning no longer required the presence of a mentor; it could be done privately.

1. 1342

2. 2431

3. 1243

4. 3124

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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. Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist at the University of New South Wales, believes there is a new way of solving this problem.
2. Her vision is for automated drones and robots to pick out components, put them into a small furnace and smelt them at specific temperatures to extract the metals one by one before they are sent off to manufacturers for reuse.
3. E-waste contains huge quantities of valuable metals, ceramics and plastics that could be salvaged and recycled, although currently not enough of it is.
4. She plans to build microfactories that can tease apart the tangle of materials in mobile phones, computers and other e-waste.

1. 2413

2. 4132

3. 3142

4. 1324

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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. Gradually, life for the island’s birds is improving. Antarctic prions and white-headed petrels, which also nest in burrows, had managed to cling on in some sites while pests were on the island. Their numbers are now increasing. “It’s fantastic and so exciting,” Shaw says. As birds return to breed, they also poo. This adds nutrients to the soil, which in turn helps the plants to grow back stronger. Tall plants then help burrowing birds hide from predatory skuas. “It’s this wonderful feedback loop,” Shaw says. Today, the “pretty paddock” that Houghton first experienced has been transformed. “The tussock is over your head, and you’re dodging all these penguin tunnels,” she says. The orchids and tiny herb that had been protected by fencing have started turning up all over the place.

1. There is a huge positive transformation of the ecosystem of the island when brought under environmental protection.

2. There is an increasing number of predatory birds and plants on the island despite the presence of pests which is a positive development.

3. In the absence of pests, life on the island is now protected, and there has been a revival of a variety of birds and plants.

4. Flowering plants, herbs and birds are now being protected on this wonderful Antarctic island.

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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. The weight of society’s expectations is hardly a new phenomenon but it has become particularly draining over recent decades, perhaps because expectations themselves are so multifarious and contradictory. The perfectionism of the 1950s was rooted in the norms of mass culture and captured in famous advertising images of the ideal white American family that now seem self-satirising. In that era, perfectionism meant seamlessly conforming to values, behaviour and appearance: chiselled confidence for men, demure graciousness for women. The perfectionist was under pressure to look like everyone else, only more so. The perfectionists of today, by contrast, feel an obligation to stand out through their idiosyncratic style and wit if they are to gain a foothold in the attention economy.

1. The desire to attract attention is so deep-rooted in individual consciousness that people are willing to go to any lengths to achieve it.

2. The image of perfectionism is reflected in and perpetuated by the media; and people do their best to adhere to these ideals.

3. The pressure to appear perfect has been the cause of tension and conflict because the idea itself has been in a state of flux and hard to define.

4. Though long-standing, the pressure to appear perfect and thereby attract attention, has evolved over time from one of conformism to one of non-conformism.

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CAT 2023 Slot 3 Section-Wise Question Distribution

CAT 2023 Slot 3 consisted of 66 questions divided into three sections. VARC carried the highest number with 24 questions, followed by Quantitative Aptitude with 22 questions and DILR with 20 questions.

CAT 2023 Slot 3 Exam Pattern and Marking Scheme

CAT 2023 Slot 3 followed a computer-based examination pattern with a total duration of 120 minutes. Each section had a fixed time limit of 40 minutes, and candidates could not switch between sections.

Candidates can calculate their raw scores by awarding three marks for each correct answer and deducting one mark for each incorrect MCQ. Incorrect TITA answers and unattempted questions carry no penalty.

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CAT 2023 Slot 3 Important Topics for Future Preparation

The CAT 2023 Slot 3 question paper covered a variety of topics across the three sections. Practising these topics with detailed solutions can help candidates improve their conceptual understanding and examination strategy.

Why Should Candidates Practise CAT 2023 Slot 3 Question Paper?

Practising CAT 2023 Slot 3 helps candidates become familiar with the actual examination structure and develop a better solving strategy. The paper also provides an opportunity to compare performance across different CAT slots.

Candidates should attempt the paper under timed conditions, review the detailed solutions, and identify questions that consumed unnecessary time. Regular practice with CAT previous year question papers can improve speed, accuracy, and confidence.

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