CAT 2017 Slot 1 VARC Question & Solution
Passage
The passage below is accompanied by a set of six questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
This year alone, more than 8,600 stores could close, according to industry estimates, many of them the brand-name anchor outlets that real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court. Already there have been 5,300 retail closings this year... Sears Holdings — which owns Kmart — said in March that there's "substantial doubt" it can stay in business altogether, and will close 300 stores this year. So far this year, nine national retail chains have filed for bankruptcy.
Local jobs are a major casualty of what analysts are calling, with only a hint of hyperbole, the retail apocalypse. Since 2002, department stores have lost 448,000 jobs, a 25% decline, while the number of store closures this year is on pace to surpass the worst depths of the Great Recession. The growth of online retailers, meanwhile, has failed to offset those losses, with the e-commerce sector adding just 178,000 jobs over the past 15 years. Some of those jobs can be found in the massive distribution centers Amazon has opened across the country, often not too far from malls the company helped shutter.
But those are workplaces, not gathering places. The mall is both. And in the 61 years since the first enclosed one opened in suburban Minneapolis, the shopping mall has been where a huge swath of middle-class America went for far more than shopping. It was the home of first jobs and blind dates, the place for family photos and ear piercings, where goths and grandmothers could somehow walk through the same doors and find something they all liked. Sure, the food was lousy for you and the oceans of parking lots encouraged car- heavy development, something now scorned by contemporary planners. But for better or worse, the mall has been America's public square for the last 60 years.
So what happens when it disappears?
Think of your mall. Or think of the one you went to as a kid. Think of the perfume clouds in the department stores. The fountains splashing below the skylights. The cinnamon wafting from the food court. As far back as ancient Greece, societies have congregated around a central marketplace. In medieval Europe, they were outside cathedrals. For half of the 20th century and almost 20 years into the new one, much of America has found their agora on the terrazzo between Orange Julius and Sbarro, Waldenbooks and the Gap, Sunglass Hut and Hot Topic.
That mall was an ecosystem unto itself, a combination. of community and commercialism peddling everything you needed and everything you didn' t: Magic Eye posters, wind catchers, Air Jordans....
A growing number of Americans, however, don't see the need to go to any Macy's at all. Our digital lives are frictionless and ruthlessly efficient, with retail and romance available at a click. Malls were designed for leisure, abundance, ambling. You parked and planned to spend some time. Today, much of that time has been given over to busier lives and second jobs and apps that let you swipe right instead of haunt the food court. Malls, says Harvard business professor Leonard Schlesinger, "were built for patterns of social interaction that increasingly don't exist."
Question 1
The central idea of this passage is that:
Solution:
The author argues that malls were more than just shopping places. Towards the end of the passage, the author tries to invoke a sense of nostalgia by stating how malls used to play an important role in everyone's life and how that function is getting lost.
Let us evaluate the options.
Option B states that the advantages of the malls outweigh the disadvantages. The author has not mentioned anything about the disadvantages of the malls. Therefore, we can easily eliminate option B.
Option D states that malls are closing down since people have found an alternate way to shop. Though the option is true, the main point of the author is not that malls are closing down. The author is concerned about the fact that malls were places of congregation and the closure of malls takes a social function away with them. Therefore, we can eliminate option D as well.
Options A and C are close. Option A states that the closure of malls has affected the social and economic life of America. However, the author states that the closure of malls is reflective of the changing social structure of America. Option A gets the relationship backwards and hence, option A can be eliminated.
Option C states that malls used to perform a social function that has been lost. This seems to be the main point that the author is trying to emphasize through the paragraph. The author states how malls used to be places of congregation and how the new generation finds no need to go to malls. Therefore, option C is the right answer.
Question 2
Why does the author say in paragraph 2, 'the massive distribution centers Amazon has opened across the country, often not too far from malls the company helped shutter'?
Solution:
No where has it been mentioned that Amazon is helping brands go online. Therefore, we can eliminate option C.
Option D states that the purpose of the line is to indicate that the shopping habits of the middle class America has changed. However, the author talks about shopping habits towards the end of the passage. The author has not introduced the topic of 'shopping habits' when the given line has been mentioned. Therefore, we can eliminate option D as well.
Option B states that the author uses the line to indicate that the malls and distribution centres are located in the same area. However, the author states that the distribution centres are replacing the malls. He does not intend to convey that they co-exist. Therefore, we can eliminate option B as well.
Option A states that the author uses the line to indicate the irony of the situation. Option A captures the fact that the author finds it ironic that distribution centres are springing up near the places where the malls once existed. Therefore, option A is the right answer.
Question 3
In the first paragraph, the phrase "real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court..." suggests that they
Solution:
In the first paragraph, the author states that "many of them the brand-name anchor outlets that real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court", indicating that the brand outlets used to be sought after once but are no longer in demand. The author states that the real estate developers used to fight each other over these outlets earlier. Therefore, we can infer that the real estate developers no longer show the kind of enthusiasm they did (since the outlets are closing down) and hence, option B is the right answer.
Question 4
The author calls the mall an ecosystem unto itself because
Solution:
The author calls malls an ecosystem since they served as places of congregation. The author compares the market places from ancient Greece to emphasize how malls, just like the market places through out the history, served as the places of social interaction as well. Only option C captures the fact that malls serves both as commercial and social centres and hence, option C is the right answer.
Question 5
Why does the author say that the mall has been America's public square?
Solution:
The main point that the author places is that malls served as places of social interaction and cannot be reduced to merely places of commercial activity. Therefore, the author compares the malls as America's public square to show the bustling social life that the malls hosted. Therefore, option D is the right answer.
Question 6
The author describes 'Perfume clouds in the department stores' in order to
Solution:
In the last 2 paragraphs, the author tries to invoke a sense of nostalgia by describing the malls. He tries to make the readers feel the ambiance and vibrance of the malls by taking us down the memory lane. Option B adopts an objective tone. The author does not merely describe a mall. He tries to invoke our memories of the malls. Options C and D can be eliminated since the purpose of the author is not to emphasize that all brands were available at one place or to establish the reason for the sweet smell that the malls carried. The author tries to make an emotional appeal and only option A captures this point. Therefore, option A is the right answer.