CAT 2020 Slot 3 VARC Question & Solution
Passage
The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
[There is] a curious new reality: Human contact is becoming a luxury good. As more screens appear in the lives of the poor, screens are disappearing from the lives of the rich. The richer you are, the more you spend to be off-screen. . . .
The joy — at least at first — of the internet revolution was its democratic nature. Facebook is the same Facebook whether you are rich or poor. Gmail is the same Gmail. And it’s all free. There is something mass market and unappealing about that. And as studies show that time on these advertisement-support platforms is unhealthy, it all starts to seem déclassé, like drinking soda or smoking cigarettes, which wealthy people do less than poor people. The wealthy can afford to opt out of having their data and their attention sold as a product. The poor and middle class don’t have the same kind of resources to make that happen.
Screen exposure starts young. And children who spent more than two hours a day looking at a screen got lower scores on thinking and language tests, according to early results of a landmark study on brain development of more than 11,000 children that the National Institutes of Health is supporting. Most disturbingly, the study is finding that the brains of children who spend a lot of time on screens are different. For some kids, there is premature thinning of their cerebral cortex. In adults, one study found an association between screen time and depression. . . .
Tech companies worked hard to get public schools to buy into programs that required schools to have one laptop per student, arguing that it would better prepare children for their screen-based future. But this idea isn’t how the people who actually build the screen-based future raise their own children. In Silicon Valley, time on screens is increasingly seen as unhealthy. Here, the popular elementary school is the local Waldorf School, which promises a back-to-nature, nearly screen-free education. So as wealthy kids are growing up with less screen time, poor kids are growing up with more. How comfortable someone is with human engagement could become a new class marker.
Human contact is, of course, not exactly like organic food . . . . But with screen time, there has been a concerted effort on the part of Silicon Valley behemoths to confuse the public. The poor and the middle class are told that screens are good and important for them and their children. There are fleets of psychologists and neuroscientists on staff at big tech companies working to hook eyes and minds to the screen as fast as possible and for as long as possible. And so human contact is rare. . . .
There is a small movement to pass a “right to disconnect” bill, which would allow workers to turn their phones off, but for now, a worker can be punished for going offline and not being available. There is also the reality that in our culture of increasing isolation, in which so many of the traditional gathering places and social structures have disappeared, screens are filling a crucial void.
Question 1
Which of the following statements about the negative effects of screen time is the author least likely to endorse?
Solution:
Option A: This author will agree with this assertion. It has been mentioned in the third para: {... For some kids, there is premature thinning of their cerebral cortex...}.
Option B: Reduction in human contact or social engagement is one of the negative impacts of screen time that the author highlights in the passage. Option B is antithetical to this presentation and is, hence, not a claim that the author is likely to endorse.
Option C: The author states this element in the third para: {... In adults, one study found an association between screen time and depression...}
Option D: A point along similar lines has been presented in the fifth para: {...There are fleets of psychologists and neuroscientists on staff at big tech companies working to hook eyes and minds to the screen as fast as possible and for as long as possible. And so human contact is rare...}
Hence, Option B is the correct answer.
Question 2
The statement “The richer you are, the more you spend to be off-screen” is supported by which other line from the passage?
Solution:
At the very beginning, the author highlights the disparity in the screen time with regard to the wealthy and the common masses: {...As more screens appear in the lives of the poor, screens are disappearing from the lives of the rich. The richer you are, the more you spend to be off-screen...}. The statement in Option B supplements this assertion by further highlighting this observed difference in activity between the rich and the common: {...As more screens appear in the lives of the poor, screens are disappearing from the lives of the rich. The richer you are, the more you spend to be off-screen...}. None of the other options can be attached to the given statements. Hence, Option B is the correct answer.
Question 3
The author claims that Silicon Valley tech companies have tried to “confuse the public” by:
Solution:
The following excerpt from the fourth paragraph throws light into this matter: {...Tech companies worked hard to get public schools to buy into programs that required schools to have one laptop per student, arguing that it would better prepare children for their screen-based future. But this idea isn’t how the people who actually build the screen-based future raise their own children...}. It is understood that though tech companies manipulate public schools into engaging in a process involving more screen time, they avoid a similar course of activity when it comes to their own children {whom they subject to a screen-free education and upbringing}. Option D aptly captures this two-facedness. Option B is a distorted interpretation, while Options A and C cannot be inferred from the passage.
Hence, Option D is the correct answer.
Question 4
The author is least likely to agree with the view that the increase in screen-time is fuelled by the fact that:
Solution:
Option A: The author has already discussed a point along similar lines towards the end of the passage: {...There is also the reality that in our culture of increasing isolation, in which so many of the traditional gathering places and social structures have disappeared, screens are filling a crucial void...}. Hence, the author definitely considers this as one of the causes behind the increase in screen time.
Option B: The discussion in passage 4 and 5 highlights how the tech companies have {perhaps successfully} convinced schools to integrate a screen-based educational culture to prepare students for a "screen-based future". Thus, this is another factor that the author attributes to the rise in screen time.
Option C: This aspect has been discussed towards the end of the passage: {...There is a small movement to pass a “right to disconnect” bill, which would allow workers to turn their phones off, but for now, a worker can be punished for going offline and not being available...}. Hence, the author considers this as another factor contributing to the increase in screen time.
Option D: There is no discussion mentioning or detailing the elements presented in D. Thus, we cannot conclusively comment on whether the author is likely to agree with this point.
Hence, Option D is the correct answer.