CAT 2021 Slot 3 VARC Question & Solution

Reading ComprehensionMedium

Passage

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

Today we can hardly conceive of ourselves without an unconscious. Yet between 1700 and 1900, this notion developed as a genuinely original thought. The “unconscious” burst the shell of conventional language, coined as it had been to embody the fleeting ideas and the shifting conceptions of several generations until, finally, it became fixed and defined in specialized terms within the realm of medical psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis.

The vocabulary concerning the soul and the mind increased enormously in the course of the nineteenth century. The enrichments of literary and intellectual language led to an altered understanding of the meanings that underlie time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords. At the same time, once coined, powerful new ideas attracted to themselves a whole host of seemingly unrelated issues, practices, and experiences, creating a peculiar network of preoccupations that as a group had not existed before. The drawn-out attempt to approach and define the unconscious brought together the spiritualist and the psychical researcher of borderline phenomena (such as apparitions, spectral illusions, haunted houses, mediums, trance, automatic writing); the psychiatrist or alienist probing the nature of mental disease, of abnormal ideation, hallucination, delirium, melancholia, mania; the surgeon performing operations with the aid of hypnotism; the magnetizer claiming to correct the disequilibrium in the universal flow of magnetic fluids but who soon came to be regarded as a clever manipulator of the imagination; the physiologist and the physician who puzzled over sleep, dreams, sleepwalking, anesthesia, the influence of the mind on the body in health and disease; the neurologist concerned with the functions of the brain and the physiological basis of mental life; the philosopher interested in the will, the emotions, consciousness, knowledge, imagination and the creative genius; and, last but not least, the psychologist.

Significantly, most if not all of these practices (for example, hypnotism in surgery or psychological magnetism) originated in the waning years of the eighteenth century and during the early decades of the nineteenth century, as did some of the disciplines (such as psychology and psychical research). The majority of topics too were either new or assumed hitherto unknown colors. Thus, before 1790, few if any spoke, in medical terms, of the affinity between creative genius and the hallucinations of the insane . . .

Striving vaguely and independently to give expression to a latent conception, various lines of thought can be brought together by some novel term. The new concept then serves as a kind of resting place or stocktaking in the development of ideas, giving satisfaction and a stimulus for further discussion or speculation. Thus, the massive introduction of the term unconscious by Hartmann in 1869 appeared to focalize many stray thoughts, affording a temporary feeling that a crucial step had been taken forward, a comprehensive knowledge gained, a knowledge that required only further elaboration, explication, and unfolding in order to bring in a bounty of higher understanding. Ultimately, Hartmann’s attempt at defining the unconscious proved fruitless because he extended its reach into every realm of organic and inorganic, spiritual, intellectual, and instinctive existence, severely diluting the precision and compromising the impact of the concept.

Question 1

Which one of the following statements best describes what the passage is about?

The discovery of the unconscious as a part of the human mind.

The growing vocabulary of the soul and the mind, as diverse processes.

The collating of diverse ideas under the single term: unconscious.

The identification of the unconscious as an object of psychical research.

Solution:

The passage starts by highlighting that the term 'unconscious', widely held today, came in conception not long ago. With the coining of this term, many unrelated activities/ideas found a common umbrella under which they could be categorized and also allowed them to prosper. The author then writes the following line, which gives us a clear conception of the main theme:

Thus, the massive introduction of the term unconscious by Hartmann in 1869 appeared to focalize many stray thoughts, affording a temporary feeling that a crucial step had been taken forward, a comprehensive knowledge gained a knowledge that required only further elaboration, explication, and unfolding in order to bring in a bounty of higher understanding.

Thus, the passage is about the assembly of many stray thoughts under the banner of the unconscious. Option C perfectly captures this, and hence, is the answer.

The author does not primarily deal with the unconscious as a part of the mind. Nor does he focus upon the expansion of the vocabulary of the mind and the soul. Thus, Options A and B can be rejected.

'Psychical research' is not the main focus of the passage. The author says that the term allowed certain 'psychic' activities to flourish. He does not focus on the term as an object of psychical research. Hence, Option D can be eliminated too.

Question 2

“The enrichments of literary and intellectual language led to an altered understanding of the meanings that underlie time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords.” Which one of the following interpretations of this sentence would be closest in meaning to the original?

All of the options listed here.

Time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords were enriched by literary and intellectual language.

Literary and intellectual language was altered by time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords.

The meanings of time-honored expressions were changed by innovations in literary and intellectual language.

Solution:

Let us try to break the sentence down and interpret its meaning:

“The enrichments of literary and intellectual language led to an altered understanding of the meanings that underlie time-honored expressions and traditional catchwords.”

In the context of the passage, the line means that when the terms related to 'the unconscious' were coined, they enriched the vocabulary of the language and this, in turn, changes the meanings of many old expressions related to this term.

Option D comes the closest in capturing the meaning, and hence, is the answer.

B: The meanings of the catchwords were altered. They were not enriched. Can be eliminated.

C: The catchwords did not cause a change. Their own meaning was changed. Can be eliminated.

Question 3

Which one of the following sets of words is closest to mapping the main arguments of the passage?

Unconscious; Latent conception; Dreams.

Literary language; Unconscious; Insanity.

Language; Unconscious; Psychoanalysis.

Imagination; Magnetism; Psychiatry.

Solution:

Unconscious is the primary focus of the passage. Since D does not have that as a main point, it can be eliminated.

Dreams find a single, small mention as an example in the passage. Hence, Option A can be eliminated too.

Insanity finds a small mention in the passage and is not a main point. Hence, Option B is incorrect.

The author initially deals with how the enrichment of vocabulary on the matter of unconscious has a deep effect and how this later became a subject of psychoanalysis. Hence, Option C is the correct answer.

Question 4

All of the following statements may be considered valid inferences from the passage, EXCEPT:

Without the linguistic developments of the nineteenth century, the growth of understanding of the soul and the mind may not have happened.

Eighteenth century thinkers were the first to perceive a connection between creative genius and insanity.

New conceptions in the nineteenth century could provide new knowledge because of the establishment of fields such as anaesthesiology.

Unrelated practices began to be treated as related to each other, as knowledge of the mind grew in the nineteenth century.

Solution:

The “unconscious” burst the shell of conventional language, coined as it had been to embody the fleeting ideas and the shifting conceptions of several generations until, finally, it became fixed and defined in specialized terms within the realm of medical psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis.

In the passage, the author has clearly outlined the importance of linguistic developments in helping the knowledge of the field grow. Since the option is not extreme in certainty ('may' not have happened), Option A can be inferred.

From the above excerpt, we can infer that the affinity between genius and insanity was not looked into before the 18th century.

At the same time, once coined, powerful new ideas attracted to themselves a whole host of seemingly unrelated issues, practices, and experiences, creating a peculiar network of preoccupations that as a group had not existed before.

The above excerpt and the examples the author provides after this excerpt can help us infer that as the knowledge of the mind grew, unrelated activities found a common title. Option D can be inferred.

The passage does not imply anywhere that the new conceptions were able to provide new knowledge only because some fields were established. Option C is out of the scope of the passage and cannot be inferred.