CAT 2024 Slot 2 VARC Question & Solution
Passage
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
The history of any major technological or industrial advance is inevitably shadowed by a less predictable history of unintended consequences and secondary effects — what economists sometimes call “externalities.” Sometimes those consequences are innocuous ones, or even beneficial. Gutenberg invents the printing press, and literacy rates rise, which causes a significant part of the reading public to require spectacles for the first time, which creates a surge of investment in lens-making across Europe, which leads to the invention of the telescope and the microscope.
Oftentimes the secondary effects seem to belong to an entirely different sphere of society. When Willis Carrier hit upon the idea of air-conditioning, the technology was primarily intended for industrial use: ensuring cool, dry air for factories that required low-humidity environments. But…it touched off one of the largest migrations in the history of the United States, enabling the rise of metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas that barely existed when Carrier first started tinkering with the idea in the early 1900s.
Sometimes the unintended consequence comes about when consumers use an invention in a surprising way. Edison famously thought his phonograph, which he sometimes called “the talking machine,” would primarily be used to take dictation….But then later innovators… discovered a much larger audience willing to pay for musical recordings made on descendants of Edison’s original invention. In other cases, the original innovation comes into the world disguised as a plaything…the way the animatronic dolls of the mid-1700s inspired Jacquard to invent the first “programmable” loom and Charles Babbage to invent the first machine that fit the modern definition of a computer, setting the stage for the revolution in programmable technology that would transform the 21st century in countless ways.
We live under the gathering storm of modern history’s most momentous unintended consequence….carbon-based climate change. Imagine the vast sweep of inventors whose ideas started the Industrial Revolution, all the entrepreneurs and scientists and hobbyists who had a hand in bringing it about. Line up a thousand of them and ask them all what they had been hoping to do with their work. Not one would say that their intent had been to deposit enough carbon in the atmosphere to create a greenhouse effect that trapped heat at the surface of the planet. And yet here we are.
Ethyl (leaded fuel) and Freon belonged to the same general class of secondary effect: innovations whose unintended consequences stem from some kind of waste by-product that they emit. But the potential health threats of Ethyl (unleaded fuel) were visible in the 1920s, unlike, say, the long-term effects of atmospheric carbon build up in the early days of the Industrial Revolution….
Indeed, it is reasonable to see CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) as a forerunner of the kind of threat we will most likely face in the coming decades, as it becomes increasingly possible for individuals or small groups to create new scientific advances — through chemistry or biotechnology or materials science — setting off unintended consequences that reverberate on a global scale.
Question 1
The author lists all of the following examples as “externalities” of major technical advances EXCEPT:
Solution:
Option B is the correct answer.
This is not an externality because it was the original intended use of air-conditioning. The passage mentions that Carrier invented air-conditioning to ensure cool, dry air for factories with low-humidity requirements.
The other options are externalities:
Option A: This is an unintended consequence. CFCs were initially used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, but their long-term environmental impact (ozone depletion) was not anticipated.
Option C: The Jacquard loom was originally a mechanical device for weaving patterns in fabric, but it led to the development of programmable machines, which had far-reaching effects on modern computing, which was also an unintended consequence of the loom's invention.
Option D: The passage states that the phonograph was initially designed for dictation but was adapted for music recording, which was an unintended consequence.
Question 2
Which of the following best conveys the main point of the first paragraph?
Solution:
Option B is the correct answer.
The first paragraph discusses how technological or industrial advances are often accompanied by unintended consequences or secondary effects, which may not be fully understood or predictable at the time of the invention. It gives the example of the printing press, which led to unexpected developments such as the creation of spectacles, and later, the telescope and microscope. This is well captured in Option B.
Option A: While some secondary effects may be beneficial, the focus of the paragraph is more on the unpredictability and far-reaching nature of these effects, rather than their inherent benefit.
Option C: The paragraph doesn't advocate judging inventions by their secondary effects. Instead, it mentions that these effects are unpredictable and sometimes surprising. The main point is their unpredictability, not how to judge an invention.
Option D: The paragraph does not suggest that the impact of a technological advance should be evaluated by the boost its secondary effects give to generating further technological advances.
Question 3
Carrier, Babbage, and Edison are mentioned in the passage to illustrate the author’s point that
Solution:
Option B is the correct answer.
The author mentions Carrier, Babbage, and Edison to emphasize that the inventors' original intentions were not related to the unexpected societal impacts their inventions had:
- Carrier created air-conditioning for industrial use, but it triggered a mass migration to cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas.
- Babbage's invention of a programmable loom and Edison’s phonograph were originally intended for specific purposes (textile weaving and dictation, respectively). Still, they led to far-reaching technological developments in computing and music industries.
Therefore, we can infer that the inventors did not anticipate the full consequences of their inventions.
Option A: The secondary effects are shown as surprising or leading to unforeseen societal changes, rather than leading to more inventions.
Option C: The passage doesn't claim that the unintended consequences were largely beneficial. While some consequences may have been beneficial (like the telescope and microscope from the printing press), others (like climate change ) have been harmful.
Option D: This is close, but it's not the main point. The intended purpose of the inventions may have been different from their actual use, but the author’s primary argument is about how the inventors could not have predicted the full societal impacts of their inventions, rather than focusing on how inventions end up being used for different purposes.
Question 4
We can assume that the author would support all of the following views EXCEPT:
Solution:
Option A is the correct answer.
The author does not imply that recent advances are more threatening than past ones. Instead, he suggests that the nature of technological progress (with more individuals and smaller groups able to innovate) has changed, leading to new risks. The focus is not on comparing "past vs. recent" as more threatening but on the unexpected global impacts of all technological advances. Thus, option A misrepresents the author's view.
Option B: The author would agree with this because the passage explains that Ethyl (leaded fuel) and Freon are examples of innovations whose unintended consequences stem from by-products they emitted (such as lead from fuel and chemicals from Freon), which had secondary effects on health and the environment.
Option C: The author would support this as he mentions how individuals or small groups can now create innovations that have global impacts, particularly in fields like biotechnology and chemistry, which was less true in the past.
Option D: The author suggests that the health threats of leaded fuel were visible earlier (in the 1920s), implying that they should have been addressed sooner. Hence, the author would support this