CAT 1999 — VARC Question 19
Directions: For each of the two questions, indicate which of the statements given with that particular question is consistent with the description of the unseasonable man in the passage below.
Unseasonableness is a tendency to do socially permissible things at the wrong time. The unseasonable man is the sort of person who comes to confide in you when you are busy. He serenades his beloved when she is ill. He asks a man who has just lost money by paying a bill for a friend to pay a bill for him. He invites a friend to go for a ride just after the friend has finished a long car trip. He is eager to offer services which are not wanted, but which cannot be politely refused. If he is present at an arbitration, he stirs up dissension between the two parties, who were really anxious to agree. Such is the unseasonable man.
Directions: In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is underlined. Beneath each sentence, four different ways of phrasing the underlined part are indicated. Choose the best alternative among the four.
Since the advent of cable television, at the beginning of this decade, the entertainment industry took a giant stride forward in our country.
Answer & solution
- A
this decade saw the entertainment industry taking
this decade, the entertainment industry has taken
- C
this decade, the entertainment industry had taken
- D
this decade, the entertainment industry took
(b) is the correct answer choice.
This question tests you for use of the correct verb tense. Possible constructions could be:
(i) At the beginning of this decade, X took a giant stride ...
(ii) Use present perfect, when we talk of a period of time extending from a point in the past and completion of an action ‘since’ then, as seen from today’s perspective.
(b) matches with (ii) above and correctly uses the present perfect tense. The phrase ‘at the beginning of this decade’ is merely placed in opposition to inform us about the ‘advent of cable television,’ and does not in any way affect the structure of the sentence.