CAT 2003 Slot 1 — VARC Question 49
The verse given below is followed by a set of questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one,
may there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time:
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting lthaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey,
without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean
There are two gaps in each of the following sentences. From the pairs of words given, choose the one that fills the gaps most appropriately. The first word in the pair should fill the first gap.
A growing number of these expert professionals ______ having to train foreigners as the students end up _____ the teachers who have to then unhappily contend with no jobs at all or new jobs with drastically reduced pay packets.
Answer & solution
resent, replacing
- B
resist, challenging
- C
welcome, assisting
- D
are, supplanting
If the students end up ‘replacing’ the original teachers who are finally left with less-paying jobs or no jobs, the professionals are definitely not going to appreciate that or welcome that trend. Therefore, option 3 is eliminated.
Option 4 uses a neutral ‘are’ for the first blank, whereas the latter part of the sentence indicates that there should be a feeling of resentment or bitterness among those professional experts whose jobs are taken away from them or who have to be content with lower pay. Therefore, we can do away with option 4 as well.
Between options 1 and 2, option 1 is the best contender. ‘Resent’ is proper than ‘resist’, as the sentence does not imply that these professionals ‘resist’ or oppose to train foreigners, just that they dislike getting a raw deal in the end.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.