CAT 2023 Slot 3 — VARC Question 23
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The weight of society’s expectations is hardly a new phenomenon but it has become particularly draining over recent decades, perhaps because expectations themselves are so multifarious and contradictory. The perfectionism of the 1950s was rooted in the norms of mass culture and captured in famous advertising images of the ideal white American family that now seem self-satirising. In that era, perfectionism meant seamlessly conforming to values, behaviour and appearance: chiselled confidence for men, demure graciousness for women. The perfectionist was under pressure to look like everyone else, only more so. The perfectionists of today, by contrast, feel an obligation to stand out through their idiosyncratic style and wit if they are to gain a foothold in the attention economy.
Answer & solution
- A
The desire to attract attention is so deep-rooted in individual consciousness that people are willing to go to any lengths to achieve it.
Though long-standing, the pressure to appear perfect and thereby attract attention, has evolved over time from one of conformism to one of non-conformism.
- C
The image of perfectionism is reflected in and perpetuated by the media; and people do their best to adhere to these ideals.
- D
The pressure to appear perfect has been the cause of tension and conflict because the idea itself has been in a state of flux and hard to define.
Easy
Summary question: the best option must capture the passage’s core contrast — perfectionism is old, but its nature has changed: the 1950s demanded conformity, whereas today it demands standing out. Reject options that add unstated claims or miss the contrast.
"People will go to any lengths to attract attention" — an extreme claim the passage never makes. Wrong.
"Though long-standing, the pressure to appear perfect… has evolved from one of conformism to one of non-conformism." Captures both the continuity (old phenomenon) and the 1950s-conformity → today-standing-out shift exactly. Correct.
Pins it on the media reflecting/perpetuating perfectionism. The passage mentions 1950s advertising images only as illustration, not media as a driving cause. Wrong.
Claims the idea is "hard to define" and causes "tension and conflict." The passage says perfectionism has changed in form, not that it is undefinable or conflict-producing. Wrong.
Option B — it preserves the old-but-evolving theme and the conformism-to-non-conformism shift, without overstating.