XAT 2020 — VARC Question 17
Read the passage below and answer the 3 associated questions:
There is nothing spectacularly new in the situation. Most old-societies-turned-young-nation-states learn to live in a world dominated by the psychology and culture of exile. For some, the twentieth century has been a century of refugees. Others like Hannah Arendt have identified refugees as virtually a new species of human being who have come to symbolize the distinctive violence of our time. Refugees as contemporary symbols, however, proclaim something more than a pathology of a global nation-state system. They also represent a state of mind, a form of psychological displacement that has become endemic to modernizing societies. One does not even have to cross national frontiers to become a refugee; one can choose to be seduced by the ‘pull’ of self-induced displacement rather
than be ‘pushed’ by an oppressive or violent system at home. It is this changed status of territoriality in human life that explains why, in immigrant societies like the United States, the metaphor of exile is now jaded. Some have already begun to argue that human beings need not have a ‘home’ as it has been traditionally understood in large parts of the world, that the idea itself is a red herring. While the idea of exile begins to appear trite in intellectual circles, an increasingly large proportion of the world is getting reconciled to living with the labile sense of self. Exile no longer seems a pathology or an affliction. Displacement and the psychology of exile are in; cultural continuities and settled communities are out; there is a touch of ennui about them.
Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows:
If we can send a human to the Moon, why can’t we build sustainable cities? Defeat cancer? Tackle climate change? So, go the rallying cries inspired by one of humanity’s greatest achievements, the US effort that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on 20 July 1969.
Which of the following statements, if true, BEST communicates the intent of the paragraph?
Answer & solution
- A
America’s moonshot was more about race to the moon and less about solving problems.
- B
America’s moonshot initiative was mainly a response to USSR’s competing initiative.
- C
The reason we celebrate 1969 moonshot is precisely because nothing significant has been done in that domain since then.
- D
Moonshot has a definitive ownership, whereas creating sustainable cities and curing cancer are public-good problems.
The complexity of developing sustainable cities and curing cancer is far more than sending a human to the moon.
From the passage, it is clear that despite having sent man to the moon, we are yet to come up with a solution for cancer or the development of sustainable cities. Hence from the paragraph, we can understand the intention to state that the lateral are more complex issues than the former.
Hence, option (e).