The CAT DILR section requires good analysis skills, critical thinking, and attention to detail, along with a thorough understanding of the Critical Reasoning. This article provides a set of MCQs on Critical Reasoning to help you understand the topic and enhance your data interpretation and logical reasoning with the help of detailed solutions, which will help you in the CAT 2025 exam preparation.
Whether you're revising the basics or testing your knowledge, these MCQs will serve as a valuable practice resource.
The CAT 2025 exam is expected to follow a similar trend to the CAT 2024, with 24 questions from the VARC section out of a total of 68 questions.
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CAT MCQs on Critical Reasoning
1. Although in the limited sense of freedom regarding appointments and internal working, the independence of the Central Bank is unequivocally ensured, the same cannot be said of its right to pursue monetary policy without co-ordination with the central government. The role of the Central Bank has turned out to be subordinate and advisory in nature. Which one of the following best supports the conclusion drawn in the passage?
A
A decision of the chairman of the Central Bank to increase the bank rate by two percentage points sent shock-waves in industry, academic and government circles alike.
B
Government has repeatedly resorted to monetisation of the debt despite the reservations of the Central Bank.
C
The Central Bank does not need the central government's nod for replacing soiled currency notes.
D
The inability to remove coin shortage was a major shortcoming of this government.
2. About 96% of Scandinavian moths have ears tuned to the ultrasonic pulses that bats, their predators, emit. But the remaining 4% do not have ears and are deaf. However, they have a larger wingspan than the hearing moths, and also have higher wing-loadings—the ratio between a wing's area and its weight—meaning higher maneuverability. Which one of the following can be best inferred from the above passage?
A
A higher proportion of deaf moths than hearing moths fall prey to bats.
B
Deaf moths may try to avoid bats by frequent changes in their flight direction.
C
Deaf moths are faster than hearing moths, and so are less prone to becoming a bat's dinner than hearing moths.
D
The large wingspan enables deaf moths to better receive and sense the pulses of their bat predators.
3. Szymanski suggests that the problem of racism in football may be present even today. He begins by verifying an earlier hypothesis that clubs' wage bills explain 90% of their performance. Thus, if players' salaries were to be only based on their abilities, clubs that spend more should finish higher. If there is pay discrimination against some group of players—fewer teams bidding for black players thus lowering the salaries for blacks with the same ability as whites—that neat relation may no longer hold. He concludes that certain clubs seem to have achieved much less than what they could have, by not recruiting black players. Which one of the following findings would best support Szymanski's conclusion?
A
Certain clubs took advantage of the situation by hiring above-average shares of black players.
B
Clubs hired white players at relatively high wages and did not show proportionately good performance.
C
During the study period, clubs in towns with a history of discrimination against blacks under-performed relative to their wage bills.
D
Clubs in one region, which had higher proportions of black players, had significantly lower wage bills than predominantly white clubs in another region.
4. The offer of the government to make iodised salt available at a low price of one rupee per kilo is welcome, especially since the government seems to be so concerned about the ill effects of non iodised salt. But it is doubtful whether the offer will actually be implemented. Way back in 1994, the government, in an earlier effort, had prepared reports outlining three new and simple but experimental methods for reducing the costs of iodisation to about five paise per kilo. But these reports have remained just those-reports on paper. Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the author's contention that it is doubtful whether the offer will be actually implemented?
A
The government proposes to save on costs by using the three methods it has already devised for iodisation.
B
The chain of fair-price distribution outlets now covers all the districts of the state.
C
Many small-scale and joint-sector units have completed trials to use the three iodisation methods for regular production.
D
The government which initiated the earlier effort is in place even today and has more information on the effects of non-iodised salt.
5. The problem of traffic congestion in Athens has been testing the ingenuity of politicians and town planners for years. But the measures adopted to date have not succeeded in decreasing the number of cars on the road in the city centre. In 1980, an odds and evens number-plate legislation was introduced, under which odd and even plates were banned in the city centre on alternate days, thereby expecting to halve the number of cars in the city centre. Then in 1993 it was decreed that all cars in use in the city centre must be fitted with catalytic converters, a regulation had just then been introduced, substantially reducing import taxes on cars with catalytic converters, the only condition being that the buyer of such a 'clean' car offered for destruction a car at least 15 years old.
Which one of the following options, if true, would best support the claim that the measures adopted to date have not succeeded?
A
In the 1980s, many families purchased second cars with the requisite odd or even number plate.
B
In the mid-1990s, many families found it feasible to become first-time car owners by buying a car more than 15 years old and turning it in for a new car with catalytic converters.
C
Post-1993, many families seized the opportunity to sell their more than 15 year-old cars and buy 'clean' cars from the open market, even if it meant forgoing the import tax subsidy.
D
All of the above.
6. The pressure on Italy's 257 jails has been increasing rapidly. These jails are old and overcrowded. They are supposed to hold up to 43,000 people—9,000 fewer than now. San Vittore in Milan, which has 1,800 inmates, is designed for 800. The number of foreigners inside jails has also been increasing. The minister in charge of prisons fears that tensions may snap, and so has recommended to the government an amnesty policy.
Which one of the following, if true, would have most influenced the recommendation of the minister?
A
Opinion polls have indicated that many Italians favour a general pardon.
B
The opposition may be persuaded to help since amnesties must be approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament.
C
During a recent visit to a large prison, the Pope, whose pronouncements are taken seriously, appealed for 'a gesture of clemency'.
D
Shortly before the recommendation was made, 58 prisons reported disturbances in a period of two weeks.
7. The Shveta-chatra or the "White Umbrella" was a symbol of sovereign political authority placed over the monarch's head at the time of the coronation. The ruler so inaugurated was regarded not as a temporal autocrat but as the instrument of protective and sheltering firmament of supreme law. The white umbrella symbol is of great antiquity and its varied use illustrates the ultimate common basis of non-theocratic nature of states in the Indian tradition. As such, the umbrella is found, although not necessarily a white one, over the head of Lord Ram, the Mohammedan sultans and Chatrapati Shivaji. Which one of the following best summarizes the above passage?
A
The placing of an umbrella over the ruler's head was a common practice in the Indian subcontinent.
B
The white umbrella represented the instrument of firmament of the supreme law and the non-theocratic nature of Indian states.
C
The umbrella, not necessarily a white one, was a symbol of sovereign political authority.
D
The varied use of the umbrella symbolised the common basis of the non-theocratic nature of states in the Indian tradition.
8. The theory of games is suggested to some extent by parlour games such as chess and bridge. Friedman illustrates two distinct features of these games. First, in a parlour game played for money, if one wins the other (others) loses (lose). Second, these games are games involving a strategy. In a game of chess, while choosing what action is to be taken, a player tries to guess how his/her opponent will react to the various actions he or she might take. In contrast, the card-pastime, 'patience' or 'solitaire' is played only against chance. Which one of the following can best be described as a "game?"
A
The team of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary climbing Mt. Everest for the first time in human history.
B
A national level essay writing competition.
C
A decisive war between the armed forces of India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
D
Oil Exporters' Union deciding on world oil prices, completely disregarding the countries which have at most minimal oil production.
9. Argentina's beef cattle herd has dropped to under 50 million from 57 million ten years ago in 1990. The animals are worth less, too: prices fell by over a third last year, before recovering slightly. Most local meat packers and processors are in Financial trouble, and recent years have seen a string of plant closures. The Beef Producers' Association has now come up with a massive advertisement campaign calling upon Argentines to eat more beef - their "juicy, healthy, round, plate-Filling" steaks. Which one of the following, if true, would contribute most to a failure of the campaign?
A
There has been a change in consumer preference towards eating leaner meats like chicken and fish.
B
The price of imported beef has been increasing, thus making locally grown beef more competitive in terms of pricing.
C
The inability to cross breed native cattle with foreign breeds has not increased production to adequate levels.
D
Animal prices pressure the producers to supply more beef at a higher cost, lowering their profit margins.
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