CAT MCQs on Passage Based Questions: CAT Questions for Practice with Solutions

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Shivam Yadav

Educational Content Expert | Updated on - Aug 15, 2025

The CAT VARC section requires good reading skills, critical thinking, and attention to detail, along with a thorough understanding of the Passage Based Questions. This article provides a set of MCQs on Passage Based Questions to help you understand the topic and enhance your verbal ability 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 Passage Based Questions

1. Efficiency is all right in its place, in the shop, the factory, the store. The trouble with efficiency is that it wants to rule our play as well as our work; it won't be content to reign in the shop, it follows us home.
It can be inferred from the above passage that
A
Efficiency can become all-pervading.
B
Efficiency does not always pay.
C
Efficiency can be more of a torture than a blessing.
D
None of these

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2. In order to ease the traffic congestion, the transport planners decided to have a sophisticated system of elevated monorail travel in the city. However, it was pointed out by somebody that a metro rail system would be a more effective solution to the traffic problem. The plan was thus stalled. Moreover, since a budget had not been drawn up for the project, it was deemed fit to stall the work of the monorail for some time. In the meanwhile, the traffic planners of the city decided to build an efficient system of subways and flyovers in the city with the aim of easing the same problem. At the instant when the planners were preparing to award the contracts to the concerned parties, the transport planners came up with the contention that the subways interfered with the site of a pillar of the monorail system. The traffic planners had to give up the idea and think of other possible solutions.
Which of the following can we infer from the above passage?
A
The city authorities felt that the monorail system was essentially impractical.
B
There is a strong contention between the two groups of planners in the city.
C
The projects would be stalled for an indefinite period.
D
None of these

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3. The company encourages its managers to interact regularly, without a pre-set agenda, to discuss issues concerning the company and society. This idea has been borrowed from the ancient Indian concept of religious congregation, called satsang. Designations are forgotten during these meetings; hence, it is not uncommon in these meetings to find a sales engineer questioning the CEO on some corporate policy or his knowledge of customers.
Based on the information provided in the above passage, it can be inferred that
A
The company is concerned about its reputation with its employees.
B
The company believes in fostering the spirit of dialogue without degenerating it into a positioning based debate.
C
The company had some inter-personnel problems in the past due to which it felt the need for these corporate satsangs.
D
All of these

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4. From Cochin to Shimla, the new culture vultures are tearing down acres of India's architectural treasures. Ancestral owners are often fobbed off with a few hundred rupees for an exquisitely carved door or window, which fetches fifty times that much from foreign dealers, and yet more from the drawing room sophisticates of Europe and the US. The reason for such shameless rape of the Indian architectural wealth can perhaps, not wrongly, be attributed to the unfortunate blend of activist disunity and the local indifference.
It can be inferred from the above passage that
A
The environment created by the meeting between activist disunity and local indifference is ideal for antique dealers to strive in India.
B
Only Indians are not proud of their cultural heritage and are hungry for the foreign currency that is easily available in return for artifacts.
C
Most Indian families have heirlooms which can be sold at high prices to Europeans and Americans.
D
India provides a rich market for unscrupulous antique dealers.

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5. Deepa Mehta's Fire is under fire from the country's self-appointed moral police. Their contention is that the film is a violation of the Indian cultural mores and cannot be allowed to influence the Indian psyche. According to them, such films ruin the moral fabric of the nation, which must be protected and defended against such intrusions at all cost, even at the cost of cultural dictatorship.
Based on the information in the above passage, it can be inferred that
A
The assumption underlying the moral police's critique of Fire is that the Indian audience is vulnerable to all types of influence.
B
The assumption underlying the moral police's critique of Fire is that the Indian audience is impressionable and must be protected against 'immoral' influences.
C
The moral police thinks it has the sole authority to pass judgement on films screened in India.
D
None of these

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6. The dominant modern belief is that the soundest foundation of peace would be universal prosperity. One may look in vain for historical evidence that the rich have regularly been more peaceful than the poor, but then it can be argued that they have never felt secure against the poor; that their aggressiveness stemmed from fear; and that the situation would be quite different if everybody were rich.
It can be inferred from the above passage that
A
A lot of aggression in the world stems from the desire of the haves to defend themselves against the have-nots.
B
Universal prosperity as a foolproof measure of peace can no longer be accepted.
C
Both (A) and (B)
D
Neither (A) nor (B)

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7. The effect produced on the mind by travelling depends entirely on the mind of the traveller and on the way in which he conducts himself. The chief idea of one very common type of traveller is to see as many objects of interest as he possibly can. If he can only after his return home say that he has seen such and such temple, castle, picture gallery, or museum, he is perfectly satisfied. Far different is the effect of travels upon those who leave their country with a mind prepared by culture to feel intelligent admiration for all the beauties of nature and art to be found in foreign lands. When they visit a new place, instead of hurrying from temple to museum to picture gallery, they allow the spirit of the place to sink into their minds, and only visit such monuments as the time they have at their disposal allows them to contemplate without irreverent haste.
It can be inferred from the above passage that
A
the writer prefers the second type of traveller.
B
the first type of traveller is the lay traveller who does not understand the worth of any place he travels to.
C
the objective of the second type of traveller is not to see much, but to see well.
D
All of these

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8. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.
It can be inferred that
A
the speaker is a die-hard colonist.
B
the speaker has the good of the nation at heart.
C
the speaker is addressing an issue related to a colonial empire.
D
None of these

View Solution


9. Where the film Bombay loses out is where every commercial film congenitally goes awry — becoming too simplistic to address serious issues and failing to translate real life to reel.
Which of the following can be inferred from the above line?
A
The film's director aimed at recreating real life on the silver screen.
B
The film was too simplistic for the audience's taste.
C
The film was successful in spite of its shortcomings.
D
None of these

View Solution


10. Aspiration is nothing new. Neither is the debate over what the Indian middle class is, what it wants and what it buys. Since the mid-80s, that has been the focus of the economic policy papers so called pro- and anti-poor budgets and marketing strategies that have successfully broken the barrier of urban selling and reached deeper into rural India with increasing income levels and aspirations.
Based on the above passage, it can be inferred that
A
the Indian middle class has been the focus of economic policies for a long time.
B
the Indian middle class has graduated from being the 'deprived' middle class to the 'pampered' middle class.
C
Both (1) and (2)
D
Neither (1) nor (2)

View Solution


CAT Questions

  • 1.
    There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
    Sentence: [T]he Europeans did not invent globalization.
    Paragraph: The first phase of globalization occurred long before the introduction of either steam or electric power…Chinese consumers at all social levels consumed vast quantities of spices, fragrant woods and unusual plants. The peoples of Southeast Asia who lived in forests gave up their traditional livelihoods and completely reoriented their economies to supply Chinese consumers….___(1)___. These exchanges of the year 1000 opened some of the routes through which goods and peoples continued to travel after Columbus traversed the mid-Atlantic. ___(2)___. Yet the world of 1000 differed from that of 1492 in important ways….the travellers who encountered one another in the year 1000 were much closer technologically. ___(3)___. They changed and augmented what was already there since 1000. ___(4)___. If globalization hadn’t yet begun, Europeans wouldn’t have been able to penetrate the markets in so many places as quickly as they did after 1492.

      • Option 4
      • Option 3
      • Option 2
      • Option 1

    • 2.
      There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
      Sentence: This reality is putting stress on employees who have to pay for transport, desk lunches, more childcare, clothing and that after-work socialisation – costs they haven’t incurred for nearly two years.
      Paragraph: ___(1)___. Prices are rising at their fastest rate in 40 years, consequently, return-to-office-related costs have shot up – think petrol and food, for instance. ___(2)___. Yet wages haven’t kept up with inflation – even despite the salary growth many workers have enjoyed during a favourable pandemic labour market. ___(3)___. This is especially jarring for workers who were able to save during remote work, when these expenditures weren’t a factor. ___(4)___. In April 2022, Umus, a London university lecturer, told BBC Worklife that they were spending nearly a quarter of what they made every day on return-to-work costs.

        • Option 3
        • Option 2
        • Option 4
        • Option 1

      • 3.
        Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

          • Animals have an interest in fulfilling their basic needs, but also in avoiding suffering, and thus we ought to extend moral consideration.
          • Singer viewed himself as a utilitarian, and presents a direct moral theory concerning animal rights, in contrast to indirect positions, such as welfarist views.
          • He argued for extending moral consideration to animals because, similar to humans, animals have certain significant interests.
          • The event that publicly announced animal rights as a legitimate issue within contemporary philosophy was Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation text in 1975.
          • As such, we ought to view their interests alongside and equal to human interests, which results in humans having direct moral duties towards animals.

        • 4.
          There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
          Sentence: The brain isn’t organized the way you might set up your home office or bathroom medicine cabinet.
          Paragraph: ___(1)___. You can’t just put things anywhere you want to. The evolved architecture of the brain is haphazard and disjointed, and incorporates multiple systems, each of which has a mind of its own. ___(2)___. Evolution doesn’t design things and it doesn’t build systems—it settles on systems that, historically, conveyed a survival benefit. There is no overarching, grand planner engineering the systems so that they work harmoniously together. ___(3)___. The brain is more like a big, old house with piecemeal renovations done on every floor, and less like new construction. ___(4)___.

            • Option 2
            • Option 4
            • Option 1
            • Option 3

          • 5.
            There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
            Sentence: Many have had to leave their homes behind, with more than 1.3 million people being displaced due to the drought.
            Passage: Somalia has been dealing with an enormous humanitarian catastrophe, driven by the longest and most severe drought the country has experienced in at least 40 years. ___(1)___. Five consecutive rainy seasons have failed, causing more than 8 million people - almost half of the country’s population – to experience acute food insecurity. ___(2)___. More than 43,000 people are believed to have lost their lives, with half of the lives lost likely being children under five. The damage the drought has caused is far-reaching. ___(3)___. Farmers have lost all their agricultural income, while pastoralists have lost more than 3 million livestock, impoverishing entire communities, and leaving them on the brink of famine. ___(4)___. Some, like the pastoralists, may never be able to go back as their livelihoods have been irreversibly wiped out.

              • Option 4
              • Option 2
              • Option 1
              • Option 3

            • 6.
              The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
              Scientific research shows that many animals are very intelligent and have sensory and motor abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles. Many animals also display wide-ranging emotions, including joy, happiness, empathy, compassion, grief, and even resentment and embarrassment. It’s not surprising that animals share many emotions with us because we also share brain structures, located in the limbic system, that are the seat of our emotions.

                • Animals are more intelligent than us in sensing danger and detecting diseases.
                • The similarity in brain structure explains why animals show emotions typically associated with humans.
                • Animals can show emotions which are typically associated with humans.
                • The advanced sensory and motor abilities of animals is the reason why they can display wide-ranging emotions.

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