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Total 815 Questions | Updated On: Sep 11, 2024

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Question 1

Although we know more about so-called Neanderthal men than about any other early population, their exact

relation to present-day human beings remains unclear. Long considered sub-human, Neanderthals are now

known to have been fully human. They walked erect, used fire, and made a variety of tools. They lived partly in

the open and partly in caves. The Neanderthals are even thought to have been the first humans to bury their

dead, a practice which has been interpreted as demonstrating the capacity for religious and abstract thought.

The first monograph on Neanderthal anatomy, published by Marcelling Boule in 1913, presented a somewhat

misleading picture. Boule took the Neanderthals’ lowvaulted cranium and prominent brow ridges, their heavy

musculature, and the apparent overdevelopment of certain joints as evidence of a prehuman physical

appearance. In postulating for the Neanderthal such “primitive” characteristics as a stooping, bent-kneed

posture, a rolling gait, and a forward-hanging head, Boule was a victim of the rudimentary state of anatomical

science. Modern anthropologists recognize the Neanderthal bone structure as that of a creature whose bodily

orientation and capacities were very similar to those of present-day human beings. The differences in the size

and shape of the limbs, shoulder blades, and other body parts are simply adaptations which were necessary to

handle the Neanderthal’s far more massive musculature. Current taxonomy considers the Neanderthals to have

been fully human and thus designates them not as a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis, but as a

subspecies of Homo sapiens: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

The rise of the Neanderthals occurred over some 100,000 years – a sufficient period to account for evolution of

the specifically Neanderthal characteristics through free interbreeding over a broad geographical range. Fossil

evidence suggests that the Neanderthals inhabited a vast area from Europe through the Middle East and into

Central Asia from approximately 100,000 years ago until 35,000 years ago. Then, within a brief period of five to

ten thousand years, they disappeared. Modern human, not found in Europe prior to about 33,000 years ago,

thenceforth became the sole inhabitants of the region. Anthropologists do not believe that the Neanderthals

evolved into modern human beings. Despite the similarities between Neanderthal and modern human anatomy,

the differences are great enough that, among a population as broad-ranging as the Neanderthals, such an

evolution could not have taken place in a period of only ten thousand years. Furthermore, no fossils of types

intermediate between Neanderthals and moderns have been found.

A major alternative hypothesis, advanced by E. Trinkaus and W.W. Howells, is that of localized evolution.

Within a geographically concentrated population, free interbreeding could have produced far more pronounced

genetic effects within a shorter time. Thus modern human could have evolved relatively quickly, either from

Neanderthals or from some other ancestral type, in isolation from the main Neanderthal population. These

humans may have migrated throughout the Neanderthal areas, where they displaced or absorbed the original

inhabitants. One hypothesis suggests that these “modern” humans immigrated to Europe from the Middle East.

No satisfactory explanation of why modern human beings replaced the Neanderthals has yet been found. Some

have speculated that the modern humans wiped out the Neanderthals in warfare; however, there exists no

archeological evidence of a hostile encounter. It has also been suggested that the Neanderthals failed to adapt

to the onset of the last Ice Age; yet their thick bodies should have been heat-conserving and thus well-adapted

to extreme cold. Finally, it is possible that the improved tools and hunting implements of the late Neanderthal

period made the powerful Neanderthal physique less of an advantage than it had been previously. At the same

time, the Neanderthals’ need for a heavy diet to sustain this physique put them at a disadvantage compared to

the less massive moderns. If this was the case, then it was improvements in human culture – including some

introduced by the Neanderthals themselves – that made the Neanderthal obsolete.

All of the following are hypotheses about the disappearance of the Neanderthals EXCEPT:

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : the Neanderthal physique became a handicap instead of an advantage.

B : the Neanderthals failed to adapt to climatic changes.

C : the Neanderthals evolved into modern humans.

D : modern humans exterminated the Neanderthals.

Answer: C

Question 2

Which of the following cell types does NOT contain the diploid number of chromosomes?

Section: Biological Sciences

A : Spermatogonium

B : Spermatid

C : Zygote

D : Primary oocyte

Answer: B

Question 3

…Until last year many people – but not most economists – thought that the economic data told a simple tale.

On one side, productivity – the average output of an average worker – was rising. And although the rate of

productivity increase was very slow during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, the official numbers said that it had

accelerated significantly in the 1990’s. By 1994 an average worker was producing about 20 percent more than

his or her counterpart in 1978.

On the other hand, other statistics said that real, inflation- adjusted wages had not been rising at anything like

the same rate. In fact, some of the most commonly cited numbers showed real wages actually falling over the

last 25 years. Those who did their homework knew that the gloomiest numbers overstated the case…Still, even

the most optimistic measure, the total hourly compensation of the average worker, rose only 3 percent between

1978 and 1994…

…But now the experts are telling us that the whole thing may have been a figment of our statistical

imaginations… a blue-ribbon panel of economists headed by Michael Boskin of Stanford declared that the

Consumer Price Index [C.P.I.] had been systematically overstating inflation, probably by more than 1 percent

per year for the last two decades, mainly failing to take account of changes in the patterns of consumption and

improvements in product quality…

…The Boskin report, in particular, is not an official document – it will be quite a while before the Government

actually issues a revised C.P.I., and the eventual revision may be smaller than Boskin and his colleagues

propose. Still, the general outline of the resolution is pretty clear. When all the revisions are taken into account,

productivity growth will probably look somewhat higher than it did before, because some of the revisions being

proposed to the way we measure consumer prices will also affect the way we calculate growth. But the rate of

growth of real wages will look much higher – and so it will now be roughly in line with productivity, which will

therefore reconcile numbers on productivity and wages with data that show a roughly unchanged distribution of

income between capital and labor. In other words, the whole story about workers not sharing in productivity

gains will turn out to have been based on a statistical illusion.

It is important not to go overboard on this point. There are real problems in America, and our previous concerns

were by no means pure hypochondria. For one thing, it remains true that the rate of economic progress over

the past 25 years has been much slower than it was in the previous 25. Even if Boskin’s numbers are right, the

income of the median family – which officially has experienced virtually no gain since 1973 – has risen by only

about 35 percent over the past 25 years, compared with 100 percent over the previous 25. Furthermore, it is

quite likely that if we “Boskinized” the old data – that is, if we tried to adjust the C.P.I. for the 50’s and 60’s to

take account of changing consumption patterns and rising product quality – we would find that official numbers

understated the rate of progress just as much if not more than they did in recent decades…

…Moreover, while workers as a group have shared fully in national productivity gains, they have not done so

equally. The overwhelming evidence of a huge increase in income inequality in America has nothing to do with

price indexes and is therefore unaffected by recent statistical revelations. It is still true that families in the

bottom fifth, who had 5.4 percent of total income in 1970, had only 4.2 percent in 1994; and that over the same

period the share of the top 5 percent went from 15.6 to 20.1. And it is still true that corporate C.E.O.’s, who

used to make about 35 times as much as their employees, now make 120 times as much or more…

…While these are real and serious problems, however, one thing is now clear: the truth about what is

happening in America is more subtle than the simplistic morality play about greedy capitalists and oppressed

workers that so many would-be sophisticates accepted only a few months ago. There was little excuse for

buying into that simplistic view then; there is no excuse now…

According to the passage, “Boskinization” adjusts the C.P.I. by:

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : increasing wages and decreasing productivity to reconcile the present disparity.

B : taking into account technology’s role in an improved efficiency.

C : reassessing consumption patterns and quality of product.

D : evaluating the inequalities in various levels of incomes.

Answer: C

Question 4

It is critical for the human body blood to maintain its pH at approximately 7.4. Decreased or increased blood pH

are called acidosis and alkalosis respectively; both are serious metabolic problems that can cause death. The

table below lists the major buffers found in the blood and/or kidneys.

Table 1

Buffer

pKa of a typical conjugate acid:*

Histidine side chains

Organic phosphates

N-terminal amino groups

6.1

6.3

6.8

7.0

8.0

9.2

Reaction 1

How does the titration of a weak monoprotic acid with a strong base differ from the titration of a strong

monoprotic acid with a strong base?

Section: Physical Sciences

A : The equivalence point will occur at a higher pH.

B : The equivalence point will occur at a lower pH.

C : The equivalence point will occur at the same pH.

D : Whether the equivalence point is higher or lower depends on the particular monoprotic acids used.

Answer: A

Question 5

In the course of gathering data in an experiment, a researcher develops the following correlation matrix:

Table 1 Correlation Matrix

Which of the following pairs of variables are most strongly correlated?

Section: Psychology and Sociology

A : A, C

B : A, D

C : B, D

D : C, D

Answer: B

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Total 815 Questions | Updated On: Sep 11, 2024

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