Some basic rules required while dealing with Critical

Reasoning Questions:
A. DO NOT use ANY outside information unless desired by the question
and is asked for Specifically. Most mistakes happen, hen e !iolate
this rule.
B. DO NOT make ANY assumptions on your side, unless required by the
question specifically" #ery important.
C. $onclusion should directly%implicitly be related to the matter bein&
discussed at hand in the para&raph. Anythin& that is not related to
the topic directly, or can be inferred from it directly, should be
immediately discarded.
D. 'uestion may be !ery carefully read tice to kno hat is bein&
desired.
E. T(O ne&ati!es make a positi!e. All the folloin& are false, e)cept*
This means, that they require the true statement. Do not &et o!erly
confused, by these histrionics by an e)aminer. Thin&s like these must
be carefully paid attention to. Most other questions &o ron&
because of !iolation of this point.
F. A!oid &eneral conclusions, hich are knon beforehand, as a part of
common knoled&e, as ansers.

Example 1:
When Birbal's cat smelled milk it salivated. Later on Raag Bhairvi was played whenever milk was
placed near the cat. After few weeks, only the Raag was played, whereupon the cat would salivate
even though no milk was present.
Which of the following conclusions may be drawn from the above observed
!. Birbal was great
". Raga Bhairvi could mitigate hunger
#. Raag Bhairvi was associated with milk.
$. Raag Bhairvi and %ilk are synonymous.
This would generally be the format of Critical reasoning &t might incorporate a few
changes'variations, like instead of asking in the (uestion, which of the following conclusions can
be drawn from the above paragraph, any of the followings may be asked)
1 Which of the following may be inferred from the statement mentioned above*
! All of the following may negate the assumption made above, e+cept* ,-alk about confusing
innocent students.-his section ranks on the top of the list.
" -he assumption that the author makes in the above statement'paragraph is*
# Which one of the following can be assumed to have happened ne+t, according to the above
paragraph, if what is
given can be considered true*.
$ /ach of the following can serve to e+plain the happenings'conclusion mentioned above,
e+cept*.
% 0one of the following can happen, if the conclusion drawn from the above paragraph is valid,
e+cept*
And a lot many others. 1ou may have a lot of e+amples in the practice e+ercises to come to terms
with the various formats.
Getting on our example, of Birbal and his 2A-, &ption 1 can be discarded, because it is a
general statement, and has no relevance to matters being pursued at hand. &t %&34- be true,
Birbal %&34- be great, but we have no inference about Birbal5s greatness from this incidence.
&ption ! might be discarded because it is absolutely ridiculous, and false, as per the statements
given. /ven if the 2A-5s hunger 6&6 get subsided, because of singing Raag Bhairvi, we cannot
say that Raag Bhairvi can mitigate hunger. We can 7ust say that it mitigated hunger of 2A-, or it
2A0 possibly'it may mitigate hunger of 2A-8. We cannot generali9e it ever.
&ption " is correct as per the paragraph:
&ption# 8ynonyms 4;W We can say that singing of Raag Bhairvi is synonymous with
occurrence of milk for 2A-. But how can Raag Bhairvi and milk be 8ynonymous. Absolutely
ridiculous. 6iscarded at once.
This is the type of thin'ing that you may be required to demonstrate in these types of
questions
Let5s have a few more e+amples:
Example !:
%onopoly is characteri9ed by an absence of or decline in competition. %<L reali9es that its
operations are in competitive industries.
Which of the following conclusions may be inferred from the above
!. %<L is a public limited company
". %<L is a =!) $> 7oint venture between 8u9uki %otor company and
government of &ndia and its market is monopolistic
#. %<L'8 market is not monopolistic
$. 0one of -hese.
Solution:
Well, &ption 1 can never be verified. L in %<L %A1 stand for Limited, but that has never
been mentioned. 8o we cannot go with that.
&ption! gives statistics that cannot be verified based upon the data given, and is hence
negated:
&ption " is correct :
&ption# 0one of these options is re(uired to be marked, only when all other options are
remote. <nless this happens, it should be avoided. &n 2A-, usually all options are very close.
-his option can be safely discarded in most circumstances, unless it is a googly, and all other
options are void because of one specific condition that the answer looks for. <sually googlies
are very rare, but they 6; happen.
Example ":
6evang %ehta lobbied for passage of his new &nformation -echnology Bill, which would
liberali9e &-, sector and facilitate trade with industriali9ed countries such as /<, the <8A and
Russia.
/ach of the following, if true, could account for the above e+cept.
!. -he &- professionals have petitioned 0A882;% to provide better
infrastructure.
". -he ?inance %inister claimed that the passage of the bill would decrease the
trade deficit.
#. -he 4R6 %inister claimed that the passage of the bill would increase the rural
urban economic ine(uity.
$. -he bill was the need of the hour.
Solution:
&ption 1 would strengthen the lobbying of the bill. 8o would the statement from ?%, that it
would decrease the trade deficit. &f they say that the bill was the need of the hour, it also
corroborates the lobbying for &- bill. But under no circumstances, an increase in economic
disparity, help to the cause of the bill. 4ence it is the answer.
Example #:
-he president of /2;L&BR&<% 8.@. ;7ha was (uoted as sa ying that the cost of
consumption &nde+ ,2;2A. will go up ne+t (uarter because of a recent increase in the price
of oil and natural gas.
Which of the following cannot be inferred from the statement.
!. 2onsumers have decreased their consumption of oil and natural gas.
". -he cost of oil and natural gas is a ma7or item in the 2;2A.
#. ;ther items like cigarette and bear that make up the 2;2A have not
significantly decreased in price
$. -he change due to oil B natural gas cost are reflected in the 2;2A.
Solution:
A bit tricky one. 8ince the 2;2A is going up because of increase in ;il and natural gas, the
latter has to be an important'ma7or part of the former. 4ence is option " is negated. And so is
;ption $.
?ight is between &ption 1 and &ption ". 4ow can we infer option # When the 2;2A is not
increasing, and it does increase after an oil B 0atural 3as price hike, we can infer ,although
indirectly. that other options did not significantly change. But in no way, can it be inferred that
2onsumers decreased their consumption. &f they had decreased it, the price should have fell,
but that doesn5t happen. 4ence answer is &ption 1
Example $:
-his is known as the twister. 8eemingly wrong answer is the correct one, and option B, that looks
very feasible, is wrong:
&f A, then B.
&f B, then 2.
&f 2, then 6.
&f all of the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true
,A. &f 6, then A.
,B. &f not B, then not 2.
,2. &f not 6, then not A.
,6. &f 6, then /.
,/. &f not A, then not 6.
Solution:
&nteresting one. We would pick ;ption 2 C &f not 6 then not A : Why
reasoning C logic of &f A then 1 DEF &f not 1 then not A. -his is the basic logic used in all these type
of (uestions. 2ommit it to memory. 8imilar to those (uestions, GAll 2ats are dogs, all dogs are
bats, so are all bats catsH
Example %:
Iohnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of 6ickinson5s poetry often
distorted her intentions. 1et Iohnson5s own, more faithful, te+t is still guilty of its own forms of
distortion. -o standardi9e 6ickinson5s often indecipherable handwritten punctuation by the use of
the dash is to render permanent a casual mode of poetic phrasing that 6ickinson surely never
e+pected to see in print. &t implies that 6ickinson chose the dash as her typical mark of punctuation
when, in fact, she apparently never made any definitive choice at all.
Which of the following best summari9es the author5s main point
,A. Although Iohnson is right in critici9ing 6ickinson5s early editors for their
distortion of her work, his own te+t is guilty of e(ually serious distortions.
,B. Iohnson5s use of the dash in his te+t of 6ickinson5s poetry misleads readers
about the poet5s intentions.
,2. Because 6ickinson never e+pected her poetry to be published, virtually any
attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions.
,6. Although Iohnson5s attempt to produce a more faithful te+t of 6ickinson5s
poetry is wellCmeaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient
thoroughness
,/. 6ickinson5s editors, including Iohnson, have failed to deal ade(uately with
the problem of deciphering 6ickinson5s handwritten manuscripts.
NOTE
+n these types of summary based questions, e must take a note of the folloin&
points.
,. Summary should ne!er be taken directly from a sentence of the
ori&inal para&raph. +t must be an essence.
-. A!oid summari.in& based on the initial part of the para&raph, or
its end only. /et the hole &ist.
0. 1ook out for factual inaccuracies in the options, hich mi&ht
render them out of contention.

Solution:
2oming to our (uestion, based on these three points, we can say that A is wrong, because it
7ust tells part of author5s intentions, and doesn5t give the whole essence. 2 cannot be verified
in any conte+t through the paragraph. 4ence is negated. / incorrectly assumes that Iohnson
is 6ickinson5s editor. 4ence is negated as well. 0ow the tussle is between option B and 6.
But since thoroughness is never mentioned anywhere, and what is the measure of it, is not
clear, 6 can be negated as well. -he correct answer of course, is option (
)&* +&, TR+:
!. A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune5 system
activity tend to score much lower on tests of mental health than do people with
normal or high immune's system activity. -he researcher concluded from this
e+periment that the immune system protects against mental illness as well as
against physical disease.
-he researcher's conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions


,A. 4igh immune system activity protects against mental illness better than
normal immune, system activity does.
,B. %ental illness is similar to physical disease in its effects on body
systems.
,2. Jeople with high immuneCsystem activity cannot develop mental illnessK
,6. %ental illness does not cause people's immuneCsystem activity to
decrease.
,/. Jsychological treatment of mental illness is not as effective as is medical
treatment.
Correct. -he conclusion made by the researcher is that
Lthe immune system protects against mental illness as well as against physical diseaseL
because people with low levels of immune system activity scored much lower on tests of mental
health than people with normal or high immune system activity.
8uppose the low levels of immune system were due to mental illness, in other words mental illness
affected the immune system itself then the scoring on the tests of mental health will come under
doubt and eventually the conclusion will fall apart.
-hus the assumption researcher makes is that mental illness does not cause people's immuneC
system activity to decrease
;ption 6 is hence the correct answer.
". At a recent conference on environmental threats to the 0orth 8ea, most
participating countries favored uniform controls on the (uality of effluents,
whether or not specific environmental damage could be attributed to a particular
source of effluent. What must, of course, be shown, in order to avoid
e+cessively restrictive controls, is that

,A. any uniform controls that are adopted are likely to be implemented
without delay
,B. any substance to be made sub7ect to controls can actually cause
environmental damage
,2. the countries favoring uniform controls are those generating the largest
(uantities of effluents
,6. all of any given pollutant that is to be controlled actually reaches the
0orth 8ea at present
,/. environmental damage already inflicted on the 0orth 8ea is reversible
Correct. Answer is B. A can be straightly ruled out because there is no (uestion of delay in the
(uestion at all. Why would the amount of /ffluent generated by a country be of any information, for
avoidance of the controls All of the given pollutant reaches north 8ea*this goes against what we
are looking for, isn5t it
4ow did reversibility come into picture at all. 4ence / is eliminated as well.
#.When people evade income ta+es by not declaring ta+able income, vicious cycle
results. -a+ evasion forces lawmakers to raise income ta+ rates. Which causes
the ta+ burden on nonMevading ta+payers to become heavier. -his inCturn,
encourages even more ta+payers to evade income ta+es by hiding ta+able
income. -he vicious cycle described above could not result unless which of the
following were true
,A. An &ncrease in ta+ rates tends to function as an incentive for ta+payers to
try to increase their preta+ incomes.
,B. 8ome methods for detecting ta+ evaders, and thus recovering some ta+
revenue lost through evasion, bring in more than they cost, but their
success rate varies from year to year.
,2. When lawmakers establish income ta+ rates in order to generate a
certain level of revenue, they do not allow ade(uately for revenue that will
be lost through evasion.
,6. 0o one who routinely hides some ta+able income can be induced by a
lowering of ta+ rates to stop hiding such income unless fines for evaders
are raised at the same time.
,/. -a+payers do not differ from each other with respect to the rate of
ta+ation that will cause them to evade ta+es.
Correct. We need to give an option, which when implemented will stop this vicious cycle from
happening.
B is straight out. 6oes not say anything over matter in hand. 0or 6oes /. 2 goes against the
common logic, and hence is ruled out. 6 does not come close to our stated re(uired goal. But A
6;/8 fit in the bill. &f these ta+es did not increase the prete+t incomes, maybe ta+payers won5t
have evaded it and this vicious cycle won5t have resulted. 4ence the answer is A.
$. When people predict that certain result will not take place unless a certain
action is taken, they believe that they have learned that the prediction is correct
when the action is taken and the result occurs. ;n reflection, however, it often
becomes clear that the result admits of more than one interpretation .Which of
the following, if true, best supports the claim above

,A. Iudging the success of an action re(uires specifying the goal of the
action.
,B. Iudging which action to take after a prediction is made re(uires knowing
about other actions that have been successful in similar past situations.
,2. Learning whether a certain predictive strategy is good re(uires knowing
the result using that strategy through several trials.
,6. 6istinguishing a correct prediction and effective action from an incorrect
prediction and ineffective action is often impossible.
,/. %aking a successful prediction re(uires knowing the facts about the
conte+t of that prediction.
Correct. A is a straight 0o. 3oal doesn5t feature anywhere. ;ther actions being similar won5t
necessarily negate the fact that the action in talk, happened because of some other circumstances
that we didn5t know about. 4ence can be negated as well. 2 talks about trials. But it isn5t
necessary that all the trials will incorporate all possible factors as well. / talks about conte+t, which
is irrelevant. 6 gives a lot balanced view, and echoes the thought of the passage that it is usually
impossible to distinguish correct action and effective prediction from incorrect prediction and inC
effective action. 4ence 6 is the correct answer.