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[WpProQuiz 7051]Direction (1-10): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. There are some blanks given in the passage based on which some questions are framed, and some words are highlighted as well to help you answer some of the questions.
Charles Darwin closed his On the Origin of Species (1870) with a provocative promise that ‘light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history’. In his later books The Descent of Man (1871) and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), Darwin shed some of that promised light, especially on the evolved emotional and cognitive capacities that humans share with other mammals. In one scandalous passage, he demonstrated that four ‘defining’ characteristics of Homo sapiens – tool use, language, aesthetic sensitivity and religion – are all present, if rudimentary, in nonhuman animals. Even morality, he argued, arose through natural selection. ……………………….(A) self-sacrifice might not give the individual a survival advantage, but, he wrote:
There can be no doubt that a tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.
Yet Darwin’s revolutionary understanding of the evolved nature of human emotions has been neglected since. When scientists turned again to the mind a century later, the computer was the model that both sparked the cognitive sciences revolution and served as its exclusive investigative tool. (B) The substrate (1) model of the mind has been very powerful, but it has no way (and no need) to capture the biologicalfeeling-states(2) of motivational ingredient (3), and has been unconcerned with the evolved computational (4) to such processes. Even when evolutionary psychology rose to prominence in the 1990s, it did so by ignoring the actual evolved physiology and behaviour of brain and body. Rather, it set out on a search for computational modules that had placed human behaviour in some largely mythical Pleistocene. Indeed, contemporary moral psychology and its philosophical counterpart often continue this modular approach, assuming the existence of innate normative switches in the human mind and discounting the emotional nature of ethical actions.
Finally, in our own era, artificial intelligence has made great strides, holding out the promissory note of imminent general intelligence. While algorithmic digital computation produces problem solving machines, such problem solving – confusedly called ‘intelligence’ by the dominant paradigm – lacks the obvious motivational goads and other affective triggers observed in real …………………. (C) animals. In fact, artificial intelligence and artificial-life research has lost interest, unapologetically, in the biological creature.
Without the same fanfare, a group of intensively creative scientists, including the neuroscientists JaakPanksepp and Antonio Damasio and the neuropsychologist Richard Davidson, have been developing a new field of affective (or emotional) science since the 1990s. The field of affective neuroscience isolates emotional brain systems (largely in regions of the brain that we share with other mammals) that undergird adaptive behaviours in vertebrates. With the help of neuroscientific and behavioural research, we are beginning to appreciate how the ancestral mammal brain is alive and well inside our higher neocortical systems. (D)Unlike the computational approach to mind, the effective turn is deeply rooted in what we know about the brain as a biological reality. In the first decade of the new millennium, affective (or emotional) studies began to trickle into disciplines such as ethology (the study of animal behaviour). (G)The primatologist Frans de Waal, for example, recognise (1) to endeavoured (2), in a rigorous and primate (3) manner, the real emotions in our scientific (4) cousins. In economics, psychologists such as Daniel Kahneman began to detail biases, often emotionally grounded, that derail rational decision making. And in philosophy, thinkers such as Martha Nussbaum began to reintroduce emotion as a form of pseudo-judgment. The time has finally come for a defence of emotions as biological adaptations that do not merely follow or corrupt the dictates of reason, but successfully lead as well.
(H)Of course, this project rests on the assumption that there really are universal natural emotions inherited by our ancestors. Are emotions truly universal? Some historians and anthropologists argue that we learn our emotions from our cultural experience, and that they are thus constituted by very particular circumstances. If that’s the case, then our argument for the importance of emotional wellsprings in the evolution (and therefore the nature) of the human mind comes …………………..(E). So is the basic emotional structure of the mind a universal, biological fact?
Recently, the biological basis of human emotions has come into question by thinkers who focus largely on higher-level emotions and our cultural narratives about emotional life. This approach has done great work in celebrating the diversity of emotional cultures, and their historical and anthropological differences, but it loses something crucial when it rejects natural emotions altogether. One of its most vocal and popular ……………………(F) is the social psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett. In her book How Emotions Are Made (2017), Barrett argues that emotions are conceptual events, and our emotions, such as anger or sadness, are very fast mental constructions – almost like real-time, miniature theories about our experiences.
Emotions, in this formulation, are intellectual processes, requiring language to carve raw feelings into ……………….(I) emotions. Instead of biological or physiological systems, emotions are said to be more like thoughts, and each person learns early in life how to name and organise them into seemingly natural kinds, which in truth, according to Barrett, are cognitively and culturally constructed conventions. When your stomach churns in a bakery, Barrett argues that your brain labels those feelings as ‘hunger’, whereas a different context – say, a hospital waiting room – leads your brain to label the same feelings as ‘worry’. She applies this same logic to all emotions, claiming that there is no such thing as innate anger or lust, but that there are merely contextual interpretations of bodily arousal.
(J)The analogy (1) for this sensory (2) view rests precariously on an argument (3) with certain top-down aspects of counterintuitive (4) perception. That perception is subject to distortion under even quite slight cognitive suggestion is well-known, and psychologists have made careers ‘priming’ subjects to misperceive something, or notice something that would not otherwise stand out. For example, asking witnesses how fast the car is moving when it ‘smashes’ into another vehicle raises the witnesses’ estimated speed significantly, as compared with those asked how fast the car is moving when it ‘hits’ the other vehicle. Cognitive bias on certain kinds of perception is demonstrable even on seemingly unmediated perceptions.
1) Which of the following word given in the options should come at the place marked as (A) in the above passage to make it grammatically correct and meaningful? Also, the word should fill in the two sentences given below to make them contextually correct and meaningful?
(I) The distinction between egoistic and ……………….. action is further complicated by two facts.
(II) He seemed driven by purely …………………… reasons to organize a week-long celebration of Finnish design.
A) Socialistic
B) Altruistic
C) Personal
D) Ethical
E) None of the above
2) The sentence given in (B) has four words given in bold. Amongst the given bold words which of the following must replace each other to make the sentence contextually correct and meaningful?
A) Both 2-1 and 3-4
B) Both 1-4 and 2-3
C) Both 2-4 and 1-3
D) 1-3
E) 2-4
3) Which of the following should fill the blank given in (C) to make it contextually correct and meaningful?
A) Sentient
B) Automaton
C) Intelligent
D) conscious
E) None of the above.
4) In the above passage, sentence (D) may or may not have an error in one part of the sentence, select the part having error in it as your answer.
A) Unlike the computational approach
B) to mind, the effective turn is deeply
C) rooted in what we know
D) about the brain as a biological reality.
E) Both (a) and (b)
5) Which of the following word given in the options should come at the place marked as (E) in the given passage to make it grammatically correct and meaningful? Also, given below to make them contextually correct and meaningful?
A) Magniloquent
B) Debauched
C) Rational
D) Unprecedented
E) Unmoored
6) Which of the following phrase should fill the blank (F) to make it contextually and grammatically correct and meaningful?
A) Barrister
B) Critique
C) Legatee
D) Proponent
E) None of the above.
7) The sentence given in (G) has four words given in bold. Among the given bold words, which of the following must replace each other to make the sentence grammatically correct and meaningful?
A) Both 2-1 and 3-4
B) Both 1-4 and 2-3
C) Both 2-4 and 1-3
D) 1-3
E) 2-4
8) In the above passage, sentence (H) may or may not have an error in one part of the sentence, select the part having error in it as your answer.
A) Of course, this project
B) rests on the assumption that
C) there really are universal natural
D) emotions inherited by our ancestors.
E) None of the above.
9) Which of the following word given in the options should come at the place marked as (I) & (II) in the given passage to make it grammatically correct and meaningful? Also, given below to make them contextually correct and meaningful?
(I) This tool may look like one continuous piece of the same material. However, it actually consists of several …………… parts.
(II) The book is unusual in that it is separated into several ……………… sections, which are totally unconnected.
A) Connected
B) Discreet
C) Discrete
D) Sprinkle
E) None of the above.
10) The sentence given in (J) has four words given in bold. Amongst the given bold words which of the following must replace each other to make the sentence contextually correct and meaningful?
A) Both 2-1 and 3-4
B) Both 1-4 and 2-3
C) Both 2-4 and 1-3
D) 1-3
E) 2-4
Answers :
Directions (1-10) :
1) Answer: (b)
‘Socialistic’ means a person who advocates or practices socialism.
‘Altruistic’ means showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.
‘Personal’ means of, affecting, or belonging to a particular person rather than to anyone else.
‘Ethical’ means relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these.
2) Answer: (b)
The grammatically and contextually correct form is “The computational model of the mind has been very powerful,but it has no way (and no need) to capture the biological ingredient of motivational feeling-states, and has been unconcerned with the evolved substrate to such processes.”
3) Answer: (a)
‘Sentient’ means able to perceive or feel things. Blank (C) is suitably fit by sentient, which makes the sentence grammatically and contextually correct.
‘Automaton’ means a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being.
‘Intelligent’ means having or showing intelligence.
‘Conscious’ means aware of and responding to one’s surroundings.
4) Answer: (b)
Here replacing ‘effective’ with ‘affective’ which means something relating to moods, feelings and attitude, makes the sentence error free. Thus the sentence becomes “Unlike the computational approach to mind, the affective turn is deeply rooted in what we know about the brain as a biological reality.”
5) Answer: (e)
Here “unmoored” fits the best as per the intended meaning of the sentence. Rest of the options are either grammatically incorrect or are out of context.
‘Magniloquent’ means using high-flown or bombastic language.
‘Debauched’ means indulging in or characterized by sensual pleasures to a degree perceived to be morally harmful.
‘Rational’ means based on or in accordance with reason or logic.
‘Unprecedented’ means never done or known before.
6) Answer: (d)
‘Proponent” means a person who advocates a theory. and option D is suitable to fill in the blank (F) making the sentence both grammatically and contextually right.
‘Barrister’ means a lawyer entitled to practice as an advocate
‘Critique’ means a detailed analysis and assessment of something, especially a literary, philosophical, or political theory.
‘Legatee’ means a person who receives a legacy.
7) Answer: (a)
The grammatically and contextually correct form is “The primatologist Frans de Waal, for example, endeavoured to recognise, in a rigorous and scientific manner, the real emotions in our primate cousins”.
8) Answer: (d)
Here, replacing ‘by’ with ‘from’ we get grammatically and contextually correct sentence which is “Of course, this project rests on the assumption that there really are universal natural emotions inherited from our ancestors”.
9) Answer: (c)
‘Discrete’ means individually separate and distinct. It perfectly fits in the blank (I) and in the given two statements as well.
‘Connected’ means associated or related in some respect.
‘Discreet’ means careful and circumspect in one’s speech or actions,.
‘Sprinkle’ means scatter or pour small drops or particles of a substance over (an object or surface).
10) Answer: (c)
The argument for this counterintuitive view rests precariously on an analogy with certain top-down aspects of sensory perception.
