CAT 2022 Slot 2 · VARC · Question 23

CAT 2022 Slot 2 previous year question on Para Summary, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Para SummaryVerbal AbilityMultiple choiceMedium

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Several of the world’s earliest cities were organised along egalitarian lines. In some regions, urban populations governed themselves for centuries without any indication of the temples and palaces that would later emerge; in others, temples and palaces never emerged at all, and there is simply no evidence of a class of administrators or any other sort of ruling stratum. It would seem that the mere fact of urban life does not, necessarily, imply any particular form of political organization, and never did. Far from resigning us to inequality, the picture that is now emerging of humanity’s past may open our eyes to egalitarian possibilities we otherwise would have never considered.

  1. A

    The lack of hierarchical administration in ancient cities can be deduced by the absence of religious and regal structures such as temples and palaces.

  2. B

    Contrary to our assumption that urban settlements have always involved hierarchical political and administrative structures, ancient cities were not organised in this way.

  3. C

    The emergence of a class of administrators and ruling stratum transformed the egalitarian urban life of ancient cities to the hierarchical civic organisations of today.

  4. D

    We now have the evidence in support of the existence of an egalitarian urban life in some ancient cities, where political and civic organisation was far less hierarchical.

Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

The passage says several of the earliest cities were egalitarian, with no evidence of temples, palaces or a ruling class; urban life does not necessarily imply a particular political form; and this new picture of the past opens our eyes to egalitarian possibilities.

Option 4 captures this: there is now evidence of egalitarian urban life in some ancient cities, with less hierarchical organisation.

Option 1 makes the absence of temples and palaces the basis of a deduction, which is a detail, not the essence.

Option 2 says ancient cities in general were not hierarchical – the passage says only 'several' of them.

Option 3 describes a transformation to today's hierarchy, which the passage does not discuss.

Shortcut: watch the quantifier – 'several' and 'some' cities, not all of them.

Hence, the answer is option 4.

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