XAT 2025 Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning
Q1–10 of 26Read the following sentences carefully.
A. There are less cars on the road today.
B. She is nicer than her sister.
C. I have been here from Monday.
D. I know how to swim.
E. She is the girl that won the case competition.
F. The media are divided on the issue.
Q.Which of the following options contains only grammatically CORRECT sentences?
The sentence "There are less cars on the road today" (Statement A) is incorrect because "cars" are countable nouns, so it should be "fewer cars." Statement C is incorrect because "from Monday" is typically used for future or general start times, whereas "since Monday" is required for the present perfect continuous tense ("have been"). Statement B ("nicer than"), D ("know how to swim"), and F ("The media are divided"—media is the plural of medium) are all grammatically correct .
Read the following sentences carefully.
A. The dean asked for additional funding.
B. The boss discussed about the new project with his team.
C. Radhika is good in data interpretation.
D. Neil is transitioning into a new phase of life.
E. Rajat emphasized on the need for consistency in XAT preparation.
F. This car is superior to the previous one in terms of efficiency.
Q.Which of the following options contains only grammatically CORRECT sentences?
Statement B is incorrect because "discussed" is a transitive verb and does not take the preposition "about." Statement C is incorrect because the correct idiom is "good at," not "good in." Statement E is incorrect because "emphasized" is transitive and does not take "on." Statements A ("dean asked"), D ("transitioning into"), and F ("superior to"—superior takes 'to', not 'than') are grammatically correct
Read the following sentences carefully.
When each_________________ generation grows up, it looks down on the next as if we all forget what it feels like to be______________. When most____________ think about their own youthful indiscretions they do so with a wink and a laugh. But when the same people think about those in today’s generation doing something similar, they _________________sound the alarm about a decline in morality in next generation.
Q.From the options below, choose the one that meaningfully fills up the blanks.
The sentence structure "When each successive generation grows up" implies a repeating cycle. The second blank refers to those who are currently grown, i.e., "most adults." The final blank describes the contradiction of adults criticizing youth for things they also did; thus, they do so hypocritically. This creates the most logical narrative flow compared to the other options .
Read the following statement carefully.
A. Whatever that might be on Europa—far from the Sun, and beneath kilometres of ice—it will not be sunlight.
B. The final ingredient for a habitable world is a source of energy for life to exploit.
C. On Earth almost every living thing ultimately depends on photosynthesis for its energy, including the rich ecosystems in the ocean depths, discovered in the 1980s and which helped the idea of life on Europa gain a foothold.
D. Their inhabitants do not benefit from sunlight directly, but their metabolisms are powered by chemicals created in the photosynthesising, oxygen-rich surface oceans far above.
E. That is a bit of a problem.
Q.Fill in the blanks meaningfully, in the above statement, from the following options.
Sentence B introduces the general requirement for life (energy). Sentence A contrasts this by stating that on Europa, the energy source cannot be sunlight. Sentence E follows by calling this "a bit of a problem." Sentence C explains why it is a problem (Earth life relies on photosynthesis), and D resolves the thought by explaining how even deep-ocean life on Earth relies indirectly on sunlight-derived chemicals. This sequence forms a coherent argument .
Read the following statements and answer the question that follows.
Employees complaining about mundane tasks are often ignored. There is a listlessness that settles around them. A bored employee may continue to produce good results, but that can also be because the tasks are repetitive, and the outcomes are expected.
Q.Which of the following options can be BEST inferred from the passage?
The passage states that complaining employees are ignored, but a "bored employee may continue to produce good results." The inference is that because the results are good, the organization overlooks or ignores the employee's internal state (boredom/listlessness). The performance masks the state of mind
Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows.
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
Q.Which of the following options can be BEST concluded from the passage?
The author argues that you cannot know how "bad" you are or how strong "temptation" is unless you have actually fought against it. Bad people know little about badness because they give in too easily. The general conclusion is that our true nature or beliefs are only revealed when they are tested or challenged .
Read the following paragraph and answer the question that follows.
A. The treaty tests of a budget deficit no bigger than 3% of the GDP and a public debt converging towards a ceiling of 60% of a GDP seemed impossible for Italy to pass by 1999.
B. That Belgium also had a public debt above 100 percent of GDP helped, as did a special euro tax Mr. Prodi introduced.
C. Into the uncompromising environment came the first of a series of external shocks. One of the earliest was entry into the European single currency, the euro, in 1999.
D. But when it became clear in 1997 that Spain was determined to join from the start, Romano Prodi, then Italian prime minister, decided that Italy, as a founder member of the bloc, must be there too.
E. Germany had more or less designed the 1992 Maastricht treaty’s convergence criteria to keep out a profligate, chronically indebted Italy.
Q.Which of the following sequences is the MOST logically ordered?
C sets the context (uncompromising environment, Euro entry). E explains the hurdle (Germany designed criteria to keep Italy out). A details the specific criteria that seemed impossible for Italy. D provides the turning point (Spain joined, so Prodi decided Italy must too). B explains the resolution (Belgium's precedent helped them qualify). This provides a chronological and logical narrative .
Observe the cartoon below carefully and answer the question that follows.
(Cartoon by Tom Toro, originally published in The New Yorker on November 18, 2024. Used for educational purpose.)
Q.Which of the following options BEST explains the underlying message depicted in the cartoon?
The cartoon shows a man projecting his own belief ("he finds joy") onto the dog, while the dog's internal reality is completely different ("emotional burden"). The underlying message is that our understanding of others is filtered through our own beliefs and may be factually untrue .
Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.
The lovely thing about the unsayable is that it is unsaid. As soon as it is said, it is sayable and loses all its mystery and ambiguity. Art exists so that the unsayable can be said without having to actually say it. We cloud it in secrecy and obfuscation. The mind is free to roam and all things can be imagined, under the cover of darkness. How nice that is. The unsayable. How tired we are of having things explained to us. Having things said. How nice it is when people just shut … up."
Which of the following options can be BEST inferred from the passage?
This implies that art serves as a medium to express complex mysteries or feelings that human language (words) cannot adequately communicate or "say" directly The passage states that "Art exists so that the unsayable can be said without having to actually say it."
Read the following passage and answer the three(Q10, Q11 and Q12) questions that follow.
No one argues that the rich should be rich because they were born to wealthy parents. Critics of inequality may complain that those who would abolish inheritance taxes, say, are implicitly endorsing hereditary privilege. But no one defends hereditary privilege outright or disputes the principle that careers should be open to talents. Most of our debates about access to jobs, education, and public office proceed from the premise of equal opportunity. Our disagreements are less about the principle itself than about what it requires. For example, critics of affirmative action in hiring and college admissions argue that such policies are inconsistent with equality of opportunity, because they judge applicants on factors other than merit. Defenders of affirmative action reply that such policies are necessary to make equality of opportunity a reality for members of groups that have suffered discrimination or disadvantage. At the level of principle at least, and political rhetoric, meritocracy has won the day. In democracies throughout the world, politicians of the center-left and center-right claim that their policies are the ones that will enable all citizens, whatever their race or ethnicity, gender or class, to compete on equal terms and to rise as far as their efforts and talents will take them. When people complain about meritocracy, the complaint is usually not about the ideal but about our failure to live up to it: The wealthy and powerful have rigged the system to perpetuate their privilege; the professional classes have figured out how to pass their advantages on to their children, converting the meritocracy into a hereditary aristocracy; colleges that claim to select students on merit give an edge to the sons and daughters of the wealthy and the well-connected. According to this complaint, meritocracy is a myth, a distant promise yet to be redeemed.
Q10.Based on the passage, which of the following inferences CANNOT be drawn?
The question asks what cannot be drawn. Option A suggests that wealth cannot undermine meritocracy. However, the passage explicitly states the opposite: "The wealthy and powerful have rigged the system" and "converting the meritocracy into a hereditary aristocracy." Therefore, claiming wealth cannot undermine the system contradicts the text