đ Whatâs Inside This CAT RC Practice Post?
đ Authentic CAT Reading Comprehension Passage: Practice with a real RC passage from a previous CAT exam.
â
Detailed Questions with Step-by-Step Solutions: Each question is explained thoroughly for better understanding.
đ In-Depth Passage Analysis: Gain insights through line-by-line and paragraph-wise analysis, supplemented with a quick summary table for efficient revision.
đ Vocabulary Enhancement: Get a separate post explaining all tough words from the passage.
RC Passage
Direction for the questions 13 to 16: The passage below is accompanied by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question. As software improves, the people using it become less likely to sharpen their own know-how. Applications that offer lots of prompts and tips are often to blame; simpler, less solicitous programs push people harder to think, act and learn.
Ten years ago, information scientists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands had a group of people carry out complicated analytical and planning tasks using either rudimentary software that provided no assistance or sophisticated software that offered a great deal of aid. The researchers found that the people using the simple software developed better strategies, made fewer mistakes and developed a deeper aptitude for the work. The people using the more advanced software, meanwhile, would often âaimlessly click aroundâ when confronted with a tricky problem. The supposedly helpful software actually short-circuited their thinking and learning.
[According to] philosopher Hubert Dreyfus . . . . our skills get sharper only through practice, when we use them regularly to overcome different sorts of difficult challenges. The goal of modern software, by contrast, is to ease our way through such challenges. Arduous, painstaking work is exactly what programmers are most eager to automateâafter all, that is where the immediate efficiency gains tend to lie. In other words, a fundamental tension ripples between the interests of the people doing the automation and the interests of the people doing the work.
Nevertheless, automationâs scope continues to widen. With the rise of electronic health records, physicians increasingly rely on software templates to guide them through patient exams. The programs incorporate valuable checklists and alerts, but they also make medicine more routinized and formulaicâand distance doctors from their patients. . . . Harvard Medical School professor Beth Lown, in a 2012 journal article . . . warned that when doctors becomeâscreen-driven,â following a computerâs prompts rather than âthe patientâs narrative thread,â their thinking can become constricted. In the worst cases, they may miss important diagnostic signals. . . . In a recent paper published in the journal Diagnosis, three medical researchers . . . examined the misdiagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the U.S., at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. They argue that the digital templates used by the hospitalâs clinicians to record patient information probably helped to induce a kind of tunnel vision. âThese highly constrained tools,â the researchers write, âare optimized for data capture but at the expense of sacrificing their utility for appropriate triage and diagnosis, leading users to miss the forest for the trees.â Medical software, they write, is no âreplacement for basic history-taking, examination skills, and critical thinking.â . . .
There is an alternative. In âhuman-centred automation,â the talents of people take precedence. . . . In this model, software plays an essential but secondary role. It takes over routine functions that a human operator has already mastered, issues alerts when unexpected situations arise, provides fresh information that expands the operatorâs perspective and counters the biases that often distort human thinking. The technology becomes the expert's partner, not the expertâs replacement.
RC Line-wise Explanation
Paragraph 1
Original: As software improves, the people using it become less likely to sharpen their own know-how.
Explanation: The more advanced the software becomes, the less people tend to improve their own skills.
Original: Applications that offer lots of prompts and tips are often to blame; simpler, less solicitous programs push people harder to think, act and learn.
Explanation: Software with too much guidance can make users passive, whereas basic software forces users to engage more and develop their abilities.
Paragraph 2
Original: Ten years ago, information scientists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands had a group of people carry out complicated analytical and planning tasks using either rudimentary software that provided no assistance or sophisticated software that offered a great deal of aid.
Explanation: Researchers at Utrecht University studied how people performed complex tasks using either simple or highly supportive software.
Original: The researchers found that the people using the simple software developed better strategies, made fewer mistakes and developed a deeper aptitude for the work.
Explanation: Those using basic tools performed betterâthey planned more effectively, made fewer errors, and gained more skill.
Original: The people using the more advanced software, meanwhile, would often âaimlessly click aroundâ when confronted with a tricky problem.
Explanation: In contrast, users of advanced software often reacted by randomly clicking when they encountered difficulty.
Original: The supposedly helpful software actually short-circuited their thinking and learning.
Explanation: Ironically, software designed to help ended up hindering usersâ ability to think and learn.
Paragraph 3
Original: [According to] philosopher Hubert Dreyfus . . . our skills get sharper only through practice, when we use them regularly to overcome different sorts of difficult challenges.
Explanation: Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus argued that skill improvement comes only through regular practice and tackling tough problems.
Original: The goal of modern software, by contrast, is to ease our way through such challenges.
Explanation: Modern software aims to eliminate or simplify these challenges.
Original: Arduous, painstaking work is exactly what programmers are most eager to automateâafter all, that is where the immediate efficiency gains tend to lie.
Explanation: Programmers try to automate the hardest parts of work because thatâs where they can quickly improve efficiency.
Original: In other words, a fundamental tension ripples between the interests of the people doing the automation and the interests of the people doing the work.
Explanation: This creates a conflict between those designing automation tools and those who actually perform the tasks.
Paragraph 4
Original: Nevertheless, automationâs scope continues to widen.
Explanation: Despite concerns, automation keeps expanding.
Original: With the rise of electronic health records, physicians increasingly rely on software templates to guide them through patient exams.
Explanation: Doctors are using digital templates more often during patient checkups due to electronic record systems.
Original: The programs incorporate valuable checklists and alerts, but they also make medicine more routinized and formulaicâand distance doctors from their patients.
Explanation: These tools offer useful features but can also make care more mechanical and reduce personal interaction.
Original: Harvard Medical School professor Beth Lown, in a 2012 journal article . . . warned that when doctors become âscreen-driven,â following a computerâs prompts rather than âthe patientâs narrative thread,â their thinking can become constricted.
Explanation: Beth Lown cautioned that doctors relying too much on screens rather than patient stories may lose the ability to think broadly and critically.
Original: In the worst cases, they may miss important diagnostic signals.
Explanation: This over-reliance on screens can result in missed diagnoses.
Original: In a recent paper published in the journal Diagnosis, three medical researchers . . . examined the misdiagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the U.S., at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
Explanation: A study looked into how doctors misdiagnosed the first Ebola case in the U.S.
Original: They argue that the digital templates used by the hospitalâs clinicians to record patient information probably helped to induce a kind of tunnel vision.
Explanation: They claimed that these templates contributed to narrow, focused thinking that overlooked broader issues.
Original: âThese highly constrained tools,â the researchers write, âare optimized for data capture but at the expense of sacrificing their utility for appropriate triage and diagnosis, leading users to miss the forest for the trees.â
Explanation: The tools were great for recording data but poor for decision-making, causing doctors to focus too much on small details and miss the big picture.
Original: Medical software, they write, is no âreplacement for basic history-taking, examination skills, and critical thinking.â
Explanation: The researchers emphasized that software canât replace fundamental diagnostic skills.
Paragraph 5
Original: There is an alternative. In âhuman-centred automation,â the talents of people take precedence.
Explanation: There is a better model called human-centered automation, where human skills are prioritized.
Original: In this model, software plays an essential but secondary role.
Explanation: Here, software is important but serves as a support tool, not the lead.
Original: It takes over routine functions that a human operator has already mastered, issues alerts when unexpected situations arise, provides fresh information that expands the operatorâs perspective and counters the biases that often distort human thinking.
Explanation: The software handles routine tasks, provides helpful alerts and new information, and helps correct human biases.
Original: The technology becomes the expert's partner, not the expertâs replacement.
Explanation: In this approach, technology works alongside humans as a partner, not a substitute.
RC Paragraph Explanation
Paragraph 1 Summary
Advanced software can weaken user skills by providing too much assistance, whereas simpler software encourages users to think and learn actively.
Paragraph 2 Summary
A study at Utrecht University showed that people using basic software performed better and learned more than those using advanced software, which often made users passive and confused.
Paragraph 3 Summary
Skills improve through practice and challenge, but modern software often removes these very challenges, creating a tension between ease of automation and the needs of skill development.
Paragraph 4 Summary
In medicine, automation can enhance efficiency but may also harm diagnostic reasoning by encouraging rigid thinking. Over-reliance on software templates, as in the Ebola misdiagnosis case, illustrates the dangers of losing critical, human-based judgment.
Paragraph 5 Summary
Human-centered automation offers a solution by enhancing rather than replacing human expertise. It supports, alerts, and extends the capabilities of users rather than diminishing their role.
RC Quick Table Summary
| Paragraph Number | Main Idea |
|---|---|
| Paragraph 1 | Advanced software reduces usersâ motivation to think and learn. |
| Paragraph 2 | Simpler tools foster deeper learning and better performance than complex ones. |
| Paragraph 3 | Automation removes challenges needed for skill growth, causing a conflict. |
| Paragraph 4 | Over-automated medical software can limit thinking and lead to misdiagnosis. |
| Paragraph 5 | Human-centered automation enhances human abilities rather than replacing them. |
RC Questions
Ques 13. In the Ebola misdiagnosis case, we can infer that doctors probably missed the forest for the trees because:
Ques 14. In the context of the passage, all of the following can be considered examples of human-centered automation EXCEPT:
Ques 15. From the passage, we can infer that the author is apprehensive about the use of sophisticated automation for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that:
Ques 16. It can be inferred that in the Utrecht University experiment, one group of people wasâaimlessly clicking aroundâ because:
