Verbal Practice Exercise-09

Reading Comprehension:

Given the increasing popularity of online brokerage firms, the fact that these firms have started to offer their clients other financial services is hardly surprising. In some cases, customers can simply link their online stock portfolios with traditional accounts held by other financial institutions. More and more online brokers, however, offer their own interest-bearing checking accounts, money market accounts, and retirement accounts, and even provide mortgages and home equity loans.

Some investors are understandably attracted to the idea of a one-stop shop for all their financial needs, and indeed there are conveniences to having one’s various asset accounts linked together. But consumer advocates point out that this convenience extends to criminals intent on gaining access to funds and financial data. As Francis Golsen of the Investor Protection Bureau points out, “Combining your assets at one financial institution is a bit like using your parked car to store your jewelry. If you become a victim of theft, there’s that much more to thieve.”

Another danger is that investors may be less selective when deciding which financial institution to use for various services, given that the easiest choice is to use one company for every service. The temptation not to shop around may lead to a hasty decision. This fact is not lost on brokerage firms, whose marketing departments are quick to take advantage of the cross-selling potential inherent in offering so many products. As a result, those who use one-stop banking should expect an increase in promotional material clogging their email inboxes.

To be fair, we are now seeing some very attractive products as more brokers get into the act of providing additional services. Some firms are offering checking accounts with interest rates so high that these accounts are most likely “loss leaders” designed to get investors interested in other financial products offered by the firm. But this can only last so long. No investor should assume that their beloved brokerage house, which now advertises free trading and checking accounts with interest rates of 3.9% (and no minimum balance required!) will continue to provide these offers a month after they were first made.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to __________.

(A) alert readers to certain risks associated with using “one-stop” shopping for financial needs
(B) give examples of the ways in which online brokers have diversified their services
(C) raise questions about the legitimacy of cross-selling financial services
(D) advise investors not to link traditional bank accounts with online accounts
(E) provide an overview of recent changes in online brokering

2. The purpose of the second paragraph is to make which of the following points?

(A) Linking many of one’s financial assets is risky and no more convenient than keeping one’s banking and online portfolios separate.
(B) One-stop banking puts investors at risk for more than just theft of assets and financial data.
(C) Using one firm for many financial services puts one at a greater risk of theft than using several institutions does.
(D) Investors who use their online broker for diverse banking services risk making hasty financial decisions.
(E) Traditional banking services such as mortgages are best provided by traditional banks.

Archaeologists working in two recently discovered limestone caves in Sarawak, Malaysia have found a surprising collection of 51 paintings estimated to be 6,000 to 12,000 years old. The paintings are unusual in their medium, manner of display, and subject matter. These are not simply wall or ceiling paintings. Stones—some as small as notebooks, some as large as doors—have been chipped and otherwise shaped to form rough canvases on which are painted individual works. Some of the pieces are stacked, while others are arranged upright in an overlapping pattern so that one can “flip through” the smaller pieces in the collection with relative ease. Hunters, warriors, and hunted animals, the typical subjects of cave art, are largely absent from these works. Instead, domestic scenes are represented, including food preparations, family meals, and recreational activities.

Though no tools have been found in the area, the fineness of the lines suggests the use of sophisticated animal-hair brushes. Gypsum, manganese, malachite, and other minerals were painstakingly ground and mixed with binding materials such as vegetable and animal oils to form the paints. In some cases, the artist or artists (Dr. Linus Mendoza of the International Speleologist Association has studied the paintings and believes that stylistic similarities and differences point to the work of three artists) have removed the patina surrounding the intended figures, producing a negative image. One probable reason for the high level of artistry is that the paintings may have been produced in the open air, where the light was good, and then brought into the cave.

However, it is the purpose of the paintings that is the most curious. Conventional wisdom holds that the hunting scenes found in cave art were meant to provide supernatural aid during actual hunts, or that figures and designs were painted by prehistoric shamans as a way of drawing power from the cave itself. It may also be that the scenes of domestic life are, like representations of hunting, meant to ensure good luck. Though facial features are rarely distinct, the paintings do suggest contentedness, or at least an absence of conflict. Most tantalizingly, it may be that the collection represents a sort of family tree. A number of the paintings appear to feature some of the same people, and it is tempting to think of these works as family portraits. Indeed, one figure, seen as a child with a mark on its forehead—the stone has actually been chipped away to represent the mark—is shown in other paintings as a young person and as an adult with the same mark.

3. The author of the passage is especially interested in _________.

(A) the possibility that the paintings trace the lineage of a family
(B) the manner in which the paints were made
(C) the stylistic differences exhibited in the paintings
(D) the location of the caves in which the stone paintings were discovered
(E) the method by which negative images were created

4. The primary purpose of the passage is to __________.

(A) present an overview of stone paintings and show how they differ from most cave paintings
(B) offer evidence that the stone paintings found in Sarawak most likely represent a family tree
(C) detail some of the reasons that the discovery of the stone paintings is of considerable interest
(D) persuade the reader of the great skill that went into the creation of the stone paintings
(E) discuss the reasons that prehistoric people created cave art and stone art

A new study by the American Seller Institute (ASI) has tried to pin down, with scientific precision, the personal qualities that contribute to superior selling. Over a period of three years, the financial ups and downs of twelve sales teams in ten different fields were carefully tracked. The 75 salespeople involved were analyzed and tested for various personal and even physical characteristics. Interviews were conducted with family members and with people who bought (or did not buy) the salespeople’s products. The results have been published by ASI in The Selling Quality, a 620-page work filled with as many bar graphs as anecdotes from the road.

Three personality types emerge as characteristic of the most successful sellers. The Chameleon, as the name implies, is adept at quickly understanding how clients see themselves (or would like to see themselves), and then mirroring that image. A good Chameleon is highly attentive, shrewd, and often unaware of what he or she is doing. This personality is formed early in life, and its attributes are hard to acquire. The Chameleon, perhaps because of strong mediating skills, often has a happy domestic life.

The Charismatic, in contrast, relies on a strong, even intimidating physical presence, as an essential tool to close a sale. Charismatics reverse the typical dynamic between seller and buyer, convincing clients that they should please the seller, and that the seller has something of great worth that the client needs to ask for. These people have, as The Selling Quality puts it, a “productive self-centeredness” that often leads to management positions, but also to less stability at home. Like the Chameleon, the Charismatic has traits that are seen early in life and that are difficult to cultivate in adulthood.

The Student—the third successful sales personality type—literally does his or her homework. An ability to provide useful data at a moment’s notice and a relatively mild persona make the Student a highly effective collaborator with a Charismatic. Students have risen to management positions through persistence and an ability to see where an industry is headed, but a lack of leadership skills often keeps them out of top positions. While the skills of a top-notch Student seller are based less on intuition than are those of the other selling types, studying trade publications and mapping out a would-be client company’s hierarchy are not enough to make a Student a superior salesperson. An ability to communicate a genuine (or seemingly genuine) enthusiasm for the product is crucial to a Student’s success, as it is for all successful sellers.

5. The primary purpose of this passage is to ___________.

(A) provide the reader with a recommendation
(B) summarize and critique the contents of a book of non-fiction
(C) give an overview of some of the findings of a new study
(D) propose a system for categorizing the workers in a given field
(E) report on a ranking of three personality types

Researchers argue that the brain stem comprising the medulla oblongata, the pons and the mid brain is better at handling a large amount of information. On the other hand, the Cerebral Cortex that is responsible for rational decision making is better at applying very strict, mathematical rules on fewer variables involving well-defined parameters. Consequently, researchers agree that it is better to “sleep on” certain complex decision rather than burn midnight oil to arrive at rationale solution. They believe that in these situations, rationality comes on the way of making a rational decision and that the brain stem is better equipped to handle them than the Cerebral Cortex, arguing that it’s better to leave such decisions on unconscious thought process – thinking without paying attention. There are decisions where, the researchers believe, conscious thought outperforms unconscious thought. For example, when a decision requires application of very strict, mathematical rules, conscious thought is beneficial.

Several experiments that incorporated several combinations of plethora of specifications revealed the workings of the brain stem and the Cerebral cortex. In one such experiment, the participants were asked to choose a car from 10 leading brands of automobiles. The researchers gave them just four parameters to consider for their choice – mileage, cost, reliability, and re-sale value, asking them to take instantaneous decision. The participants came up with the second-to-none decision in this scenario, proving that the conscious mind was super-efficient in processing limited amount of data. Keeping all the other conditions fixed the researchers this time asked the participants to sleep on the choice and declare their decision later. The resulting choices that participants made were not as optimal.

In another set of similar experiments, the researchers were baffled by the appalling choices that the test group made when they conducted the same experiment with 10 leading brands, but doubled the parameters, adding such features to consider as brand appeal, durability, safety, and off-road capability. The researchers argued that Cerebral cortex could not make sense of the expanded information set that led to poor decision making. However, the decisions made by another test group that was allowed to sleep on the decision before declaring their choice were much more worthy, even though not as good as the decision produced by the conscious mind that processed fewer parameters. This led the researchers to conclude that our unconscious mind can process larger amounts of information — as long as we give it time to do so. Another suitable situation, according to researchers, to employ the goal-dependent, deliberative process in the absence of conscious attention is when we are low on energy or easily distracted at the time when we are faced with a complex decision to make. Similarly, when in high spirits, it may be better to invoke the conscious mind to arrive at a much more optimal solution.

6. The reason why the author has written this passage is that he wants to ___________.

A. argue that functions of Cerebral cortex only can lead to such important and complex decisions as buying a home or selecting a school.

B. compare and contrast the functions of brain stem and Cerebral Cortex to show the benefits of one over the other in making complex decision.

C. debate that all important decisions must be taken from Cerebral Cortex as it leads to rational decisions in complex situations.

D. summarize through examples which situations are conducive for conscious minds and when to employ brain stem to make optimal decisions of complex nature.

E. prove that sleeping on a complex decision is the best way to arrive at the optimal decision in complex situations.

Evidence has been presented that the unconscious mind, still viewed by many psychological scientists as the shadow of a ‘‘real’’ conscious mind, is identifiably more deliberate, action oriented and complex than its conscious counterpart. Furthermore researchers have proven that the mind is incredibly efficient at extracting meaning from stimuli of which one is not consciously aware. The claims above are made on conclusive experimentations in which test subjects who were allowed to sleep during a decision making process made more optimal decisions when compared to the subjects who were given the exact same amount of information but were not allowed to sleep, leading researchers to believe that rationality comes on the way of making a rational decision. Researchers explain that while the conscious mind can only follow strict rules, unconscious mind can handle and integrate a larger amount of information, explaining why it can make better decisions. Even more surprising than this unconscious mind’s ability is that the mental processes that drive such decision making are necessarily minimal and unsophisticated and do not require humongous amount of calories to make us arrive at the best decision whereas using conscious mind for complex decisions burns up a lot of energy, setting in fatigue, forcing the conscious mind to give up and leading to subconscious decisions. Overall, researchers agree that there is no need to have sleepless night pondering over a complex issue to resolve it when it can actually be solved more efficiently by snoring the night away.

7. The purpose of the passage is to:

A. highlight the differences among psychologists regarding the importance of the unconscious mind in making complex decisions.

B. contrast and compare the workings of the rationality with that of deliberate, action-oriented and complex decision making processes.

C. prove by citing results of experiments that one decision-making process is better than the other.

D. show that unconscious mind is not that undependable as previously thought.

E. ascertain that using conscious and unconscious minds together yield second-to-none judgments.

Answer Sheet:

1. A
2. C
3. A
4. C
5. C
6. D
7. C