Verbal Ability – Summary – North American walnut sphinx

Verbal Ability – Summary

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the summary that best captures the author’s position.

Question

North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis) look like easy meals for birds, but they have a trick up their sleeves—they produce whistles that sound like bird alarm calls, scaring potential predators away. At first, scientists suspected birds were simply startled by the loud noise. But a new study suggests a more sophisticated mechanism: the caterpillar’s whistle appears to mimic a bird alarm call, sending avian predators scrambling for cover. When pecked by a bird, the caterpillars whistle by compressing their bodies like an accordion and forcing air out through specialized holes in their sides. The whistles are impressively loud – they have been measured at over 80 dB from 5 cm away from the caterpillar – considering they are made by a two-inch long insect.

A) North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars will whistle periodically to ward off predator birds – they have a specialized vocal tract that helps them whistle.
B) North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars can whistle very1 loudly; the loudness of their whistles is shocking as they are very small insects.
C) North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in a case of acoustic deception, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.
D) North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in a case of deception and camouflage, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.

Answer

Option (C)

Solution

After reading the above passage about Summary from CAT 2017 – Verbal Ability, we can infer that,
Option A: The caterpillars produce whistling sounds only when they are pecked by a bird and not at regular intervals. This option is wrong.
Option B: This statement does not mention why they whistle. Hence, it is wrong.
Option C: This statement covers all the main points of the passage. This is the right answer.
Option D: Camouflage is changing one’s appearance and the caterpillars do not do that. They only make sounds that mimic a bird’s alarm call. This option is wrong.

Download CAT 2017 Question Paper with answers and detailed solutions in PDF

CAT 2017 Questions from Verbal Ability – Summary

Verbal Ability – Summary – Q1: A fundamental property of language is that it is slippery and messy and more liquid than solid, a gelatinous mass that changes shape to fit. As Wittgenstein would remind us, “usage has no sharp boundary.”
Verbal Ability – Summary – Q2: Both Socrates and Bacon were very good at asking useful questions. In fact, Socrates is largely credited with corning up with a way of asking questions
Verbal Ability – Summary – Q3: For each of the past three years, temperatures have hit peaks not seen since the birth of meteorology, and probably not for more than 110,000 years.
Verbal Ability – Summary – Q4: A translator of literary works needs a secure hold upon the two languages involved, supported by a good measure of familiarity with the two cultures.
Verbal Ability – Summary – Q5: To me, a “classic” means precisely the opposite of what my predecessors understood: a work is classical by reason of its resistance to contemporaneity and supposed universality, by reason of its capacity to indicate human particularity and difference in that past epoch.

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