CAT Questions | CAT Paragraph Summary Questions

The question is from CAT Paragraph Summary. Paragraph Summary for Verbal Ability for CAT. Paragraph Summary questions often feature in the CAT. Given a paragraph and four choices, you are asked to choose the option that summarizes the paragraph best. Have a look at this question from Paragraph Summary. Solve CAT Questions from Paragraph Summary to get more practice and 2IIMs CAT questions bank provides you with CAT questions that can help you gear for CAT Exam .

Question 12: The most momentous development of our era, precisely, is the waning of the nation state: its inability to withstand countervailing 21st-century forces, and its calamitous loss of influence over human circumstance. National political authority is in decline, and, since we do not know any other sort, it feels like the end of the world. This is why a strange brand of apocalyptic nationalism is so widely in vogue. The current appeal of machismo as political style, the wall-building and xenophobia, the mythology and race theory, the fantastical promises of national restoration – these are not cures, but symptoms of what is slowly revealing itself to all: nation states everywhere are in an advanced state of political and moral decay from which they cannot individually extricate themselves.

1. Apocalyptic nationalism is on the rise because the nation state is on the decline.
2. Buffeted by countervailing 21st century forces, nation states have lost political authority.
3. Xenophobia and apocalyptic nationalism have led to the waning of the nation state.
4. The political and moral decay of nation states is the most significant development of our era.

Explanatory Answer

Method of solving this CAT Question from Paragraph Summary:

This paragraph states that the nation state has weakened considerably in the 21st century. The decline of national political authority, in turn, has led to a strange brand of "apocalyptic nationalism" characterized by political machismo, xenophobia and the like.

Now, looking at the options, we see that option A sums up the key ideas of the paragraph well.

Option B, while true, does not touch upon apocalyptic nationalism, which is one of the main ideas in the given paragraph. The same is the case with option D. So, both options B and D are ruled out.

Option C is incorrect. The paragraph argues that the waning of the nation state has led to xenophobia and apocalyptic nationalism. Option C states the converse of this.

The question is "Choose the option that summarizes the paragraph best "

Hence, the answer is A

Choice A is the correct answer.