[Mission 2023] Insta–DART (Daily Aptitude and Reasoning Test) 11 & 12 July 2023

One simple physical concept lies behind the formation of the stars: gravitational instability. The concept is not new. Newton first perceived it late in the 17th Century.

Imagine a uniform, static cloud of gas in space. Imagine then that the gas is somehow disturbed so that one small spherical region becomes a little denser than the gas around it so that the small region’s gravitational field becomes slightly stronger. It now attracts more matter to it and its gravity increases further, causing it to begin to contract. As it contracts its density increases which increases its gravity even more so that it picks up even more matter and contracts even further. The process continues until the small region of gas finally forms a gravitationally bound object.

It can be inferred from this passage that the author views the information contained within it as:

With which of the following words can you replace the word uniform as given in this passage?

In spring, polar bear mothers emerge from dens with three month old cubs. The mother bear has fasted for as long as eight months but that does not stop the young from demanding full access to her remaining reserves. If there are triplets, the most persistent stands to gain an extra meal and it may have the meal at the expense of others. The smallest of the litter forfeits many meals to stronger siblings. Females are protective of their cubs but tend to ignore family rivalry over food. In 21 years of photographing polar bears, I’ve only once seen the smallest of triplets survive till autumn.

Female polar bears give birth during

Mother bear

With reference to the passage, the following assumptions have been made :

1. Polar bears fast as long as eight months due to non availability of prey.
2. Polar bears always give birth to triplets.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

We started pitching the highest camp that has ever been made. Everything took five times as long as it would have taken in a place where there was enough air to breathe; but at last we got the tent up, and when we crawled in, it was not too bad. There was only a light wind, and inside it was not too cold for us to take off our gloves. At night most climbers take off their boots; but I prefer to keep them on. Hillary, on the other hand, took his off and laid them next to his sleeping bag.

What does the expression “pitching the highest camp” imply?

They took a long time to finish the work because

When they crawled into the tent

A local man, staying on the top floor of an old wooden house, was awakened at midnight by a fire. Losing his way in a smoke-filled passage, he missed the stairway and went into another room. He picked up a bundle to protect his face from the fire and immediately fell through the floor below where he managed to escape through a clear doorway. The ‘‘bundle’’ proved to be the baby of the Mayor’s wife. The ‘‘hero’’ was congratulated by all.

The man went into another room because

The man was called a hero because he