Question 1

Today’s new urban Asia is just as sophisticated and in many ways more exciting than Western cities. Urban

Asian consumers are knowledgeable, modern, and keen to embrace the global lifestyle. Young, urban Asians

have grown up accustomed to many things that originated in the West. They have, for example, completely

embraced pizza, some even claiming that it is a part of their heritage. The story is told about a young

Singaporean boy who was taken by his father to Rome. “Hey, look, Dad,” the little boy exclaimed, “they have

pizza here too!” On sampling the product, the boy decided that it was not as good as the original back home.

Nury Vitachi, who writes for the South China Post and the Far Eastern Economic Review, describes the Asian

middle-class phenomenon: “Executives in Asia have become rich at warp speed by taking full control of their

own lives. They invest a great deal of time in their work, they use strategy to scramble up the corporate ladder,

and they demand payment in cash – so they can make their money work as hard as they do.”

Signs of affluence are everywhere, but don’t get carried away. Traveling around Asia, no matter how rich the

Asians become, signs of their frugal nature are still apparent. And they are very cost-conscious. Shopkeepers

in many Asian cities, most notably in Hong Kong, demand payments for discounted merchandise in cash

instead of plastic, and many Asians are accustomed to that. Most people save the increases in their income,

and many prefer to put it into fixed or other income-generating assets. Stock, land, and property are their

favorites.

Many affluent Asians still regard financial security as the most important form of security, and they are confident

that Asia is the place to be to achieve that. While many have begun to savor the good life, they are not letting

go of their top priority of education for their children. Education is looked upon as the most important

contributing factor to success in life. And in many of Asia’s competitive urban centers, there is a rush to acquire

a second degree and other forms of professional qualification to ensure personal competitiveness in the

workplace. There are extraordinary opportunities in Asia for education and training programs from language to

software programming.

Despite the rise in their assertiveness, Asians still look to the United States and not so much to Europe for

ideas and trends. In general, except for those in Hong Kong and Japan, they are not particularly concerned with

being fashionable. For today’s Asia, Japan and Hong Kong are the sources of Asian fashion ideas, but as Asia

becomes more affluent, there is a great opportunity to develop an indigenous fashion industry. For example, a

huge market potential exists in introducing new materials and simplified but fashionable designs for countries in

tropical Asia with a hot humid climate throughout the year.

The population density and lack of space in urban areas has prohibited Asians from exercising frequently and

few indulge in outdoor activities. This is changing. Most Asians consider themselves in good health. Compared

with Americans, few are overweight – largely as a result of their Asian diet. But now health clubs are becoming

popular among younger Asians. Potential for indoor exercise equipment holds great promise. It is also

important to dress for the gym, and younger Asians are serious about looking good, complete with makeup,

sunglasses, designer exercise shoes and outfits, and a gym bag.

In trying to hit Asia’s moving targets, regardless of what you are selling, it is a good idea to stick with market

density – not country by country, but, mostly, city by city. Asian markets can be a marketer’s dream in that their

densities are among the highest in the world. Java, Indonesia’s main island, has 115 million people. On Nanjing

Road, Shanghai’s busiest street, businesses are open twelve hours a day almost every day of the year. More

than 1.5 million people visit the shops there and spend more than $50 million every day.

Someone said that you can only become rich if you sell to the rich. I would add that you can become rich faster

if you sell to the new rich. For investors in the West, watch for Western companies that are preparing a big

push in Asia. The world has not yet seen anything like it before, and you can reap handsome dividends if you

back those stocks that are going eastward.

Suppose that Asian urban centers have seen the construction of many new hiking and nature trails. How would

this information affect the author’s observation on Asians’ interest in health?

Section: Verbal Reasoning

Options :

A :

It supports the author’s claim that Asians are exercising more.

B :

It refutes the claim that health clubs are becoming more popular.

C :

It supports the claim that outdoor activities are becoming more popular if it can be shown that these trails

are heavily used.

D : It refutes the claim that Asians consider themselves in good health if it can be shown that these trails are heavily used.

Answer: C

Question 2

There are two opposing theories of light: the particle theory and the wave theory. According to the particle

theory, light is composed of a stream of tiny particles that are subject to the same physical laws as other types

of elementary particles. One consequence of this is that light particles should travel in a straight line unless an

external force acts on them. According to the wave theory, light is a wave that shares the characteristics of

other waves. Among other things, this means that light waves should interfere with each other under certain

conditions.

In support of the wave theory of light, Thomas Young’s double slit experiment proves that light does indeed

exhibit interference. Figure 1 shows the essential features of the experiment. Parallel rays of monochromatic

light pass through two narrow slits and are projected onto a screen. Constructive interference occurs at certain

points on the screen, producing bright areas of maximum light intensity. Between these maxima, destructive

interference produces light intensity minima. The positions of the maxima are given by the equation d sin θ= nλ,

where d is the distance between the slits, θ is the angle shown in Figure 1, the integer n specifies the particular

maxima, and λ is the wavelength of the incident light. (Note: sin θ ≈ tan θ ≈ θ for small angles.)

Figure 1

Which of the following supports the particle theory of light?

Section: Physical Sciences

Options :

A :

The energy of light is quantitized.

B :

Light exhibits interference.

C : Light is subject to the Doppler effect

D : No particle can have a speed greater than the speed of light.

Answer: A

Question 3

…Until last year many people – but not most economists – thought that the economic data told a simple tale.

On one side, productivity – the average output of an average worker – was rising. And although the rate of

productivity increase was very slow during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, the official numbers said that it had

accelerated significantly in the 1990’s. By 1994 an average worker was producing about 20 percent more than

his or her counterpart in 1978.

On the other hand, other statistics said that real, inflation- adjusted wages had not been rising at anything like

the same rate. In fact, some of the most commonly cited numbers showed real wages actually falling over the

last 25 years. Those who did their homework knew that the gloomiest numbers overstated the case…Still, even

the most optimistic measure, the total hourly compensation of the average worker, rose only 3 percent between

1978 and 1994…

…But now the experts are telling us that the whole thing may have been a figment of our statistical

imaginations… a blue-ribbon panel of economists headed by Michael Boskin of Stanford declared that the

Consumer Price Index [C.P.I.] had been systematically overstating inflation, probably by more than 1 percent

per year for the last two decades, mainly failing to take account of changes in the patterns of consumption and

improvements in product quality…

…The Boskin report, in particular, is not an official document – it will be quite a while before the Government

actually issues a revised C.P.I., and the eventual revision may be smaller than Boskin and his colleagues

propose. Still, the general outline of the resolution is pretty clear. When all the revisions are taken into account,

productivity growth will probably look somewhat higher than it did before, because some of the revisions being

proposed to the way we measure consumer prices will also affect the way we calculate growth. But the rate of

growth of real wages will look much higher – and so it will now be roughly in line with productivity, which will

therefore reconcile numbers on productivity and wages with data that show a roughly unchanged distribution of

income between capital and labor. In other words, the whole story about workers not sharing in productivity

gains will turn out to have been based on a statistical illusion.

It is important not to go overboard on this point. There are real problems in America, and our previous concerns

were by no means pure hypochondria. For one thing, it remains true that the rate of economic progress over

the past 25 years has been much slower than it was in the previous 25. Even if Boskin’s numbers are right, the

income of the median family – which officially has experienced virtually no gain since 1973 – has risen by only

about 35 percent over the past 25 years, compared with 100 percent over the previous 25. Furthermore, it is

quite likely that if we “Boskinized” the old data – that is, if we tried to adjust the C.P.I. for the 50’s and 60’s to

take account of changing consumption patterns and rising product quality – we would find that official numbers

understated the rate of progress just as much if not more than they did in recent decades…

…Moreover, while workers as a group have shared fully in national productivity gains, they have not done so

equally. The overwhelming evidence of a huge increase in income inequality in America has nothing to do with

price indexes and is therefore unaffected by recent statistical revelations. It is still true that families in the

bottom fifth, who had 5.4 percent of total income in 1970, had only 4.2 percent in 1994; and that over the same

period the share of the top 5 percent went from 15.6 to 20.1. And it is still true that corporate C.E.O.’s, who

used to make about 35 times as much as their employees, now make 120 times as much or more…

…While these are real and serious problems, however, one thing is now clear: the truth about what is

happening in America is more subtle than the simplistic morality play about greedy capitalists and oppressed

workers that so many would-be sophisticates accepted only a few months ago. There was little excuse for

buying into that simplistic view then; there is no excuse now…

The Boskin report does all of the following EXCEPT:

Section: Verbal Reasoning

Options :

A :

Reveals that the C.P.I. was inaccurate.

B :

Reconciles the present disparity between productivity levels, wage levels, and the percentage of labor’s

share in national income.

C : Reveals the reasons for the increasing disparity between the highest and lowest income earners.

D :

Helps clarify economic progress in the 1950s and 1960s.

Answer: C

Question 4

Which gas is formed when ammonium chloride is heated with aqueous sodium hydroxide?

Section: Physical Sciences

Options :

A : Ammonia

B : Chlorine

C : Hydrogen

D : Nitrogen

Answer: C

Question 5

Band theory explains the conductivity of certain solids by stating that the atomic orbitals of the individual atoms

in the solid merge to produce a series of atomic orbitals comprising the entire solid. The closely-spaced energy

levels of the orbitals form bands. The band corresponding to the outermost occupied subshell of the original

atoms is called the valence band. If partially full, as in metals, it serves as a conduction band through which

electrons can move freely. If the valence band is full, then electrons must be raised to a higher band for

conduction to occur. The greater the band gap between the separate valence and conduction bands, the poorer

the material’s conductivity. Figure 1 shows the valence and conduction bands of a semiconductor, which is

intermediate in conductivity between conductors and insulators.

Figure 1

When silicon, a semiconductor with tetrahedral covalent bonds, is heated, a few electrons escape into the

conduction band. Doping the silicon with a few phosphorus atoms provides unbonded electrons that escape

more easily, increasing conductivity. Doping with boron produces holes in the bonding structure, which may be

filled by movement of nearby electrons within the lattice. When a semiconductor in an electric circuit has

excess electrons on one side and holes on the other, electron flow occurs more easily from the side with

excess electrons to the side with holes than in the reverse direction.

Figure 2

How does heat increase the conductivity of a semiconductor?

I) By reducing collisions between moving electrons

II) By breaking covalent bonds

III) By raising electrons to a higher energy level

Section: Physical Sciences

Options :

A : I only

B : III only

C : I and III only

D : II and III only

Answer: D