Aptitude tests form a critical component the placement process at many corporate companies. Currently, PayPal does not conduct aptitude test but many include it in future. Aptitude tests are standardized tests that designed to assess a candidate’s capabilities in performing a particular task and response to different situations. Quantitative aptitude checks problem solving ability of the candidates, their basic mathematical skills and comfort with data crunching. To score well, a candidate should focus on speedy calculations, sound fundamentals and strong analytical skills through practice.
You can practice the below given sample questions to practise for PayPal ’s aptitude questions:
DIRECTIONS for the question 1 to 4: Read the passage and answer the question based on it.
Passage 1
Neuroscience has, as its primary resource, technology that captures images of processes within the living brain. Fear lights up a certain area, therefore fear is a function of that area, which developed for the purposes of maintaining homeostasis. It prepares the organism to fight or flee. Well and good. But fear is rarely without context. People can be terrified of spiders, dentists, the Last Judgment, germs, the need to speak in public, the number 13, extraterrestrials, mathematics, hoodies, the discovery of a fraud in their past. All of these fears are the creatures of circumstance, of the history and state of health of a specific brain. They identify threat, interpreting an environment in highly individual terms. They, not threat in the abstract, trigger alarm, and they are the products of parts of the brain that do not light up under technological scrutiny and would elude interpretation if they did. If they are not taken into account, the mere evidence of an excitation has little descriptive and no predictive value. A fearful person might take a pill, faint, or commit mayhem. The assumptions behind the notion that the nature of fear and the impulses it triggers could be made legible or generalizable for the purposes of imaging would have to exclude complexity—the factor that introduces individuality with all its attendant mysteries. In fairness, however, the neuroscientists seem well content with the technology they have, extrapolating boldly from the data it yields. Refinements that introduced complication might not be welcome.
This all appears to be a straightforward instance of scientists taking as the whole of reality that part of it their methods can report. These methods are as much a matter of vocabulary as of technology, though the two interact and reinforce each other. Here is an example. Neuroscientists seem predisposed to the conclusion that there is no “self.” This would account for indifference to the modifying effects of individual history and experience, and to the quirks of the organism that arise from heredity, environment, interactions within the soma as a whole, and so on. What can the word “self” mean to those who wish to deny its reality? It can only signify an illusion we all participate in, as individuals, societies, and civilizations. So it must also be an important function of the brain, the brain aware of itself as it is modified by the infinite particulars of circumstance, that is, as it is not like others. But this would mean the self is not an illusion at all but a product of the mind at other work than the neuroscientists are inclined to acknowledge. Of course, the physical brain is subject to every sort of impairment, the areas that light up during imaging as surely as any others. Impairments that seem to compromise the sense of self may be taken to demonstrate that it is rooted in the physical brain, that same fleshly monument to provident evolution the neuroscientists admire, selectively. If the physical disruption of the sense of self is taken to prove that the self is an experience created by the physical brain, then there are no better grounds to call its existence into question than there would be to question equilibrium or depth perception. Obviously, there is a conceptual problem here—equilibrium does not “exist” except in the moment-to- moment orientation of an organism to its environment. Say as much of the self, mutatis mutandis, and it is granted the same kind of reality.
Q. 1 The word 'homeostasis' means:
A) equilibrium B) symmetry C) pressure D) emotion
Correct Answer:- A Explanation:-
Homeostasis means the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes. Homeostasis is derived from the roots homeo (meaning like) and stasis (meaning standing still).
Q. 2 Identify the correct option according to the views attributed by the author to neuroscientists:
Fear is rarely without context
Fear is majorly without context
Fear has an absolute undeniable relation to context
Fear is driven by context
Correct Answer:- B Explanation:-
In the given case, the views of the author and those of the neuroscientists are opposite in nature. The author states: (from para 1)" But fear is rarely without context." The view of neuroscientists in author's view - "The assumptions behind the notion that the nature of fear and the impulses it triggers could be made legible or generalizable for the purposes of imaging would have to exclude complexity—the factor that introduces individuality with all its attendant mysteries." "Neuroscientists seem predisposed to the conclusion that there is no “self.” This would account for indifference to the modifying effects of individual history and
experience, and to the quirks of the organism that arise from heredity, environment, interactions within the soma as a whole, and so on. What can the word “self” mean to those who wish to deny its reality? It can only signify an illusion we all participate in, as individuals, societies, and civilizations."
Which is the option that represents the opposite of context? Option 2 does the job for us.
Q. 3 A lament of the author of the passage:
neuroscientists are limited to a very narrow framework when it comes to analyzing broad human emotions such as fear
neuroscientists will never be able to see the role of self in the creation of human emotions
neuroscientists have stopped in their tracks and now are only bound to scientific studies and models based on data
neuroscientists are happy to stay within the rigid contours of data and deny the role and relation of an individual with respect to fear
Correct Answer:- D Explanation:-
The answer can be derived from the lines: In fairness, however, the neuroscientists seem well content with the technology they have, extrapolating boldly from the data it yields. Refinements that introduced complication might not be welcome.
Along with the lines, you need to keep the central idea of the passage in mind, wherein the author is highlighting how
neuroscientists continue to stick to data driven approach and do not recognize individuals and their unique identities while dealing with topics such as fear.
Option 1 is rejected as it is beyond the scope of the passage. The passage mainly talks about fear and is not about broad human emotions.
Option 2 is rejected as it a prediction of the future that we cannot make in the given context.
Option 3 is a judgment that cannot be concluded from the given context. It also misses out on main points of the passage - fear and individuality
Q. 4 According to the author of the passage:
Neuroscientists are inclined to believe that there is no "self."
Neuroscientists are not able to map all impairments of the human mind.
Generalizing human behaviour when it comes to fear means that we have difficulty explaining the variety of human responses to similar situations and stimuli.
A) I & II B) II & III C) I & III D) All of the above
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
Statement I can be derived from the lines: Neuroscientists seem predisposed to the conclusion that there is no 'self.' Statement II is not related to the passage and is illogical. It simply uses a word in the second paragraph to confuse you.
Statement III is effectively the summary for the first paragraph especially the lines "They, not threat in the abstract, trigger alarm, and they are the products of parts of the brain that do not light up under technological scrutiny and would elude interpretation if they did. If they are not taken into account, the mere evidence of an excitation has little descriptive and no predictive value. A fearful person might take a pill, faint, or commit mayhem. In fairness, however, the neuroscientists seem well content
with the technology they have, extrapolating boldly from the data it yields. Refinements that introduced complication might not be welcome." Refinements here referring to "variety of human responses"
DIRECTIONS for the question 5 to 7: Complete the sentence by filling in the appropriate blank/blanks from the options provided.
Q. 5 He doesn't work with hands he works the machine.
A) with B) by C) at D) on
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
The correct preposition is 'at'. 'At' is used as a preposition of place where you are to do something typical (study, watch a film, work).
Q. 6 At the orders of the administration all illegal buildings were
A) razed B) Dupe C) Encroached D) Defaced
Correct Answer:- A Explanation:-
Raze means to tear down; demolish; level to the ground .Dupe is person who is easily deceived or fooled. Encroach is to trespass upon the property, domain, or rights of another, especially stealthily or by gradual advances.
Defaced means to mar the surface or appearance of; disfigure: The use of "illegal buildings" in the question is suggestive of the fact that these buildings were built without considering the guidelines of the Government. So, order will be carried out to demolish these structures. So, the most appropriate option will be 1(raze)
Q. 7 The entry of players such as Hindustan Unilever and Dabur into Glaxo's turf, health drinks, has in more competition.
A) home, ushered B) strong, ushered C) home, increased D) own, reigned
Correct Answer:- A Explanation:-
Option A is correct. Home turf........ushered in. The word 'turf' means a familiar area, as of residence or expertise. The word 'usher' means to lead someone politely somewhere. Here the phrasal verb "usher in" means to make an activity or process begin. Hence, A is a better option than C.
DIRECTIONS for the question 8 & 9: Given below are five sentences. Identify the sentence(s) that is/are incorrect in terms of grammar and usage (including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency). Then, choose the most appropriate option.
Q.8
I checked my disguise in the mirror; a ski hat and sunglasses did a good job of concealing my identity, even if I did look absurd.
Normally I would have shared a laugh with my staff about this, but what we were doing that day was hardly any funny.
A few blocks away, at a tobacco shop, I spent $ 80 to buy several packages of drugs that when snorted have a similar effect as ecstasy but are many more toxic.
There was no back-alley drug dealer; there were no lowered voices or code words — just a small-business owner making a sale.
I am telling you today, first as a father and then as a doctor, that the ease of that transaction chilled me. Kids everywhere are in danger from this substance, and the threat is legal, cheap and very deadly.
A) A and C B) B, C and E C) A, B and C D) C, D and E
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
Option 3. In A, a colon instead of a semicolon as what follows is an explanation of the disguise. In B, any is redundant. In C, much and not many.
Q.9
Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended.
Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing them.
If there was any consolation, it was that the glacial pace of nature would have been given us decades or even centuries to sort out the problem.
But glaciers, it turns out, can move with surprising speed, and so can nature.
What few people reckoned about was that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse.
A) A and E B) B only C) B, C and E D) A and D
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
Option 3. In B, them to be replaced by it as the word referred to by the pronoun is global warming. In C, would give instead of would have been given. In E, reckoned on and not reckoned about.
DIRECTIONS for the question 10: In each of the following question, out of the given group of wordings, choose one inappropriately spelled.
Q.10
A) Pneumonia B) Diarrheoa C) Xenophobia D) Amnesia
Correct Answer:- B Explanation:-
The correct spelling is Diarrhoea.
