Symbiosis International Education Centre 2007 M.B.A SNAP TEST - Question Paper

50. How many various triangles can be formed?
I. There are 16 coplanar, straight lines in all. II. No 2 lines are parallel.

part - II

Directions for ques. 51 to 90: learn the passages beneath and ans the ques. that follow.

Passage I

How should reasonable people react to the hype and controversy over global warming? Judging by latest headlines, you might think we are already doomed. News¬papers have been quick to link extreme weather events, ranging from floods in Britain and Mozambique to hurricanes in Central America, directly to global warming. Greens say that worse will ensue if governments do not act. Many politicians have duly jumped on the bandwagon, citing latest disasters as a cause for speeding up action on the Kyoto treaty on climate change that commits rich countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

Yet, hotheaded attempts to link specific weather disasters to the greenhouse effect are scientific bunk. The accurate ap¬proach is to coolly assess the science of climate change before taking action. Unfortunately, climate modeling is still in its infancy, and for most of the past decade it has raised as many ques. as it has answered. Now, however, the picture is getting clearer. There will never be consensus, but the balance of the evidence suggests that global warming is indeed hap¬pening; that much of it has recently been man-made; and that there is a risk of potentially disastrous consequences. Even the normally stolid insurance industry is getting excited. Insurers reckon that weather disasters have cost roughly $400 billion over the past decade and that the damage is likely only to increase. The time has come to accept that global warming is a credible enough threat to require a public-policy response.

But what, exactly? At 1st blush, the Kyoto treaty seems to offer a good way forward. It is a global treaty: it would be foolish to deal with this most global of issues in any other way. It sets a long-term framework that requires frequent up¬dating and revision, rather like the post-war process of trade liberalization. That is sensible because climate change will be at lowest a 100-year problem, and so will require a treaty with institutions and mechanisms that endure. The big ques. over Kyoto remains its cost. How much insurance is worth buying now against an uncertain, but possibly devastating, future threat? And the ans lies in a clear-headed assess¬ment of benefits and costs. The case for doing something has increased during the 3 years since Kyoto was signed. Yet it also remains actual that all answers will be easier if economic growth is meanwhile sustained: stopping the world while the issue is dealt with is not a sensible option, provided that re¬sources to deal with it would then become steadily scarcer.

Earning:   Approval pending.