KHAN ACADEMY MCAT PRACTICE QUESTIONS

LIVING IN A RATIONAL SOCIETY

The rationalising of society can be conceptualised as the pursuit of efficiency, predictability,
calculability, and control through technology. But rational systems inevitably spawn a series of
irrationalities that result in the compromising and perhaps even the undermining of their rationality.

Fast restaurants, which epitomise the rational model, prefer the fastest means of getting
from hungry state to a sated one, without surprises at a low cost and in a carnival like setting,
suggesting that fun awaits the consumer at each visit. The wholesomeness of the food seems an
insignificant consideration. Whereas in the past working people were prepared to spend up to an
hour preparing dinner, they are now impatient if a meal is not on the table within ten minutes. For
their part, some fast food restaurants have developed chairs that become uncomfortable after
about twenty minutes to ensure diners do not stay long.

Fast food restaurants have preferentially recruited adolescent help; at least until recently,
because this age group adjusts more easily than adults do to surrendering their autonomy to
machines, rules and procedures. Few skills are required on the job, so workers are asked to use only
a minute portion of their abilities. This policy is irrational from the standpoint of the organisation,
since it could obtain much more from it’s employees for the money, however negligible it pays
them. These minimal skill demands are also irrational from the perspective of the employees, who
are not allowed to think or respond creatively to demands of the work.

These restrictions lead to high levels of resentment, job dissatisfaction, alienation,

absenteeism, and turnover among workers in fast food franchises. In fact, these businesses have the
highest turnover rate of any industry in the U.S. The entire workforce of the fast food industry turns
over three times a year. Although the simple repetitive nature of the work makes it easy to replace
those who leave, the organisation would clearly benefit from keeping employees longer. The cost of
hiring and training are magnified when the turnover rate is extraordinarily high.

The application of the rational model to the house-building process in the 1950s and 60s led
to suburban communities consisting of nearly identical structures. Indeed, it was possible to wander
onto the residence of someone else and not realize immediately that one was not at home. The
more expensive developments were superficially more diversified, but their interior layouts assumed
residents who were indistinguishable in their requirements.

Furthermore, the planned communities themselves looked very similar. Established trees
are bulldozed to facilitate construction, in their place a number of saplings, held up by posts and
wire are planted. Streets are laid out in symmetrical grid patterns, with such uniformity suburbanites
may well enter the wrong subdivision or become lost in their own.

Many of Steven Spielberg’s films are set in such suburbs. Spielberg’s strategy is to lure the
viewer into this highly repetitive world and then to have a completely unexpected event occur. For
example, the film Poltergeist takes place in a conventional suburban household in which evil spirits
ultimately disrupt the sameness. The spirits first manifest themselves through another key element
of the homogeneous society, the television set. The great success of Spielberg’s films may be
traceable to a longing for some unpredictability, even if it is bizarre and menacing, in increasingly
routinized lives.
Adapted from G. Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society. ©1993 by Pine Forge Press.
Question 1.

The author’s argument suggests that the primary motive of employers who make humans work
with machines is to:

A. improve the quality of their products

B. reduce the cost of wages and benefits
C. avoid seeming to be behind the times
D. increase the uniformity of procedures

Question 2.

A common thread in the discussion of fast food and the discussion of suburban housing is that
people today:

A. are increasingly resistant to the regimentation of life.

B. expect their needs to be met at the lowest possible cost
C. allow themselves to be treated as interchangeable
D. are unable to discriminate among products that differ in quality

Question 3.

Information in the passage suggests that a rationalized travel agency would emphasize:

A. planned tours to popular attractions with accommodations at large hotels

B. computerized systems to provide low-cost customized itineraries
C. personnel trained to make reservations but with little experience as travelers
D. procedures that encourage problem-solving initiatives by managers

Question 4.

Suppose that the employee responses to working conditions in fast-food franchises (paragraph 4)
also apply to entry-level assembly line workers. In light of this information, the author’s main
point in mentioning these responses is:

A. weakened, since the fast-food industry is not unique in suppressing creativity

B. weakened, since the monotony of work is not necessarily related to employee dissatisfaction.
C. strengthened, since predictability and employee turnover are associated in another context
D. strengthened, since low wages and job dissatisfaction are associated in another context.
THE HAPPY AMERICAN

Americans are a “positive” people. This is their reputation as well as their self-image. In the
well-worn stereotype, they are upbeat, cheerful, and optimistic.

Who would be churlish enough to challenge these happy features of the American
personality? Take the business of positive “affect,” which refers to the mood they display to others
through their smiles, their greetings, their professions of confidence and optimism. Scientists have
found that the mere act of smiling can generate positive feelings within us, at least if the smile is not
forced. In addition, recent studies show that happy feelings flit easily through social networks, so
that one person’s good fortune can brighten the day even for only distantly connected others.
Furthermore, psychologists agree that positive feelings can actually lengthen our lives and improve
our health. People who report having positive feelings are more likely to participate in a rich social
life, and social connectedness turns out to be an important defense against depression, which is a
known risk factor for many physical illnesses.

It is a sign of progress, then, that economists have begun to show an interest in using
happiness rather than just the gross national product as a measure of an economy’s success.
Happiness is, of course, a slippery thing to measure or define. Philosophers have debated what it is
for centuries, and even if they were to define it simply as a greater frequency of positive feelings
than negative ones, when they ask people if they are happy, they are asking them to arrive at some
sort of average over many moods and moments.

Surprisingly, when psychologists measure the relative happiness of nations, they routinely
find that Americans are not, even in prosperous times and despite their vaunted positivity, very
happy at all. A recent meta-analysis of over a hundred studies of self-reported happiness worldwide
found Americans ranking only twenty-third. Americans account for two-thirds of the global market
for antidepressants, which happen also to be the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United
States.

How can Americans be so surpassingly “positive” in self-image and stereotype without being
the world’s happiest and best-off people? The answer is that positivity is not so much their condition
as it is part of their ideology—the way they explain the world and think they ought to function within
it. That ideology is “positive thinking,” by which they usually mean two things. One is the generic
content of positive thinking—that is, the positive thought itself—which can be summarized as
“Things are pretty good right now, at least if you are willing to see silver linings, make lemonade out
of lemons, etc., and things are going to get a whole lot better.”

The second thing they mean by “positive thinking” is this practice of trying to think in a
positive way. There is, they are told, a practical reason for undertaking this effort: positive thinking
supposedly not only makes us feel optimistic but actually makes happy outcomes more likely. How
can the mere process of thinking do this? In the rational explanation that many psychologists would
offer today, optimism improves health, personal efficacy, confidence, and resilience, making it easier
for us to accomplish our goals. A far less rational theory also runs rampant in American ideology—
the idea that our thoughts can, in some mysterious way, directly affect the physical world. Negative
thoughts somehow produce negative outcomes, while positive thoughts realize themselves in the
form of health, prosperity, and success. For both rational and mystical reasons, then, the effort of
positive thinking is said to be well worth our time and attention.

Adapted from B. Ehrenreich, Bright-sided. ©2009 by Metropolitan Books.

Question 1.
According to the passage, positive feelings are:

A. universal
B. hereditary
C. contagious
D. ephemeral

Question 2.

Suppose that economists do start using happiness instead of the gross national product as a measure
of an economy’s success. Information presented in the passage would predict which of the following?

I. The transition will be fraught with difficulty.

II. The gross national product of the United States will appear to decrease.

III. The economy of the United States will be seen as relatively less successful than today's.

A. I only
B. II only
C. I and III only
D. II and III only

Question 3.

What best represents the author’s explanation for why Americans can be “so surpassingly ‘positive’ in
self-image and stereotype without being the world’s happiest and best-off people?”

A. Americans’ positivity is not a true reflection of their affect

B. Being “well-off” is not the same as being “happy.”
C. Stereotypes tend to be unwarranted generalizations.
D. Americans tend to have high rates of depression