In these modern times of fast food lunches, take-away dinners and read

Question

In these modern times of fast food lunches, take-away dinners and ready-to-eat breakfasts, we often reminisce about the dishes that our mothers made when we were young. The aromas and flavours of those dishes are still fresh in our minds, though several years have passed since we last had these. Is it the flavour that actually makes us remember these dishes? Or is it that these dishes are connected to other pleasant memories of those times and of our younger selves, which have left an indelible impression on our minds?

If we think about how our mother’s garden used to be, there was nothing remarkable about it, at least at first glance. What did stand out was that everything—flowers, fruits and vegetables—was neatly laid out and pleasing to the eye. Widely contrasting fruits and vegetables such as strawberries and cucumber, poppies and potatoes, turnips and tomatoes grew in perfect harmony in mother’s garden.

One group of plants that one particularly remembers among this eclectic mix is the “sweet” herbs placed just outside the kitchen. These are items that we never see on the table and that never play leading roles in the dramatic act that is mother’s cooking. Nonetheless, these are absolutely essential ingredients of mother’s food, just like members of the cast who play small but important roles and without whom the act would lose a lot of its colour and charm. It is these performances that one remembers long after one has forgotten the names of the leading cast members. The herbs in mother’s garden are no different.   1 
 1. The author compares herbs in mother’s garden with members of ‘the cast’ primarily in order to:

(A) describe the supporting role played by these herbs in preparing a dish.
(B) identify a similarity between these herbs and other fruits and vegetables.
(C) analyse the relationship between herbs and cooking.
(D) explain how these herbs play a vital role in providing flavour to a dish.
(E) point out the key differentiating ingredients in mother’s dishes.

2 
 2. According to the passage, which of the following could be a reason we are attracted towards the dishes made by our mothers?

(A) They were made using ingredients that are not available today.
(B) They satisfed our hunger much better than modern dishes do.
(C) They did not involve the use of artificial flavours.
(D) They serve as reminders of our younger selves.
(E) They were made from home grown vegetables.

3 
 3. According to the passage, which of the following was a unique feature of mother’s garden?

(A) The availability of rare herbs and vegetables.
(B) The use of sweet herbs.
(C) The addition of mother’s love.
(D) The effort that went into preparing the dishes.
(E) The neat and organised layout.

4 
 4. From the information in the passage, which of the following is not true of the herbs discussed in the last paragraph of the passage?

(A) They tasted sweet.
(B) Their memory lingered long after the food was eaten.
(C) They were usually not the main ingredient of a dish.
(D) They added flavour to a dish.
(E) They were not laid out on the dining table.

anshum511 · Answer

Can anyone explain why answer choice A is inocorrect for question 1?

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proudcrimson · Answer

Nonetheless,  these are absolutely essential ingredients  of mother’s food, just like members of the cast who play small but important roles and without whom the act would  lose a lot of its colour and charm . This can provide a context about why option D is correct.

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IanStewart · Answer

No, I can't explain that -- that question seems to have two equally good answers. I also think the answer to the final question is wrong (the passage literally never mentions that the herbs "added flavour to a dish", so it's unclear why D is wrong there).

Just from the quality of the writing alone, this clearly isn't a good enough question to be worth studying.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

This is an official NMAT question created by GMAC, below is the OE to question #1.

Official Explanation

1. The author compares herbs in mother’s garden with members of ‘the cast’ primarily in order to:

Explanation

(A)  We cannot say that the herbs are playing a supporting role as the author mentions other members of the cast saying,“these members play what appear to be minor roles but leave a lasting impact in the minds of the audiences”.

(B)  There is no discussion on differences between herbs and fruits/vegetables.

(C)  ‘Herbs in cooking’ is the subject of discussion as opposed to ‘herbs and cooking’.

(D)   Can be inferred from the passage which says that it may appear that herbs are playing a supporting role in a dish but they are actually playing a vital role because it is the flavour of these herbs that will be remembered long after the other ‘supposedly’ major ingredients have been forgotten.

(E)  This could be correct, based on the information in the passage but it does not address this comparison and so it can be eliminated.

The correct answer is D.

IanStewart · Answer

How do you know the question was created by GMAC? I'd be shocked if that were true. GMAC only recently bought the NMAT test, and the published NMAT questions that, for example, Bunuel has been posting in the Quant section of the forum all predate GMAC's involvement with the exam.

IanStewart · Answer

To add to my post above, one reason I'm almost certain GMAC had nothing to do with designing this question (besides the standard of writing in the passage, which is the most obvious clue) is that this explanation makes no sense. The passage says the herbs "never play leading roles". That means they play supporting roles, and that's what the theater analogy goes on to explain: that actors in "small but important roles" (that's precisely what a "supporting role" is) are sometimes the most memorable performers. This OE's justification for answer D suggests there's some contradiction between "supporting roles" and "vital roles" -- that a role can't be both -- but there's no contradiction between those two things: supporting roles can also be vital or memorable roles, and leading roles can be forgettable. The OE here is confused about the definitions of the terms it's using.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

I am not claiming it, possibly it could not be created by them but this a property of GMAC. 4.jpg Best

kantapong · Answer

Passage Summary:
P1: We reminisce our mother's foods because of 1) flavor or 2) memory to that person?
P2: Garden -> nothing remarkable but pleasing to eyes
P3: Sweet herbs -> not leading role but essential
(I think the author uses garden and sweet herbs as contrasting examples to support the claim that it is actually memory not how thing actually is)

Q1 Purpose of comparing herbs to cast -> not leading role but essential
A (keep)
B (not how similar the herb is to others)
C (tempting but our prediction does not talk about cooking)
D (keep)
E (key differentiating ingredients: surely more than one ingredient -> surely false)
Both are true, but look at choice A: describe supporting role in preparing the dish. Yes it is true, but the purpose is for comparison not for explaining how the herb supports preparing dish by using cast as example.
Ans: D

Q2: reason (answer is 2 -> memory to that person)
A reason 1 -> false
B reason 1 -> false
C reason 1 -> false
D yes, reason 2
E reason 1 -> false
Ans: D

3. According to the passage, which of the following was a unique feature of mother’s garden? (noting remarkable but pleasing)
A not related to rare herbs
B not related to sweet herbs
C not related to love
D effort into dish -> no, it is about garden
E neat layout -> yes, pleasing to eyes
Ans: E

4. From the information in the passage, which of the following is not true of the herbs discussed in the last paragraph of the passage? (write "EXCEPT" in note to remind!)
A they used "sweet" (keep)
B memory lingered (correct -> eliminate)
C not main ingredient (correct -> eliminate)
D added flavor (correct -> eliminate)
E not laid out on table (correct -> eliminate)
Ans: A

KarishmaB · Answer

Notice where the author compares herbs with members of 'the cast'

Nonetheless, these are absolutely essential ingredients of mother’s food, just like  members of the cast  who play small but important roles and without whom the act would lose a lot of its colour and charm. It is these performances that one remembers long after one has forgotten the names of the leading cast members. The herbs in mother’s garden are no different.

The author brings in the comparison to show that these herbs play a small but vital role, without whom the act loses a lot of colour and charm. She says that we remember the performance of these cast members.
The focus is on how vital their role is. She doesn't use the comparison to say that they play a supporting role, not the main role. The idea is to tell how important their role is.

Hence, (D) is the best.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

4. From the information in the passage, which of the following is not true of the herbs discussed in the last paragraph of the passage?

Explanation

(A) The passage refers to the herbs as ‘sweet herbs’ in one sentence, but this does not imply that the herbs actually tasted sweet. The use of inverted commas around this phrase conveys how important these herbs were in mother’s cooking.

(B) This is mentioned in the last paragraph.

(C) This is mentioned in the last paragraph.

(D) This is mentioned in the last paragraph.

(E) This is mentioned in the last paragraph.

The correct answer is A.

In these modern times of fast food lunches, take-away dinners and read

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