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RC1000 Document passage - 68 [ The uniqueness of the Japan

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Sharma_Gaurav Really wants to Beat The GMAT! Default Avatar
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RC1000 Document passage - 68 [ The uniqueness of the Japan Post Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:00 am
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  • Lap #[LAPCOUNT] ([LAPTIME])
    The uniqueness of the Japanese character is the result of two seemingly contradictory forces: the strength of traditions and selective receptivity to foreign achievements and inventions. As early as the 1860s, there were counter movements to the traditional orientation. Yukichi Fukuzawa, the most eloquent spokesman of Japan’s “Enlightenment,” claimed: “The Confucian civilization of the East seems to me to lack two things possessed by Western civilization: science in the material sphere and a sense of independence in the spiritual sphere.” Fukuzawa’s great influence is found in the free and individualistic philosophy of the Education Code of 1872, but he was not able to prevent the government from turning back to the canons of Confucian thought in the Imperial Rescript of 1890. Another interlude of relative liberalism followed World War I, when the democratic idealism of President Woodrow Wilson had an important impact on Japanese intellectuals and, especially students: but more important was the Leninist ideology of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Again in the early 1930s, nationalism and militarism became dominant, largely as a result of failing economic conditions.
    Following the end of World War II, substantial changes were undertaken in Japan to liberate the individual from authoritarian restraints. The new democratic value system was accepted by many teachers, students, intellectuals, and old liberals, but it was not immediately embraced by the society as a whole. Japanese traditions were dominated by group values, and notions of personal freedom and individual rights were unfamiliar.
    Today, democratic processes are clearly evident in the widespread participation of the Japanese people in social and political life: yet, there is no universally accepted and stable value system. Values are constantly modified by strong infusions of Western ideas, both democratic and Marxist. School textbooks expound democratic principles, emphasizing equality over hierarchy and rationalism over tradition; but in practice these values are often misinterpreted and distorted, particularly by the youth who translate the individualistic and humanistic goals of democracy into egoistic and materialistic ones.
    Most Japanese people have consciously rejected Confucianism, but vestiges of the old order remain. An important feature of relationships in many institutions such as political parties, large corporations, and university faculties is the oyabun-kobun or parent-child relation. A party leader, supervisor, or professor, in return for loyalty, protects those subordinate to him and takes general responsibility for their interests throughout their entire lives, an obligation that sometimes even extends to arranging marriages. The corresponding loyalty of the individual to his patron reinforces his allegiance to the group to which they both belong. A willingness to cooperate with other members of the group and to support without qualification the interests of the group in all its external relations is still a widely respected virtue. The oyabun-kobun creates ladders of mobility which an individual can ascend, rising as far as abilities permit, so long as he maintains successful personal ties with a superior in the vertical channel, the latter requirement usually taking precedence over a need for exceptional competence. As a consequence, there is little horizontal relationship between people even within the same profession.

    Q - 2 Which of the following is most like the relationship of the oyabun-kobun described in the passage?
    (A) A political candidate and the voting public
    (B) A gifted scientist and his protégé
    (C) Two brothers who are partners in a business
    (D) A judge presiding at the trial of a criminal defendant
    (E) A leader of a musical ensemble who is also a musician in the group

    Q-5. In developing the passage, the author does which of the following?
    (A) Introduce an analogy
    (B) Define a term
    (C) Present statistics
    (D) Cite an authority
    (E) Issue a challenge

    Guys Please try this passage and help me to understand the answers for two questions mentioned above. I cannot understand the correct OA . Experts please pitch in and explain the reasoning.
    I will post the OA later

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    Sharma_Gaurav Really wants to Beat The GMAT! Default Avatar
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    Post Sat Dec 31, 2011 12:53 pm
    Can anybody please reply to this post ? Experts can you please throw some light to select the answers?

    happymanocha Rising GMAT Star Default Avatar
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    Post Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:17 pm
    IMO :
    i) E. though I am confused between B and E.
    ii) B.

    Hoping to hear the comments from experts.

    Sharma_Gaurav Really wants to Beat The GMAT! Default Avatar
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    Post Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:11 pm
    OA for Q - 2 is B and i also got confused between options B/E.
    Dictionary meaning of Protege is a person who is guided and supported by an older and more experienced or influential person: Hence B looks more closer than E i beleive. Experts please help explain more.

    Q - 5 OA is B.

    Here is beleive the passage just defines a term "oyabun-kobun" and does not give analogy.
    It could have been analogy if passage would have said , like parent - child do this and this , oyabin-kobun do this and this, but passage looks like did not mention analogy.
    Again experts can throw more light on this.

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