Some environmentalists tired of waiting for ‘green economics’ to catch up with the society at large, have adopted their own strategies for tipping the financial calculation in favour of the land. In the forest surrounding Vancouver, where trees are being felled for paper to print philosophy books (well, maybe one or two, but it’s worth it), groups have used metal spikes hidden in trees to prevent the chainsaws from operating safely, pushing up the price of harvesting the trees. In Phoenix, Arizona, where mountain nature reserves have been encroached on by new houses, hooded vigilantes have burnt down the new residences .The arsonists, according to the local paper, pray before they burn down a house that no one will get hurt, thinking primarily of the fire-fighters - the new houses are burned while still empty. ‘We don’t pray for ourselves not to get caught - that’s God’s will.’ one is quoted as saying.

As per the activists, all aforementioned activities seem clearly very principled. But is it ethical?

Solution

Option A does not provide any reason for the argument mentioned.
Option B is correct as damaging others' properties without any reason and justification is unethical.
Option C is correct but the reason mentioned is not valid. According to option C, any activity performed in a peaceful manner would be ethical but this is not true.
Option D mentions about the legality of the activity but the question asks whether these activities are ethical.
Option E is extreme and cannot be true.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.

Instructions

A University coach was asked to select teams in three sports: Shooting, Cricket (batsmen only) and “Snakes & Ladder”. The honest and keen observer head boy of the school informed the coach that he had observed 100 students playing the three games - shooting, cricket and “Snakes & Ladder”. In shooting, all students were given 100 chances to hit a target. In cricket, a batsman faced a maximum of 100 balls, provided he DID NOT GET OUT. In “Snakes & Ladder”, every student could play 100 matches, one each with the other students and one against a computer. In shooting, a player got one point for hitting the target and zero point for missing the target. In cricket, a batsman got one point for hitting the ball and zero point for missing it. In “Snakes & Ladder”, a person got one point for winning the game and zero for losing. To the coach’s utter surprise, the distribution of points across all three games was the same. It was as follows:

The coach has to select a team of eleven in each sport.

Question 2

Which of the following options is the best way to select the “Snakes & Ladder” team?

Solution

We have to analyze the nature of the games before answering the questions.

'Snake and ladder' is a game based on luck. Past performance in the game cannot be held as a reflection of one's true potential.
'Shooting' is a game extremely dependent on the skills of the player. Therefore, the past performance of the player has a huge implication on how the player might perform in the future.
In 'cricket' we have details only about the player hitting the ball. A team cannot be composed using batsmen alone. Therefore, the past performance in this sport, though reflective of the person's abilities, cannot be used to form a good team since some data are missing.

As we have seen, snakes and ladders is a game based on luck. Therefore, the coach can ignore the data and select 11 students randomly. Therefore, option E is the right answer.

Question 3

Which of the following options is the best way of selecting the Shooting team?

Solution

We have to analyze the nature of the games before answering the questions. '

Snake and ladder' is a game based on luck. Past performance in the game cannot be held as a reflection of one's true potential. 'Shooting' is a game extremely dependent on the skills of the player. Therefore, the past performance of the player has a huge implication on how the player might perform in the future. In 'cricket' we have details only about the player hitting the ball. A team cannot be composed using batsmen alone. Therefore, the past performance in this sport, though reflective of the person's abilities, cannot be used to form a good team since

Question 4

Which of the following options is the correct statement for picking up the cricket team?

Solution

We have to analyze the nature of the games before answering the questions. '

Snake and ladder' is a game based on luck. Past performance in the game cannot be held as a reflection of one's true potential. 'Shooting' is a game extremely dependent on the skills of the player. Therefore, the past performance of the player has a huge implication on how the player might perform in the future. In 'cricket' we have details only about the player hitting the ball. We haven't been provided any information whatsoever regarding how many runs they scored on those balls. So we can't make a decision based on that. Therefore, while selecting the cricket team, we have almost limited to no information available.
Therefore, the correct answer would be Option E.