The phrase 'team building exercises' may be new but the reality is not. Its origins go back at least as far as the medieval tournaments. These provided knights with military training and the opportunity to make reputations. Individual jousting and hand-to hand combat came first. Then there were team events. In these, a group of knights fought against another group. These teams often stayed together and fought side-by-side in real battle. Team games today, such as football, baseball, cricket and hockey, are the distant descendants of such medieval tournaments.
A crucial event in the movement from being a group to becoming a team can be the team building exercise. This can be based upon either (1) a substitute team task (for example, a business case study or a few days of outdoor activities) or (2) a real task (for example, going away for a weekend to plan company strategy).
There are pros and cons to both approaches. The advantage of a substitute task type of event is that success or failure is not of paramount importance. Nor are there any technological or professional challenges to meet, so that people can concentrate on the essential issue of learning how to work more effectively together as a team.
According to the passage, a group of knights fought against another group in _____.
(A) cricket
(B) hockey
(C) baseball
(D) real battle
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (D) Only
(A) cricket — False.
- Wrong time: cricket is named only among the team games of today, the "distant descendants" of the tournaments.
(B) hockey — False.
- Wrong time: hockey too is one of today's team games, not something the knights played.
(C) baseball — False.
- Wrong time: baseball appears in the same list of modern team games.
(D) real battle — True.
- In team events "a group of knights fought against another group", and these teams "fought side-by-side in real battle".
Tip: In this question the options do not follow the order of the statements (Option 1 = (C) Only, Option 2 = (D) Only, Option 3 = (A) Only, Option 4 = (B) Only). NTA often jumbles the options in this way, so after finding the correct statement, read the options carefully and mark the one with the right letter.