Test: Paragraph Construction- 2 (June 29) - CAT MCQ

When you read the four sentences, you can easily make out the first sentence by examining each of them. When you read the first sentence “Such a belief in harmony...” you can infer something comes before it that stands for “such a belief”. The next sentence begins with “these parts” and you can sense something should come before for which “these parts” stand. Similarly the fourth sentence begins with “it is an example”, so we can guess something must come before for which ‘it is an example’ works as a reference. The third sentence stands alone without the need of a prior sentence to make sense of it. So the first number is (c).
Sentence (d) follows next because we can infer “the notion of a balance of nature” is an example of an ancient belief system....So the sentence to follow (c) is (d). Sentence (d) ends with “component parts” and sentence (b) begins with “these parts”. So these two sentences are together with (b) following the (d). Finally we are left with (a) which naturally follows (b). Therefore, the right sequence is (c, d, b, a).

Read all the options or sentences. The first sentence is sentence (d) because this sentence is in the nature of introduction or simple definition of clock time which has been discussed at a more complex level in the other options. Sentence (d) talks of the representation of clock-time. The next sentence where there is reference of this representation with the use of the word representation is sentence (a). So the sequence we get is (d, a).
The next sentence will be sentence (c). Let us see how. Sentence (a) talks of deleterious effect which is harmful effect. The theme of negative or deleterious effect is further extended in sentence number (c) “it is found that caring time is often more focused on the clock than generally theorised” We are now left with sentence number (b), which is a form of conclusion to the introduction of an article as evident from “this article argues....” in the sentence number (b). So the right sequence is (d, a, c, b).

If you read the options, you will realize all of them are correct but we have to choose the best among them, and the best among them is the one that puts across the idea succinctly without missing out on original elements in the passage. Let us begin with the option (a). This is correct and it carries the idea of intention of the inventors of wall free office spaces and the reason why they did not work out.
Option (b) is also correct but instead of directly stating the reason why wall free offices did not work, it has been stated indirectly that companies did not care for worker’s satisfaction. The reason in the passage is “But companies took up their idea less out of a democratic ideology than a desire to pack in as many workers as they could.” Even though this answer is correct the first option is preferable.
Option (c) is correct but it does not explain the reason why wall free office did not work as has been done in the option (a). So option (c) is also rejected.
Option (d) is also correct but to say that the companies did not believe in democratic ideology would be incorrect where as the fact is the companies took up their ideas less out of a democratic ideology than a desire to pack as many workers as they could. There is a difference between companies not believing in democratic ideology and less out of democratic ideology. So this option is also rejected. Therefore, option (a) is the best choice.

In this question you have to read the passage and then decide which is the best one sentence summary of the passage out of the given options. After you read the passage and the options, you will find all the options nearly summarize the passage. So you can try to find the options in which one or more crucial elements may be missing or something new may have been added.
Option (a) is correct because an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait. However, we will have to see, if there is some more options with improvements over this one. Option is more specific, accurate and captures all essential information. Option (c) is also correct but it fails to capture the essence such as evolved, features of cognitive process such as memory. Option (d) is also correct but it does not capture the essence of the paragraph. It merely mentions one characteristic or fact.

If you read the sentences, you will realize they all talk about plastic or ocean plastic. So we will find out which sentences should go together. Sentence number (e) “Eating plastic has a number of negative consequences....” is related to sentence number (c) “Aside from clogging up the digestive tract...” Both these sentences talk about the negative aspects of plastic and the consequences for marine animals who eat plastic. Sentence number (a) also talks about the problems with ocean plastic because marine animals eat it. So sentence number (a),(e) and (c) are in sequence. Now we have to choose between (d) and (b). Sentence number (d) is a better choice because it talks about plastic in ocean as an environmental problem. So the sequence is (d, a, e, c), while (b) is the odd man out.

While all the four options go on to say something or the other as summary of the passage, most of them are not balanced and take merely one side or factor into account. The summary is one that succinctly captures the essence of the passage. The passage concludes that it is easy to mobilize people into a movement from hybrid organizations in comparison to the non-hybrid organizations. Option (a) is correct. In the passage too the following statement is there: “Studies of the post-9/11 U.S. antiwar movement show that individuals with past involvement in non-anti-war movements are more likely to join hybrid organizations” So we will retain this option for now. Option (b) is also correct as can be seen in the very first sentence of the passage: “Social movement organizations often struggle to mobilize supporters from allied movements in their efforts to achieve critical mass”.
Option (c) is also correct as can be seen from the following sentence in the passage: “In addition, they show that organizations with hybrid identities occupy relatively more central positions in inter-organizational contact networks within the antiwar movement and thus recruit significantly more participants”.
Similarly option (d) is also correct. However, we have to identify the best one among them. The best option will be the most general response because it has to capture the essence of the passage and that is not based on one example here and there.
Option (a) is rejected because it is a specific 9/11 statement rather than a generalized statement. Option (b) is rejected because it is a statement taken from a passage rather than the summary.
Option (c) also suffers from the same deficiency, that is, it is a statement randomly taken from the passage.
However, option (d) is the summary and the right choice because it is the conclusion of the passage and represents the broad essence of the passage. So this is the correct choice.

In this question, you only need to find out the sentence that does not fit with the rest of the sentences which are related in some way. As a first step read all the sentences without caring for their order so as to find a common theme. You will find that the idea of ‘rumination’ has been introduced. (c) and (d) sentences have the word ‘rumination’ in them. So they are related. Sentence (e) begins with ‘the idea is that...”. There is a suggestion of alternative idea as opposed to rumination becauserumination can be harmful. The alternative idea is suggested by the word ‘illeism’. Therefore we can see the direct link between (e) and (b).  Therefore, (d, c, b, e) are related and make a coherent paragraph while option (a) is left out which is the answer.

When you read the 4 sentences randomly, you cannot make a head or tail out of it. All the sentences appear independent and unrelated. It is difficult to find the first sentence, but if you try to make sense of the sentences, you will realize that the author is trying to answer questions about structure, category and adaptive behaviour. Next, he takes each of these concepts once by one. So the first sentence begins by explaining or defining what is adaptive behaviour. Then the next sentence is about category. This is followed by the structure and order. The sentence adaptive behaviour comes first because it contains the word object. The next sentence explains the object. The third sentence informs us about structure (each object has structure). The last sentence is like a conclusion or general statement that says about correlational structure. So the sequence is (b, d, c, a).

You have to find out the sentence that does not go with the rest. So, read all the options randomly one by one. As you read the sentences, you realize all of them have the common theme of single-panel, humor, cartoon etc. Let us try to sequence the sentences. The first sentence is either the first number or the second number sentence because it answers the question what makes the single panel comic so engaging in one complete sentence. Sentence number one gives us an interesting example of inference. For now we will keep both of them.
The next sentence is (e) which explain further what is single panel (a series of panels out of which cartoonist chose one). Sentence number (d) talks about having to figure out the missing panels to get the joke. This has to do with inference, so we can keep the sentence number (a). Sentence number (c) is about you having to figure out what happened before and after the panel that was shown to you. Therefore, you have to infer something. So this is another reason to keep sentence number (a). Therefore, (a, c, d, e) forms a coherent paragraph while (b) is the odd man out.

You can decide which sentence should come first by taking note of the word that a sentence begins with. The first sentence of a meaningful paragraph should not generally start with words like “To”, “After”, and “However”. So the first sentence should be number (b) statement. In addition, the beginning sentence must define a concept if the concept has been used in the para. The next sentence should give out the meaning or definition further or give an example. Therefore, it will be followed by number (a). Next, a contrary idea or condition should explicate it further, which is explicated by number (d). Finally, the number (c) is left out which will come in the end and its correct position may be confirmed by its nature as a conclusive statement. The right sequence that we get is (b, a, d, c).