CAT 2006 — VARC Question 6
Each of the following questions has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.
I am sometimes attacked for imposing 'rules‘. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hate rules. All I do is report on how consumers react to different stimuli. I may say to a copywriter, “research shows that commercials with celebrities are below average in persuading people to buy products. Are you sure you want to use a celebrity?” Call that a rule? Or I may say to an art director, “research suggests that if you set the copy in black type on a white background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black background.”_____________________
Answer & solution
- A
Guidance based on applied research can hardly qualify as ‘rules’.
- B
Thus, all my so called ‘rules’ are rooted in applied research.
A suggestion perhaps, but scarcely a rule.
- D
Such principles are unavoidable if one wants to be systematic about consumer behaviour.
- E
Fundamentally it is about consumer behaviour- not about celebrities or type settings.
It is not a difficult choice, when one understands that the concluding sentence of a paragraph should fulfill the purpose for which the paragraph is written, leaving no loose ends that may require further clarification. The first three sentences of the paragraph establish this purpose. Then the writer provides certain example situations.
Option 3 concludes the paragraph smoothly – the writer tells us what his ‘alleged’ rules are. In consistence with the conversational tone of the paragraph, the writer does not assert even his explanation with undue vigor in the last sentence.
Option 1 is contrary to the purpose of the paragraph because ‘guidance based on applied research’ makes his actions more binding on others than are rules.
Options 2 and 4 are also eliminated for the same reason.
Option 5 talks about one of the examples and not related to the purpose of the paragraph.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.