CAT 2008 — VARC Question 9
Each of the following questions has a sentence with two blanks. Given below each question are five pairs of words. Choose the pair that best completes the sentence.
The genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda, apart from being mis-described in the most sinister and ________ manner as ‘ethnic cleansing’, were also blamed, in further hand-washing rhetoric, on something dark and interior to ___________ and perpetrators alike.
Answer & solution
- A
innovative; communicator
- B
enchanting; leaders
disingenuous; victims
- D
exigent; exploiters
- E
tragic; sufferers
The statement condemns the way the genocides have been described and states the description to be sinister. The word for the first blank has to be synonymous to sinister.
Options 1 and 2 with ‘innovative’ and ‘enchanting’ can be eliminated as they do not give any negative connotations.
Option 4 too can be eliminated as ‘exigent’ has more to do with ‘demanding and urgent’ than something terrible.
In option 5, “tragic” does not fit in the context with ‘mis-described’ and ‘hand-washing rhetoric’.
‘disingenuous’ - ‘insincere’, ‘deceitful’, ‘hypocritical’ fits contextually with the word “manner” which follows the blank. In the second blank, a contrasting word to “perpetrators” is required. ‘Victims’ is a better fit compared to the words in all the other options.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.