CAT 2017 Slot 2 — VARC Question 32
Answer the following questions based on the information given below.
Despite their fierce reputation, Vikings may not have always been the plunderers and pillagers popular culture imagines them to be. In fact, they got their start trading in northern European markets, researchers suggest.
Combs carved from animal antlers, as well as comb manufacturing waste and raw antler material has turned up at three archaeological sites in Denmark, including a medieval marketplace in the city of Ribe. A team of researchers from Denmark and U.K.hoped to identify the species of animal to which the antlers once belonged by analyzing collagen proteins in the samples and comparing them across the animal kingdom, Laura Geggel reports for liveScience.
Somewhat surprisingly, molecular analysis of the artifacts revealed that some combs and other material had been carved from reindeer antlers…. Given that reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) don’t live in Denmark, the researchers posit that it arrived on Viking ships from Norway. Antler craftsmanship, in the form of decorative combs, was part of Viking culture. Such combs served as symbols of good health, Geggel writes. The fact that the animals shed their antlers also made them easy to collect from the large herds that inhabited Norway.
Since the artifacts were found in marketplace areas at each site it’s more likely that the Norsemen came to trade rather than pillage. Most of the artifacts also date to the 780s, but some are as old as 725. That predates the beginning of Viking raids on great Britain by about 70 years. (Traditionally, the so-called “Viking Age” began with these raids in 793 and ended with Norman conquest of Great Britain in 1066.) Archaeologists had suspected that the Viking had experience with ling maritime voyages [that] might have preceded their raiding days. Beyond Norway, these combs would have been a popular industry in Scandinavia as well. It’s possible that the antler comb’s represent a larger trade network, where the Norsemen supplied raw material to craftsmen in Denmark and elsewhere.
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
- Although we are born with the gift of language, research shows that we are surprisingly unskilled when it comes to communicating with others.
- We must carefully orchestrate our speech if we want to achieve our goals and bring our dream to fruition.
- We often choose our words without thought, oblivious of the emotional effects they can have on others.
- We talk more than we need to, ignoring the effect we are having on those listening to us.
- We listen poorly, without realizing it, and we often fail to pay attention to the subtle meanings conveyed by facial expressions, body gestures, and the tone and cadence of our voice.
Answer & solution
Answer: 2
All the sentences cohere around the theme of communication except one. Sentence 1 mentions that we are unskilled at communication. Sentence 3 mentions lack of awareness about the impact of our words. Sentence 4 talks of a similar lack of empathy. Sentence 5 elaborates on the various ways that communication fails. Only sentence 2 stands out as one that does not focus on communication. Instead it talks about the goal of achieving dreams by “orchestrating” speech. It doesn’t mesh with the other sentences and is the odd one out.
Hence, the correct answer is 2.