CAT 2017 Slot 2 — VARC Question 33
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.
- Over the past fortnight, one of its finest champions managed to pull off a similar impression.
- Wimbledon’s greatest illusion is the sense of timelessness it evokes.
- At 35 years and 342 days, Roger Federer became the oldest man to win the singles title in the Open Era – a full 14 years after he first claimed the title as a scruffy, pony-tailed upstart.
- Once he had survived the opening week, the second week witnessed the range of a rested Federer’s genius.
- Given that his method isn’t reliant on explosive athleticism or muscular ball-striking, both vulnerable to decay, there is cause to believe that Federer will continue to enchant for a while longer.
Answer & solution
Answer: 4
While sentences 3, 4, and 5 refer to Roger Federer, sentences 1 and 2 refer to the Wimbledon. Only one sentence is to be eliminated and it is clear that neither 1 nor 2 can be eliminated, as “one of its finest champions” in sentence 1, clearly refers to the lawn in sentence 2 and no other sentence in the set. Sentence 2 cannot remain by itself without sentence 1 as no other references are made to Wimbledon. Sentence 4 on the other hand, is not necessary to either 3 or 5. Sentence 3 follows from 1 – so the two weeks mentioned in sentence 4 are not meaningful in the context of this set. We may eliminate sentence 4.
Hence, the correct answer is 4.