CAT 2018 Slot 1 — VARC Question 34
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.
- Translators are like bumblebees.
- Though long since scientifically disproved, this factoid is still routinely trotted out.
- Similar pronouncements about the impossibility of translation have dogged practitioners since Leonardo Bruni’s De interpretatione recta, published in 1424.
- Bees, unaware of these deliberations, have continued to flit from flower to flower, and translators continue to translate.
- In 1934, the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of the bumblebee to be aerodynamically impossible.
Answer & solution
Answer: 2
Easy
Establish the controlling analogy, then chain the four sentences that develop it. The misfit will be the sentence that, although topically related, cannot slot into the connected sequence.
The analogy / opener. Sentence 1 states the central comparison: "Translators are like bumblebees." This is the topic sentence that everything else illustrates.
1 to 5 to 3. Sentence 5 supplies the bumblebee fact: in 1934 entomologist August Magnan "pronounced the flight of the bumblebee to be aerodynamically impossible." Sentence 3 then draws the parallel: "Similar pronouncements about the impossibility of translation have dogged practitioners since... 1424." "Similar pronouncements" points back to the impossibility claim in 5.
3 to 4 (closer). Sentence 4 resolves both strands: "Bees, unaware of these deliberations, have continued to flit from flower to flower, and translators continue to translate." It ties the bee and translator threads together as the conclusion. Chain: 1–5–3–4.
Spot the misfit. Sentence 2 ("Though long since scientifically disproved, this factoid is still routinely trotted out") needs a clear "factoid" antecedent and a present-tense framing that the tight 1–5–3–4 sequence — which ends with translators still translating — leaves no room for. It cannot be inserted without breaking the flow, so it is the odd one out.
The odd sentence out is 2. (The coherent paragraph is 1–5–3–4.)