CAT 2018 Slot 2 — VARC Question 27
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.
- Our smartphones can now track our diets, our biological cycles, even our digestive systems and sleep-patterns.
- Researchers have even coined a new term, “orthosomnia”, to describe the insomnia brought on by paying too much attention to smartphones and sleep-tracking apps.
- Sleep, nature’ s soft nurse, is a blissful, untroubled state all too easily disturbed by earthly worries or a guilty conscience.
- The existence of a market for such apps is unsurprising: shift work, a long-hours culture and blue light from screens have conspired to rob many of us of sufficient rest.
- A new threat to a good night’ s rest has emerged – smart-phones, with sleep-tracking apps.
Answer & solution
Correct answer: 3
Answer: 3
Easy
Identify the common thread, assemble the four sentences that connect through shared references, and isolate the one sentence that wanders to a different idea.
Find the theme and opener. The shared topic is smartphones and sleep-tracking apps. Sentence 1 opens broadly: smartphones now track our diets, cycles, digestion and sleep-patterns — introducing tracking apps in general.
Build the chain. Sentence 4 follows: a market for “such apps” is unsurprising given shift work and screen light — “such apps” points back to the apps of sentence 1. Sentence 5 then narrows to the new threat — smartphones with sleep-tracking apps. Sentence 2 closes with the consequence: researchers coined “orthosomnia” for insomnia caused by obsessing over these apps. The coherent paragraph is 1–4–5–2.
Spot the misfit. Sentence 3 — “Sleep, nature's soft nurse, is a blissful, untroubled state all too easily disturbed by earthly worries or a guilty conscience” — is a literary reflection on sleep being disturbed by worries/conscience, with no link to smartphones or apps. It does not fit the 1-4-5-2 thread and is the odd one out.
The paragraph is 1-4-5-2; the odd sentence is 3.
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