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CAT 2018 Slot 2 — VARC Question 33

Mixed PracticeEasy

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.

  1. As India looks to increase the number of cities, our urban planning must factor in potential natural disasters and work out contingencies in advance.
  2. Authorities must revise data and upgrade infrastructure and mitigation plans even if their local area hasn’t been visited by a natural calamity yet.
  3. Extreme temperatures, droughts, and forest fires have more than doubled since 1980.
  4. There is no denying the fact that our baseline normal weather is changing.
  5. It is no longer a question of whether we will be hit by nature’s fury but rather when.

 

Answer & solution

Correct answer: 3

Answer: 3

Solution

Easy

Odd-one-out: first find the theme the four "fit" sentences share, then expose the misfit. Here four sentences argue a call to action — because the climate is changing, planners and authorities must prepare for natural disasters. One sentence is merely an isolated statistic and adds no prescriptive thread.

1

Build the coherent four. Sentence 4 sets the premise ("our baseline normal weather is changing"); sentence 5 draws the consequence ("no longer a question of whether … but when" nature's fury hits); sentences 1 and 2 form the prescriptive pair — urban planning "must factor in potential natural disasters" (1) and authorities "must revise data and upgrade … mitigation plans" even before a calamity strikes (2). The order 4–5–1–2 reads as premise → consequence → twin recommendations.

2

Spot the misfit = 3. Sentence 3 — "Extreme temperatures, droughts, and forest fires have more than doubled since 1980" — is a bare statistic. It neither advances the changing-baseline argument as a linking claim nor joins the call to upgrade planning; it sits outside the premise-to-prescription flow. It is the odd one out.

Odd one out: 3 (the four-sentence paragraph runs 4–5–1–2).

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CAT 2018 Slot 2 VARC Q33: Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and c — Solution | TheCATExam