CAT 2019 Slot 1 — VARC Question 33
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentences and key in this sequence of four numbers as your answer.
- People with dyslexia have difficulty with print-reading, and people with autism spectrum disorder have difficulty with mind-reading.
- An example of a lost cognitive instinct is mind-reading: our capacity to think of ourselves and others as having beliefs, desires, thoughts and feelings.
- Mind-reading looks increasingly like literacy, a skill we know for sure is not in our genes, since scripts have been around for only 5,000-6,000 years.
- Print-reading, like mind-reading varies across cultures, depends heavily on certain parts of the brain, and is subject to developmental disorders.
Answer & solution
Answer: 2341
Easy
Identify which sentence can introduce the key term unaided, then chain by the parallel being drawn — here between mind-reading and print-reading (literacy). A later sentence may only mention print-reading once mind-reading has been set up.
Opener: 2. Sentence 2 introduces and defines the central concept — "An example of a lost cognitive instinct is mind-reading: our capacity to think of ourselves and others as having beliefs…" This sets up everything that follows.
Elaborate: 3. Sentence 3 develops the point — "Mind-reading looks increasingly like literacy… not in our genes." It continues discussing mind-reading and first raises the literacy/print analogy, so it follows 2.
Extend the parallel: 4. Sentence 4 — "Print-reading, like mind-reading, varies across cultures… and is subject to developmental disorders." It can only appear once the mind-reading/print-reading link (3) is on the table, and it sets up the idea of developmental disorders.
Close: 1. Sentence 1 names the specific disorders — dyslexia (print-reading) and autism spectrum disorder (mind-reading) — concretely cashing out the "developmental disorders" flagged in 4. It rounds off the paragraph.
Proper order: 2–3–4–1. Key in 2341.