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CAT 2019 Slot 1 — VARC Question 34

Mixed PracticeEasy

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.

  1. Stat’ signaled something measurable, while ‘matic’ advertised free labour; but ‘tron’, above all, indicated control.
  2. It was a totem of high modernism, the intellectual and cultural mode that decreed no process or phenomenon was too complex to be grasped, managed andoptimized.
  3. Like the heraldic shields of ancient knights, these morphemes were painted onto the names of scientific technologies to proclaim one’s history and achievements tofriends and enemies alike.
  4. The historian Robert Proctor at Stanford University calls the suffix ‘-tron’, along with ‘-matic’ and ‘-stat’, embodied symbols.
  5. To gain the suffix was to acquire a proud and optimistic emblem of the electronic and atomic age.

Answer & solution

Correct answer: 2

Answer: 2

Solution

Easy

Find the common theme, build the chain of four, and the sentence that does not slot in is the answer. The theme: scientific suffixes (-tron, -matic, -stat) as proud "embodied symbols" that technologies wore like emblems.

1

Opener: 4. Sentence 4 introduces the subject by name — historian Robert Proctor calls "-tron," "-matic" and "-stat" embodied symbols. It defines the term the rest of the paragraph uses, so it leads.

2

Develop: 3. Sentence 3 picks up "these morphemes" (the suffixes from 4) and likens them to heraldic shields painted on technology names to proclaim achievement. The phrase "these morphemes" ties it directly back to 4.

3

Distinguish them: 1. Sentence 1 differentiates the three suffixes — "stat" signalled the measurable, "matic" advertised free labour, "tron" indicated control. This continues the discussion of the same morphemes.

4

Close: 5. Sentence 5 sums up the payoff — "To gain the suffix was to acquire a proud and optimistic emblem of the electronic and atomic age." A fitting concluding flourish. The chain reads 4–3–1–5.

5

The misfit: 2. Sentence 2 abstracts to "a totem of high modernism… the cultural mode that decreed no process was too complex to be grasped." This shifts to an unconnected discussion of high modernism and never names the suffixes; it breaks the flow and is the odd one out.

The four sentences cohere as 4–3–1–5; sentence 2 is the odd one out.

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CAT 2019 Slot 1 VARC Q34: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent — Solution | TheCATExam