CAT 2020 Slot 1 — VARC Question 19
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) below, when properly sequenced would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer:
1. Relying on narrative structure alone, indigenous significances of nineteenth century San folktales are hard to determine.
2. Using their supernatural potency, benign shamans transcend the levels of the San cosmos in order to deal with social conflict and to protect material resources and enjoy a measure of respect that sets them apart from ordinary people.
3. Selected tales reveal that they deal with a form of spiritual conflict that has social implications and concern conflict between people and living or dead malevolent shamans.
4. Meaning can be elicited, and the tales contextualized, by probing beneath the narrative of verbatim, original-language records and exploring the connotations of highly significant words and phrases.
Answer & solution
Answer: 1432
Easy
For a four-sentence jumble, first pin the opener (the sentence that introduces the topic without assuming prior context), then build mandatory pairs using repeated nouns and pronoun links. Here the subject is the meaning of nineteenth-century San folktales.
Find the opener. Sentence 1 is the only one that names the topic fully — “indigenous significances of nineteenth century San folktales are hard to determine.” Sentences 2, 3 and 4 all speak of “the tales”, “meaning” or “shamans” as already-known references, so they cannot start the paragraph. Opener = 1.
Pair 1–4 (problem then solution). 1 states the difficulty: significances are “hard to determine” by narrative structure alone. 4 answers it directly: “Meaning can be elicited … by probing beneath the narrative.” This problem–then–resolution link makes 1→4 a tight pair.
Then 3 reveals what the tales contain. Once meaning can be elicited (4), 3 tells us what is found: “Selected tales reveal … a form of spiritual conflict that has social implications … conflict between people and living or dead malevolent shamans.” So 4→3, introducing “conflict” and “shamans”.
2 closes on the shamans. 3 has just introduced shamans and social conflict; 2 elaborates — “benign shamans … deal with social conflict … and enjoy a measure of respect.” The shared idea of shamans handling social conflict fixes 3→2 as the ending.
Sequence: 1 – 4 – 3 – 2. The logic flows from “significance of San folktales is hard to determine” (1) → “but meaning can be elicited” (4) → “the tales reveal social conflict” (3) → “shamans deal with that conflict” (2). Key in 1432.