CAT 2021 Slot 3 — VARC Question 22
Four sentences that are a part of paragraph are given below; the sentences may or may not be in the right order; create the sequence that forms a coherent paragraph.
- Restitution of artefacts to original cultures could faces legal obstacles, as many Western museums are legally prohibited from disposing off their collections.
- This is in response to countries like Nigeria, which are pressurising European museums to return their precious artefacts looted by colonisers in the past.
- Museums in Europe today are struggling to come to terms with their colonial legacy, some taking steps to return artefacts but not wanting to lose their prized collections.
- Legal hurdles notwithstanding, politicians and institutions in France and Germany would now like to defuse the colonial time bombs, and are now backing the return of part of their holdings.
Answer & solution
Answer: 3214
Easy
A para-jumble. Find the opener (the sentence that sets up the situation without depending on anything earlier), then chain the rest using mandatory pairs and contrast markers ("notwithstanding"). Theme: European museums and the restitution of looted colonial artefacts.
Opener = (3). Sentence 3 frames the whole issue at the general level: "Museums in Europe today are struggling to come to terms with their colonial legacy, some taking steps to return artefacts but not wanting to lose their prized collections." It introduces the players and the tension; nothing precedes it.
3 → 2. Sentence 2 opens with "This is in response to countries like Nigeria, which are pressurising European museums to return their precious artefacts..." — "This" points back to the museums' situation in 3, explaining what is driving the pressure. So 32 is a pair.
1 → 4 (the legal pair). Sentence 1 raises the obstacle: restitution "could face legal obstacles, as many Western museums are legally prohibited from disposing off their collections." Sentence 4 answers it: "Legal hurdles notwithstanding, politicians and institutions in France and Germany would now like to defuse the colonial time bombs... backing the return." "Legal hurdles notwithstanding" directly refers back to the hurdle in 1, so 14 is a pair, ending the paragraph on the way forward.
Assemble. Opener 3, then 2 (the pressure behind it), then the legal obstacle 1 and its resolution 4: 3 → 2 → 1 → 4.
The coherent sequence is 3214.