CAT 2022 Slot 1 — VARC Question 24
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: Having made citizens more and less knowledgeable than their predecessors, the Internet has proved to be both a blessing and a curse.
Paragraph: Never before has a population, nearly all of whom has enjoyed at a least a secondary school education, been exposed to so much information, whether in newspapers and magazines or through YouTube, Google, and Facebook. ___(1)___.
Yet it is not clear that people today are more knowledgeable than their barely literate predecessors. Contemporary advances in technology offered more serious and inquisitive students access to realms of knowledge previously unimaginable and unavailable. ___(2)___. But such readily available knowledge leads many more students away from serious study, the reading of actual texts, and toward an inability to write effectively and grammatically. ___(3)___. It has let people choose sources that reinforce their opinions rather than encouraging them to question inherited beliefs. ___(4)___.
Answer & solution
- A
Option 1
- B
Option 2
- C
Option 3
Option 4
Easy
Sentence-insertion. The loose sentence is a balanced conclusion: the Internet made citizens "both more and less knowledgeable... both a blessing and a curse." A summing-up line like this belongs at the end, after both the upsides and downsides have been laid out.
Blank (1): the next line begins "Yet it is not clear that people today are more knowledgeable" — a contrast with the abundance of information just stated. A concluding "blessing and a curse" verdict here would pre-empt the argument. Misfit.
Blank (2): both surrounding sentences discuss technology giving serious students access to knowledge — a single thread. The balanced conclusion interrupts it. Misfit.
Blank (3): the sentence after it ("It has let people choose sources that reinforce their opinions") needs "It" = readily available knowledge from the previous line. Inserting the conclusion here severs that pronoun link. Misfit.
Blank (4): comes after both the benefits (access for serious students) and the harms (away from study, echo chambers) have been presented. The "both a blessing and a curse" sentence ties the two strands together — a natural closing line. Best fit.
Option 4 — the balanced "blessing and a curse" verdict concludes the paragraph.