CAT 2022 Slot 2 — VARC Question 22
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: This was years in the making but fast-tracked during the pandemic, when "people started being more mindful about their food", he explained.
Paragraph: For millennia, ghee has been a venerated staple of the subcontinental diet, but it fell out of favour a few decades ago when saturated fats were largely considered to be unhealthy. ___(1)___ But more recently, as the thinking around saturated fats is shifting globally, Indians are finding their own way back to this ingredient that is so integral to their cuisine. ___(2)___ For Karmakar, a renewed interest in ghee is emblematic of a return-to-basics movement in India. ___(3)___ This movement is also part of an overall trend towards "slow food". In keeping with the movement's philosophy, ghee can be produced locally (even at home) and has inextricable cultural ties. ___(4)___ At a basic level, ghee is a type of clarified butter believed to have originated in India as a way to preserve butter from going rancid in the hot climate.
Answer & solution
- A
1
- B
2
3
- D
4
Easy
The insertion is "This was years in the making but fast-tracked during the pandemic, when 'people started being more mindful about their food', he explained." The demonstrative "This" must point to a movement/trend just described, and the quoted speaker ("he explained") must be the person already speaking — Karmakar.
"This... fast-tracked during the pandemic" needs an antecedent that is a developing phenomenon. The speaker tag "he explained" needs a male speaker already on stage. Karmakar is introduced just before blank 3: "For Karmakar, a renewed interest in ghee is emblematic of a return-to-basics movement."
At blank 3, "This" naturally refers to that "return-to-basics movement," and "he explained" matches Karmakar. The pandemic-acceleration point fits between his comment and the next line, "This movement is also part of an overall trend towards 'slow food'."
Blanks 1 and 2 sit amid the "saturated fats / finding their way back" discussion with no movement yet named; blank 4 leads into a factual definition of ghee, where a pandemic anecdote would jar. Only blank 3 has both the right antecedent and the right speaker.
Option 3 — the sentence belongs in blank (3), tied to Karmakar's "return-to-basics movement."