CAT 2022 Slot 2 — VARC Question 24
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 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. The trajectory of cheerfulness through the self is linked to the history of the word ‘cheer’ which comes from an Old French meaning ‘face’.
2. Translations of the Bible into vernacular languages, expanded the noun ‘cheer’ into the more abstract ‘cheerful-ness’, something that circulates as an emotional and social quality defining the self and a moral community.
3. When you take on a cheerful expression, no matter what the state of your soul, your cheerfulness moves into the self: the interior of the self is changed by the power of cheer.
4. People in the medieval ‘Canterbury Tales’ have a ‘piteous’ or a ‘sober’ cheer; ‘cheer’ is an expression and a body part, lying at the intersection of emotions and physiognomy.
Answer & solution
Answer: 3142
Easy
Topic: the word "cheer" and how cheerfulness moves into the self. Trace the etymology chain: "cheer" = face → examples of "cheer" as expression/body part → how a cheerful face changes the self → the later abstract noun "cheerfulness."
Opener = 3. Sentence 3 states the central thesis in the present tense: "When you take on a cheerful expression... your cheerfulness moves into the self." It launches the discussion of how cheer changes the interior self. (Sentences 1, 2 and 4 all explain the history of the word, so they support and follow this opening claim.)
3 → 1. Having claimed cheerfulness "moves into the self," sentence 1 explains why by turning to etymology: this trajectory "is linked to the history of the word 'cheer' which comes from an Old French meaning 'face'." It picks up "the self" thread and pivots to the word's history.
1 → 4. Sentence 4 develops the "cheer = face" point with medieval examples: people in the "Canterbury Tales" have a "piteous" or "sober" cheer; "'cheer' is an expression and a body part, lying at the intersection of emotions and physiognomy." It elaborates 1's etymology.
4 → 2. Sentence 2 is the conceptual end-point: Bible translations "expanded the noun 'cheer' into the more abstract 'cheerful-ness'," now circulating as a social and moral quality. The arc face → expression → abstract quality closes the paragraph.
Sequence 3 – 1 – 4 – 2, i.e. 3142.