CAT 2023 Slot 1 — VARC Question 19
Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. Having an appreciation for the workings of another person’s mind is considered a prerequisite for natural language acquisition, strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, and moral judgment.
2. It is a ‘theory of mind’ though some scholars prefer to call it ‘mentalizing’ or ‘mindreading’, which is important for the development of one's cognitive abilities.
3. Though we must speculate about its evolutionary origin, we do have indications that the capacity evolved sometime in the last few million years.
4. This capacity develops from early beginnings in the first year of life to the adult’s fast and often effortless understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
5. One of the most fascinating human capacities is the ability to perceive and interpret other people’s behaviour in terms of their mental states.
Answer & solution
Answer: 2
Easy
Odd-sentence-out. Four sentences build one coherent paragraph; one belongs to a different idea. Fix the paragraph's single theme, then expel the sentence that drifts from it.
Find the theme. Sentence 5 is the natural topic sentence: "One of the most fascinating human capacities is the ability to perceive and interpret other people's behaviour in terms of their mental states." The paragraph is about understanding other people's minds.
Confirm the coherent core (5-4-1-3). Sentence 4 — "This capacity develops…" — uses "This capacity" to point back to the ability in 5. Sentence 1 calls it a "prerequisite for natural language acquisition, strategic social interaction… and moral judgment" — still about reading others. Sentence 3 — "its evolutionary origin… the capacity evolved" — keeps the same "capacity" thread. All four orbit understanding others' minds.
Spot the intruder. Sentence 2 says the capacity is "important for the development of one's own cognitive abilities." That swivels the focus from understanding other people to one's own cognitive development — a different point. It is the odd one out.
2. Sentence 2 shifts to "one's own cognitive abilities," breaking the paragraph's theme of perceiving and interpreting other people's minds.