CAT 2023 Slot 1 — VARC Question 21
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given 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. What precisely are the “unusual elements” that make a particular case so attractive to a certain kind of audience?
2 . It might be a particularly savage or unfathomable level of depravity, very often it has something to do with the precise amount of mystery involved.
3. Unsolved, and perhaps unsolvable cases offer something that “ordinary” murder doesn’t.
4. Why are some crimes destined for perpetual re-examination and others locked into permanent obscurity?
Answer & solution
Answer: 4123
Easy
Para-jumble (4 sentences). Locate the opener, follow the chain of references, and end with the line that resolves the discussion. The topic is what makes certain crimes endlessly fascinating.
Opener = 4. Sentence 4 poses the broad framing question: "Why are some crimes destined for perpetual re-examination and others locked into permanent obscurity?" A general "why" question is the most natural way in — nothing precedes it.
4 → 1. Sentence 1 narrows that question: "What precisely are the 'unusual elements' that make a particular case so attractive to a certain kind of audience?" It moves from "why are some crimes re-examined" to "what exactly are the elements" — a tighter follow-up to 4.
1 → 2. Sentence 2 answers the question in 1 by naming those elements: "It might be a particularly savage… level of depravity, very often it has something to do with the precise amount of mystery involved." "It" refers to the "unusual element" of sentence 1.
Closer = 3. Sentence 3 — "Unsolved, and perhaps unsolvable cases offer something that 'ordinary' murder doesn't" — concludes by cashing out the "mystery" idea from 2: unsolved cases are the most mysterious, hence the most fascinating.
4123. Broad question (4) → narrower question (1) → answer naming the element, "mystery" (2) → conclusion about unsolved cases (3).