CAT 2023 Slot 2 — 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. Like the ants that make up a colony, no single neuron holds complex information like self-awareness, hope or pride.
2. Although the human brain is not yet understood enough to identify the mechanism by which emergence functions, most neurobiologists agree that complex interconnections among the parts give rise to qualities that belong only to the whole.
3. Nonetheless, the sum of all neurons in the nervous system generate complex human emotions like fear and joy, none of which can be attributed to a single neuron.
4. Human consciousness is often called an emergent property of the human brain.
Answer & solution
Answer: 4132
Easy
Identify the opening (a general thesis), then follow the analogy and the contrast markers ("Like...", "Nonetheless", "Although") to chain the four sentences.
4 is the opener — it introduces the topic in full: "Human consciousness is often called an emergent property of the human brain." The others all assume "neurons/emergence" is already on the table, so 4 must lead.
1 opens with the analogy "Like the ants that make up a colony, no single neuron holds complex information..." — illustrating 4's idea that the whole has properties the parts lack. So 4→1.
3 begins "Nonetheless, the sum of all neurons... generate complex emotions, none attributable to a single neuron." The "Nonetheless" contrasts with 1's "no single neuron holds..." — the parts can't, yet together they do. So 1→3.
2 closes by naming the phenomenon — "emergence" — and noting neurobiologists agree complex interconnections give rise to whole-only qualities. It generalises the consciousness/emotion examples, so it lands last. Sequence: 4-1-3-2.
The correct sequence is 4132.