CAT 2023 Slot 3 — VARC Question 17
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: For theoretical purposes, arguments may be considered as freestanding entities, abstracted from their contexts of use in actual human activities.
Paragraph : ___(1)___. An argument can be defined as a complex symbolic structure where some parts, known as the premises, offer support to another part, the conclusion. Alternatively, an argument can be viewed as a complex speech act consisting of one or more acts of premising (which assert propositions in favor of the conclusion), an act of concluding, and a stated or implicit marker (“hence”, “therefore”) that indicates that the conclusion follows from the premises.___(2)___. The relation of support between premises and conclusion can be cashed out in different ways: the premises may guarantee the truth of the conclusion, or make its truth more probable; the premises may imply the conclusion; the premises may make the conclusion more acceptable (or assertible).___(3)___. But depending on one’s explanatory goals, there is also much to be gained from considering arguments as they in fact occur in human communicative practices.___(4)___.
Answer & solution
- A
Option 2
Option 3
- C
Option 4
- D
Option 1
Easy
Sentence-insertion: place the missing line where it both follows from what comes before and sets up what comes after. The sentence says arguments can be treated as freestanding entities, abstracted from their contexts of use — so it must sit just before any line that contrasts this abstract view with real, in-context use.
The paragraph first defines an argument two ways: as a symbolic structure (premises → conclusion) and as a complex speech act. These are abstract, context-free characterisations.
It then discusses how the support relation can be "cashed out" (guarantee truth, make it probable, imply, etc.) — still treating the argument in the abstract.
Right after blank (3) comes the pivot: "But depending on one’s explanatory goals, there is also much to be gained from considering arguments as they in fact occur in human communicative practices." That "But… also" demands a prior statement of the opposite stance — namely that, for theory, arguments may be viewed as freestanding entities abstracted from context.
The missing sentence supplies exactly that abstract stance. Dropping it into blank (3) creates the clean "abstract view → But real-use view" contrast. Blanks 1, 2 and 4 break this pairing.
Option 3 — the inserted line states the "freestanding/abstract" view that the following "But… also" sentence contrasts with.