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CAT Previous Year Paper | CAT VARC Questions | Question 23

Para Summary type of questions are trickier than you expect it to be. In the CAT Previous Year Papers, we saw that there were 3 questions on an average per slot in Para Summary. Though CAT 2020 saw a reduction of questions from 34 to 26, the average no. of questions remained the same for Para Summary.Since it is trickier, and carries a negative marking, it will be wiser to attempt it after the other parts of VA like Sentence Elimination and Sentence Rearrangement. We can expect atleast 1 question from this type to be at the easy to moderate difficulty. The best questions to practice for the CAT Exam are the actual CAT Previous Year Paper. We at 2IIM offer you exactly that, in a student friendly format to take value from this.

Question 23 : The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

As Soviet power declined, the world became to some extent multipolar, and Europe strove to define an independent identity. What a journey Europe has undertaken to reach this point. It had in every century changed its internal structure and invented new ways of thinking about the nature of international order. Now at the culmination of an era, Europe, in order to participate in it, felt obliged to set aside the political mechanisms through which it had conducted its affairs for three and a half centuries. Impelled also by the desire to cushion the emergent unification of Germany, the new European Union established a common currency in 2002 and a formal political structure in 2004. It proclaimed a Europe united, whole, and free, adjusting its differences by peaceful mechanisms.

  1. Europe has consistently changed in keeping with the changing world order and that has culminated in a united Europe.
  2. The establishment of a formal political structure in Europe was hastened by the unification of Germany and the emergence of a multipolar world.
  3. Europe has consistently changed its internal structure to successfully adapt to the changing world order.
  4. Europe has chosen to lower political and economic heterogeneity, in order to adapt itself to an emerging multi-polar world.

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Explanatory Answer

The paragraph describes how Europe changed its internal structure and transformed itself into a united whole using peaceful mechanisms in the new multi-polar world. Option D captures all key ideas in the paragraph. The paragraph is specific to the time after Soviet decline and emergent unification of Germany-- a multi-polar world. Options A and C do not include this idea. The paragraph explains how Europe changed its internal structure by adjusting its differences by peaceful mechanisms. Option B does not include this.


The answer is, "Europe has chosen to lower political and economic heterogeneity, in order to adapt itself to an emerging multi-polar world."

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