CAT 2023 Question Paper | VARC Slot 1

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Question 20 : 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.

Explanatory Answer

If we were to arrange the given sentences in a paragraph, sentence 5 is the best choice to begin the paragraph as it states the main idea. Sentence 5 talks about 'the ability to perceive and interpret other people's behaviour in terms of their mental states'. Sentence 4 follows 5 as it expands on how 'this capacity' develops. Sentence 1 follows 4, explaining how this capacity is useful and 3 concludes the paragraph commenting on when the stated capacity evolved.

Option 2 is the odd one out, as it talks about the importance of mentalizing on the development of one's cognitive abilities. This is not related to the other sentences.

The answer is '2'