CAT 2024 Question Paper | VARC Slot 2

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Question 23 :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: [T]he Europeans did not invent globalization.

Paragraph: The first phase of globalization occurred long before the introduction of either steam or electric power…Chinese consumers at all social levels consumed vast quantities of spices, fragrant woods and unusual plants. The peoples of Southeast Asia who lived in forests gave up their traditional livelihoods and completely reoriented their economies to supply Chinese consumers….___(1)___. These exchanges of the year 1000 opened some of the routes through which goods and peoples continued to travel after Columbus traversed the mid-Atlantic. ___(2)___. Yet the world of 1000 differed from that of 1492 in important ways….the travellers who encountered one another in the year 1000 were much closer technologically. ___(3)___. They changed and augmented what was already there since 1000. ___(4)___. If globalization hadn't yet begun, Europeans wouldn't have been able to penetrate the markets in so many places as quickly as they did after 1492.

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Explanatory Answer

The missing sentence says the Europeans did not invent globalization.
Consider blank 1. The sentence before it is about Southeast Asians who reoriented their economies to supply Chinese consumers. The sentence that follows blank 1 continues this idea: these exchanges of the year 1000 opened some travel routes. The sentences here are cogently linked to each other.
Blank 2 seems to be an inappropriate choice, too, as both the sentences before and after it relate to the exchanges of the year 1000.
Consider blank 3. The sentence before it says the travellers who encountered one another in the year 1000 were much closer technologically than those of 1492. The sentence that follows this blank says 'they' changed and augmented what was already there since 1000. This does not make any logical sense. If the missing sentence were to be placed in blank 3, then we have some cogency. The Europeans did not invent globalization. They only changed and augmented what was already there since 1000. Blank 3 is the right place for the missing sentence.
The last sentence, the one after blank 4, helps further explain how Europeans augmented what was already there to penetrate markets.

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The answer is 'Option 3.'

Choice D is the correct answer.

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