CAT 2024 Question Paper | VARC Slot 3

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Question 8 : 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: Many have had to leave their homes behind, with more than 1.3 million people being displaced due to the drought.

Passage: Somalia has been dealing with an enormous humanitarian catastrophe, driven by the longest and most severe drought the country has experienced in at least 40 years. ___(1)___. Five consecutive rainy seasons have failed, causing more than 8 million people - almost half of the country's population – to experience acute food insecurity. ___(2)___. More than 43,000 people are believed to have lost their lives, with half of the lives lost likely being children under five. The damage the drought has caused is far-reaching. ___(3)___. Farmers have lost all their agricultural income, while pastoralists have lost more than 3 million livestock, impoverishing entire communities, and leaving them on the brink of famine. ___(4)___. Some, like the pastoralists, may never be able to go back as their livelihoods have been irreversibly wiped out.

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Explanatory Answer

The missing sentence is about the huge number of people displaced due to the drought.
Let us consider each blank in order. Blank 1 is right after the first sentence which talks of the longest and most severe drought in Somalia in 40 years. The sentence that follows blank 1 explains the reason for the drought. The missing sentence, which is about people displaced by the drought, is not a good fit here.
Consider blank 2. The sentence before it is about acute food insecurity experienced in Somalia while the one that follows the blank and explains the scale of the impact of the crisis. These sentences are logically linked, so blank 2 is not a good choice either.
Both blanks 3 and 4 are placed between sentences that describe the damage caused by the drought. Between these, 4 is better than 3. This is because the missing sentence says 'many' have had to leave their homes behind while the sentence following 4 says 'some' may never be able to go back. There is a link between the missing sentence and the sentence following blank 4 both in terms of structure and ideas.
The sentence before 3 is a general one about the damage caused by the drought and the sentence following it describes the damage to specific sections of people- farmers and pastoralists. It seems reasonable that the paragraph first explains the problems of farmers and pastoralists, those first impacted by the drought, and then follows to explain the impact of the drought on people at large.
So, option 4 is the correct choice.

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Hence, the answer is 'Option 4'

Choice A is the correct answer.

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