Question 1 · Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
MCQ
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: This philosophical cut at one’s core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.
Paragraph: The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting. When reading philosophy, the values around which one has heretofore organised one’s life may come to look provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. ___(1)___. When beliefs previously held as truths are rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and ways of living may be required. ___(2)___. What’s worse, philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes, philosophical writing is even strictly critical in that it does not even attempt to provide an alternative after tearing down a cultural or conceptual citadel. ___(3)___. The reader of philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of this experience. While reading philosophy can help one clarify one’s values, and even make one self-conscious for the first time of the fact that there are good reasons for believing what one believes, it can also generate unremediated doubt that is difficult to live with. ___(4)___.
- A.
Option 1
- B.
Option 4
- C.
Option 3
- D.
Option 2
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is a concession-escalation insertion question, recognisable because the missing sentence says something is 'difficult enough', setting up a baseline problem before a worse one is introduced.
Step 1: Read the missing sentence. 'This philosophical cut at one’s core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.' The phrase 'difficult enough' signals a concession.
Step 2: Look for an escalator. The sentence after Blank 2 begins with 'What’s worse', a direct escalation marker.
Step 3: Pair concession with escalation. The missing sentence must come immediately before 'What's worse' to set up the baseline.
Step 4: Check the antecedent. 'This philosophical cut' refers to the entire process described in the preceding sentences: values looking 'provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil' and the requirement for 'new beliefs, values, and ways of living.'
Step 5: Test Blank 2. Placing it here creates a logical chain: The cut happens → New beliefs are required → This cut is difficult enough → What's worse, you must remain unsutured.
Step 6: Reject other blanks. Blank 1 is too early; the full scope of the 'cut' hasn't been described yet. Blanks 3 and 4 occur after the argument has moved to the reader's preparation, losing the immediate escalation thread.
Answer: Option 4 (B).
Question 2 · Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
MCQ
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: This philosophical cut at one’s core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.
Paragraph: The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting. When reading philosophy, the values around which one has heretofore organised one’s life may come to look provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. ___(1)___. When beliefs previously held as truths are rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and ways of living may be required. ___(2)___. What’s worse, philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes, philosophical writing is even strictly critical in that it does not even attempt to provide an alternative after tearing down a cultural or conceptual citadel. ___(3)___. The reader of philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of this experience. While reading philosophy can help one clarify one’s values, and even make one self-conscious for the first time of the fact that there are good reasons for believing what one believes, it can also generate unremediated doubt that is difficult to live with. ___(4)___.
- A.
Option 1
- B.
Option 4
- C.
Option 3
- D.
Option 2
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is a concession-escalation insertion question, recognisable because the missing sentence says something is "difficult enough", which sets up a baseline problem before a worse problem is introduced.
Step 1: Read the missing sentence. "This philosophical cut at one's core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough." The phrase "difficult enough" signals a concession: this problem is serious, but something more serious will follow.
Step 2: Look for an escalator in the paragraph. The sentence after Blank 2 begins with "What's worse". That is a direct escalation marker.
Step 3: Pair the concession with the escalator. The missing sentence must come immediately before "What's worse" so that the structure is clear: first problem, then worse problem.
Step 4: Check the sentence before Blank 2. It says old beliefs become implausible and new beliefs may be required. That is the philosophical cut being described. The missing sentence summarises that pain before escalating it.
Step 5: Reject the other blanks. Option 1 has no prior baseline problem to refer to. Option 3 follows a different point about strictly critical philosophy. Option 4 is too late and would leave the escalator without its baseline.
Answer: Option 2 (D).
Question 3 · Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
MCQ
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: The brain isn’t organized the way you might set up your home office or bathroom medicine cabinet.
Paragraph: __(1)__. You can't just put things anywhere you want to. The evolved architecture of the brain is haphazard and disjointed, and incorporates multiple systems, each of which has a mind of its own. __(2)__. Evolution doesn't design things and it doesn't build systems—it settles on systems that, historically, conveyed a survival benefit. There is no overarching, grand planner engineering the systems so that they work harmoniously together. __(3)__. The brain is more like a big, old house with piecemeal renovations done on every floor, and less like new construction. __(4)__.
- A.
Option 4
- B.
Option 1
- C.
Option 2
- D.
Option 3
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is an analogy-introduction or topic-sentence insertion question, recognisable because the missing sentence sets up a relatable comparison to explain a complex scientific concept.
Step 1: Read the missing sentence. It contrasts the brain's organization with the way a person might arrange a home office or bathroom medicine cabinet.
Step 2: Identify the paragraph's main point. The paragraph states the brain's evolved architecture is haphazard, disjointed, and not planned by an overarching designer.
Step 3: Understand the role of the analogy. A home office or medicine cabinet represents deliberate human arrangement. The brain is being contrasted with that kind of deliberate order.
Step 4: Place the analogy at the start. Blank 1 introduces the comparison before the paragraph explains why the brain is not neat or centrally planned.
Step 5: Check the next sentence. "You can't just put things anywhere you want to" continues the idea of human arrangement, before the paragraph turns to evolution's lack of design.
Step 6: Reject the other blanks. Blanks 2, 3, and 4 appear after the evolutionary explanation has already begun. Introducing the basic analogy there would feel late and disruptive.
Answer: Option 1 (B).
Question 4 · Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
MCQ
The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence- The region’s Western customers found it hard to believe that Dhaka muslin could possibly have been made by human hands - there were rumour that it was woven by mermaids, fairies and even ghosts.
Once upon the silty banks of the Meghna River, a miracle was spun — a fabric so light it was called “baft-hawa”, or woven air. This was Dhaka Muslin — the world’s most coveted cloth. ____(1)____. Handspun from a rare cotton called Phuti Karpas, found nowhere else on Earth, and woven with a 16-step sacred ritual — beginning with cleaning the cotton using the teeth of a river catfish! ____(2)____. Every spring, the maple-like leaves pushed up through the grey, silty soil to produce a single daffodil yellow flower twice a year, which gave way to a snowy floret of cotton fibres. ____(3)____. Spun at dawn on boats by sharp-eyed young women, its threads were so fine the elderly could barely see them. Motifs of wildflowers, river breeze, and soul were etched into each piece — some so light, a 91-metre bolt could pass through a ring, or a 60' length fit inside a snuffbox. It draped Greek goddesses, Roman nobles, Mughal emperors, and European aristocrats. Marie Antoinette, Empress Joséphine — even Jane Austen adored its floating grace. ____(4)____.
- A.
Option 4
- B.
Option 1
- C.
Option 3
- D.
Option 2
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is an elaboration-bridge insertion question, recognizable because the missing sentence generalizes a specific list of examples mentioned in the preceding sentence.
Step 1: Analyze the missing sentence. It mentions "The region's Western customers" and their disbelief at the fabric's quality.
Step 2: Scan the paragraph for specific examples of "Western customers". The sentence immediately before Blank 4 lists "European aristocrats. Marie Antoinette, Empress Joséphine — even Jane Austen".
Step 3: Test the link. These historical figures are all Western customers. The missing sentence naturally follows this list by summarizing their collective reaction (finding it hard to believe it was made by human hands).
Step 4: Check Blank 4. The flow is: specific Western figures → generalized "Western customers" and their reaction. This is a smooth Specific → General elaboration.
Step 5: Reject other blanks. Blanks 1, 2, and 3 are in the middle of describing the manufacturing process (cotton, catfish, leaves, spinning), where a sentence about Western customers' reactions would be completely out of place and disrupt the chronological flow.
Common trap: Placing the sentence early because it introduces a "new" topic (Western customers), failing to see it is actually a concluding elaboration of the specific examples at the end.
Answer: Option 4 (which corresponds to Option A in the given choices).
Question 5 · Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
MCQ
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: The discovery helps to explain archeological similarities between the Paleolithic peoples of China, Japan, and the Americas.
Paragraph: The researchers also uncovered an unexpected genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people. ___(1)___. During the deglaciation period, another group branched out from northern coastal China and travelled to Japan. ___(2)___. "We were surprised to find that this ancestral source also contributed to the Japanese gene pool, especially the indigenous Ainus," says Li. ___(3)___. They shared similarities in how they crafted stemmed projectile points for arrowheads and spears. ___(4)___. "This suggests that the Pleistocene connection among the Americas, China, and Japan was not confined to culture but also to genetics," says senior author Qing-Peng Kong, an evolutionary geneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
- A.
Option 2
- B.
Option 3
- C.
Option 1
- D.
Option 4
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is a thematic-bridge insertion question, recognisable because the missing sentence connects two distinct domains (genetics and archaeology) discussed in adjacent parts of the paragraph.
Step 1: Analyze the missing sentence. It states that a discovery explains 'archeological similarities' between specific groups. This sentence functions as a bridge from a genetic discussion to an archaeological one.
Step 2: Map the paragraph's flow. Sentences before Blank 3 discuss genetic links, migration, and ancestry. Sentences after Blank 3 discuss 'stemmed projectile points,' which are archaeological artifacts.
Step 3: Identify the pivot. The transition from pure genetics to physical artifacts occurs exactly at Blank 3. Placing the missing sentence here introduces the concept of 'archeological similarities' just before the text provides the specific example of those similarities.
Step 4: Verify coherence. With the sentence at Blank 3, the logic flows: Genetic link found → This explains archaeological similarities → Example: similar projectile points.
Step 5: Eliminate other options. Blank 1 and 2 are embedded in the genetic/migration narrative; inserting an archaeological conclusion there would be premature. Blank 4 follows the specific evidence, making the general claim feel disjointed.
Answer: Option 3 (B).