CAT — Para Completion
19 questions, free to view. Click any question to see the answer and explanation.
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: While taste is related to judgment, with thinkers at the time often writing, for example, about "judgments of taste" or using the two terms interchangeably, taste retains a vital link to pleasure, embodiment, and personal specificity that is too often elided in post-Kantian ideas about judgment—a link that Arendt herself was working to restore.
Paragraph: ____(1) ____. Denneny focused on taste rather than judgment in order to highlight what he believed was a crucial but neglected historical change. ____(2) ____. Over the course of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, across Western Europe, the word taste took on a new extension of meaning, no longer referring specifically to gustatory sensation and the delights of the palate but becoming, for a time, one of the central categories for aesthetic—and ethical—thinking. ____(3) ____. Tracing the history of taste in Spanish, French, and British aesthetic theory, as Denneny did, also provides a means to recover the compelling and relevant writing of a set of thinkers who have been largely neglected by professional philosophy. ____(4) ____.
Option 3
Option 1
Option 2
Option 4
Option 1
The paragraph opens with Denneny focusing on taste rather than judgment to highlight a historical change. The inserted sentence explains why this distinction matters, since taste and judgment were often used interchangeably, but taste retains a link to pleasure and personal feeling that judgment lost. This fits right after the opening line, at Option 1, before the paragraph moves to tracing how the word taste evolved over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 3 comes after the historical evolution of taste has already been explained, when the discussion has shifted to tracing this history across Spanish, French and British theory. Inserting the sentence there breaks the flow of an argument that has already moved on.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 1 directly follows the mention of Denneny's choice to focus on taste, and the sentence explains that choice before the paragraph develops the historical point further.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 2 falls just before the explanation of how taste's meaning changed historically. Inserting the sentence here interrupts that explanation before it begins.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the end, after the paragraph has shifted to a different point about recovering neglected thinkers. The sentence no longer connects naturally there.
Key Takeaway: Place an inserted sentence exactly where its logical function in the argument is needed, not just where it seems thematically related.
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: Science has officially crowned us superior to our early-rising brethren.
Paragraph: My fellow night owls, grab a strong cup of coffee and gather around: I have great news. (1). For a long time, our kind has been unfairly maligned. Stereotyped as lazy and undisciplined. Told we ought to be morning larks. Advised to go to bed early so we can wake before 5am and run a marathon before breakfast like all high-flyers seem to do. Now, however, we are having the last laugh. (2). It may be a tad more complicated than that. A study published last week, which you may have already seen while scrolling at 1am, suggests that staying up late could be good for brain power. (3). Is this study a thinly veiled PR exercise conducted by a caffeine-pill company? Nope, it's legit. (4). Research led by academics at Imperial College London studied data on more than 26,000 people and found that "self-declared 'night owls' generally tend to have higher cognitive scores".
Option 4
Option 3
Option 1
Option 2
Option 2
The inserted sentence announces that science has officially crowned night owls as superior. Option 2 falls right after the paragraph establishes that night owls are "having the last laugh," and right before the caveat that "it may be a tad more complicated than that." The inserted sentence fits perfectly here as the triumphant claim that the next sentence then immediately qualifies and complicates.
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.
Option 2
Option 3
Option 1
Option 4
Option 2
The inserted sentence states that the discovery helps explain archaeological similarities between Paleolithic peoples of China, Japan and the Americas. This fits at Option 3, right after the researcher's surprise that the ancestral source contributed to the Japanese gene pool, and right before the closing quote about the Pleistocene connection among the Americas, China and Japan being not just cultural but genetic. The inserted sentence is about archaeological similarities specifically, bridging the genetic finding about Japan with the broader conclusion about connections across China, Japan and the Americas.
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 reality is putting stress on employees who have to pay for transport, desk lunches, more childcare, clothing and that after-work socialisation - costs they haven't incurred for nearly two years.
Paragraph: (1). Prices are rising at their fastest rate in 40 years; consequently, return-to-office-related costs have shot up - think petrol and food, for instance.(2). Yet wages haven't kept up with inflation - even despite the salary growth many workers have enjoyed during a favourable pandemic labour market. (3).This is especially jarring for workers who were able to save during remote work, when these expenditures weren't a factor. (4). In April 2022, Umus, a London university lecturer, told BBC Worklife that they were spending nearly a quarter of what they made every day on return-to-work costs.
Option 4
Option 3
Option 2
Option 1
Option 3
The inserted sentence describes the specific costs employees face when returning to the office, transport, desk lunches, childcare, clothing and after-work socialisation. Option 3 falls right after the statement that wages haven't kept up with inflation, and right before the observation that this is especially jarring for workers who were able to save during remote work. The inserted sentence bridges these two points by naming the exact costs creating the stress, which then sets up the contrast with the remote work period when these costs didn't exist.
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: Dualism was long held as the defining feature of developing countries in contrast to developed countries, where frontier technologies and high productivity were assumed to prevail.
Paragraph: (1). At the core of development economics lies the idea of 'productive dualism': that poor countries' economies are split between a narrow 'modern' sector that uses advanced technologies and a larger 'traditional' sector characterized by very low productivity.(2). While this distinction between developing and advanced economies may have made some sense in the 1950s and 1960s, it no longer appears to be very relevant. A combination of forces have produced a widening gap between the winners and those left behind.(3). Convergence between poor and rich parts of the economy was arrested and regional disparities widened.(4). As a result, policymakers in advanced economies are now grappling with the same questions that have long preoccupied developing economies: mainly how to close the gap with the more advanced parts of the economy.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Option 2
The inserted sentence states that dualism was long held as the defining feature of developing countries, contrasting with developed countries where frontier technologies and high productivity were assumed to prevail. This fits at Option 2, right after the concept of productive dualism has been introduced and defined, and right before the sentence saying this distinction no longer appears relevant. The inserted sentence establishes the historical belief that dualism was exclusive to developing countries, which the following sentence then says is no longer the case.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 1 comes before the concept of productive dualism has even been defined. Inserting a sentence about dualism being the defining feature of developing countries before the reader knows what dualism means would be confusing.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 2 sits right after the definition of productive dualism and right before the sentence saying this distinction no longer appears relevant. The inserted sentence explains the historical belief that dualism characterised developing countries, and the following sentence begins dismantling this belief, creating a natural historical-to-present contrast.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 3 comes after the statement that the distinction no longer appears relevant, where the passage is now discussing widening gaps and arrested convergence within economies. Inserting the historical belief about developing versus developed countries here would interrupt this new line of argument.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the end, right before the conclusion about policymakers in advanced economies now grappling with developing-economy questions. Inserting the historical belief here, after the current situation has been described, would reverse the logical sequence of historical context followed by present reality.
Key Takeaway: Place a sentence establishing a historical belief immediately before the sentence that begins challenging or qualifying it.
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).
Option 1
Option 4
Option 3
Option 2
Option 2
The inserted sentence states that the philosophical challenge to one's core beliefs, values and way of life is difficult enough. This fits at Option 2, right after the statement that when beliefs are rendered implausible, new beliefs and ways of living may be required, and right before the statement that philosophers admonish each other to remain unsutured until a defensible answer is found. The inserted sentence acknowledges how hard the initial challenge is, and the following sentence then adds that things get even worse because philosophers don't even offer an immediate replacement.
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: And probably much earlier, moving the documentation for kissing back 1,000 years compared to what was acknowledged in the scientific community.
Paragraph: Research has hypothesised that the earliest evidence of human lip kissing originated in a very specific geographical location in South Asia 3,500 years ago.(1). From there it may have spread to other regions, simultaneously accelerating the spread of the herpes simplex virus 1. According to Dr Troels Pank Arbøll and Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, who in a new article in the journal Science draw on a range of written sources from the earliest Mesopotamian societies, kissing was already a well-established practice 4,500 years ago in the Middle East.(2). In ancient Mesopotamia, people wrote in cuneiform script on clay tablets.(3). Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day, and they contain clear examples that kissing was considered a part of romantic intimacy in ancient times.(4). "Kissing could also have been part of friendships and family members' relations," says Dr Troels Pank Arbøll, an expert on the history of medicine in Mesopotamia.
Option 3
Option 4
Option 1
Option 2
Option 2
The inserted sentence says kissing was documented much earlier than previously acknowledged, moving the documentation back 1,000 years. This fits at Option 2, right after the mention that the article in Science shows kissing was already well-established 4,500 years ago in the Middle East, and right before the explanation about Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets. The inserted sentence clarifies the significance of the 4,500-year-old finding by quantifying how much further back it pushes the timeline compared to previous knowledge.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 3 comes right after the introduction of cuneiform clay tablets and before the description of what these tablets contain. Inserting the sentence about the 1,000-year pushback here would interrupt the explanation of the evidence before the content of that evidence is described.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the very end, after the passage has described what the clay tablets show. The significance of the timeline being pushed back 1,000 years should be stated close to the claim about 4,500 years ago, not at the very end after all the evidence has been described.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 1 comes right after the hypothesis about kissing originating in South Asia 3,500 years ago, before the article about Mesopotamian kissing 4,500 years ago is introduced. The 1,000-year pushback can only be stated after the 4,500-year finding is introduced, since it refers back to it.
Why Option D is Correct: Option 2 sits right after the claim that kissing was already well-established 4,500 years ago, making it the perfect place for the inserted sentence to clarify that this pushes the documented history back by 1,000 years compared to what was previously acknowledged in the scientific community.
Key Takeaway: A sentence explaining the significance of a finding belongs immediately after the finding is stated, before the evidence supporting that finding is described.
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: Comprehending a wide range of emotions, Renaissance music nevertheless portrayed all emotions in a balanced and moderate fashion.
Paragraph: A volume of translated Italian madrigals were published in London during the year of 1588. This sudden public interest facilitated a surge of English Madrigal writing as well as a spurt of other secular music writing and publication. (1). This music boom lasted for thirty years and was as much a golden age of music as British literature was with Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I. (2). The rebirth in both literature and music originated in Italy and migrated to England; the English madrigal became more humorous and lighter in England as compared to Italy. Renaissance music was mostly polyphonic in texture. (3). Extreme use of and contrasts in dynamics, rhythm, and tone colour do not occur. (4). The rhythms in Renaissance music tend to have a smooth, soft flow instead of a sharp, well-defined pulse of accents.
Option 1
Option 3
Option 4
Option 2
Option 3
The inserted sentence describes Renaissance music as comprehending a wide range of emotions but portraying them in a balanced and moderate way. This fits right before the explanation of why extreme contrasts in dynamics, rhythm and tone colour do not occur, at Option 3, since the inserted sentence introduces the idea of balance and moderation that the following sentence then elaborates on with specific examples.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 1 comes early, while the passage is still discussing the historical context of madrigal publication and the music boom, before the discussion of Renaissance music's emotional and stylistic qualities even begins.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 4 falls after the explanation of extreme contrasts not occurring, when the passage has moved on to discussing the rhythmic flow of Renaissance music specifically, a more specific point than the general emotional balance the inserted sentence introduces.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 2 comes right after the comparison between English and Italian madrigal styles, before the passage shifts to discussing the polyphonic texture and emotional character of Renaissance music as a whole.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 3 comes right after the mention of polyphonic texture, setting up perfectly for the inserted sentence about emotional balance, which is then immediately supported by the following sentence about the absence of extreme contrasts.
Key Takeaway: Place a general claim, like balance and moderation, right before the specific examples that illustrate it, rather than after them.
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.
Paragraph: 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.
Option 4
Option 2
Option 3
Option 1
Option 4
The inserted sentence about 1.3 million people being displaced fits at Option 4, right after the paragraph has described farmers losing agricultural income and pastoralists losing livestock. The very next sentence then says some may never be able to return as their livelihoods have been irreversibly wiped out. The inserted sentence about displacement introduces this group of displaced people, and the following sentence's reference to "some like the pastoralists" who may never go back directly refers back to them.
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: Understanding central Asia's role helps developments make more sense not only across Asia but in Europe, the Americas and Africa.
Paragraph: The nations of the Silk Roads are sometimes called 'developing countries', but they are actually some of the world's most highly developed countries, the very crossroads of civilization, in advanced states of disrepair. (1). These countries lie at the centre of global affairs: they have since the beginning of history. Running across the spine of Asia, they form a web of connections fanning out in every direction, routes along which pilgrims and warriors, nomads and merchants have travelled, goods and produce have been bought and sold, and ideas exchanged, adapted and refined. (2). They have carried not only prosperity, but also death and violence, disease and disaster. (3). The Silk Roads are the world's central nervous system, connecting otherwise far-flung peoples and places…. (4). It allows us to see patterns and links, causes and effects that remain invisible if one looks only at Europe, or North America.
Option 3
Option 2
Option 1
Option 4
Option 4
The inserted sentence concludes that understanding central Asia's role helps developments make sense not just across Asia but globally. This fits best at the very end, Option 4, right before the passage's final sentence about seeing patterns invisible if looking only at Europe or North America, since the inserted sentence sets up this concluding point about global interconnectedness.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 3 falls in the middle of describing the Silk Roads as the world's central nervous system, before the passage reaches its broader concluding point about global patterns, making this too early for the concluding statement.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: Option 2 comes after describing the routes carrying prosperity, death, violence and disease, before the metaphor of the central nervous system is introduced, an inappropriate place for the broader concluding statement about global relevance.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 1 comes right after the introduction of these regions as crossroads of civilization, before the passage even describes their web of connections, far too early for a concluding statement about global understanding.
Why Option D is Correct: Option 4 comes right after the central nervous system metaphor and right before the passage's final point about seeing patterns invisible if looking only at the West, making it the natural conclusion connecting the metaphor to the practical insight the passage ends on.
Key Takeaway: A sentence that draws a broader conclusion fits best near the end of a paragraph, right before the passage's own concluding statement, to maintain a smooth logical close.
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.
Option 1
Option 4
Option 2
Option 3
Option 3
The inserted sentence states that the Europeans did not invent globalisation. Option 3 falls right before the sentence "They changed and augmented what was already there since 1000," where "they" refers to the Europeans. The inserted sentence establishes precisely what the Europeans did not do, which the very next sentence then clarifies, that they built on what already existed, making Option 3 the natural place for this claim.
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: In each of the affected males, the genetic defect was located to the X chromosome in the region of p11-12.
Paragraph: The first suggested evidence of a human genetic mutation associated with aggressive behaviour came from a study in 1993. _____(1). Genetic and metabolic studies were conducted on a large Dutch family in which several of the males has a syndrome of borderline mental retardation and abnormal behaviour. _____(2). The undesirable behaviour included impulsive aggression, arson and exhibitionism. _____(3). A point mutation was identified in the eighth exon of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) structural gene which changes glutamine to a termination codon. _____(4).
Option 3
Option 4
Option 2
Option 1
Option 3
The inserted sentence specifies that the genetic defect was located on the X chromosome in a particular region, in each affected male. This level of specific genetic detail fits right after the description of the undesirable behaviours observed in the Dutch family, at Option 3, just before the passage moves to identifying the exact point mutation found in the MAOA gene.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the very end, after the specific point mutation in the MAOA gene has already been described. Placing the broader X chromosome location detail after this more specific mutation detail breaks the natural order of moving from general to specific.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 2 comes right after the introduction of the Dutch family's syndrome of mental retardation and abnormal behaviour, before their specific undesirable behaviours are even listed. Inserting the chromosome location detail here is premature.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 1 is right at the start, before the genetic and metabolic studies on the Dutch family are even introduced. The chromosome detail cannot logically appear before the family and their condition have been described.
Why Option A is Correct: Option 3 comes right after the specific undesirable behaviours are listed, and right before the passage narrows down further to the exact point mutation, making it the natural place for the broader chromosome location detail to appear in this general-to-specific narrowing sequence.
Key Takeaway: In passages describing a scientific discovery, insert a sentence at the point where the narrative moves from general findings to a stage of progressively more specific detail.
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: "Everything is old-world, traditional techniques from Mexico," Ava emphasizes.
Paragraph: The sisters embrace the ways their great-grandfather built and repaired instruments. ____(1) ____. When crafting a Mexican guitarron used in mariachi music, they use tacote wood for the top of the instrument. Once the wood is cut, they carve the neck and heel from a single block using tools like hand saws, chisels and sandpaper rather than modern power tools — and believe that this traditional method improves the tone of the instrument. ____(2) ____. Their store has a three-year waitlist for instruments that take months to create. ____(3) ____. The family's artisanship has attracted stars like Los Lobos, who own custom guitars made by all three generations of the Delgado family. ____(4) ____. For the sisters, involvement in the family business started at an early age. They each built their first instruments at age 9.
Option 1
Option 4
Option 2
Option 3
Option 1
The inserted sentence is Ava's direct emphasis that everything is traditional and old-world, from Mexico. This fits best right after the opening statement about the sisters embracing the ways of their great-grandfather, at Option 1, since it directly underscores the traditional approach mentioned in that opening line before the paragraph moves on to describe specific techniques and materials.
Why Option B is
Incorrect: Option 4 comes right before the closing sentence about the sisters starting their involvement at age 9. Inserting the emphasis on old-world tradition here, after the discussion of famous clients like Los Lobos, breaks the natural transition toward the personal story of the sisters' early involvement.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 2 comes after the description of using tacote wood and hand tools for the guitarron, a mid-paragraph position where the techniques are already being detailed. The inserted sentence works better as an umbrella statement before these details are introduced.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 3 falls right after the sentence about the three-year waitlist, where the paragraph has moved to discussing the store's commercial success and its famous clients. Inserting a general claim about tradition here interrupts the shift toward discussing reputation and clientele.
Why Option A is Correct: Option 1 sits right after the opening line about following the great-grandfather's methods, making it the ideal position for Ava's direct statement that everything is old-world and traditional, before the paragraph elaborates with specific techniques.
Key Takeaway: A speaker's direct emphasis on a theme fits best right after the theme is first introduced, before the supporting details begin.
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: Taken outside the village of Trang Bang on June 8, 1972, the picture captured the trauma and indiscriminate violence of a conflict that claimed, by some estimates, a million or more civilian lives.
Paragraph: The horrifying photograph of children fleeing a deadly napalm attack has become a defining image not only of the Vietnam War but the 20th century. (1). Dark smoke billowing behind them, the young subjects' faces are painted with a mixture of terror, pain and confusion. (2). Soldiers from the South Vietnamese Army's 25th Division follow helplessly behind. (3). The picture was officially titled "The Terror of War," but the photo is better known by the nickname given to the naked 9-year-old at its centre: "Napalm Girl". (4).
Option 4
Option 1
Option 3
Option 2
Option 3
The inserted sentence provides the location, date and historical context for the photograph, explaining where and when it was taken and noting the broader scale of civilian casualties in the Vietnam War. Option 3 falls right after the description of soldiers following helplessly behind the fleeing children, and right before the sentence about the photograph's official title and nickname. The contextual information about where and when the photograph was taken fits naturally between the visual description of the subjects and the naming of the photograph.
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).
Option 4
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 1
The inserted sentence states that the brain isn't organized the way you might set up a home office or medicine cabinet, introducing the central metaphor for the disorganised nature of the brain's architecture. This fits best at the very start, Option 1, since the next sentence explicitly follows up with "you can't just put things anywhere you want to," directly continuing this comparison.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the very end of the paragraph, after the extended metaphor of the brain as an "old house with piecemeal renovations" has already been introduced, the home office comparison belongs at the start, not after a more developed metaphor has taken over.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 2 comes after the point about evolution not designing things deliberately, a logical continuation that doesn't need the home office comparison inserted before it, the comparison fits better as the paragraph's opening line.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 3 comes right before the "old house" metaphor is introduced, but inserting the home office comparison here would be redundant, since by this point the disorganised nature of the brain has already been thoroughly established without it.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 1 is the very beginning, perfectly suited for introducing the central metaphor that the very next sentence, "you can't just put things anywhere you want to," builds directly upon.
Key Takeaway: When the sentence right after a blank directly continues or builds on the missing sentence's metaphor, that blank is very likely the correct placement.
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: Historically, silver has been, and still is, an important element in the business of 'show' visible in private houses, churches, government and diplomacy.
Paragraph: ____(1) ____. Timothy Schroder put it succinctly in suggesting that electric light and eating in the kitchen eroded this need. As he explained to the author, 'Silver, when illuminated by flickering candlelight, comes alive and almost dances before the eyes, but when lit by electric light, it becomes flat and dead.' ____(2) ____. Domestic and economic changes may have worked against the market, but the London silver trade remained buoyant, thanks to the competition of collectors seeking grand display silver at the top end, and the buyers of 'collectables', like spoons and wine labels and 'novelties', at the bottom. ____(3) ____. Another factor that came into play was the systematic collection building of certain American museums over the period. Boston, Huntington Art Gallery and Williamsburg, among others, were largely supplied by London dealers. ____(4) ____.
Option 4
Option 3
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
The inserted sentence states that silver has historically been and remains important in the business of show in private houses, churches, government and diplomacy. This fits at Option 3, right after the passage has discussed how the London silver trade remained buoyant through demand from collectors and buyers, and right before the specific factor of American museum collection building is introduced as another reason for the trade's buoyancy. The inserted sentence bridges the domestic market discussion and the broader institutional demand from museums and governments.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the very end of the paragraph, after the American museum factor has already been introduced. The inserted sentence about silver's role in display would be redundant at this point since the paragraph has already moved past this general claim.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 1 is at the very beginning, before the explanation of how electric light and candlelight affect the appearance of silver. Starting with a general claim about silver's display importance before any context is established would feel unsupported, since the reader hasn't yet been given the factors affecting the silver trade.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 2 falls right after the explanation of domestic and economic changes working against the silver market, before the statement about the London silver trade remaining buoyant. Inserting the broader claim about silver's display role here would interrupt the passage's direct move from the problem to the explanation of the market's resilience.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 3 comes right after the specific domestic market factors and right before the American museum factor, providing a bridging statement about institutional demand for display silver that naturally introduces the subsequent point about museum collection building.
Key Takeaway: Place a broad bridging claim between two specific market or institutional examples when it naturally connects what came before to what follows.
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: Yet each day the flock produced eggs with calcareous shells though they apparently had not ingested any calcium from land which was entirely lacking in limestone.
Paragraph: Early in this century a young Breton schoolboy who preparing himself for a scientific career began to notice a strange fact about hens in his father's poultry yard. ___(1) ___. As they scratched the soil they constantly seemed to be pecking at specks of mica, a siliceous material dotting the ground. (2). No one could explain to Louis Kervran why the chickens selected the mica, or why each time a bird was killed for the family cooking pot no trace of the mica could be found in its gizzard. ___(3) ___. It took Kervran many years to establish that the chickens were transmuting one element into another. (4).
Option 1
Option 3
Option 2
Option 4
Option 3
The inserted sentence describes the mystery, the hens producing calcium-shelled eggs despite no calcium in the soil. This fits at Option 3, right after the paragraph has introduced that no one could explain why mica disappeared from the gizzard, and right before the statement that it took Kervran many years to establish the element transmutation explanation. The inserted sentence adds another unexplained mystery, the calcium paradox, which deepens the puzzle that Kervran eventually solved.
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 rumours 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).
Option 4
Option 1
Option 3
Option 2
Option 1
The inserted sentence describes Western customers finding it hard to believe Dhaka muslin was made by human hands, with rumours of mermaids and fairies weaving it. This reaction of disbelief fits best right after the muslin is first introduced as "the world's most coveted cloth," before the passage moves into the specific technical details of how it was made, which is Option 1.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 4 is at the very end, after the passage has already described the muslin's reach and admirers across history. Inserting a reaction of disbelief about human origin there breaks the narrative's closing flow rather than fitting naturally.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 1 comes right after the muslin is introduced as the world's most coveted cloth — the perfect spot for showing how almost mythical it appeared to the Western audience.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 3 comes in the middle of the cotton plant description, where the passage is detailing the flower and floret formation process — an inappropriate place to insert a sentence about Western disbelief in human craftsmanship.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 2 falls right after the description of the 16-step ritual, where the passage is still building the technical mystique of how it was made, not yet ready for the reaction of disbelief about human origin.
Key Takeaway: Match the tone and content of the missing sentence to the surrounding context — an awe-struck reaction fits best right after the subject is first introduced as extraordinary.
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: Productivity gains, once expected to feed through to broader living standards, now primarily serve to enhance returns to wealth.
Paragraph: Economists now argue that inequality is no longer a by-product of growth but a condition of it. ____ (1) ____. Unlike wages, wealth reflects not just income but also access to assets, favourable institutional conditions - such as low interest rates - and public policies like low taxes and housing shortages. ____ (2) ____. In other words, wealth depends on political choices in ways that income currently does not. It's not just the inequality itself that is the issue but the erosion of mechanisms that once constrained it. ____ (3) ____. Wealth and income inequality are linked, but where wages have stagnated and collective bargaining has weakened, capital income - derived from profits, rents and interest - has been boosted by design. ____ (4) ____.
Option 1
Option 4
Option 3
Option 2
Option 4
The inserted sentence states that productivity gains now primarily serve to enhance returns to wealth rather than living standards. This fits best at the end, Option 4, following the discussion of how capital income has been boosted by design while wages have stagnated, since the inserted sentence draws the natural concluding link between productivity gains and the resulting boost to wealth rather than wages.
Why Option A is
Incorrect: Option 1 comes right after the general claim that inequality is now a condition of growth, before the passage even explains what wealth depends on. Inserting a sentence about productivity gains here is premature, since the distinction between wealth and wages hasn't been established yet.
Why Option C is
Incorrect: Option 3 comes after the point about wealth depending on political choices, right before the passage discusses the erosion of mechanisms that constrained inequality. Inserting the productivity sentence here disrupts the flow into that specific point about eroding constraints.
Why Option D is
Incorrect: Option 2 falls right after the explanation of what wealth reflects, access to assets and favourable policies, before the passage concludes that wealth depends on political choices unlike income. Inserting the productivity sentence here interrupts this logical step.
Why Option B is Correct: Option 4 comes after the passage explains that capital income has been boosted by design while wages stagnated, making it the perfect place for the inserted sentence to conclude that productivity gains now go toward enhancing wealth rather than improving general living standards.
Key Takeaway: Place a concluding-type sentence at the point in the paragraph where the argument has built up enough context for that conclusion to land naturally.
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