Question

Each of the following questions presents four statements, of which three, when placed in appropriate order, would form a contextually complete paragraph. Pick the statement that is not part of that context.

• A. Many of the Impressionists eschewed black, for example, conscious that shadow was actually composed of other colours, mostly purples and blues.
• B. In his delightfully readable book, Philip Hook, Sotheby’s senior director of Impressionist and Modern Art, analyses how the movement took different forms in different countries.
• C. Whether in their landscapes, figure paintings or still lifes, the Impressionists celebrated and transformed the commonplace, finding beauty in a misty harbour at sunrise and radiance in a bowl of fruit.
• D. But what it had in common everywhere was the younger generation’s desire to cleanse artistic vision by painting only what they saw about them, with broad brush strokes and brighter, simpler colours.

Hint:

When finding the odd sentence in a paragraph completion task, remove the one that changes focus or introduces unrelated context.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

To solve this, we identify the three statements that can form a coherent paragraph and find the odd one out:

1. (A): Talks about a specific technique of Impressionists — avoiding black and using other colours for shadows. Fits the descriptive theme of Impressionist style.
2. (C): Describes the types of scenes Impressionists painted and their transformation of everyday subjects. Fits perfectly with the aesthetic theme.
3. (D): Gives a general principle of Impressionists worldwide — cleansing artistic vision with broad strokes and brighter colours. Matches the descriptive tone.
4. (B): Refers to a book and its analysis of Impressionism in different countries. While related, it shifts the focus from descriptive style to external commentary, breaking the thematic flow.

The logical sequence of related sentences is:

(D) → (C) → (A)

(B) is the odd one out as it interrupts the descriptive flow.