Read the following sentences carefully.
1. Any viewer of crime dramas might think, though, that there is a better way.
2. What would really speed things up would be a method of sampling an entire habitat at one go.
3. But, these, too must first be detected and collected—and they will identify only the animal that dropped them.
4. Ecologists have thought of this, and it certainly works for things like animal droppings.
5. Just as DNA traces on an unwashed glass can place a suspect as having been in a particular place, so can DNA shed by a creature as it goes about its business.
Which of the following options BEST arranges the above sentences in a logical sequence?
1. Any viewer of crime dramas might think, though, that there is a better way.
2. What would really speed things up would be a method of sampling an entire habitat at one go.
3. But, these, too must first be detected and collected—and they will identify only the animal that dropped them.
4. Ecologists have thought of this, and it certainly works for things like animal droppings.
5. Just as DNA traces on an unwashed glass can place a suspect as having been in a particular place, so can DNA shed by a creature as it goes about its business.
Which of the following options BEST arranges the above sentences in a logical sequence?
Show Hint
- 1, 5, 4, 3, 2
- 4, 3, 5, 2, 1
- 1, 4, 2, 3, 5
- 3, 5, 4, 1, 2
- 2, 3, 4, 1, 5
The Correct Option is
Solution and Explanation
The sentences describe the ecological process and the way DNA traces can be used to detect animals and suspects. The order should present a logical progression of how ecologists have thought of methods for sampling habitats and tracking animals.
Step 2: Evaluating the options.
- (A) 1, 5, 4, 3, 2: This option jumps between unrelated ideas, as sentence 5 should follow sentence 4, not 1.
- (B) 4, 3, 5, 2, 1: This option begins with ecological methods but doesn’t logically build towards the idea of DNA traces.
- (C) 1, 4, 2, 3, 5: This option doesn’t follow a natural flow from method to conclusion.
- (D) 3, 5, 4, 1, 2: This option is jumbled and doesn’t follow a clear logical sequence.
- (E) 2, 3, 4, 1, 5: This option presents a clear and logical progression: it begins with the method of sampling, explains its detection, details the ecological work, introduces the concept of DNA traces, and ends with the final connection to crime dramas. This is the correct sequence.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct answer is (E) because it presents the sentences in a logically structured sequence.
Top Questions on Para Jumbles
- Read the following sentences carefully.
1. The hybrid workplace is failing to live up to expectations in a number of ways.
2. By one estimate, spending an average of three days each week in the office can limit encounters between any two workers by 64% compared with pre-pandemic norms.
3. Many people hanker after the socializing, camaraderie and shared experience, even if getting used to it may take time.
4. For one thing, it is no substitute for the buzz and the chatter of the pre-pandemic office.
5. Even small amount of remote work can have a big impact on the frequency of face-to-face interactions in the office.
Which of the following options BEST arranges the above sentences in a logical sequence?
- Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
- Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. Sporting a copper-coloured pixie cut and a pair of pink feather antlers, Torres himself resembles a child’s doodle.
2. His casual millennial delivery, peppered with “um’s” and “ah’s”, makes surreal concepts sound like items on a brunch menu.
3. Though he may have failed so far in his colour-scouting mission (he hasn’t yet found a new one, he admits), this hour leaves you tickled pink.
4. Like his previous show, My Favourite Shapes, this is an hour of sit-down comedy aided by an overhead camera which relays Torres’s theories – illustrated with crayon squiggles – on to a screen behind him.
5. His inquisitive mind produces interconnected ideas about Catholicism, the blandness of Pixar and what orange sounds like, while his insights train us to spot “highly purple behaviour”. - Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
- Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
Questions Asked in XAT exam
- Arrange the following generations from the oldest to the youngest:
1. Generation X
2. Silent Generation
3. Generation Alpha
4. Baby Boomers
5. Millennials
- XAT - 2026
- Current Affairs
- Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Brijbhushan, a microfinancier, lends money at the rate of Rs.10 per square meter to small farmers at a village. He charges an annual interest rate of 10%. All the farming plots in that village are rectangular, with areas varying between a minimum of 1000 square meters and a maximum of 10,000 square meters.
This year, Brijbhushan has lent money only to five farmers: Aditya, Binod, Chhuttan, Dabloo and Govind. The perimeter of Chhuttan’s plot is 250 meters, with the length and width being at a ratio of 4:1. Aditya’s plot has an area three times the area of Govind’s plot. The area of Aditya’s plot is also the average of the areas of Govind’s plot and Dabloo’s plot. The plots belonging to Aditya, Binod and Dabloo are of the same width, but of different lengths. Moreover, the length of Binod’s plot is the sum of the lengths of Aditya’s plot and Dabloo’s plot.- XAT - 2026
- Mensuration
Light Chemicals is an industrial paint supplier with presence in three locations: Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The sunburst chart below shows the distribution of the number of employees of different departments of Light Chemicals. There are four departments: Finance, IT, HR and Sales. The employees are deployed in four ranks: junior, mid, senior and executive. The chart shows four levels: location, department, rank and gender (M: male, F: female). At every level, the number of employees at a location/department/rank/gender are proportional to the corresponding area of the region represented in the chart.
Due to some issues with the software, the data on junior female employees have gone missing. Notice that there are junior female employees in Mumbai HR, Sales and IT departments, Hyderabad HR department, and Bengaluru IT and Finance departments. The corresponding missing numbers are marked u, v, w, x, y and z in the diagram, respectively.
It is also known that:
a) Light Chemicals has a total of 210 junior employees.
b) Light Chemicals has a total of 146 employees in the IT department.
c) Light Chemicals has a total of 777 employees in the Hyderabad office.
d) In the Mumbai office, the number of female employees is 55.
- XAT - 2026
- Pie Charts
An investment company, Win Lose, recruit's employees to trade in the share market. For newcomers, they have a one-year probation period. During this period, the employees are given Rs. 1 lakh per month to invest the way they see fit. They are evaluated at the end of every month, using the following criteria:
1. If the total loss in any span of three consecutive months exceeds Rs. 20,000, their services are terminated at the end of that 3-month period,
2. If the total loss in any span of six consecutive months exceeds Rs. 10,000, their services are terminated at the end of that 6-month period.
Further, at the end of the 12-month probation period, if there are losses on their overall investment, their services are terminated.
Ratan, Shri, Tamal and Upanshu started working for Win Lose in January. Ratan was terminated after 4 months, Shri was terminated after 7 months, Tamal was terminated after 10 months, while Upanshu was not terminated even after 12 months. The table below, partially, lists their monthly profits (in Rs. ‘000’) over the 12-month period, where x, y and z are masked information.
Note:
• A negative profit value indicates a loss.
• The value in any cell is an integer.
Illustration: As Upanshu is continuing after March, that means his total profit during January-March (2z +2z +0) ≥
Rs.20,000. Similarly, as he is continuing after June, his total profit during January − June ≥
Rs.10,000, as well as his total profit during April-June ≥ Rs.10,000.
- XAT - 2026
- Logical and Analytical Reasoning Skills
Business schools’ (B schools) curriculums are filled with group assignments and case competitions. Even when students have just joined the B schools, corporate houses try 38 to catch good talent early by promising them internships based on case competitions. These competitions involve solving the problems presented by the organizations, analyzing the challenges they currently face, and presenting solutions in a manner that convinces the organizations’ representatives.
For students who are just joining a B school, the capability to actually solve such problems is quite limited. Because of that, the corporate houses generally are more focused on the presentations made by groups. Hence, the groups that communicate better, most often, win these competitions.
Abirami joins MBS, a B school. As a fresher, she believes she needs to learn a lot about how organizations work and wants to work with others who have joined MBS and have work experience.- XAT - 2026
- Statements and Assumptions