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)___.
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 3
- Option 2
- Option 4
- Option 1
The Correct Option is C
Solution and Explanation
Analyzing the Paragraph:
Option 1: This introduces Kervran's initial observation about the hens. Placing the sentence here would prematurely discuss the eggs and their calcareous shells before the hens' behavior (pecking mica) is mentioned, disrupting the logical flow.
Option 2: The paragraph discusses how hens pecked at mica and connects it to the mystery of mica disappearing from their gizzards. Placing the sentence here would shift the focus from the hens' behavior to eggs, which is not yet relevant.
Option 3: The paragraph discusses the unsolved mystery of mica and the hens’ behavior. Adding the sentence here introduces the mystery of eggs with calcareous shells, which is connected to the prior observation but not yet resolved. This placement builds a logical bridge to Kervran's later investigations.
Option 4: After discussing the unexplained observations (hens and their behavior), this is the appropriate place to introduce the specific observation about eggs with calcareous shells. It naturally leads into Kervran's conclusion about element transmutation in the following sentence.
So, the correct option is (C): Option 4.
Top Questions on Para Completion
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. \(\underline{(1)}\) 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! \(\underline{(2)}\) 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. \(\underline{(3)}\) 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 sleek, 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. \(\underline{(4)}\).- 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)____. - 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)____. 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: \(\underline{(1)}\) Denneny focused on taste rather than judgment in order to highlight what he believed was a crucial but neglected historical change. \(\underline{(2)}\) 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. \(\underline{(3)}\) 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. \(\underline{(4)}\)
- The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. As books age, the cellulose and lignin in the paper begin to break down, releasing a mix of volatile organic compounds into the air.
2. Old books carry a scent that many people instantly recognize—and even love.
3. These compounds are benzaldehyde, which gives off an almond-like scent, vanillin, which smells like vanilla, ethyl hexanol (floral scent), toluene (sweet), and furfural (which has a slightly bready scent).
4. This familiar aroma isn’t just dust or mildew; it’s actually a result of slow chemical changes happening inside the paper and ink.
Questions Asked in CAT exam
- A value of $c$ for which the minimum value of $f(x) = x^2 - 4cx + 8c$ is greater than the maximum value of $g(x) = -x^2 + 3cx - 2c$, is:
- CAT - 2025
- Linear & Quadratic Equations
- In a $\triangle ABC$, points $D$ and $E$ are on the sides $BC$ and $AC$, respectively. $BE$ and $AD$ intersect at point $T$ such that $AD : AT = 4 : 3$, and $BE : BT = 5 : 4$. Point $F$ lies on $AC$ such that $DF$ is parallel to $BE$. Then, $BD : CD$ is:
- CAT - 2025
- Geometry
- In the sequence 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., k, ..., 57, the sum of the numbers up to k, excluding k, is equal to the sum of the numbers from k up to 57, also excluding k. What is k?
- CAT - 2025
- Arithmetic Progression
- Find the number of integer pairs (x, y) that satisfy the following system of inequalities:
\[ \begin{cases} x \geq y \geq 3 \\ x + y \leq 14 \end{cases} \]
- CAT - 2025
- Linear & Quadratic Equations
- The monthly sales of a product from January to April were 120, 135, 150 and 165 units, respectively. The cost price of the product was Rs. 240 per unit, and a fixed marked price was used for the product in all the four months. Discounts of 20%, 10% and 5% were given on the marked price per unit in January, February and March, respectively, while no discounts were given in April. If the total profit from January to April was Rs. 138825, then the marked price per unit, in rupees, was
- CAT - 2025
- Profit and Loss