CAT Odd One Out Questions & Solutions

A sample of real CAT Odd One Out past-year questions, each with a worked solution and the correct answer highlighted. AthenaPrep has 48 Odd One Out questions in all — sign up free to practise them timed.

Q1.CAT 2025
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. About half of all the oxygen we breathe is made near the surface of the ocean by phytoplankton that photosynthesize just like land-dwelling plants.

2. A team of scientists that includes Boston University experts has discovered they also produce oxygen on the seafloor.

3. The research team used deep-sea chambers that land on the seafloor and enclose the seawater, sediment, polymetallic nodules, and living organisms.

4. The discovery is a surprise considering oxygen is typically created by plants and organisms with help from the sun—not by rocks on the ocean floor.

5. The deep-sea rocks, called polymetallic nodules, don’t only host a surprising number of sea critters.
Answer: 3
Show solution
The sentences focus on a new scientific discovery: oxygen is being produced on the ocean floor, challenging the common belief that oxygen is produced only through photosynthesis.

We see a link between sentences 5 and 2 - with the structure "dont only" and "they also". These two together introduce the discovery. 4 continues by describing why this discovery is surprising. 1 adds to the discussion in 4 by showing that most oxygen is through photosynthesis making the oxygen production described in 4 an anamoly.

Sentence 3 interrupts this flow because it talks about how the research was done instead of what was discovered, making it the odd one out.
Q2.CAT 2025
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”.
Answer: 3
Show solution
The paragraph is about Torres’s comedy show: its format, ideas, and delivery. Sentence 4 works as the opening because it introduces the show and explains its structure, making it the natural starting point. Sentence 1 continues this setup by shifting focus to Torres’ physical appearance. Sentence 5 then moves to his comic sensibility, developing the kind of ideas he explores, and Sentence 2 closes by characterising his delivery, tying back to how those ideas are presented. 4251, therefore, presents a coherent paragraph.

Sentence 3 breaks this flow because it introduces a specific “colour-scouting mission” and a personal audience reaction, which does not connect clearly to the descriptive sequence of the show’s structure, ideas, and style. Therefore, the correct order is 4-1-5-2, and the odd sentence out is 3.
Q3.CAT 2024
Five jumbled up 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 and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

1. Urbanites also have more and better options for getting around: Uber is ubiquitous; easy-to-rent dockless bicycles are spreading; battery-powered scooters will be next.
2. When more people use buses or trains the service usually improves because public-transport agencies run more buses and trains.
3. Worsening services on public transport, terrorist attacks in some urban metros and a rise in fares have been blamed for this trend.
4. It seems more likely that public transport is being squeezed structurally as people’s need to travel is diminishing as a result of smartphones, videoconferencing, online shopping and so on.
5. There has been a puzzling decline in the use of urban public transport in many countries in the west, despite the growth in urban populations and rising employment.
Answer: 2
Show solution
Sentence 2 is the odd one out.

The sequence 5-3-4-1 forms a coherent paragraph.

Sentence 5 introduces the issue of the puzzling decline in public transport despite growing urban populations and employment.
Sentence 3, then explains some of the reasons for the decline, like worsening services, terrorist attacks, and rising fares.
Sentence 4 adds a structural explanation, stating that public transport is being squeezed as people travel less due to technology.
Sentence 1 provides more details about the alternatives to public transport, which are contributing to the decline in usage.

Sentence 2 talks about how more people using buses or trains improves the service, but this idea is not directly relevant to the overall discussion in the passage, which focuses on the decline of public transport usage. It shifts the focus toward an increase in usage improving services, which contradicts the central theme of decline.
Q4.CAT 2023
Five jumbled up 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 and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. Having an appreciation for the workings of another person’s mind is considered a prerequisite for natural language acquisition, strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, and moral judgment.
2. It is a ‘theory of mind’ though some scholars prefer to call it ‘mentalizing’ or ‘mindreading’, which is important for the development of one's cognitive abilities.
3. Though we must speculate about its evolutionary origin, we do have indications that the capacity evolved sometime in the last few million years.
4. This capacity develops from early beginnings in the first year of life to the adult’s fast and often effortless understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
5. One of the most fascinating human capacities is the ability to perceive and interpret other people’s behaviour in terms of their mental states.
Answer: 2
Show solution
Sentence 2 is the odd one out because it introduces a term, "theory of mind," and discusses scholars' preferences for alternative terms like "mentalizing" or "mindreading." Unlike the other sentences, which focus on explaining and elaborating on the concept of understanding others' mental states, sentence 2 provides more of a meta-discussion about the terminology used to describe this capacity rather than directly contributing to the explanation of the topic. The other sentences contribute to the substantive discussion of the capacity to perceive and interpret other people's behavior in terms of their mental states, making sentence 2 the odd one out in the context of forming a coherent paragraph.
Q5.CAT 2023
Five jumbled up 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 and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

1. Boa Senior, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo.
2. The indigenous population has been steadily collapsing since the island chain was colonised by British settlers in 1858 and used for most of the following 100 years as a colonial penal colony.
3. Taking its name from a now-extinct tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to pre-Neolithic human settlement of south-east Asia.
4. The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world's oldest cultures.
5. Though the language has been closely studied by researchers of linguistic history, Boa Senior spent the last few years of her life unable to converse with anyone in her mother tongue.
Answer: 2
Show solution
Sentence 2 doesn't fit well with the others, which focus on the language Bo and its last native speaker, Boa Senior. The other sentences provide information about the language, its history, and the last fluent speaker, creating a coherent narrative. Sentence 2 introduces a different topic about the decline of the indigenous population without directly contributing to the discussion about the tribal language and its last speaker.
Q6.CAT 2021
Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:
1. The care with which philosophers examine arguments for and against forms of biotechnology makes this an excellent primer on formulating and assessing moral arguments.
2. Although most people find at least some forms of genetic engineering disquieting, it is not easy to articulate why: what is wrong with re-engineering our nature?
3. Breakthroughs in genetics present us with the promise that we will soon be able to prevent a host of debilitating diseases, and the predicament that our newfound genetic knowledge may enable us to enhance our genetic traits.
4. To grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions that verge on theology, which is why modern philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them.
5. One argument is that the drive for human perfection through genetics is objectionable as it represents a bid for mastery that fails to appreciate the gifts of human powers and achievements.
Answer: 1
Show solution
The sentences have been taken from Harvard's Justice, and have been modified considerably. Since a paragraph has not been directly taken here, the better way of elimination here would be to evaluate the major points of each sentence and see which one runs tangent to the discussion at hand. (During the examination, one must try both ways to solve: arranging and eliminating.)

1. Using the debate on biotechnology to evaluate moral arguments.

2. Why is bioengineering disputed?

3. The promise of bioengineering.

4. Ethics of bioengineering based on theology.

5. The theological argument.

We can see here that the last four sentences try to examine why bioengineering is disputed in spite of its huge potential. Then reasons are given about the question on its ethicality, and how it is closely associated with theology on the matter.

1 however runs tangential to the discussion. The main focus is bioengineering while 1 aims to shift the focus and use the debate on the matter as a stepping stone to reach another goal: evaluating/formulating moral arguments. Hence, 1 is the odd one out here.
Q7.CAT 2020
Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:

1. For feminists, the question of how we read is inextricably linked with the question of what we read.
2. Elaine Showalter’s critique of the literary curriculum is exemplary of this work.
3. Androcentric literature structures the reading experience differently depending on the gender of the reader.
4. The documentation of this realization was one of the earliest tasks undertaken by feminist critics.
5. More specifically, the feminist inquiry into the activity of reading begins with the realization that the literary canon is androcentric, and that this has a profoundly damaging effect on women readers.
Answer: 3
Show solution
The passage is focused on delineating the mechanism of reading as perceived by feminists (and the criticism associated with it). The arrangement (1)-(5)-(4)-(2) forms a coherent paragraph and Statement (3) stands out like a sore thumb. While the passage describes the elements associated with a feminist perspective, (3) brings in a description of androcentric literature that does not align with the context.
Q8.CAT 2020
Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:

1. You can observe the truth of this in every e-business model ever constructed: monopolise and protect data.
2. Economists and technologists believe that a new kind of capitalism is being created - different from industrial capitalism as was merchant capitalism.
3. In 1962, Kenneth Arrow, the guru of mainstream economics, said that in a free market economy the purpose of inventing things is to create intellectual property rights.
4. There is, alongside the world of monopolised information and surveillance, a different dynamic growing up: information as a social good, incapable of being owned or exploited or priced.
5. Yet information is abundant. Information goods are freely replicable. Once a thing is made, it can be copied and pasted infinitely.
Answer: 2
Show solution
We notice that Statement (3) serves as an introduction by touching upon the topic of intellectual property rights. Statement (2) continues along this line and mentions how 'monopolizing and protecting data' {an idea perhaps associated with the aforementioned intellectual property rights} can be observed in certain business models. Thus, the discussion revolves around data/information and its place in the market system. Statement (5) mentions that despite the monopolization, "information is abundant". And this brings us to the description in Statement (4) which portrays information differently - as a social good. Hence, although a bit discontiguous, 3-1-5-4 seems to talk about the same subject while Statement (2) {on "Merchant Capitalism"} diverges from it. Therefore, (2) is the odd-one-out.
Q9.CAT 2019
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
1. A particularly interesting example of inference occurs in many single panel comics.
2. It’s the creator’s participation and imagination that makes the single-panel comic so engaging and so rewarding.
3. Often, the humor requires you to imagine what happened in the instant immediately before or immediately after the panel you’re being shown.
4. To get the joke, you actually have to figure out what some of these missing panels must be.
5. It is as though the cartoonist devised a series of panels to tell the story and has chosen to show you only one - and typically not even the funniest.
Answer: 2
Show solution
After reading all the sentences it is clear that the paragraph talks about how to understand the humor behind the single panel comics.
The sentence 1 sets the platform for the author to explain how to infer humour in a single panel comic.
Consider the sentences 3,4,5. Those sentences are aimed at the reader.
"3. Often, the humor requires you to imagine what happened in the instant immediately before or immediately after the panel you’re being shown."
"4.To get the joke, you actually have to figure out what some of these missing panels must be."
"5. It is as though the cartoonist devised a series of panels to tell the story and has chosen to show you only one - and typically not even the funniest."
Sentence 2 on the other hand is a stand alone sentence that does not fit in with the rest of the paragraph. Hence, it is the odd sentence.
Q10.CAT 2018
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the ODD ONE out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.

1) Translators are like bumblebees.
2) Though long since scientifically disproved, this factoid is still routinely trotted out.
3) Similar pronouncements about the impossibility of translation have dogged practitioners since Leonardo Bruni’s De interpretatione recta, published in 1424.
4) Bees, unaware of these deliberations, have continued to flit from flower to flower, and translators continue to translate.
5) In 1934, the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of the bumblebee to be aerodynamically impossible.
Answer: 2
Show solution
On reading the sentences, we can infer that the author draws an analogy between translators and bumblebees in the paragraph.

1 should be the opening sentence since it introduces the fact that the paragraph is going to be about the similarities of translators and bumblebees. After sentence 1, the author should have explained how they are analogous.

5 states that the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of bumblebees to be aerodynamically impossible. Sentence 3 talks about similar statements made about translations. Sentence 4 should be the last sentence since it concludes by saying that both translators and bees have continued their work unaware of these deliberations. Sentences 1534 can be put together into a coherent paragraph.

Sentence 2 does not add any valuable information to the topic of discussion. The author does not use the fact that the factoid (impossibility of the flight of the bumblebee) has been disproved to support his argument. Sentence 2 should be the one out of context and hence, 2 is the correct answer.
Q11.CAT 2018
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key the number in:

1. Our smartphones can now track our diets, our biological cycles, even our digestive systems and sleep-patterns.

2. Researchers have even coined a new term, “orthosomnia”, to describe the insomnia brought on by paying too much attention to smartphones and sleep-tracking apps.

3. Sleep, nature’s soft nurse, is a blissful, untroubled state all too easily disturbed by earthly worries or a guilty conscience.

4. The existence of a market for such apps is unsurprising: shift work, a long-hours culture and blue light from screens have conspired to rob many of us of sufficient rest.

5. A new threat to a good night’s rest has emerged - smart-phones, with sleep-tracking apps.
Answer: 3
Show solution
The use of the word "such apps" in 4 indicates that 4 must be preceded by a line that mentions a type of app. We find this in 5 and 2. So the pairs could be 5-4 or 2-4. If we see the sentences 5 and 1 they introduce the topic under discussion and provide context for the details provided in 2 and 4. Hence, 1 and 5 should come at the start of the paragraph and 2-4 should be the end of the paragraph. Between 5 and 1, 5 provides a better opening line as it introduces the main topic of discussion. Hence, the order of the paragraph should be 5-1-2-4.

Sentence 3 which talks of "guilty conscience" is out of context with the rest of the paragraph.
Q12.CAT 2017
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
1. The water that made up ancient lakes and perhaps an ocean was lost.
2. Particles from the Sun collided with molecules in the atmosphere, knocking them into space or giving them an electric charge that caused them to be swept away by the solar wind.
3. Most of the planet's remaining water is now frozen or buried, but clues over the past decade suggested that some liquid water, a presumed necessity for life, might survive in underground aquifers.
4. Data from NASA's MAVEN orbiter show that solar storms stripped away most of Mars's once-thick atmosphere.
5. A recent study reveals how Mars lost much of its early water, while another indicates that some liquid water remains.
Answer: 1
Show solution
On reading the sentences, we can infer that the paragraph is about how Mars lost most of its water.
Sentence 5 states that Mars has lost much of its water according to one study but some liquid water remains according to another. Therefore, the rest of the paragraph should explain about these 2 findings.
Sentences 4 and 2 together substantiate the first study. They try to explain how a solar storm swept away Mar's water content. Both the sentences talk about the solar storm. Sentence 3 talks about the water that is remaining on the planet.
Sentences 5423 can be put together into a coherent paragraph.

Therefore, sentence 1 is the odd one out.

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CAT Odd One Out previous year questions with solutions — AthenaPrep

CAT Odd One Out Questions & Solutions

Q1.CAT 2025

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. About half of all the oxygen we breathe is made near the surface of the ocean by phytoplankton that photosynthesize just like land-dwelling plants.

2. A team of scientists that includes Boston University experts has discovered they also produce oxygen on the seafloor.

3. The research team used deep-sea chambers that land on the seafloor and enclose the seawater, sediment, polymetallic nodules, and living organisms.

4. The discovery is a surprise considering oxygen is typically created by plants and organisms with help from the sun—not by rocks on the ocean floor.

5. The deep-sea rocks, called polymetallic nodules, don’t only host a surprising number of sea critters.

Answer: 3

Show solution

The sentences focus on a new scientific discovery: oxygen is being produced on the ocean floor, challenging the common belief that oxygen is produced only through photosynthesis.

We see a link between sentences 5 and 2 - with the structure "dont only" and "they also". These two together introduce the discovery. 4 continues by describing why this discovery is surprising. 1 adds to the discussion in 4 by showing that most oxygen is through photosynthesis making the oxygen production described in 4 an anamoly.

Sentence 3 interrupts this flow because it talks about how the research was done instead of what was discovered, making it the odd one out.

Q2.CAT 2025

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”.

Answer: 3

Show solution

The paragraph is about Torres’s comedy show: its format, ideas, and delivery. Sentence 4 works as the opening because it introduces the show and explains its structure, making it the natural starting point. Sentence 1 continues this setup by shifting focus to Torres’ physical appearance. Sentence 5 then moves to his comic sensibility, developing the kind of ideas he explores, and Sentence 2 closes by characterising his delivery, tying back to how those ideas are presented. 4251, therefore, presents a coherent paragraph.

Sentence 3 breaks this flow because it introduces a specific “colour-scouting mission” and a personal audience reaction, which does not connect clearly to the descriptive sequence of the show’s structure, ideas, and style. Therefore, the correct order is 4-1-5-2, and the odd sentence out is 3.

Q3.CAT 2024

1. Urbanites also have more and better options for getting around: Uber is ubiquitous; easy-to-rent dockless bicycles are spreading; battery-powered scooters will be next.
2. When more people use buses or trains the service usually improves because public-transport agencies run more buses and trains.
3. Worsening services on public transport, terrorist attacks in some urban metros and a rise in fares have been blamed for this trend.
4. It seems more likely that public transport is being squeezed structurally as people’s need to travel is diminishing as a result of smartphones, videoconferencing, online shopping and so on.
5. There has been a puzzling decline in the use of urban public transport in many countries in the west, despite the growth in urban populations and rising employment.

Answer: 2

Show solution

Sentence 2 is the odd one out.

The sequence 5-3-4-1 forms a coherent paragraph.

Sentence 5 introduces the issue of the puzzling decline in public transport despite growing urban populations and employment.
Sentence 3, then explains some of the reasons for the decline, like worsening services, terrorist attacks, and rising fares.
Sentence 4 adds a structural explanation, stating that public transport is being squeezed as people travel less due to technology.
Sentence 1 provides more details about the alternatives to public transport, which are contributing to the decline in usage.

Sentence 2 talks about how more people using buses or trains improves the service, but this idea is not directly relevant to the overall discussion in the passage, which focuses on the decline of public transport usage. It shifts the focus toward an increase in usage improving services, which contradicts the central theme of decline.

Q4.CAT 2023

Five jumbled up 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 and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
1. Having an appreciation for the workings of another person’s mind is considered a prerequisite for natural language acquisition, strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, and moral judgment.
2. It is a ‘theory of mind’ though some scholars prefer to call it ‘mentalizing’ or ‘mindreading’, which is important for the development of one's cognitive abilities.
3. Though we must speculate about its evolutionary origin, we do have indications that the capacity evolved sometime in the last few million years.
4. This capacity develops from early beginnings in the first year of life to the adult’s fast and often effortless understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
5. One of the most fascinating human capacities is the ability to perceive and interpret other people’s behaviour in terms of their mental states.

Answer: 2

Show solution

Sentence 2 is the odd one out because it introduces a term, "theory of mind," and discusses scholars' preferences for alternative terms like "mentalizing" or "mindreading." Unlike the other sentences, which focus on explaining and elaborating on the concept of understanding others' mental states, sentence 2 provides more of a meta-discussion about the terminology used to describe this capacity rather than directly contributing to the explanation of the topic. The other sentences contribute to the substantive discussion of the capacity to perceive and interpret other people's behavior in terms of their mental states, making sentence 2 the odd one out in the context of forming a coherent paragraph.

Q5.CAT 2023

1. Boa Senior, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo.
2. The indigenous population has been steadily collapsing since the island chain was colonised by British settlers in 1858 and used for most of the following 100 years as a colonial penal colony.
3. Taking its name from a now-extinct tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to pre-Neolithic human settlement of south-east Asia.
4. The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world's oldest cultures.
5. Though the language has been closely studied by researchers of linguistic history, Boa Senior spent the last few years of her life unable to converse with anyone in her mother tongue.

Answer: 2

Show solution

Sentence 2 doesn't fit well with the others, which focus on the language Bo and its last native speaker, Boa Senior. The other sentences provide information about the language, its history, and the last fluent speaker, creating a coherent narrative. Sentence 2 introduces a different topic about the decline of the indigenous population without directly contributing to the discussion about the tribal language and its last speaker.

Q6.CAT 2021

Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:
1. The care with which philosophers examine arguments for and against forms of biotechnology makes this an excellent primer on formulating and assessing moral arguments.
2. Although most people find at least some forms of genetic engineering disquieting, it is not easy to articulate why: what is wrong with re-engineering our nature?
3. Breakthroughs in genetics present us with the promise that we will soon be able to prevent a host of debilitating diseases, and the predicament that our newfound genetic knowledge may enable us to enhance our genetic traits.
4. To grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions that verge on theology, which is why modern philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them.
5. One argument is that the drive for human perfection through genetics is objectionable as it represents a bid for mastery that fails to appreciate the gifts of human powers and achievements.

Answer: 1

Show solution

The sentences have been taken from Harvard's Justice, and have been modified considerably. Since a paragraph has not been directly taken here, the better way of elimination here would be to evaluate the major points of each sentence and see which one runs tangent to the discussion at hand. (During the examination, one must try both ways to solve: arranging and eliminating.)

1. Using the debate on biotechnology to evaluate moral arguments.

2. Why is bioengineering disputed?

3. The promise of bioengineering.

4. Ethics of bioengineering based on theology.

5. The theological argument.

We can see here that the last four sentences try to examine why bioengineering is disputed in spite of its huge potential. Then reasons are given about the question on its ethicality, and how it is closely associated with theology on the matter.

1 however runs tangential to the discussion. The main focus is bioengineering while 1 aims to shift the focus and use the debate on the matter as a stepping stone to reach another goal: evaluating/formulating moral arguments. Hence, 1 is the odd one out here.

Q7.CAT 2020

Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:

1. For feminists, the question of how we read is inextricably linked with the question of what we read.
2. Elaine Showalter’s critique of the literary curriculum is exemplary of this work.
3. Androcentric literature structures the reading experience differently depending on the gender of the reader.
4. The documentation of this realization was one of the earliest tasks undertaken by feminist critics.
5. More specifically, the feminist inquiry into the activity of reading begins with the realization that the literary canon is androcentric, and that this has a profoundly damaging effect on women readers.

Answer: 3

Show solution

The passage is focused on delineating the mechanism of reading as perceived by feminists (and the criticism associated with it). The arrangement (1)-(5)-(4)-(2) forms a coherent paragraph and Statement (3) stands out like a sore thumb. While the passage describes the elements associated with a feminist perspective, (3) brings in a description of androcentric literature that does not align with the context.

Q8.CAT 2020

Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:

1. You can observe the truth of this in every e-business model ever constructed: monopolise and protect data.
2. Economists and technologists believe that a new kind of capitalism is being created - different from industrial capitalism as was merchant capitalism.
3. In 1962, Kenneth Arrow, the guru of mainstream economics, said that in a free market economy the purpose of inventing things is to create intellectual property rights.
4. There is, alongside the world of monopolised information and surveillance, a different dynamic growing up: information as a social good, incapable of being owned or exploited or priced.
5. Yet information is abundant. Information goods are freely replicable. Once a thing is made, it can be copied and pasted infinitely.

Answer: 2

Show solution

We notice that Statement (3) serves as an introduction by touching upon the topic of intellectual property rights. Statement (2) continues along this line and mentions how 'monopolizing and protecting data' {an idea perhaps associated with the aforementioned intellectual property rights} can be observed in certain business models. Thus, the discussion revolves around data/information and its place in the market system. Statement (5) mentions that despite the monopolization, "information is abundant". And this brings us to the description in Statement (4) which portrays information differently - as a social good. Hence, although a bit discontiguous, 3-1-5-4 seems to talk about the same subject while Statement (2) {on "Merchant Capitalism"} diverges from it. Therefore, (2) is the odd-one-out.

Q9.CAT 2019

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
1. A particularly interesting example of inference occurs in many single panel comics.
2. It’s the creator’s participation and imagination that makes the single-panel comic so engaging and so rewarding.
3. Often, the humor requires you to imagine what happened in the instant immediately before or immediately after the panel you’re being shown.
4. To get the joke, you actually have to figure out what some of these missing panels must be.
5. It is as though the cartoonist devised a series of panels to tell the story and has chosen to show you only one - and typically not even the funniest.

Answer: 2

Show solution

After reading all the sentences it is clear that the paragraph talks about how to understand the humor behind the single panel comics.

The sentence 1 sets the platform for the author to explain how to infer humour in a single panel comic.

Consider the sentences 3,4,5. Those sentences are aimed at the reader.

"3. Often, the humor requires you to imagine what happened in the instant immediately before or immediately after the panel you’re being shown."
"4.To get the joke, you actually have to figure out what some of these missing panels must be."
"5. It is as though the cartoonist devised a series of panels to tell the story and has chosen to show you only one - and typically not even the funniest."

Sentence 2 on the other hand is a stand alone sentence that does not fit in with the rest of the paragraph. Hence, it is the odd sentence.

Q10.CAT 2018

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the ODD ONE out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.

1) Translators are like bumblebees.
2) Though long since scientifically disproved, this factoid is still routinely trotted out.
3) Similar pronouncements about the impossibility of translation have dogged practitioners since Leonardo Bruni’s De interpretatione recta, published in 1424.
4) Bees, unaware of these deliberations, have continued to flit from flower to flower, and translators continue to translate.
5) In 1934, the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of the bumblebee to be aerodynamically impossible.

Answer: 2

Show solution

On reading the sentences, we can infer that the author draws an analogy between translators and bumblebees in the paragraph.

1 should be the opening sentence since it introduces the fact that the paragraph is going to be about the similarities of translators and bumblebees. After sentence 1, the author should have explained how they are analogous.

5 states that the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of bumblebees to be aerodynamically impossible. Sentence 3 talks about similar statements made about translations. Sentence 4 should be the last sentence since it concludes by saying that both translators and bees have continued their work unaware of these deliberations. Sentences 1534 can be put together into a coherent paragraph.

Sentence 2 does not add any valuable information to the topic of discussion. The author does not use the fact that the factoid (impossibility of the flight of the bumblebee) has been disproved to support his argument. Sentence 2 should be the one out of context and hence, 2 is the correct answer.

Q11.CAT 2018

1. Our smartphones can now track our diets, our biological cycles, even our digestive systems and sleep-patterns.

2. Researchers have even coined a new term, “orthosomnia”, to describe the insomnia brought on by paying too much attention to smartphones and sleep-tracking apps.

3. Sleep, nature’s soft nurse, is a blissful, untroubled state all too easily disturbed by earthly worries or a guilty conscience.

4. The existence of a market for such apps is unsurprising: shift work, a long-hours culture and blue light from screens have conspired to rob many of us of sufficient rest.

5. A new threat to a good night’s rest has emerged - smart-phones, with sleep-tracking apps.

Answer: 3

Show solution

The use of the word "such apps" in 4 indicates that 4 must be preceded by a line that mentions a type of app. We find this in 5 and 2. So the pairs could be 5-4 or 2-4. If we see the sentences 5 and 1 they introduce the topic under discussion and provide context for the details provided in 2 and 4. Hence, 1 and 5 should come at the start of the paragraph and 2-4 should be the end of the paragraph. Between 5 and 1, 5 provides a better opening line as it introduces the main topic of discussion. Hence, the order of the paragraph should be 5-1-2-4.

Sentence 3 which talks of "guilty conscience" is out of context with the rest of the paragraph.

Q12.CAT 2017

Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
1. The water that made up ancient lakes and perhaps an ocean was lost.
2. Particles from the Sun collided with molecules in the atmosphere, knocking them into space or giving them an electric charge that caused them to be swept away by the solar wind.
3. Most of the planet's remaining water is now frozen or buried, but clues over the past decade suggested that some liquid water, a presumed necessity for life, might survive in underground aquifers.
4. Data from NASA's MAVEN orbiter show that solar storms stripped away most of Mars's once-thick atmosphere.
5. A recent study reveals how Mars lost much of its early water, while another indicates that some liquid water remains.

Answer: 1

Show solution

On reading the sentences, we can infer that the paragraph is about how Mars lost most of its water.
Sentence 5 states that Mars has lost much of its water according to one study but some liquid water remains according to another. Therefore, the rest of the paragraph should explain about these 2 findings.
Sentences 4 and 2 together substantiate the first study. They try to explain how a solar storm swept away Mar's water content. Both the sentences talk about the solar storm. Sentence 3 talks about the water that is remaining on the planet.
Sentences 5423 can be put together into a coherent paragraph.

Therefore, sentence 1 is the odd one out.

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