CAT Verbal Ability Questions & Solutions

A sample of real CAT Verbal Ability past-year questions, each with a worked solution and the correct answer highlighted. AthenaPrep has 334 Verbal Ability 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
Q2.CAT 2024
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Different from individuals, states conduct warfare operations using the DIME model— “diplomacy, information, military, and economics.” Most states do everything they can to inflict pain and confusion on their enemies before deploying the military. In fact, attacks on vectors of information are a well-worn tactic of war and usually are the first target when the charge begins. It’s common for telecom data and communications networks to be routinely monitored by governments, which is why the open data policies of the web are so concerning to many advocates of privacy and human rights. With the worldwide adoption of social media, more governments are getting involved in low-grade information warfare through the use of cyber troops. According to a study by the Oxford Internet Institute in 2020, cyber troops are “government or political party actors tasked with manipulating public opinion online.” The Oxford research group was able to identify 81 countries with active cyber troop operations, utilizing many different strategies to spread false information, including spending millions on online advertising.
- Following the DIME model, many governments have taken advantage of open data policies of the web to deploy cyber troops who manipulate domestic public opinion, using advertising and other strategies to spread false information.
- Governments primarily use the DIME model to deploy cyber troops who practise lowgrade information warfare, seeking to manipulate public opinion with the objective of inflicting pain and confusion on their enemies.
- Using the DIME model, together with military operations, many governments simultaneously conduct information warfare with the help of cyber troops and routinely monitor telecom data and communications networks.
- As part of conducting information warfare as per the DIME model, many governments routinely monitor telecom data and communications networks, and use cyber troops on social media to manipulate public opinion.
Q3.CAT 2023
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. In the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. The modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political control in spite of geographical dispersion. The term colonialism is used to describe the process of European settlement, violent dispossession and political
domination over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.
- As a result of developments in navigation technology, European colonialism led to the displacement of indigenous populations and global political changes in the 16th century.
- Colonialism, conceptualized in the 16th century, allowed colonizers to expand their territories, establish settlements, and exercise political power.
- Technological advancements in navigation in the 16th century, transformed colonialism, enabling Europeans to establish settlements and exert political dominance over distant regions.
- Colonialism surged in the 16th century due to advancements in navigation, enabling British settlements abroad and global dominance.
Q4.CAT 2022
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) 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. From chemical pollutants in the environment to the damming of rivers to invasive species transported through global trade and travel, every environmental issue is different and there is no single tech solution that can solve this crisis.

2. Discourse on the threat of environmental collapse revolves around cutting down emissions, but biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are caused by myriad and diverse reasons.

3. This would require legislation that recognises the rights of future generations and other species that allows the judiciary to uphold a much higher standard of environmental protection than currently possible.

4. Clearly, our environmental crisis requires large political solutions, not minor technological ones, so, instead of focusing on infinite growth, we could consider a path of stable-state economies, while preserving markets and healthy competition.
Answer: 2143
Q5.CAT 2021
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

The unlikely alliance of the incumbent industrialist and the distressed unemployed worker is especially powerful amid the debris of corporate bankruptcies and layoffs. In an economic downturn, the capitalist is more likely to focus on costs of the competition emanating from free markets than on the opportunities they create. And the unemployed worker will find many others in a similar condition and with anxieties similar to his, which will make it easier for them to organize together. Using the cover and the political organization provided by the distressed, the capitalist captures the political agenda.
- In an economic downturn, the capitalists use the anxieties of the unemployed and their political organisation to set the political agenda to suit their economic interests.
- The purpose of an unlikely alliance between the industrialist and the unemployed during an economic downturn is to stifle competition in free markets.
- An economic downturn creates competition because of which the capitalists capture the political agenda created by the political organisation provided by the unemployed.
- An unlikely alliance of the industrialist and the unemployed happens during an economic downturn in which they come together to unite politically and capture the political agenda.
Q6.CAT 2020
The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) 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. But the attention of the layman, not surprisingly, has been captured by the atom bomb, although there is at least a chance that it may never be used again.
2. Of all the changes introduced by man into the household of nature, [controlled] large-scale nuclear fission is undoubtedly the most dangerous and most profound.
3. The danger to humanity created by the so-called peaceful uses of atomic energy may, however, be much greater.
4. The resultant ionizing radiation has become the most serious agent of pollution of the environment and the greatest threat to man’s survival on earth.
Answer: 2413
Q7.CAT 2018
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

The conceptualization of landscape as a geometric object first occurred in Europe and is historically related to the European conceptualization of the organism, particularly the human body, as a geometric object with parts having a rational, three-dimensional organization and integration. The European idea of landscape appeared before the science of landscape emerged, and it is no coincidence that Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who studied the structure of the human body, also facilitated an understanding of the structure of landscape. Landscape which had been a subordinate background to religious or historical narratives, became an independent genre or subject of art by the end of sixteenth century or the beginning of the seventeenth century.
- The three-dimensional understanding of the organism in Europe led to a similar approach towards the understanding of landscape.
- Landscape became a major subject of art at the turn of the sixteenth century.
- The study of landscape as an independent genre was aided by the Renaissance artists.
- The Renaissance artists were responsible for the study of landscape as a subject of art.
Q8.CAT 2017
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author' s position.
North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis) look like easy meals for birds, but they have a trick up their sleeves — they produce whistles that sound like bird alarm calls, scaring potential predators away. At first, scientists suspected birds were simply startled by the loud noise. But a new study suggests a more sophisticated mechanism: the caterpillar's whistle appears to mimic a bird alarm call, sending avian predators scrambling for cover. When pecked by a bird, the caterpillars whistle by compressing their bodies like an accordion and forcing air out through specialized holes in their sides. The whistles are impressively loud — they have been measured at over 80 dB from 5 cm away from the caterpillar — considering they are made by a two-inch long insect.
- North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars will whistle periodically to ward off predator birds - they have a specialized vocal tract that helps them whistle.
- North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars can whistle very loudly; the loudness of their whistles is shocking as they are very small insects.
- The North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in a case of acoustic deception, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.
- North American. walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in. a case of deception and camouflage, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.
Q9.CAT 2005
From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Most firms consider expert individuals to be too elitist, temperamental, egocentric, and difficult to work with. Force such people to collaborate on a high-stakes project and they just might come to fisticuffs. Even the very notion of managing such a group seems unimaginable. So most organizations fall into default mode, setting up project teams of people who get along nicely. ______
- The result, however, is disastrous.
- The result is mediocrity.
- The result is creation of experts who then become elitists.
- Naturally, they drive innovations.
Q10.CAT 2001
Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.

A. Passivity is not, of course, universal.

B. In areas where there are no lords or laws, or in frontier zones where all men go armed, the attitude of the peasantry may well be different.

C. So indeed it may be on the fringe of the unsubmissive.

D. However, for most of the soil-bound peasants the problem is not whether to be normally passive or active, but when to pass from one state to another.

E. This depends on an assessment of the political situation.

[CAT 2001]
- BEDAC
- CDABE
- EDBAC
- ABCDE
Q11.CAT 1998
Arrange sentences A, B, C and D between sentences 1 and 6 to form a logical sequence of six sentences.
1. A market for Indian art has existed ever since the international art scene sprang to life.
A. But interest in architectural conceits is an unanticipated fallout of the Festivals of India of the '80s, which were designed to increase exports of Indian crafts.
B. Simultaneously, the Indian elite discarded their synthetic sarees and kitsch plastic furniture and a market came into being.
C. Western dealers, unhappy in a market afflicted by violent price fluctuations and unpredictable profit margins, began to look East, and found cheap antiques with irresistible appeal.
D. The fortunes of the Delhi supremos, the Jew Town dealers in Cochin and myriad others around the country were made.
6. A chain of command was established, from the local contacts to the provincial dealers and up to the big boys, who entertain the Italians and the French, cutting deals worth lakhs in warehouses worth crores.
- ABCD
- DCAB
- CBAD
- CABD
Q12.CAT 1996
Arrange the four sentences so that all six together make a logical paragraph.
1. A few years ago, hostility towards Japanese-Americans was so strong that I thought they were going to reopen the detention camps here in Kolkata.
A. Today Asians are a success story.
B. I cannot help making a comparison to the anti-Jewish sentiment in Nazi Germany when Jewish people were successful in business.

C. But do people applaud President Clinton for improving foreign trade with Asia?
D. Now, talk about the ‘Arkansas-Asia Connection’ is broadening that hatred to include all Asian- Americans.
6. No, blinded by jealousy, they complain that it is the Asian-Americans who are reaping the wealth.
- DBAC
- ABDC
- DABC
- ACBD

322+ more Verbal Ability questions inside

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CAT Verbal Ability previous year questions with solutions — AthenaPrep

CAT Verbal Ability 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

Q2.CAT 2024

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Different from individuals, states conduct warfare operations using the DIME model— “diplomacy, information, military, and economics.” Most states do everything they can to inflict pain and confusion on their enemies before deploying the military. In fact, attacks on vectors of information are a well-worn tactic of war and usually are the first target when the charge begins. It’s common for telecom data and communications networks to be routinely monitored by governments, which is why the open data policies of the web are so concerning to many advocates of privacy and human rights. With the worldwide adoption of social media, more governments are getting involved in low-grade information warfare through the use of cyber troops. According to a study by the Oxford Internet Institute in 2020, cyber troops are “government or political party actors tasked with manipulating public opinion online.” The Oxford research group was able to identify 81 countries with active cyber troop operations, utilizing many different strategies to spread false information, including spending millions on online advertising.

Following the DIME model, many governments have taken advantage of open data policies of the web to deploy cyber troops who manipulate domestic public opinion, using advertising and other strategies to spread false information.
Governments primarily use the DIME model to deploy cyber troops who practise lowgrade information warfare, seeking to manipulate public opinion with the objective of inflicting pain and confusion on their enemies.
Using the DIME model, together with military operations, many governments simultaneously conduct information warfare with the help of cyber troops and routinely monitor telecom data and communications networks.
As part of conducting information warfare as per the DIME model, many governments routinely monitor telecom data and communications networks, and use cyber troops on social media to manipulate public opinion.

Q3.CAT 2023

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. In the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. The modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political control in spite of geographical dispersion. The term colonialism is used to describe the process of European settlement, violent dispossession and political
domination over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.

As a result of developments in navigation technology, European colonialism led to the displacement of indigenous populations and global political changes in the 16th century.
Colonialism, conceptualized in the 16th century, allowed colonizers to expand their territories, establish settlements, and exercise political power.
Technological advancements in navigation in the 16th century, transformed colonialism, enabling Europeans to establish settlements and exert political dominance over distant regions.
Colonialism surged in the 16th century due to advancements in navigation, enabling British settlements abroad and global dominance.

Q4.CAT 2022

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) 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. From chemical pollutants in the environment to the damming of rivers to invasive species transported through global trade and travel, every environmental issue is different and there is no single tech solution that can solve this crisis.

2. Discourse on the threat of environmental collapse revolves around cutting down emissions, but biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are caused by myriad and diverse reasons.

3. This would require legislation that recognises the rights of future generations and other species that allows the judiciary to uphold a much higher standard of environmental protection than currently possible.

4. Clearly, our environmental crisis requires large political solutions, not minor technological ones, so, instead of focusing on infinite growth, we could consider a path of stable-state economies, while preserving markets and healthy competition.

Answer: 2143

Q5.CAT 2021

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

The unlikely alliance of the incumbent industrialist and the distressed unemployed worker is especially powerful amid the debris of corporate bankruptcies and layoffs. In an economic downturn, the capitalist is more likely to focus on costs of the competition emanating from free markets than on the opportunities they create. And the unemployed worker will find many others in a similar condition and with anxieties similar to his, which will make it easier for them to organize together. Using the cover and the political organization provided by the distressed, the capitalist captures the political agenda.

In an economic downturn, the capitalists use the anxieties of the unemployed and their political organisation to set the political agenda to suit their economic interests.
The purpose of an unlikely alliance between the industrialist and the unemployed during an economic downturn is to stifle competition in free markets.
An economic downturn creates competition because of which the capitalists capture the political agenda created by the political organisation provided by the unemployed.
An unlikely alliance of the industrialist and the unemployed happens during an economic downturn in which they come together to unite politically and capture the political agenda.

Q6.CAT 2020

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) 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:

But the attention of the layman, not surprisingly, has been captured by the atom bomb, although there is at least a chance that it may never be used again.
Of all the changes introduced by man into the household of nature, [controlled] large-scale nuclear fission is undoubtedly the most dangerous and most profound.
The danger to humanity created by the so-called peaceful uses of atomic energy may, however, be much greater.
The resultant ionizing radiation has become the most serious agent of pollution of the environment and the greatest threat to man’s survival on earth.

Answer: 2413

Q7.CAT 2018

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.

The conceptualization of landscape as a geometric object first occurred in Europe and is historically related to the European conceptualization of the organism, particularly the human body, as a geometric object with parts having a rational, three-dimensional organization and integration. The European idea of landscape appeared before the science of landscape emerged, and it is no coincidence that Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who studied the structure of the human body, also facilitated an understanding of the structure of landscape. Landscape which had been a subordinate background to religious or historical narratives, became an independent genre or subject of art by the end of sixteenth century or the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The three-dimensional understanding of the organism in Europe led to a similar approach towards the understanding of landscape.
Landscape became a major subject of art at the turn of the sixteenth century.
The study of landscape as an independent genre was aided by the Renaissance artists.
The Renaissance artists were responsible for the study of landscape as a subject of art.

Q8.CAT 2017

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author' s position.
North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis) look like easy meals for birds, but they have a trick up their sleeves — they produce whistles that sound like bird alarm calls, scaring potential predators away. At first, scientists suspected birds were simply startled by the loud noise. But a new study suggests a more sophisticated mechanism: the caterpillar's whistle appears to mimic a bird alarm call, sending avian predators scrambling for cover. When pecked by a bird, the caterpillars whistle by compressing their bodies like an accordion and forcing air out through specialized holes in their sides. The whistles are impressively loud — they have been measured at over 80 dB from 5 cm away from the caterpillar — considering they are made by a two-inch long insect.

North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars will whistle periodically to ward off predator birds - they have a specialized vocal tract that helps them whistle.
North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars can whistle very loudly; the loudness of their whistles is shocking as they are very small insects.
The North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in a case of acoustic deception, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.
North American. walnut sphinx moth caterpillars, in. a case of deception and camouflage, produce whistles that mimic bird alarm calls to defend themselves.

Q9.CAT 2005

From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Most firms consider expert individuals to be too elitist, temperamental, egocentric, and difficult to work with. Force such people to collaborate on a high-stakes project and they just might come to fisticuffs. Even the very notion of managing such a group seems unimaginable. So most organizations fall into default mode, setting up project teams of people who get along nicely. ______

The result, however, is disastrous.
The result is mediocrity.
The result is creation of experts who then become elitists.
Naturally, they drive innovations.

Q10.CAT 2001

Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.

A. Passivity is not, of course, universal.

B. In areas where there are no lords or laws, or in frontier zones where all men go armed, the attitude of the peasantry may well be different.

C. So indeed it may be on the fringe of the unsubmissive.

D. However, for most of the soil-bound peasants the problem is not whether to be normally passive or active, but when to pass from one state to another.

E. This depends on an assessment of the political situation.

[CAT 2001]

BEDAC
CDABE
EDBAC
ABCDE

Q11.CAT 1998

Arrange sentences A, B, C and D between sentences 1 and 6 to form a logical sequence of six sentences.

1. A market for Indian art has existed ever since the international art scene sprang to life.

A. But interest in architectural conceits is an unanticipated fallout of the Festivals of India of the '80s, which were designed to increase exports of Indian crafts.

B. Simultaneously, the Indian elite discarded their synthetic sarees and kitsch plastic furniture and a market came into being.

C. Western dealers, unhappy in a market afflicted by violent price fluctuations and unpredictable profit margins, began to look East, and found cheap antiques with irresistible appeal.

D. The fortunes of the Delhi supremos, the Jew Town dealers in Cochin and myriad others around the country were made.

6. A chain of command was established, from the local contacts to the provincial dealers and up to the big boys, who entertain the Italians and the French, cutting deals worth lakhs in warehouses worth crores.

ABCD
DCAB
CBAD
CABD

Q12.CAT 1996

Arrange the four sentences so that all six together make a logical paragraph.
1. A few years ago, hostility towards Japanese-Americans was so strong that I thought they were going to reopen the detention camps here in Kolkata.
A. Today Asians are a success story.
B. I cannot help making a comparison to the anti-Jewish sentiment in Nazi Germany when Jewish people were successful in business.

C. But do people applaud President Clinton for improving foreign trade with Asia?
D. Now, talk about the ‘Arkansas-Asia Connection’ is broadening that hatred to include all Asian- Americans.
6. No, blinded by jealousy, they complain that it is the Asian-Americans who are reaping the wealth.

DBAC
ABDC
DABC
ACBD

322+ more Verbal Ability questions inside

Get the full CAT Verbal Ability set with timed practice, bookmarks and analysis — free to start.

Start practising free

CAT Verbal Ability previous year questions with solutions — AthenaPrep