CAT 2023 Slot 3 VARC Q17 Sentence Placement
Question 17 of the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) section, CAT 2023 Slot 3, with CAT's official answer and a worked solution.
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: For theoretical purposes, arguments may be considered as freestanding entities, abstracted from their contexts of use in actual human activities.
Paragraph : ___(1)___. An argument can be defined as a complex symbolic structure where some parts, known as the premises, offer support to another part, the conclusion. Alternatively, an argument can be viewed as a complex speech act consisting of one or more acts of premising (which assert propositions in favor of the conclusion), an act of concluding, and a stated or implicit marker ("hence", "therefore") that indicates that the conclusion follows from the premises.___(2)___. The relation of support between premises and conclusion can be cashed out in different ways: the premises may guarantee the truth of the conclusion, or make its truth more probable; the premises may imply the conclusion; the premises may make the conclusion more acceptable (or assertible).___(3)___. But depending on one's explanatory goals, there is also much to be gained from considering arguments as they in fact occur in human communicative practices.___(4)___.
Sentence: For theoretical purposes, arguments may be considered as freestanding entities, abstracted from their contexts of use in actual human activities.
Paragraph : ___(1)___. An argument can be defined as a complex symbolic structure where some parts, known as the premises, offer support to another part, the conclusion. Alternatively, an argument can be viewed as a complex speech act consisting of one or more acts of premising (which assert propositions in favor of the conclusion), an act of concluding, and a stated or implicit marker ("hence", "therefore") that indicates that the conclusion follows from the premises.___(2)___. The relation of support between premises and conclusion can be cashed out in different ways: the premises may guarantee the truth of the conclusion, or make its truth more probable; the premises may imply the conclusion; the premises may make the conclusion more acceptable (or assertible).___(3)___. But depending on one's explanatory goals, there is also much to be gained from considering arguments as they in fact occur in human communicative practices.___(4)___.
- AOption 1
- BOption 4
- COption 2
- DOption 3
Answer: (D) Option 3 Sentence Placement MCQ
Solution
- The sentence treats arguments abstractly, as 'freestanding entities, abstracted from their contexts of use'.
- The sentence after blank 3 begins 'But ... there is also much to be gained from considering arguments as they in fact occur in human communicative practices', which is the contrast to the abstract view.
- So it fits at 3, after the abstract definitions and before the 'But'.