CAT 2024 Slot 3 VARC Q18 Odd Sentence Out

Question 18 of the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) section, CAT 2024 Slot 3, with CAT's official answer and a worked solution.

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. To create a synapse, the neuron has specialized structures, often seen as tiny swellings, at its terminal end of the axon where it stores the chemicals that are emitted to transmit a signal to the next neuron.
2. This fetal warm-up act—the soldering of neural connections before the eyes actually function—is crucial to the performance of the visual system.
3. The reasons for this paring back of synapses is a mystery, but synaptic pruning is thought to sharpen and reinforce the "correct" synapses, while removing the weak and unnecessary ones.
4. Neural connections between the eyes and the brain are formed long before birth, establishing the wiring and the circuitry that allow a child to begin visualizing the world the minute she emerges from the womb.
5. During this rehearsal period, synapses—points of chemical connection—between nerve cells are generated in great excess, only to be pruned back during later development.

TITA: type in the answer. There are no options and no negative marking.

Answer: 1 Odd Sentence Out TITA

Solution

  1. Sentences 4, 2, 5, 3 form a chain: connections form before birth (4), this 'fetal warm-up act' is crucial (2), during 'this rehearsal period' synapses are made in excess and pruned (5), the reason for 'this paring back' is a mystery (3).
  2. Sentence 1 describes the anatomy of a synapse (swellings that store chemicals), unrelated to prenatal wiring and pruning.
  3. Odd one out: 1.