Solve ParaJumbles in CAT like a walk in the park

CAT Exam
Solve ParaJumbles in CAT 2016 like a walk in the park Most students attempting the CAT are flummoxed by the parajumbles, which invariably appear as part of the verbal ability section. The parajumbles are a series of jumbled sentences which when unjumbled form a coherent paragraph. Though there isn’t a single, fixed approach to solving parajumbles, following certain guidelines can ensure that these become a walk in the park for you. Use Cetking’s 4 step approach to make ParaJumbles like a walk in the park. Here are some pointers to achieve this– Step 1 1. Firstly, browse through all the sentences to get an idea of the central theme of the text.

Step 2 2. Secondly, try to identify the opening and closing sentences. These can generally be easily identified. To locate the opening sentence, one should bear in mind that it should be complete in itself and not have any references to other sentences.

Step 3 3. The next and the most important step is to establish relationship or link between two or more of the sentences. If a link between even two sentences is established, our choices can be greatly narrowed down. The key to establishing links between sentences is to understand certain grammatical devices a. Transition devices- These are words or phrases that help carry a thought from one sentence to another or from one idea to another. Some examples of transition devices are- and, again, further, besides, although, later, finally, hence, because, as, yet, but, on one hand, moreover etc. So, seek out transition words in the given sentences consciously to help form the sequence of sentences. b. Articles- Another device that can help establish the link between sentences is the use of ‘articles’. The definite article ‘the’ always succeeds the indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’. This can be elucidated by a simple example- 1. The boy ignored me throughout the journey. 2. A boy sat on the seat beside me. It is obvious that the sentence 2 would precede sentence 1. c. Personal and Demonstrative pronouns-Sentences where personal or demonstrative pronouns have been used for nouns follow the sentences containing the nouns . Step 4 4. Some other pointers that enable us to fix sequence of sentences are: · An idea precedes an example · General information precedes specific information · Full forms precede abbreviations and symbols for eg.   A sentence where ‘World Health Organization’ is mentioned would come before a sentence containing ‘WHO’. · First name reference precedes last name reference for instance, a sentence having ‘President George Bush’ would come before a sentence referring to ‘Mr. Bush’ Now, employing the above devices and pointers one can establish the sequence of at least two or three sentences and this when used in conjunction with the given options can provide us with correct answer. Example 1 Let us take an example to comprehend the above: question  no.36 from CAT 2005; A. When identity is thus ‘defined by contrast’, divergence with the West becomes central. B. Indian religious literature such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Tantric texts, which are identified as differing from secular writings seen as ‘western’, elicits much greater interest in the West than do other Indian writings, including India’s long history of heterodoxy. C. There is a similar neglect of Indian writing on non-religious subjects,from mathematics, epistemology and natural science to economics and linguistics. D. Through selective emphasis that point up differences with the West, other civilizations can, in this way, be defined in alien terms, which can be exotic and charming, or else bizarre and terrifying, or simply strange and engaging. E. The exception is the Kamasutra in which western readers have managed to cultivate an interest. (1) BDACE (2) DEABC (3) BDECA (4) BCEDA Cetking answer: If we browse through the sentences, we observe that all the sentences except B have references to what is mentioned elsewhere(underlined words).Thus ‘B’ should be the opening sentence. Now a quick look at the options suggests that either ‘D’ or ‘C’ should succeed ‘B’. Sentence ‘C’ talks about ‘similar neglect’ and ‘neglect’ is not mentioned anywhere else except in ‘B’. And so our link of ‘BC’ is established, that is option (4). Example 2 Another example will elucidate the use of articles and pronouns to fix links; question no. 93 from CAT 2004; A. The two neighbours never fought each other. B. Fights involving three male fiddler crabs have been recorded, but the status of the participants was unknown. C.  They pushed or grappled only with the intruder. D. We recorded 17 cases in which a resident that was fighting an intruder was joined by an immediate neighbor, an ally. E. We therefore tracked 268 intruder males until we saw them fighting a resident male We therefore tracked 268 intruder males until we saw them fighting a resident male. (1) BEDAC (2) DEBAC (3) BDCAE (4) BCEDA Cetking answer: Here, sentence D mentions ‘an immediate neighbour’ while sentence A refers to ’the two neighbours’. Use of the definite article indicates that A should follow D. Further, sentence C now uses the pronoun ‘they’ for the ‘neighbours’ mentioned in A. Thus the link”DAC” is established. One can now look at the options and zero down to option (1) as the correct answer. Article by Neena

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