CAT 2026 Slot 1 VARC Analysis: Expected Paper, Questions & Solutions

The central theme of the passage is the choice between:

Which of the following statements, if true, would most seriously weaken the author's argument about the importance of public trust in the implementation of technically sound policies?

The author would support none of the following statements about democratic decision-making EXCEPT:

The author implies that, like effective experts, successful political leaders:

On the basis of the passage, what is the most likely function of glucose in wood frogs during freezing?

Which one of the following best explains why the production of glucose, despite appearing inefficient, is essential for wood frogs?

Which one of the following results from the experiment would invalidate the researchers' inference that glucose plays a protective role during freezing?

All of the following statements from the passage describe adaptations that help wood frogs survive freezing EXCEPT:

Which one of the following sets of terms is closest to mapping the key arguments of the passage?

What does the author wish to communicate by referring to the Green Revolution and the eradication of malaria in the first paragraph?

The word "insidious" is used in the second paragraph. Which one of the following pairs of terms would be the best substitute for it in the context of its usage in the paragraph?

All of the following statements may be considered valid inferences from the passage EXCEPT that:

Choose the option below that comes closest to being the opposite of utilitarianism.

The author refers to the divergence between Aristotelian and Newtonian physics primarily to:

The passage compares ethics to physics in order to suggest that AI can reason from multiple starting points in complex cases. Which one of the assumptions below is most vital for that comparison to guide practice?

Which one of the following best captures the central tension the passage explores?

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.

Sentence: Technological advances, once expected to shorten the working week, now primarily serve to intensify the demands of labour.

Paragraph: Sociologists now argue that burnout is no longer a by-product of overwork but a condition of it. (1). Unlike physical exhaustion, burnout reflects not just hours logged but also access to autonomy, favourable workplace conditions - such as flexible schedules - and corporate policies like unlimited leave and remote work. (2). In other words, burnout depends on organizational culture in ways that sheer fatigue currently does not. It's not just the exhaustion itself that is the issue but the erosion of boundaries that once protected it. (3). Work and personal life are linked, but where wages have stagnated and collective bargaining has weakened, digital connectivity - derived from smartphones, laptops and cloud networks - has been weaponized by design. (4).

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.

Sentence: In each of the affected individuals, the metabolic abnormality was traced to a single enzyme in the mitochondrial matrix.

Paragraph: The earliest documented link between a hereditary metabolic disorder and severe neurological decline came from a clinical survey in 1987. ___(1)___ Biochemical and enzymatic assays were performed on a large Finnish family in which several siblings presented with a syndrome of developmental regression and episodic lethargy. ___(2)___ The clinical deterioration included seizures, loss of motor milestones, and recurrent coma. ___(3)___ A missense mutation was identified in the coding region of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex E1-alpha gene which substitutes an arginine for a histidine. ___(4)___

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given 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. When I ask the veteran feminist scholar and critic Sunita Rao whether she uses the term "womxn" to describe herself, she tells me, "I fought too hard for the word 'woman' to give it up now. I refer to myself as a woman."
2. Of the hundreds of thousands of Indian women active on social media, only a fraction use the newer spellings: a mere 9 percent prefer "womyn," and fewer than 2 percent recognise "womxn."
3. They have done this even though English, unlike French or Hindi, has no grammatical gender, so the change is about social meaning rather than grammar.
4. Activists seeking to make the word more inclusive, out of respect for trans and non-binary persons, have devised new spellings for it: first "womyn," and more recently "womxn."

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given 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. The signature of a leader establishes a personal bond between them and the citizens; the leader does not merely offer a policy for evaluation, they suggest a physical presence, a set of daily habits expressed in a demeanour, a style of speaking, a posture.
2. Some public figures adorn their official communications with a personal logo; this presupposes that branding has a power to persuade which must be analysed.
3. Inasmuch as branding is a shorthand of ideology and a compression of an 'inexpressible' collective identity, it constitutes an anti-rational weapon and tends to sweep away 'policy' (that is to say a body of arguments and solutions) to the advantage of a 'way of being', a socio-cultural status.
4. Branding tends to restore the charismatic nature of authority, whose bureaucratic essence has been disrupted by institutional procedures and the rule of committees (the populist Right seems to use it more than the technocratic Left).

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.

1. The profound emotional impact of storytelling has inspired ongoing research into its relationship with memory.
2. Storytelling is a universal phenomenon that utilizes a myriad of cognitive resources.
3. This inherent connection to narrative expression is deeply intertwined with human identity and experience.
4. The proclivity to create and appreciate stories is ubiquitous among humans, permeating daily life across diverse societies.
5. Engaging with stories is among the most cognitively demanding tasks a human can undergo, and it is identified across cultures.

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.

1. The human gut hosts trillions of microorganisms that are essential for digesting food and synthesizing vitamins.
2. Recent research has revealed that these gut microbes also communicate directly with the central nervous system.
3. To investigate this connection, scientists have begun analyzing the gut microbiomes of patients with neurological disorders.
4. This "gut-brain axis" influences everything from mood regulation to stress response and cognitive function.
5. Consequently, medical researchers are now exploring whether probiotics can be used to treat conditions like anxiety and depression.

A paragraph is followed by four options that summarize the passage in their own way. Pick the option that best summarizes the passage.

The discovery of mirror neurons has often been interpreted as evidence that the distinction between performing an action and observing it may be less clear-cut than previously assumed. Initially identified in monkeys, these neurons were found to respond both when an animal performed a particular action and when it observed another animal performing a similar action. This finding encouraged researchers to investigate whether the capacity to understand others' actions might be rooted partly in neural mechanisms that also support one's own actions. However, the tendency to treat mirror neurons as a comprehensive explanation for imitation, empathy and social understanding has been questioned. Observing an action and understanding its intention are not necessarily equivalent, and complex social abilities may depend on several interacting processes. The broader significance of mirror neurons, therefore, may lie less in providing a complete explanation of social cognition than in challenging the assumption that action and observation are processed entirely independently.

A paragraph is followed by four options which have summarized the passage in their own way. Pick the option that best summarizes the passage.

International medical-relief organisations working in impoverished regions often operate within insulated networks, staying in expensive accommodations, relying on private transportation, and limiting their interactions with local populations. While this separation may partly be explained by security concerns and the psychological strain of working in crisis situations, it can also generate resentment among the very communities they seek to assist. Rather than treating local populations merely as recipients of aid, a more effective approach would involve relief workers spending more time engaging with communities, understanding their concerns, and establishing trust instead of relying primarily on interactions with government authorities.