Verbal Question of the Day: 34
OUT OF CONTEXT
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them are thematically consistent. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
1. The language of the comments, posts and tweets is often abusive; female targets, such as the Turkish journalist Ceyda Karan and her Filipina colleague Maria Ressa, are routinely threatened with rape.
2. Thousands of social network accounts, both operated by humans and by bots used to amplify the attack, gang up on a person who dares to criticize a regime or a political figure.
3. Invariably, the person is accused of being a foreign agent and a traitor, with memes and cartoons being used to insult the target.
4. Personal attacks on a mass scale are the worst abuse of social networks by governments and political actors- it is impossible for a target to be impervious to one.
5. The target is given the impression of swelling public indignation about his or her work, and attempts to drown out the target’s voice are made.
4
2
4
4
4
Reason –
The theme is basically about ways in which people are threatened on social media to an extent which becomes difficult to handle.
1- A way of threatening using bad words and bad comments
2- Another way of ganging up on one person and criticising him
3- Person is shown as belonging to other nation, which is another form of attack.
5- Attempt to suppress his voice, another form of attack
4- This one talks about the impact and not a way to attack someone on social media. It is more of the impact that these ways leave on someone and one cannot remain impervious to it.
4 is the odd one out.
PS- This one was a bit harder than previous ones.
You’re right, Mayank- this one was relatively harder. Yet, your answer and reasoning are spot on. Excellent!
4
Though confused between 2 and 4.
Hi Ridhima, check the answer’s explanation in my comment below. If you are still not clear about the answer, feel free to write back 🙂
The answer should be sentence 1.Because all other statements point out to mass attacks made by govt, how that attack is amplified (sentence 2), attempt is made to drown the voice(sentence 5) and the target is treated as a foreign agent.First sentence specifically talks about Turkish journalist which indicates it is in another context.hence option 1
You’ll need to do a rethink on this one, Shubhra. See the answer’s explanation in my comment below. Get back to me in case you have any doubts 🙂
1
4
1
4
1
Option 4
4 .
All the other points talk about the mass except 4th which talks about government abusing and targeting individuals
You got lucky on this one, Pranshu. Please have a look at the answer’s explanation in my comment below.
Your explanation talks about mode of attacking. However, Option 2 and 4 both says the same thing. And Option 5 does not talk about the mode. Could you please clear my doubt on how considering mode of attack puts option 4 out of context.
Sentence 4 states- “Personal attacks are the worst abuse of social networks” and “it is impossible for a target to be impervious to one.” Both these are opinions or claims being made about online personal attacks.
Sentence 2 speaks of multiple social media accounts being operated by both humans and bots to carry out an online personal attack. This is information about the method of an online personal attack.
Therefore, sentence 2 and 4 are different.
Sentence 5 is about the method again- with the target being given the impression of swelling public indignation about his work, and attempts being made to drown out the target’s voice.
5
Option 2
The word ‘target’ seems to be the common theme in the other sentences.
Even the second sentence mentions ‘amplifying the attack’ and ‘gang up on a person’, which implies reference to a target. Do see the answer’s explanation in my comment, Devashish.
4
Well, it’s taken some effort, but I’m happy to proclaim that I’ve managed to baffle at least a few of you. I’m patting myself on the back for this.
The answer is sentence 4. This is the sentence that constitutes an opinion on online personal attacks. All the other sentences describe the modus operandi (method or mode of operating) adopted to conduct one.
Everyone who used this line of reasoning to arrive at the answer- Well done! 🙂
Write back to me in case you have any doubts.
Do give today’s question a shot. It’s an easier one.
http://tathagat.mba/verbal-question-of-the-day-35/