Verbal Question of the Day: 46
OUT OF CONTEXT
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
- Shanghai in the 1930’s has been widely shown to have had smoke filled nightclubs, back alley gambling houses, and dark, seedy opium dens, all frequented by Chinese mobsters, Russian emigres and at least one gorgeous femme fatale with a past.
- Though the book shows signs of being exhaustively researched, much of the material, by the author’s own admission, has been freely embroidered.
- “City of Devils”, a new narrative history of the city, is not likely to clear matters up.
- Just how much of Shanghai’s notorious reputation is historical fact and how much is Hollywood fantasy is hard to say.
- “City of Devils” is based on real people and real events, but because of the sub-rosa nature of the episodes described, “assumptions have been made”.
Please Note: The answer to this question will be posted tomorrow morning as a comment below.
4 as rest describes about the book.
That theme is definitely seen in 2,3 and 5, Priyanka. In sentence 1, one cannot be a 100% certain that the book is being referred to though. 1 could be about how Shanghai has been shown in movies or documentaries.
The answer in sentence 1.Because all other sentences cite the reasons why the notorious reputation of Shanghai cannot be cleared by the new book – City Devils
Hi Shubhra, your reasoning applies to sentences 2,3 and 5. However, sentence 4 does not directly or indirectly mention the book.
2
Hi Aayushi, why do you think 1 or 4 are not out of context?
2
Hi Soni, why do you think that 2 is out of context?
5
Hi Samyak, what is the theme that 5 does not adhere to?
Sir i guess the paragraph would make sense even without including the 5th sentence. This makes it redundant.
1
Reason
The paragraph talks about launch of new book called city of devil’s. The author wants to say that book has lot of assumption made despite conducting research.
So I look at it using
1- talks about how Shanghai in 1930’s has been shown.
2- Talks about book which is based on fact based research but has element of assumption
3- Again a narrative which is not completely true
4- It states Shanghai’s reputation has been partly true and partly false
5- The book is not completely true.
So we have all 4 saying wrong image or assumption have been made . However there is only 1 which just talks about what is shown and does not comment on how true it is .
Answer is sentence 1.
1
2
2
2
1
The answer is 1. This is the only sentence that does not have an element of unclarity or ambiguity woven into it. It does not point to a mix of fact and fiction, like all the other sentences do.
Only about 40% of the answers submitted are correct. Shubhra, Mayank, Manya, Richa and Abhipri- Well done! 🙂
Mayank deserves a special mention here for his precise reasoning. Excellent, Mayank!
Feel free to write back in case any of you have a doubt.
Today’s CR question- http://tathagat.mba/verbal-question-of-the-day-47/
Let’s see if you can also spot the paradox in it.
Hi sir, can you also start a thread for RC of the day? As RCs form a major part of the paper, this will help us stay in touch with them. Please consider my suggestion. Thank you.
Yes, RCs constitute a major component of the CAT and other exams as well. I’ll definitely bring up your suggestion with the management, Richa. I’ll revert to you about it here itself.
In the meantime, do keep attempting, and seeing the solutions to the ‘Questions of the Day’- they are designed to improve your reading comprehension and critical reasoning abilities. They all require one to identify the meaning of the paragraph (or sentence) and the author’s purpose.
Thank you for considering my request, sir.
Yes, I’ve started recently and would be regular from now on.
Hi Richa, creating an ‘RC of the Day’ thread is not compatible with the management’s objectives at this point. However, there is a 1000 RC file in the Reading Comprehension Section of the CAT Verbal Forum. That is an excellent resource for practicing RCs. And it contains 1 RC for every day of almost the next 3 years (just one way to look at it 🙂 )!
1
Correct, Himanshu!