Ability to identify common errors in paragraphs and sentences is as important as error correction in Vocabulary Usage, Jumbled Paragraphs, and Reading Comprehension passages.
This article from MBAUniverse.com CAT 2013 Prep team of CAT experts, brings you broad understanding on some of the common error questions in VA section that frequently appear in CAT.
Here follows 5 of the Top 10 common errors in VA section with model questions and their solution & explanation. We have already published 5 common errors in the previous part of this story.
CAT 2013 like CAT 2012 may have more surprise elements in any part of Verbal Ability. While, the types and tips to error corrections in Core grammar, punctuation, spelling and a few of vocabulary related errors have already been discussed in our earlier Article we lead you to the other important application part of Verbal Ability. This part has questions to solve based on your reading and communication skill and understanding of how to express the ideas and thought in a coherent manner.
6. Surprise para-jumbles:
Apart from the regular form of jumbled paragraphs, CAT 2012 left the aspirants flummoxed with a new type of jumbled paragraph with an out of context sentence. The concept was to decode the jumbled paragraph and pick out the out of context sentence as well. You should identify the tone of the para. Whatever breaks the idea will be an out of context sentence.
Directions for question: In the questions given below, five sentences are given labeled A, B, C, D and E. Out of these, four statements need to be arranged in a logical order to form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, out of context sentence option is marked as and ‘’. Pick out the option that best describes the sequence of sentences and identifies the ‘out of context sentence’ that does not fit the sequence.
A. one is ‘Residence on earth’, written largely on his Eastern sojourn, in Burma, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia
B. in the 1920s and early 1930s, his exposure to the East, including India
C. Still, some consider that his most lasting work is to be found in two major poems
D. which he visited many times, was a watershed moment.
E. If there is somebody that put into words what Chile is all about, it is Neruda.
1. EADB and C 2. ABCD and E 3. CABD and E 4. BDEC and A
Ans. 3. CABD and E – So, E is out of context. The reason is, if you go through the entire paragraph we find the para is all about his work and what & where he wrote. E doesn’t support nor forms a part of it as it describes leading to a work about Chile which has not been discussed anywhere and may be a part of other thought discussed in some different para.
7. Random Parajumbles
It is a group of the sentences not arranged in a proper sequence. The candidate is expected to arrange all the sentences in logical & sequential order. Have a feel of the type of question with the answer explained in detail -
Direction for question- The sentences as given below, when arranged properly, form a meaningful paragraph. Choose the most appropriate order of sentences out of the given options.
A) When Customs and Excise seized the eight steel tubes bound for lraq, on the grounds that they ‘could be used as the barrel of a large artillery gun,’ several pressing questions arose.
B) Sheffield Forgemasters, at the centre of the lraqi supergun affair, yesterday succeeded only in compounding the puzzle.
C) Far from answering them, Sheffield Forge masters have only compounded the puzzle by their disclosure yesterday-that the eight impounded tubes were actually part of a much large consignment of 52.
D) They disclosed that the full consignment was in fact for 52 steel tubes. The number seized by customs and Excise (on the grounds that they’ could be used as the barrel of a large artillery gun’) had been a mere eight.
i) ABCD ii) BDAC iii) ADBC iv) CDBA
Ans. ii) BDAC
Explanation- Action started with B putting the things otherwise-D; The department got hold of something-A; The company finally instead of answering made the things worse for them-C.
8. Parajumbles with Opening sentence given
You are given the opening sentence and the other sentences are jumbled. You have to rearrange the remaining jumbled sentences making them to form a coherent paragraph beginning with the given opening sentence. The task is slightly easier as you know where to start from.
Direction- In the Following paragraph opening sentence is given followed by a group of sentences, which if placed in correct sequence will form a coherent paragraph. You have to select the most appropriate option out of the given ones that follow the paragraph.
Neil Simon, who is, without doubt, America’s Leading comedy writer, started his career when only sixteen years old, writing with his brother Daniel, scripts for radio.
A) In fact, during the 1966-67 season in New York, theatre goers could have seen ’Barefoot in the park’;’ The odd Couple’;’ Sweet Charity’ and ‘The Star-Spangled Girl’, which were all running simultaneously.
B) His first play for Broadway was ‘Come Blow Your Horn’, which had a limited success and encouraged him to write his first real smash Broadway hit, ‘Barefoot in the Park’.
C) With the advent of television he progressed to shows like The Ed Sulli van programme and, in particular,
D) two and a half years with the highly successful Bilko series which is still showing throughout the world.
i) DBAC ii) CDBA iii) BDCA iv) ABDC
Ans.ii) CDBA
Explanation - Think & try to put the sentences in chronological order. Opening sentence starts the story. The character did something for radio, then progressed for Television and achieved the heights before the paragraph goes to conclusion with his achievements in part A. The sentences placed in past tense ‘B & A’ are being narrated now with the details that he did. Do not mix up the things.
9. Parajumbles –where concluding sentence is given
You are not given the opening sentence but the concluding sentence is given with a jumbled group of preceding sentences. You are required to put them in correct sequence in the manner to reach the paragraph concluding with closing sentence.
Direction for question- In the following paragraph concluding sentence is given followed by a group of sentences, which if placed in correct sequence will form a coherent paragraph. You have to select the most appropriate option out of the given ones that follow the paragraph.
He added a cheerful note to the rather grim ceremony, and if there had been a vestry we were all satisfied that he would have signed his name in it.
A) My sister was being married in the forbidding precincts of the Cambridge Registry Office and Scrubbins had been left at the door. We were all ranged in due order before the table and the proceedings had begun, when a deliberate pit-a-pat was heard in the passage.
B) My father had later another Aberdeen terrier, answering to the pleasant name of Scrubbins, a dog of considerable character and a most faithful friend to my father. Once or twice my father took him to the University Library, left him outside and forgot him.
C) Somebody got up to shut the door but the Registrar hastily interposed; the marriage, it appeared, would not be legal unless it were open to all comers to attend. So Scrubbins pattered in and behaved with perfect discretion and decorum
D) Scrubbins quite unperturbed went to the nearest cab-stand, where he was well known, and took a hansom home.
i) ABCD ii) BDAC iii) ACBD iv) BCDA
Ans. ii) BDAC
Explanation- B opens the paragraph with D describing the action followed by A quality description – important part in view of the author is not the ceremony but what happened thereat is more important; C – as we find is the concluding part reaching the last sentence given at the beginning.
10. Parajumbles with Opening and Closing sentences given
Another type, but rarely seen for last many years in CAT is to give you opening and closing sentences. In between are the jumbled sentences. Now you have the starting and conclusion of discussion and are more comfortable with this type of question.
Direction for question- In the Following paragraph Opening and concluding sentences are given followed by a group of sentences, which if placed in correct sequence will form a coherent paragraph. You have to select the most appropriate option out of the given ones that follow the paragraph.
Begin with- ‘Room with bed for two’, said the proprietor, flinging open a door at the extreme end.
Concluding sentence- The smell of the room was the same as the corridor outside with some indefinable additions
A) Somewhere nearby a fun-fair was testing its loud-hailing apparatus, warming up for a night of revelry..
B) He contrived to invest it with an air of extreme indelicacy, which in no way prepared us for the reality.
C) The sheets were almost clean but on them there was the unmistakable impress of a human form and they were still warm. In the corner there was a wash basin with one long red hair in it and a tap which leaked.
D) It was a nightmare room, the room of a drug fiend or a miscreant or perhaps both. It was illuminated by a forty-watt bulb and looked out on a black wall with something slimy growing on it. The bed was a fearful thing, almost perfectly concave. Underneath it was a pair of old cloth-topped boots.
i) ADBC ii)DCAB iii) BDCA iv) BCAD
Ans.iii) BDCA
Explanation- B –we arrived at the lodge or inn whatever it was, so the opening sentence of paragraph begins with entering the room ; D-the room was observed and described, so subsequent sentence; C-Description continued now with bed and wash basin but still of interior of room; A- concluding part describing the outside of the lodge or inn before closing it with final comment.
Tips and strategy to solve:
Step-1 – Mark the idea and tone of the sentences. This will enable you to identify the Opening and/or closing sentence making the task easier. You may opt for elimination method
Step-2 – Search for connectors to sentences e.g. conjunctions, personal (He/she/it/they/their etc), relative (Who, whose, that, which etc.), Demonstrative (These, those, this, that etc.) pronouns as they indicate that they must have been used in place of some noun-proper/common etc. So find the link between the sentences.
Step-3- A few paragraphs have time factors in it, indicating that the events mentioned for the earlier time should come first and could help you to put them in chronological order.
Step-4 – You may find certain words which may be leading towards next para or concluding part – like, Summing up, in a nutshell, Nevertheless, therefore, However, hence, So, Simultaneously, Apart from etc. They denote change of thought process and transform para to next stage. Such words may be noted when used in a jumbled paragraph.
Step-5- Practice more and improve the reading skills and accuracy.
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