Question 17

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) 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 trajectory of cheerfulness through the self is linked to the history of the word ‘cheer’ which comes from an Old French meaning ‘face’.

2. Translations of the Bible into vernacular languages, expanded the noun ‘cheer’ into the more abstract ‘cheerful-ness’, something that circulates as an emotional and social quality defining the self and a moral community.

3. When you take on a cheerful expression, no matter what the state of your soul, your cheerfulness moves into the self: the interior of the self is changed by the power of cheer.

4. People in the medieval ‘Canterbury Tales’ have a ‘piteous’ or a ‘sober’ cheer; ‘cheer’ is an expression and a body part, lying at the intersection of emotions and physiognomy.


Correct Answer: 3142

Solution

The given set of sentences talks about the concept of cheerfulness and how it can affect a person's internal state. It discusses the history of the word "cheer," which originally referred to a person's facial expression, and how it came to be associated with an abstract concept of positive emotion. The passage also notes that translations of the Bible into vernacular languages helped to expand the meaning of "cheer" to include a sense of cheerfulness or positivity as a quality of the self and a moral community. We note that sentences 1, 2 and 4 are part of the timeline the author traces, while statement 3 is a broad claim that would serve as an apt introduction. The idea of cheerfulness and self that is mentioned in 3 is linked to the " trajectory of cheerfulness through the self" highlighted in statement 1, allowing us to form the pair [3-1]. Note that 4 discusses how cheer came to be perceived as a trait at the intersection of emotion and a physical feature [as highlighted in 1 - where it has been categorised as a facial feature]. Sentence 2 then extends on this idea by how cheerfulness, over time, came to be considered as "an emotional and social quality." Hence, the correct arrangement is 3142.

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