Odd One Out Questions for CAT
Odd One Out / Out of Context questions frequently appear in the CAT VARC Section. If you are well-versed with the concepts on Para Jumbles, you can also perform well in the Odd One Out Section. If you’re new to this section, you can check out these Odd One Out Questions for CAT from the CAT Previous year’s papers.
You can expect around 1-2 questions from Odd One Out, in the latest format of the CAT VARC section. In this article, we will look into some very important CAT level Odd One Out questions PDF(with detailed Video solutions) for CAT. If you want to practice these questions, you can download this CAT Odd One Out Questions PDF (most important) along with the solutions below, which is completely Free.
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Question 1: 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.
1) Translators are like bumblebees.
2) Though long since scientifically disproved, this factoid is still routinely trotted out.
3) Similar pronouncements about the impossibility of translation have dogged practitioners since Leonardo Bruni’s De interpretatione recta, published in 1424.
4) Bees, unaware of these deliberations, have continued to flit from flower to flower, and translators continue to translate.
5) In 1934, the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of the bumblebee to be aerodynamically impossible.
1) Answer: 2
Solution:
On reading the sentences, we can infer that the author draws an analogy between translators and bumblebees in the paragraph.
1 should be the opening sentence since it introduces the fact that the paragraph is going to be about the similarities of translators and bumblebees. After sentence 1, the author should have explained how they are analogous.
5 states that the French entomologist August Magnan pronounced the flight of bumblebees to be aerodynamically impossible. Sentence 3 talks about similar statements made about translations. Sentence 4 should be the last sentence since it concludes by saying that both translators and bees have continued their work unaware of these deliberations. Sentences 1534 can be put together into a coherent paragraph.
Sentence 2 does not add any valuable information to the topic of discussion. The author does not use the fact that the factoid (impossibility of the flight of the bumblebee) has been disproved to support his argument. Sentence 2 should be the one out of context and hence, 2 is the correct answer.
Question 2: 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.
1) Displacement in Bengal is thus not very significant in view of its magnitude.
2) A factor of displacement in Bengal is the shifting course of the Ganges leading to erosion of river banks.
3) The nature of displacement in Bengal makes it an interesting case study.
4) Since displacement due to erosion is well spread over a long period of time, it remains invisible.
5) Rapid displacement would have helped sensitize the public to its human costs.
2) Answer: 5
Solution:
On reading the sentences, we can infer that the paragraph revolves around the displacement of people in Bengal due to erosion. 3 should be the opening sentence since it introduces the topic of discussion – displacement in Bengal. 3 should be followed by sentence 2 since it elaborates that the displacement is due to the shifting of the course of the Ganges and the erosion. We have to decide the pair between 5, 4, and 1.
Sentence 4 is definitely a part of the paragraph since it fits well with both the sentences. Also, it states an important detail – the displacement is spread out over a period of time and hence, remains invisible. Since the displacement is not rapid, its magnitude is not significant. Sentences 4 and 1 form a pair and hence, sentence 5 is the one out of context.
Question 3: 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 the number in:
1. Our smartphones can now track our diets, our biological cycles, even our digestive systems and sleep-patterns.
2. Researchers have even coined a new term, “orthosomnia”, to describe the insomnia brought on by paying too much attention to smartphones and sleep-tracking apps.
3. Sleep, nature’s soft nurse, is a blissful, untroubled state all too easily disturbed by earthly worries or a guilty conscience.
4. The existence of a market for such apps is unsurprising: shift work, a long-hours culture and blue light from screens have conspired to rob many of us of sufficient rest.
5. A new threat to a good night’s rest has emerged – smart-phones, with sleep-tracking apps.
3) Answer: 3
Solution:
The use of the word “such apps” in 4 indicates that 4 must be preceded by a line that mentions a type of app. We find this in 5 and 2. So the pairs could be 5-4 or 2-4. If we see the sentences 5 and 1 they introduce the topic under discussion and provide context for the details provided in 2 and 4. Hence, 1 and 5 should come at the start of the paragraph and 2-4 should be the end of the paragraph. Between 5 and 1, 5 provides a better opening line as it introduces the main topic of discussion. Hence, the order of the paragraph should be 5-1-2-4.
Sentence 3 which talks of “guilty conscience” is out of context with the rest of the paragraph.
Question 4: 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.
1. As India looks to increase the number of cities, our urban planning
must factor in potential natural disasters and work out contingencies in
advance.
2. Authorities must revise data and upgrade infrastructure and
mitigation plans even if their local area hasn’t been visited by a
natural calamity yet.
3. Extreme temperatures, droughts, and forest fires have more than doubled since 1980.
4. There is no denying the fact that our baseline normal weather is changing.
5. It is no longer a question of whether we will be hit by nature’s fury but rather when.
4) Answer: 3
Solution:
If we read all the sentences together, we see that the author is arguing for India preparing itself in advance for future natural disasters. Sentence 4, which introduces the broader context makes for a good opening line. Sentences 1 and 2 together make the main point that the author is trying make through the paragraph – that India should prepare itself for future natural disasters. Sentence 5 emphasizes the main point by adding that natural disasters will occur in the future and thus makes for a good concluding line.
Sentence 3, that talks about extreme temperatures does not lead off to any of the other sentences nor does it add to any of the other sentences. Hence, it is the odd one.
Additional Explanation:
1-2 is a block, both are talking about things that authorities should do
45 are rhetorical opinions of the author on the weather.
3 is a fact. We use facts to draw reasonable conclusions.
This standalone fact cannot be used to draw any conclusion.
The style of the author’s writing in 4 and 5 are more opinionated than factual. So 3 is a misfit.
Moreover, we cannot make a connection between 1-4,
1 says we need contingencies for natural disaster(suggestive) whereas, 4 says whether is changing(rhetorical).
Question 5: 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.
1. Ocean plastic is problematic for a number of reasons, but primarily because marine animals eat it.
2. The largest numerical proportion of ocean plastic falls in small size fractions.
3. Aside from clogging up the digestive tracts of marine life, plastic also tends to adsorb pollutants from the water column.
4. Plastic in the oceans is arguably one of the most important and pervasive environmental problems today.
5. Eating plastic has a number of negative consequences such as the retention of plastic particles in the gut for longer periods than normal food particles.
5) Answer: 2
Solution:
After reading all the sentences it can be inferred that the passage talks about the impact of ocean plastic on marine organisms.
Sentence 4 introduces the important and pervasive environmental problem of having plastic in the oceans.Hence it is the first sentence of the passage. Sentence 1 gives the reason behind why ocean plastic is problematic, elucidating that marine animals eat it. Hence it should follow sentence 4. Sentence 5 gives the consequences of marine animals eating ocean plastic. Sentence 3 further elaborates sentence 5 and follows it.
Hence the correct order of sentences is 4-1-5-3. Sentence 2 does not fit in with the rest of the passage and is the correct option.
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Question 6: Five sentences related to a topic are given below in a jumbled order. Four of them form a coherent and unified paragraph. Identify the odd sentence that does not go with the four. Key in the number of the option that you choose.
1. ‘Stat’ signaled something measurable, while ‘matic’ advert ised free labour; but ‘tron’, above all, indicated control.
2. It was a totem of high modernism, the intellectual and cultural mode that decreed no process or phenomenon was too complex to be grasped, managed and optimized.
3. Like the heraldic shields of ancient knights, these morphemes were painted onto the names of scientific technologies to proclaim one’s history and achievements to friends and enemies alike.
4. The historian Robert Proctor at Stanford University calls the suffix ‘-tron’, along with ‘-matic’ and ‘-stat’, embodied symbols.
5. To gain the suffix was to acquire a proud and optimistic emblem of the electronic and atomic age.
6) Answer: 2
Solution:
Option 4 and option 5 are related as both statement start with a suffix.
While option 3 is a continuation of the idea in option 3
Option 5 says that the suffix signifies pride, while option 3 elaborates on this and explains how it is displayed as pride to friends and families alike. Hence 53 is a logical block.
Among all the statements, 4 is the only one which doesn’t have a pronoun or a tone indicating the presence of a preceding statement.
While 4 opens the statement, it must be succeeded by 1 as the terms cannot be explained at the end.
The logical coherence of this para jumble is 4(Introduction of terms)-1(Explanation of terms)-5(Consequence of terms(Pride))-3(Elaboration of consequence)
Statement 2 speaks about modernism and that every phenomenon can be easily grasped. It is unrelated to the context of the passage and a misfit.
Hence, option 2 is the odd one out
Question 7: 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.
1. His idea to use sign language was not a compl etely new idea as Native Americans used hand gestures to communicate with other tribes.
2. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, observed that men who are deaf are incapable of speech.
3. People who were born deaf were denied the right to sign a will as they were “presumed to understand nothing; because it is not possible that they have been able to learn to read or write.”
4. Pushback against this prejudice began in the 16th century when Pedro Ponce de León created a formal sign language for the hearing impaired.
5. For millennia, people with hearing impairments encountered marginalization because it was believed that language could only be learned by hearing the spoken word.
7) Answer: 2
Solution:
Statement 34 makes a logical block as statement 4 speaks about “this prejudice” against deaf people. While statement 3 highlights the prejudice by saying that they were considered to be dumb and not allowed to sign a will.
The idea of sign language is continued in statement 1 where the pronoun “he” refers to pedro and the statement discusses about the origin of the sign language.
Statement 5 is a good opening statement as it introduces the idea of discrimination against deaf and this idea is continued by an example in statement 3. Hence these statements can be arranged in the order 5341.
Statement 2 is a good standalone opening statement. Yet, this statement cannot be succeeded by any of the other statements as it is a misfit in the paragraph.
Hence statement 2 is the odd one out
Question 8: 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.1. One argument is that actors that do not fit within a single, well-defined category may suffer an “illegitimacy discount”.
2. Others believe that complex identities confuse audiences about an organization’s role or purpose.
3. Some organizations have complex and multidimensional identities that span or combine categories, while other organizations possess narrow identities.
4. Identity is one of the most important features of organizations, but there exist opposing views among sociologists about how identity affects organizational performance.
5. Those who think that complex identities are beneficial point to the strategic advantages of ambiguity, and organizations’ potential to differentiate themselves from competitors.
8) Answer: 1
Solution:
Statement 1 says that actors who do not fit within a certain category such as “humour”, “action” etc will face certain difficulty
Statement 2 has a negative tone. It starts with “others” indicating that the preceding statement is likely to have a positive tone.
Statement 4 is a good opening statement as it sets the agenda for the passage by saying that there are opposing views with regard to effects of identities in organisations.
Statement 5 is a favourable view to complex identities, a positive tone. Hence 52 is a logical block.
Statement 3 cannot open the paragraph as the succeeding statement 4 will be disconnected to the central idea of statement 1. Statement 3 can neither be a conclusion as it is too generic. Hence, statement 3 can logically occur only after statement 4 and before the logical block 52.
4 – Idea of organisational identity introduced
3 – One of the features of organisational identities explained
52 – Two opposing views expressed
Statement 1 is unrelated to organisational identity as it speaks about stereotyping the actors.
Hence statement 1 is odd one out
Question 9: Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:
1. For feminists, the question of how we read is inextricably linked with the question of what we read.
2. Elaine Showalter’s critique of the literary curriculum is exemplary of this work.
3. Androcentric literature structures the reading experience differently depending on the gender of the reader.
4. The documentation of this realization was one of the earliest tasks undertaken by feminist critics.
5. More specifically, the feminist inquiry into the activity of reading begins with the realization that the literary canon is androcentric, and that this has a profoundly damaging effect on women readers.
9) Answer: 3
Solution:
The passage is focused on delineating the mechanism of reading as perceived by feminists (and the criticism associated with it). The arrangement (1)-(5)-(4)-(2) forms a coherent paragraph and Statement (3) stands out like a sore thumb. While the passage describes the elements associated with a feminist perspective, (3) brings in a description of androcentric literature that does not align with the context.
Question 10: Five jumbled up sentences, related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd one out and key in the number of the sentence as your answer:
1. Talk was the most common way for enslaved men and women to subvert the rules of their bondage, to gain more agency than they were supposed to have.
2. Even in conditions of extreme violence and unfreedom, their words remained ubiquitous, ephemeral, irrepressible, and potentially transgressive.
3. Slaves came from societies in which oaths, orations, and invocations carried great potency, both between people and as a connection to the all-powerful spirit world.
4. Freedom of speech and the power to silence may have been preeminent markers of white liberty in Colonies, but at the same time, slavery depended on dialogue: slaves could never be completely muted.
5. Slave-owners obsessed over slave talk, though they could never control it, yet feared its power to bind and inspire—for, as everyone knew, oaths, whispers, and secret conversations bred conspiracy and revolt.
10) Answer: 3
Solution:
Statements (1), (2), (4) and (5) discuss the aspect of how talking/freedom of speech was a significant facet associated with the slaves. They emphasise how this element was central to slavery { “slaves could never be completely muted”}. Contrarily, Statment (3) goes on a tangential route that associates the potency of “oaths, orations, and invocations” based on the origin of the slaves {discusses “…a connection to the all-powerful spirit world...” which is clearly out of place}. Thus, Statement (3) is the odd-one-out here.
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These are some of the important Odd one out questions for CAT. We hope that these odd one out questions for CAT are helpful to you. For more practise on odd one out questions for CAT and the VA questions, do take our free CAT mock tests and analyse them thoroughly.
