CAT 2022 Slot 1 · VARC · Question 8

CAT 2022 Slot 1 previous year question on Sentence Completion and Insertion, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Sentence Completion and InsertionVerbal AbilityMultiple choiceMedium

There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence: Having made citizens more and less knowledgeable than their predecessors, the Internet has proved to be both a blessing and a curse.

Paragraph: Never before has a population, nearly all of whom has enjoyed at a least a secondary school education, been exposed to so much information, whether in newspapers and magazines or through YouTube, Google, and Facebook. ___(1)___. Yet it is not clear that people today are more knowledgeable than their barely literate predecessors. Contemporary advances in technology offered more serious and inquisitive students access to realms of knowledge previously unimaginable and unavailable. ___(2)___. But such readily available knowledge leads many more students away from serious study, the reading of actual texts, and toward an inability to write effectively and grammatically. ___(3)___. It has let people choose sources that reinforce their opinions rather than encouraging them to question inherited beliefs. ___(4)___.

  1. A

    Option 1

  2. B

    Option 2

  3. C

    Option 3

  4. D

    Option 4

Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

The sentence sums up the paragraph: the Internet has made citizens both more and less knowledgeable – a blessing and a curse.

The paragraph sets out both sides: technology gives serious students access to vast knowledge (blessing), but leads many away from serious study and lets people pick sources that confirm their views (curse). Only after both sides are given can the sentence sum them up. That place is blank 4, at the end.

Blanks 1, 2 and 3 come before the 'curse' side is complete.

Shortcut: a sentence that weighs both sides ('blessing and a curse') is a conclusion and belongs at the end.

Hence, the answer is option 4.

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