CAT 2022 Slot 2 · VARC · Question 22

CAT 2022 Slot 2 previous year question on Para Jumbles, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Para JumblesVerbal AbilityType in the answer (TITA)Medium

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.

Answer & solution

Answer: 3142

Sentence 3 opens with the idea: a cheerful expression, whatever your inner state, moves cheerfulness into the self.

Sentence 1 traces how this happened: 'The trajectory of cheerfulness through the self' is tied to the history of the word 'cheer', from an Old French word for 'face'.

Sentence 4 gives the medieval stage: in the Canterbury Tales, 'cheer' is an expression and a body part.

Sentence 2 gives the later stage: Bible translations turned 'cheer' into the abstract 'cheerful-ness', a quality of the self.

Shortcut: 1-4-2 runs in time order (origin → medieval → Bible translations), and 'The trajectory of cheerfulness through the self' in 1 needs the idea in 3 first.

Hence, the answer is 3142.

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