CAT 2022 Slot 3 · VARC · Question 3

CAT 2022 Slot 3 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: When people socially learn from each other, they often learn without understanding why what they’re copying—the beliefs and behaviours and technologies and know-how—works.

Paragraph: ___(1)___. The dual-inheritance theory ….says....that inheritance is itself an evolutionary system. It has variation. What makes us a new kind of animal, and so different and successful as a species, is we rely heavily on social learning, to the point where socially acquired information is effectively a second line of inheritance, the first being our genes…. ___(2)___. People tend to home in on who seems to be the smartest or most successful person around, as well as what everybody seems to be doing—the majority of people have something worth learning. ___(3)___. When you repeat this process over time, you can get, around the world, cultural packages—beliefs or behaviours or technology or other solutions—that are adapted to the local conditions. People have different psychologies, effectively. ___(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 B

The sentence is about how social learning works: people copy beliefs, behaviours and know-how without understanding why they work.

Blank 2 comes right after the paragraph explains that we rely heavily on social learning, which acts as a 'second line of inheritance'. The sentence then describes how that learning happens. The next sentence describes whom people copy – the smartest or most successful person, and what most people do.

Blank 1 comes before social learning is introduced.

Blanks 3 and 4 come after the paragraph has moved on to who is copied and to cultural packages.

Shortcut: the sentence opens with 'When people socially learn', so it must come right after social learning is introduced.

Hence, the answer is option 2.

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