CAT 2024 Slot 1 · VARC · Question 14

CAT 2024 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 where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence: Comprehending a wide range of emotions, Renaissance music nevertheless portrayed all emotions in a balanced and moderate fashion.

Paragraph: A volume of translated Italian madrigals were published in London during the year of 1588. This sudden public interest facilitated a surge of English Madrigal writing as well as a spurt of other secular music writing and publication. ____(1)____. This music boom lasted for thirty years and was as much a golden age of music as British literature was with Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I. ____(2)____. The rebirth in both literature and music originated in Italy and migrated to England; the English madrigal became more humorous and lighter in England as compared to Italy. Renaissance music was mostly polyphonic in texture. ____(3)____. Extreme use of and contrasts in dynamics, rhythm, and tone colour do not occur. ____(4)____. The rhythms in Renaissance music tend to have a smooth, soft flow instead of a sharp, well-defined pulse of accents.

  1. A
    Option 1
  2. B
    Option 3
  3. C
    Option 4
  4. D
    Option 2
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

The missing sentence makes a claim about restraint: Renaissance music covered a wide range of emotions but portrayed them all 'in a balanced and moderate fashion'. The sentence after blank 3 – 'Extreme use of and contrasts in dynamics, rhythm, and tone colour do not occur' – is the evidence for that claim. Placed at blank 3, the missing sentence gives a claim followed by its proof.

Blank 3 is also where the paragraph turns from history (the 1588 madrigals, the thirty-year boom, the move from Italy to England) to the musical features of the period. The missing sentence belongs on the features side of that turn.

Blank 4 is too late: the evidence about extreme contrasts has already appeared, and the next sentence on smooth, soft rhythms continues the same list. The claim cannot sit between two pieces of its own evidence.

Blanks 1 and 2 fall inside the historical account and would interrupt it.

Shortcut: when a missing sentence states a general quality ('balanced and moderate'), place it directly before the sentence that gives concrete evidence of that quality ('extreme contrasts do not occur').

The answer is 'Option 3', which is listed second. Hence, the answer is option 2.

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