CAT 2024 Slot 2 · VARC · Question 5

CAT 2024 Slot 2 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: Yet each day the flock produced eggs with calcareous shells though they apparently had not ingested any calcium from land which was entirely lacking in limestone.

Paragraph: Early in this century a young Breton schoolboy who preparing himself for a scientific career began to notice a strange fact about hens in his father's poultry yard. ____(1)____. As they scratched the soil they constantly seemed to be pecking at specks of mica, a siliceous material dotting the ground. ____(2)____. No one could explain to Louis Kervran why the chickens selected the mica, or why each time a bird was killed for the family cooking pot no trace of the mica could be found in its gizzard. ____(3)____. It took Kervran many years to establish that the chickens were transmuting one element into another. ____(4)____.

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

Answer: Option A

The missing sentence opens with 'Yet' and adds a second puzzle: the hens laid eggs with calcium shells although the land had no limestone and they had eaten no calcium.

Blank 3 comes after the first puzzle – no one could explain why the hens picked mica, or why no mica remained in their gizzards. 'Yet' then adds the eggshell mystery: the mica vanished, and calcium appeared from nowhere. The next sentence resolves both: Kervran established that the chickens were 'transmuting one element into another' – silicon in the mica becoming calcium in the shells.

Blank 1 is too early: the hens' pecking at mica has not yet been described, so there is nothing for 'Yet' to contrast with.

Blank 2 would separate the mica-pecking from the questions about it.

Blank 4 comes after the explanation; adding the mystery after it has been solved would be backwards.

Shortcut: a missing sentence starting with 'Yet' or 'But' needs a preceding statement to contrast with, and if it raises a puzzle, it must come before the solution.

The answer is 'Option 3', which is listed first. Hence, the answer is option 1.

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