CAT 2024 Slot 2 · VARC · Question 6

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: [T]he Europeans did not invent globalization.

Paragraph: The first phase of globalization occurred long before the introduction of either steam or electric power...Chinese consumers at all social levels consumed vast quantities of spices, fragrant woods and unusual plants. The peoples of Southeast Asia who lived in forests gave up their traditional livelihoods and completely reoriented their economies to supply Chinese consumers.... ____(1)____. These exchanges of the year 1000 opened some of the routes through which goods and peoples continued to travel after Columbus traversed the mid-Atlantic. ____(2)____. Yet the world of 1000 differed from that of 1492 in important ways....the travellers who encountered one another in the year 1000 were much closer technologically. ____(3)____. They changed and augmented what was already there since 1000. ____(4)____. If globalization hadn't yet begun, Europeans wouldn't have been able to penetrate the markets in so many places as quickly as they did after 1492.

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

Answer: Option C

The sentence after blank 3 is 'They changed and augmented what was already there since 1000.' 'They' needs an antecedent – and the sentence before blank 3 is about 'the travellers who encountered one another in the year 1000', who cannot be the ones changing what was 'already there since 1000'. The missing sentence supplies the right subject: 'the Europeans did not invent globalization. They changed and augmented what was already there'. 'They' becomes the Europeans.

The missing sentence also fits the logic: having said the world of 1000 was different from 1492, the author clarifies that Europeans built on an existing system rather than creating it. The final sentence then supports this – without globalization already under way, Europeans could not have entered so many markets so quickly.

Blank 1 would interrupt the account of Chinese demand and Southeast Asian supply before Europeans are relevant.

Blank 2 would sit before the contrast between 1000 and 1492 has been made.

Blank 4 would leave 'They changed and augmented' without a clear subject before it.

Shortcut: test the pronoun right after each blank. Here 'They changed and augmented what was already there since 1000' only makes sense if the Europeans have just been named.

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

More Sentence Completion and Insertion questions

All Sentence Completion and Insertion PYQs →

Take this paper as a timed test
Real exam timing, instant score, rank and topic-wise analysis.

Practice timed →