CAT 2025 Slot 1 · VARC · Question 24

CAT 2025 Slot 1 previous year question on Odd One Out, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Odd One OutVerbal AbilityType in the answer (TITA)Medium

Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

  1. Developments both technological and sociocultural have afforded us far greater freedom over death than we had in the past, and while we are still adapting ourselves to that freedom, we now appreciate the moral importance of this freedom.
  2. But I believe that a type of freedom we can call freedom over death – that is, a freedom in which we shape the timing and circumstances of how we die – should be central to this conversation.
  3. Legalising assisted dying is but a further step in realising this freedom over death.
  4. Many people endorse, through their opinions or their choices, our freedom over death encompassing a right to medical assistance in hastening our deaths.
  5. Freedom is a notoriously complex and contested philosophical notion, and I won't pretend to settle any of the big controversies it raises.
Answer & solution

Answer: 4

Build the paragraph first and see which sentence will not fit into it.

Sentence 5 is the opener: it introduces freedom as a complex notion and disclaims any attempt to settle the controversies. Nothing precedes it.

Sentence 2 begins with 'But' and narrows that broad notion to one type – freedom over death – which it says should be central to this conversation. The contrast and the narrowing both point to 2 following 5.

Sentence 1 then supplies the background: technological and sociocultural developments have given us greater freedom over death, and we now appreciate its moral importance.

Sentence 3 draws the conclusion – legalising assisted dying is 'but a further step' in realising this freedom. 'Further step' requires the earlier steps that sentence 1 has just described, so 3 closes.

That gives 5 – 2 – 1 – 3, a complete argument from a general notion to a policy conclusion.

Sentence 4 reports what many people endorse. It is a claim about public opinion, not a move in the author's own argument, and the four other sentences form a chain without it. Sentence 4 is the odd one out.

Shortcut: the author's voice marks the main thread – 'I won't pretend', 'But I believe'. Any sentence that steps out of that first-person argument to report what other people think is the likeliest odd one.

Hence, the answer is 4.

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