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. The profound emotional impact of music has inspired ongoing research into its relationship with emotions. Music is a universal phenomenon that utilizes a myriad brain resources. This inherent connection to musical expression is deeply intertwined with human identity and experience. The proclivity to create and appreciate music is ubiquitous among humans, permeating daily life across diverse societies. Engaging with music is among the most cognitively demanding tasks a human can undergo, and it is identified across cultures.

CAT 2025 Slot 3 · VARC · Question 9

CAT 2025 Slot 3 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.

The profound emotional impact of music has inspired ongoing research into its relationship with emotions.
Music is a universal phenomenon that utilizes a myriad brain resources.
This inherent connection to musical expression is deeply intertwined with human identity and experience.
The proclivity to create and appreciate music is ubiquitous among humans, permeating daily life across diverse societies.
Engaging with music is among the most cognitively demanding tasks a human can undergo, and it is identified across cultures.

Answer & solution

Answer: 1

Four of these sentences say the same kind of thing: music is universal among humans and makes heavy demands on the brain. One says something else.

Sentence 4 opens – the tendency to create and appreciate music is ubiquitous among humans, present in daily life across societies. It introduces the subject without depending on anything earlier.

Sentence 3 follows directly. 'This inherent connection to musical expression' can only point back to the ubiquitous proclivity in 4, and it carries the idea forward to human identity and experience.

Sentences 2 and 5 form the second pair. 2 says music 'utilizes a myriad brain resources'; 5 says engaging with music is among the most cognitively demanding tasks a human can undergo, and is found across cultures. The paragraph runs 4 – 3 – 2 – 5.

Sentence 1 is about something different: the emotional impact of music and the research it has inspired into music and emotions. No other sentence mentions emotion or research, so sentence 1 is the odd one out.

Shortcut: in a five-sentence set, sort the sentences by theme before attempting any order. Here the themes are universality and cognitive demand on one side and emotion and research on the other – a four-to-one split that settles the answer immediately.

Hence, the answer is 1.

CAT 2025 Slot 3 · VARC · Question 9

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