Unfold Prep
CAT 2017 · SLOT 1
Passage
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
1. The water that made up ancient lakes and perhaps an ocean was lost. 2. Particles from the Sun collided with molecules in the atmosphere, knocking them into space or giving them an electric charge that caused them to be swept away by the solar wind. 3. Most of the planet's remaining water is now frozen or buried, but clues over the past decade suggested that some liquid water, a presumed necessity for life, might survive in underground aquifers. 4. Data from NASA's MAVEN orbiter show that solar storms stripped away most of Mars's once-thick atmosphere. 5. A recent study reveals how Mars lost much of its early water, while another indicates that some liquid water remains.
Q34.Identify the odd one out. Choose its number as your answer and key it in.
Let's find the core theme. Sentences 2, 3, 4, and 5 discuss **how Mars lost its atmosphere/water** and the **current state of its remaining water**. Sentence 1 seems disconnected.
Let's establish the opening sentence. Sentence 4 introduces the main event: `Data from NASA's MAVEN orbiter show that solar storms stripped away most of Mars's once-thick atmosphere.`
Sentence 2 perfectly explains the mechanism behind the event introduced in 4: `Particles from the Sun collided with molecules in the atmosphere...`
Sentence 5 connects the atmospheric loss to the loss of water, bridging the past event to the present: `A recent study reveals how Mars lost much of its early water...`
Sentence 3 logically concludes the paragraph by discussing the *current* state of the water mentioned in sentence 5: `Most of the planet's remaining water is now frozen or buried...`
Sentence 1 is a generic statement that disrupts this specific chronological flow (Event -> Mechanism -> Water Loss -> Current State). Therefore, 1 is the odd one out.