List of top Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) Questions asked in CAT

Which one of the following best encapsulates the reason for the “raging controversy” developing into a “larger controversy”?

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph. 
 

Sentence: Productivity gains, once expected to feed through to broader living standards, now primarily serve to enhance returns to wealth. 

Paragraph: Economists now argue that inequality is no longer a by-product of growth but a condition of it. ____ (1)____. Unlike wages, wealth reflects not just income but also access to assets, favourable institutional conditions—such as low interest rates—and public policies like low taxes and housing shortages. ____ (2)____. In other words, wealth depends on political choices in ways that income currently does not. It’s not just the inequality itself that is the issue but the erosion of mechanisms that once constrained it. ____ (3)____. Wealth and income inequality are linked, but where wages have stagnated and collective bargaining has weakened, capital income—derived from profits, rents and interest—has been boosted by design. ____ (4)____.

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence- The region’s Western customers found it hard to believe that Dhaka muslin could possibly have been made by human hands – there were rumours that it was woven by mermaids, fairies and even ghosts.
Once upon the silty banks of the Meghna River, a miracle was spun — a fabric so light it was called “baft-hawa”, or woven air. This was Dhaka Muslin — the world’s most coveted cloth. \(\underline{(1)}\) Handspun from a rare cotton called Phuti Karpas, found nowhere else on Earth, and woven with a 16-step sacred ritual — beginning with cleaning the cotton using the teeth of a river catfish! \(\underline{(2)}\) Every spring, the maple-like leaves pushed up through the grey, silty soil to produce a single daffodil-yellow flower twice a year, which gave way to a snowy floret of cotton fibres. \(\underline{(3)}\) Spun at dawn on boats by sharp-eyed young women, its threads were so fine the elderly could barely see them. Motifs of wildflowers, river breeze, and soul were etched into each piece — some so sleek, a 91-metre bolt could pass through a ring, or a 60’ length fit inside a snuffbox. It draped Greek goddesses, Roman nobles, Mughal emperors, and European aristocrats. Marie Antoinette, Empress Joséphine — even Jane Austen adored its floating grace. \(\underline{(4)}\).

The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2, 3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
Sentence: In each of the affected males, the genetic defect was located to the X chromosome in the region of p11-12.
Paragraph: The first suggested evidence of a human genetic mutation associated with aggressive behaviour came from a study in 1993. ____ (1)____. Genetic and metabolic studies were conducted on a large Dutch family in which several of the males has a syndrome of borderline mental retardation and abnormal behaviour. ____ (2)____. The undesirable behaviour included impulsive aggression, arson and exhibitionism. ____ (3)____. A point mutation was identified in the eighth exon of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) structural gene which changes glutamine to a termination codon. ____ (4)____.

Critical Reasoning -- Strengthen Argument: 
"Cities with higher public-transport usage typically experience lower air pollution levels." 

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument? 

  1. Cars emit significantly more pollutants per passenger compared to public buses. 
  2. Public transport systems are cheaper than personal vehicles. 
  3. People prefer using their own vehicles for convenience.
  4. Pollution levels vary with weather conditions.

Para-Summary Paragraph: 
Public debates often oversimplify complex issues into binary choices such as right/wrong or safe/unsafe. This reductive framing limits nuanced thinking, discourages dialogue, and pushes people to defend positions rather than understand diverse viewpoints. 

Which sentence best summarizes this paragraph? 

  1. Public debates today have become unnecessarily aggressive. 
  2. Oversimplifying issues into binaries prevents meaningful discussion.
  3. People avoid nuanced thinking due to lack of education. 
  4. Complex issues should always involve experts. 

Critical Reasoning -- Assumption Argument: 
"Flexible working hours will increase employee productivity because people perform best during the hours when they feel most energetic." 

Which of the following is a necessary assumption? 

  1. Employees can accurately identify the hours when they are most productive. 
  2. Productivity depends only on the time of day. 
  3. Employees dislike rigid schedules.
  4. Flexible hours reduce overall work time. 

Odd One Out 

  1. Revolutionary scientific theories often face resistance from institutions protecting existing models. 
  2. Subscription fees for major science journals have risen significantly. 
  3. Researchers with unconventional approaches often struggle for recognition. 
  4. Major paradigm shifts frequently originate from work that challenges traditional beliefs. 

Introducing new technology in workplaces often fails not because it is inefficient but because it disrupts informal social norms that shape cooperation and workflow. Workers resist changes that alter these unwritten norms even when the technology itself may be superior. 

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage? 

  1. Employees resist all types of new technology.
  2. Social norms strongly influence technological adoption.
  3. Inefficient tools are preferred for emotional reasons.
  4. Most technology decreases cooperation.

Paragraph: 

While technological tools are becoming increasingly efficient, people tend to over-rely on them, assuming automation eliminates the need for judgment. However, technology can fail, misinterpret inputs, or reinforce biases, making human oversight essential. An effective system, therefore, blends automated precision with critical human decision-making. 

Question: 

Which option best summarizes the paragraph?

Argument: 

"Introducing mandatory coding courses in schools will significantly improve students' problem-solving abilities." 

Question: 

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Identify the sentence that does not fit with the others: 

A. Curiosity drives scientific discovery by inspiring new lines of inquiry. 

B. Funding for major scientific projects is usually provided by governments. 

C. Breakthroughs often come from questioning established assumptions. 

D. Many transformative ideas emerge from bold experimentation. 

Question: 

Which sentence is the odd one out?

Arrange the following in a coherent sequence: 

A. In contrast, traditional systems rely heavily on centralized control. 

B. Decentralized networks are resilient because they eliminate single points of failure. 

C. This makes them particularly suitable for large-scale digital ecosystems. 

D. The rise of blockchain has renewed interest in decentralized architecture. 

Question: Arrange A, B, C, D in the most logical order.

Passage: 

Many economists argue that economic growth alone cannot guarantee well-being. While GDP may rise, factors like inequality, environmental degradation, and social alienation can worsen simultaneously. Thus, policy focus must move toward holistic indicators that measure quality of life rather than simply economic output. 

Question: 

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Argument:
"Cities that invest in cycling infrastructure will see a long-term reduction in traffic congestion because people will shift from cars to bicycles."
Question:
Which of the following is an essential assumption in the argument?
Argument:
A company claims its new productivity software significantly improves employee efficiency because workers using it complete tasks 30% faster.
Question:
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the company’s claim?
Choose the option that best captures the central idea of the following paragraph:
Human memory is not a recording of the past but a reconstruction influenced by expectations, emotions, and present needs. People often recall events differently at different times, not because they are careless, but because memory adapts to serve current goals. Understanding this adaptive nature explains why eyewitness testimonies are unreliable and why personal narratives evolve over time.
Question:
Which option best summarizes the paragraph?
Identify the sentence that does not fit in the paragraph:
A. Urban planners increasingly recognize that walkable cities improve both physical and mental well-being.
B. Several studies indicate that green spaces in cities contribute to lower stress levels.
C. Public transportation systems are often designed to optimize fuel efficiency.
D. Compact city design reduces car dependency and encourages healthier lifestyles.
Question:
Which sentence is the odd one out?
Arrange the sentences in a logical order:
A. This pursuit of conformity creates a dilemma: the more individuals try to blend in, the more homogeneous and predictable the group becomes.
B. Humans often conform to group norms to avoid social rejection.
C. Yet, creativity tends to flourish in environments that allow diversity of thought.
D. As a result, groups must balance the need for cohesion with the need for individual expression.
Question:
Arrange A, B, C, D in the most coherent order.
Read the passage and answer:
Several historians argue that the decline of ancient civilizations was not solely due to environmental factors but also due to institutional rigidity. When rules and governance systems become resistant to change, societies lose flexibility and innovation capacity. Even mild environmental shocks can then trigger collapse because institutions cannot adapt quickly enough.
Question:
Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
Modern behavioral economists argue that human decisions are not merely deviations from rationality but reflections of multiple competing goals: emotional satisfaction, social approval, cognitive ease, and fear avoidance. Traditional economic models assumed that people maximize utility through consistent preferences. However, empirical evidence shows that preferences fluctuate depending on framing, context, memory limits, and social cues. What we label as “irrationality” may simply be the mind optimizing for criteria that formal models fail to capture.
Question: Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the author’s argument?
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 four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. But man, woman or otherwise, there is no denying that the quality of our life and character will be significantly shaped by the way we handle our anger.
2. Once the taboos have been broken, women usually experience letting their fists fly as intensely liberating.
3. Though this might seem a stereotype, women—unlike men, who are frequently applauded for unbridled aggression—are often socialized to keep a lid on their ire.
4. Many of them are so at odds with their aggressive feelings that, as a coach, I often have to stop them from pulling their punches and encourage them to extend their arms so their blows might actually reach their fleshy target.
Studies showing that income inequality plays a positive role in economic growth are largely based on three arguments. The first argument focuses on investment indivisibilities wherein large sunk costs are required when implementing new fundamental innovations. Without stock markets and financial institutions to mobilize large sums of money, a high concentration of wealth is needed for individuals to undertake new industrial activities accompanied by high sunk costs.
One study shows the relation between economic growth and income inequality for 45 countries during 1966–1995. (It was found) that the increase in income inequality has a significant positive relationship with economic growth in the short and medium term. Using system GMM, another study estimated the relation between income inequality and economic growth for 106 countries during 1965–2005 period. The results show that income inequality has a positive impact on economic growth in the short run, but a two or more negatively correlated in the long run. The second argument is related to moral hazard and incentives. Because economic performance is determined by the unobservable level of effort that agents make, paying compensations without taking into account the economic performance achieved would reduce the overall optimum effort from the agents. Thus, certain income inequalities contribute to growth by enhancing worker motivation and by giving motivation to innovators and entrepreneurs. Finally, some points out that the concentration of wealth or stock ownership in relation to corporate governance contributes to growth. If stock ownership is distributed and owned by a large number of shareholders, it is not easy to make quick decisions due to the conflicting interests among shareholders, and this may also cause a free-rider problem in terms of monitoring and supervising managers and workers.
Various studies have examined the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and most of these assert that a negative correlation exists between the two. Analyzing 159 countries for 1980–2012, they conclude that there exists a negative relation between income inequality and economic growth; when the income share of the richest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP decreases by 0.8%; whereas when the income share of the poorest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP increases by 0.38%. Some studies find that inequality has a negative impact on growth due to poor human capital accumulation and low fertility rates, while others point out that inequality creates political instability, resulting in lower investment. Some economists argue that widening income inequality has a negative impact on economic growth because it negatively affects social consensus or social capital formation. One important research topic is the correlation between democratization and income redistribution. Some scholars explain that social pressure for income redistribution rises as income inequality increases in a democratic society. In other words, democratization extends suffrage to wider class of people; the increased political power of low- and middle-income voters results in broader support for income redistribution and social welfare expansion. However, if the rich have more political influence than the poor, the democratic system actually worsens income inequality rather than improving it.
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
How can we know what someone else is thinking or feeling, let alone prove it in court? In his 1863 book, A General View of the Criminal Law of England, James Fitzjames Stephen, among the most celebrated legal thinkers of his generation, was of the opinion that the assessment of a person’s mental state was an inference made with “little consciousness.” In a criminal case, jurors, doctors, and lawyers could watch defendants—scrutinizing clothing, mannerisms, tone of voice— but the best they could hope for were clues. . . . Rounding these clues up to a judgment about a defendant’s guilt, or a defendant’s life, was an act of empathy and imagination. . . . The closer the resemblance between defendants and their judges, the easier it was to overlook the gap that inference filled. Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed. In the nineteenth century, physicians who specialized in the study of madness and the care of the insane held themselves out as experts in the new field of mental science. Often called alienists or mad doctors, they were the predecessors of modern psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists. . . . The opinions of family and neighbors had once been sufficient to sift the sane from the insane, but a growing belief that insanity was a subtle condition that required expert, medical diagnosis pushed physicians into the witness box. . . . Lawyers for both prosecution and defense began to recruit alienists to assess defendants’ sanity and to testify to it in court.
Irresponsibility and insanity were not identical, however. Criminal responsibility was a legal concept and not, fundamentally, a medical one. Stephen explained: “The question ‘What are the mental elements of responsibility?’ is, and must be, a legal question. It cannot be anything else, for the meaning of responsibility is liability to punishment.” . . . Nonetheless, medical and legal accounts of what it meant to be mentally sound became entangled and mutually referential throughout the nineteenth century. Lawyers relied on medical knowledge to inform their opinions and arguments about the sanity of their clients. Doctors commented on the legal responsibility of their patients. Ultimately, the fields of criminal law and mental science were both invested in constructing an image of the broken and damaged psyche that could be contrasted with the whole and healthy one. This shared interest, and the shared space of the criminal courtroom, made it nearly impossible to consider responsibility without medicine, or insanity without law. . . .
Physicians and lawyers shared more than just concern for the mind. Class, race, and gender bound these middle-class, white, professional men together, as did family ties, patriotism, Protestantism, business ventures, the alumni networks of elite schools and universities, and structures of political patronage. But for all their affinities, men of medicine and law were divided by contests over the borders of criminal responsibility, as much within each profession as between them. Alienists steadily pushed the boundaries of their field, developing increasingly complex and capacious definitions of insanity. Eccentricity and aggression came to be classified as symptoms of mental disease, at least by some.