Question:
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- 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. \(\underline{(4)}\).
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When filling in missing sentences, make sure they logically connect with both the content preceding and following them, maintaining the flow of ideas.
Updated On: Jul 4, 2026
- Option 2
- Option 4
- Option 1
- Option 3
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The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
Approach: In a sentence-insertion question, the inserted line must sit on a logical seam — where what comes before sets it up and what comes after either explains or extends it. Track the idea-flow, not just the topic.
Step 1: Read the missing sentence. It says Western customers could not believe the muslin was made by human hands, so rumours spread that it was woven by mermaids, fairies and ghosts. The key word is the disbelief that humans made it.
Step 2: Find the seam. The paragraph opens by calling the cloth "baft-hawa" or "woven air" — the world's most coveted cloth. That mythical, almost-impossible image is exactly what would make people doubt human hands made it. So the disbelief sentence belongs right after this mystique is set up, at blank (1).
Step 3: Confirm with what follows. Immediately after blank (1) the passage says "Handspun from a rare cotton... woven with a 16-step sacred ritual." That sentence answers the disbelief by revealing the very human, painstaking process behind the cloth. So the structure becomes: cloth seems impossible \(\to\) people think it is supernatural \(\to\) here is how humans actually made it. A perfect set-up and pay-off.
Step 4: Why not the others. Blank (2) and (3) sit inside the description of the cotton plant and its growth — inserting the disbelief there breaks a continuous botanical description. Blank (4) comes after the list of famous admirers; placing it there reads as an afterthought and loses the natural "impossible cloth, then the human method" flow.
Answer: Option 1 (blank 1).
Step 1: Read the missing sentence. It says Western customers could not believe the muslin was made by human hands, so rumours spread that it was woven by mermaids, fairies and ghosts. The key word is the disbelief that humans made it.
Step 2: Find the seam. The paragraph opens by calling the cloth "baft-hawa" or "woven air" — the world's most coveted cloth. That mythical, almost-impossible image is exactly what would make people doubt human hands made it. So the disbelief sentence belongs right after this mystique is set up, at blank (1).
Step 3: Confirm with what follows. Immediately after blank (1) the passage says "Handspun from a rare cotton... woven with a 16-step sacred ritual." That sentence answers the disbelief by revealing the very human, painstaking process behind the cloth. So the structure becomes: cloth seems impossible \(\to\) people think it is supernatural \(\to\) here is how humans actually made it. A perfect set-up and pay-off.
Step 4: Why not the others. Blank (2) and (3) sit inside the description of the cotton plant and its growth — inserting the disbelief there breaks a continuous botanical description. Blank (4) comes after the list of famous admirers; placing it there reads as an afterthought and loses the natural "impossible cloth, then the human method" flow.
Answer: Option 1 (blank 1).
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Approach Solution -2
Approach: Sketch the whole paragraph's outline first, then see where a sentence about supernatural rumours logically slots in.
The outline runs: (a) poetic introduction of the cloth as "woven air," the world's most coveted fabric, (b) the real, painstaking human process, rare cotton, a 16-step ritual, (c) how the cotton plant itself grows and flowers, (d) how it is spun by hand, (e) the fame and famous wearers it earned.
The missing sentence belongs to stage (a)-to-(b), it is the natural reaction to an almost mythical fabric, disbelief that humans could have made it, immediately followed by the reveal of exactly how humans did make it. That reveal is the ritual described right after blank (1). Placing the sentence at blank (2) or (3) would insert a reaction sentence into the middle of outline stage (c), the botanical description, breaking its internal flow, and placing it at blank (4) would insert it after outline stage (e) is already finished, well past the point where anyone is still wondering whether the cloth is man-made.
Answer: Option 1 (blank 1).
The outline runs: (a) poetic introduction of the cloth as "woven air," the world's most coveted fabric, (b) the real, painstaking human process, rare cotton, a 16-step ritual, (c) how the cotton plant itself grows and flowers, (d) how it is spun by hand, (e) the fame and famous wearers it earned.
The missing sentence belongs to stage (a)-to-(b), it is the natural reaction to an almost mythical fabric, disbelief that humans could have made it, immediately followed by the reveal of exactly how humans did make it. That reveal is the ritual described right after blank (1). Placing the sentence at blank (2) or (3) would insert a reaction sentence into the middle of outline stage (c), the botanical description, breaking its internal flow, and placing it at blank (4) would insert it after outline stage (e) is already finished, well past the point where anyone is still wondering whether the cloth is man-made.
Answer: Option 1 (blank 1).
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