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: While taste is related to judgment, with thinkers at the time often writing, for example, about “judgments of taste” or using the two terms interchangeably, taste retains a vital link to pleasure, embodiment, and personal specificity that is too often elided in post-Kantian ideas about judgment—a link that Arendt herself was working to restore.
Paragraph: \(\underline{(1)}\) Denneny focused on taste rather than judgment in order to highlight what he believed was a crucial but neglected historical change. \(\underline{(2)}\) Over the course of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, across Western Europe, the word taste took on a new extension of meaning, no longer referring specifically to gustatory sensation and the delights of the palate but becoming, for a time, one of the central categories for aesthetic—and ethical—thinking. \(\underline{(3)}\) Tracing the history of taste in Spanish, French, and British aesthetic theory, as Denneny did, also provides a means to recover the compelling and relevant writing of a set of thinkers who have been largely neglected by professional philosophy. \(\underline{(4)}\)
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: While taste is related to judgment, with thinkers at the time often writing, for example, about “judgments of taste” or using the two terms interchangeably, taste retains a vital link to pleasure, embodiment, and personal specificity that is too often elided in post-Kantian ideas about judgment—a link that Arendt herself was working to restore.
Paragraph: \(\underline{(1)}\) Denneny focused on taste rather than judgment in order to highlight what he believed was a crucial but neglected historical change. \(\underline{(2)}\) Over the course of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, across Western Europe, the word taste took on a new extension of meaning, no longer referring specifically to gustatory sensation and the delights of the palate but becoming, for a time, one of the central categories for aesthetic—and ethical—thinking. \(\underline{(3)}\) Tracing the history of taste in Spanish, French, and British aesthetic theory, as Denneny did, also provides a means to recover the compelling and relevant writing of a set of thinkers who have been largely neglected by professional philosophy. \(\underline{(4)}\)
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Look for transitions in ideas, especially when dealing with complex philosophical discussions, and identify where a concept or theme is most naturally connected.
Updated On: Jul 1, 2026
- Option 1
- Option 3
- Option 4
- Option 2
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The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
Approach: In a para-completion-by-position question, fix where the loose sentence lands by tracking its keywords and seeing which gap it both follows from and leads into. Our sentence is about how taste is linked to judgment yet keeps a vital tie to pleasure and embodiment — a tie Arendt wanted to restore.
Step 1 — Read the inserted sentence for signals: It does two jobs at once. It concedes the closeness of taste and judgment (“judgments of taste”), and it pivots to a richer claim — that taste alone preserves pleasure, embodiment and specificity, something Arendt was “working to restore.” This is a reflective, summing-up move, not a topic opener.
Step 2 — Map the paragraph’s flow: Slot (1) introduces Denneny’s choice of taste over judgment. The slot (1)→(2) block then explains the historical shift in the meaning of “taste” across the 17th–18th centuries, and (3) describes Denneny tracing that history to recover neglected thinkers. The paragraph moves from what Denneny did to why it matters.
Step 3 — Test the gaps: At (1) the sentence is too developed and Arendt-focused to serve as the opener — it presumes the taste/judgment contrast already exists. At (2) and (3) it would interrupt the running historical narrative about the word’s changing meaning and Denneny’s tracing of it. At (4), after the paragraph has established the historical recovery project, the sentence lands perfectly: it deepens the point by naming exactly what taste preserves over judgment and ties it to Arendt’s restorative aim, closing the loop.
Step 4 — Confirm the link: “...a link that Arendt herself was working to restore” works as a final, forward-looking flourish that rounds off the discussion of recovering neglected, taste-centred thought. Placing it at (4) keeps the historical narrative in (1)–(3) intact and gives the paragraph a strong conceptual close.
Final answer: The sentence best fits at position (4) — Option 4.
Step 1 — Read the inserted sentence for signals: It does two jobs at once. It concedes the closeness of taste and judgment (“judgments of taste”), and it pivots to a richer claim — that taste alone preserves pleasure, embodiment and specificity, something Arendt was “working to restore.” This is a reflective, summing-up move, not a topic opener.
Step 2 — Map the paragraph’s flow: Slot (1) introduces Denneny’s choice of taste over judgment. The slot (1)→(2) block then explains the historical shift in the meaning of “taste” across the 17th–18th centuries, and (3) describes Denneny tracing that history to recover neglected thinkers. The paragraph moves from what Denneny did to why it matters.
Step 3 — Test the gaps: At (1) the sentence is too developed and Arendt-focused to serve as the opener — it presumes the taste/judgment contrast already exists. At (2) and (3) it would interrupt the running historical narrative about the word’s changing meaning and Denneny’s tracing of it. At (4), after the paragraph has established the historical recovery project, the sentence lands perfectly: it deepens the point by naming exactly what taste preserves over judgment and ties it to Arendt’s restorative aim, closing the loop.
Step 4 — Confirm the link: “...a link that Arendt herself was working to restore” works as a final, forward-looking flourish that rounds off the discussion of recovering neglected, taste-centred thought. Placing it at (4) keeps the historical narrative in (1)–(3) intact and gives the paragraph a strong conceptual close.
Final answer: The sentence best fits at position (4) — Option 4.
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Approach Solution -2
Step 1: Understanding the Paragraph:
The paragraph explores how the concept of taste evolved and how philosophers like Denneny shifted the understanding of taste from simply a sensory experience to a broader, more cultural and ethical concept.
Step 2: Analyzing the Options:
- (1) Option 1: This could work, but it doesn’t fit as naturally into the flow of the paragraph.
- (2) Option 3: This option offers a continuation of the discussion about the changes in the meaning of “taste.”
- (3) Option 4: This fits the context best, as it explains how the thinkers helped to restore the idea of taste in intellectual history.
Step 3: Conclusion:
Option (3) best completes the paragraph by integrating the role of thinkers in restoring the significance of taste.
The paragraph explores how the concept of taste evolved and how philosophers like Denneny shifted the understanding of taste from simply a sensory experience to a broader, more cultural and ethical concept.
Step 2: Analyzing the Options:
- (1) Option 1: This could work, but it doesn’t fit as naturally into the flow of the paragraph.
- (2) Option 3: This option offers a continuation of the discussion about the changes in the meaning of “taste.”
- (3) Option 4: This fits the context best, as it explains how the thinkers helped to restore the idea of taste in intellectual history.
Step 3: Conclusion:
Option (3) best completes the paragraph by integrating the role of thinkers in restoring the significance of taste.
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