Read the sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a logical…

2023

Read the sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a logical order.

1. He might make the opposite mistake; when I want to assign a name to this group of nuts, he might understand it as a numeral,

2. Now, one can ostensively define a proper name, the name of a colour, the name of a material, a numeral, the name of a point of the compass and so on.

3. The definition of the number two. "That is called 'two'" pointing to two nuts is perfectly exact. But how can two be defined like that?

4. He may suppose this; but perhaps he does not.

5. The person one gives the definition to doesn't know what one wants to call "two"; he will suppose that "two" is the name given to this group of nuts!

  1. A.

    1, 2, 3, 5, 4

  2. B.

    2, 3, 5, 4, 1

  3. C.

    3, 5, 4, 2, 1

  4. D.

    5, 2, 3, 1, 4

Attempted by 1 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B

Concept: A para-jumble is solved by finding the sentence that can open the paragraph without depending on anything earlier, then following the logical or referential thread it leaves behind — pronouns, question-answer pairs, and the movement from a general statement to a specific case — until every sentence is placed and the passage reads as one continuous argument.

Application: tracing that thread through this passage gives the order 2, 3, 5, 4, 1:

  1. Sentence 2 opens the paragraph: it introduces the general idea of ostensive definition (naming something by pointing at it) across several kinds of words — a proper name, a colour, a material, a numeral, a point of the compass — and needs no earlier context.

  2. Sentence 3 narrows that general idea to one concrete case, the numeral "two" defined by pointing at two nuts, and raises the doubt "But how can two be defined like that?", continuing directly from sentence 2's list.

  3. Sentence 5 answers that doubt: the listener does not know the definition is meant to name the numeral, so he supposes "two" is the proper name of that particular group of nuts.

  4. Sentence 4, "He may suppose this; but perhaps he does not," refers back to "this" — the misunderstanding just described in sentence 5 — and pivots toward a further possibility.

  5. Sentence 1 delivers that further possibility, "the opposite mistake": instead of taking a numeral as a name, the listener takes an actual assigned name as a numeral, closing the paragraph.

Cross-check: reading 2, 3, 5, 4, 1 together traces one unbroken argument — a general claim, a specific example, a doubt, the resulting misunderstanding, the acknowledgement, then the mirror-image mistake — with no pronoun ("this", "the opposite mistake") left unresolved, confirming this is the correct order.

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