Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the…

Concept

A jumbled paragraph is reassembled by first fixing the sentences whose position is forced by their own wording. A sentence carrying a backward-reference device — a demonstrative phrase such as "this" or "these", or a contrastive connector such as "however" or "but" — needs an earlier sentence in the same paragraph to point back to, so it cannot open the paragraph. A demonstrative phrase is read against the nearest earlier mention, so it normally sits immediately after the sentence that supplies its referent. A sentence that prescribes a remedy for problems the paragraph has raised belongs at the end.

Application

1. Sentence C ("Urbanisation has accelerated in recent decades, with cities growing at an unprecedented rate.") carries no backward-reference device and states the general situation, so it is the only sentence that can open the paragraph.

2. Sentence A opens with the demonstrative phrase "This rapid urban expansion", whose referent is the growth C describes. Read against the nearest earlier mention, A therefore sits immediately after C, giving C then A with no sentence in between.

3. Sentence D ("To ensure sustainable growth, city planners must adopt innovative and eco-friendly solutions.") prescribes a remedy for problems the paragraph has already raised, so it takes the final position.

4. With C first, A second and D last, only one slot remains, and sentence B fills it. Standing there, B’s contrastive connector "However" has the earlier sentences C and A in front of it, which is what such a connector requires; alongside the growth and the challenges already named, the paragraph records that the pressure on resources and infrastructure keeps mounting steadily.

Cross-check

Reading C, A, B, D straight through: the demonstrative in A points back to the sentence directly before it, the connector in B has two earlier sentences in front of it, which is what such a connector requires, and the paragraph moves from situation to consequences to remedy. The same two constraints rule out the other offered orderings. Any ordering that places A or B first leaves a demonstrative or a contrastive connector with nothing earlier in the paragraph to attach to. The one remaining alternative that opens with C separates A from C, which forces "This rapid urban expansion" to reach back over an intervening sentence for its referent instead of taking the nearest earlier mention.