The question below comprises four scattered segments of a paragraph. Identify…

Concept

Para-jumble (sentence-rearrangement) questions test whether a set of scattered sentences can be reassembled into one coherent paragraph. The method is to find the sentence that introduces the topic in general terms — usually the one with no dangling pronoun or connector — and then trace the referential and logical links (pronouns, contrastive words such as "but", qualifying phrases such as "as long as", concluding remarks such as "as well") that bind each sentence to the one before it, until every segment is chained into a single logical sequence.

Application

Segment A, "Anniversaries can be dicey things," makes a general opening claim with no connector tying it to anything earlier, so it must come first. Segment B, "As long as the dead are being commemorated on a particular day, it is fine," narrows that general claim to one specific case (death anniversaries) and asserts it is unproblematic, so it follows A directly. Segment D opens with the contrastive connector "But", which needs an immediately preceding claim to contrast against — that claim is exactly B's "it is fine", which D then contrasts by introducing a government celebrating a year or two in office as a case where "there can be trouble". Segment C, "The opposition could keep its gun powder dry and ready as well," closes the paragraph as the opposition's natural response to the trouble D has just introduced. So the coherent order is A - B - D - C.

Cross-check

Test each connector independently: D's "But" cannot immediately follow A, because A makes no claim for D to contrast — it only works after B's "it is fine". C's "as well" does not require an earlier sentence that literally names another party's readiness; it ties back to the political tension the paragraph has just raised in D (a government marking a year or two in office), signalling that the opposition, too, will stay alert and ready to respond. Checking every other ordering against this same standard only sharpens the case: placing C anywhere before D leaves no developed tension yet for the opposition to react "as well" to, and placing D directly after A skips over B's qualifying claim entirely, leaving D with nothing to contrast. No other arrangement of these four segments satisfies both connectors at once, so A - B - D - C remains the one coherent order.