Direction: The question below consists of a set of labelled sentences. Out of…
2025
Direction: The question below consists of a set of labelled sentences. Out of the four options given, select the most logical order of the sentences to form a coherent paragraph.
P - A Non-performing asset (NPA) is defined as a credit facility in respect of which the interest and/or installment of principal has remained ‘past due’ for a specified period of time.
Q - Once the borrower has failed to make interest or principal payments for 90 days the loan is considered to be a non-performing asset.
R - 'Non Performing Assets' have been in the news recently.
S - It must be noted, Non-performing assets are problematic for financial institutions since they depend on interest payments for income.
- A.
RSPQ
- B.
RPQS
- C.
RQSP
- D.
QRPS
Attempted by 5 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
CONCEPT: A coherent paragraph follows a fixed rhetorical order: an opening line that introduces the topic and creates interest, followed by a general definition of the term, then a specific/technical detail that narrows the definition, and finally a concluding remark on its broader significance. Structural cues — topical hooks (‘in the news’), definitional phrasing, dependent thresholds, and concluding markers (‘it must be noted’) — reveal each sentence's role in that order.
APPLICATION: R opens the paragraph — it flags that 'Non-performing assets' have been in the news recently, a topical hook that introduces the subject without assuming prior context. P must follow R because P supplies the general definition of what a non-performing asset actually is, giving the reader the term's meaning before anything more specific is discussed. Q then narrows that general definition to the concrete 90-day threshold, which only makes sense once the general definition from P is already in place. S closes the paragraph — its opening phrase 'it must be noted' is a concluding marker, and its content (impact on financial institutions' income) is the broader consequence that follows only after the term and its criteria have been established. This gives the order R - P - Q - S.
CROSS-CHECK: Each distractor breaks this sequence at a specific point: placing S right after R strands the concluding remark before the term is even defined; placing Q right after R forces the specific 90-day criterion on a reader who has not yet been told what a non-performing asset is; and opening with Q entirely skips the topic introduction and starts on a technical detail with no context. Only R-P-Q-S keeps every sentence dependent only on information already established by the sentences before it.
Therefore, the correct order is RPQS.