Strategies to Solve Parajumbles Questions

There are several approaches which a test-taker can follow while solving
Parajumble questions. The key strategies are as follows:
Identify the Opening Sentence: After reading all the sentences, it would be easy
to find out the first and opening sentence. Once the first or opening sentence is
identified, it would be easy to arrange the other sentences sequentially.
Identify the Closing Sentence: It is relatively easy to find out the closing or last
sentence in a Parajumble. The last sentence will have a conclusive tone to it,
which will make it easier to identify the final sentence.
Usage of Pronouns and Acronyms: The sentences, which would have pronouns or
acronyms would be the middle sentences since a paragraph’s first sentence will
carry proper nouns and full forms. Hence, any sentence of the Parajumble would
be one of the middle sentences.
Note the Transitional Words: Test takers should look for transitional words such
as ‘also’, ‘as well’, ‘furthermore’, etc. The transition words act as a bridge
between one sentence to another, rather one idea to another in a paragraph.
Observing the transition words can lead to the connecting sentence.

Parajumbles Exercises
Q1: A. With that, I swallowed the shampoo, and obtained the most realistic
results almost on the spot.
B. The man shuffled away into the back regions to make up a prescription, and
after a moment I got through on the shop-telephone to the Consulate, intimating
my location.
C. Then, while the pharmacist was wrapping up a six-ounce bottle of the mixture, I
groaned and inquired whether he could give me something for acute gastric
cramp.
D. I intended to stage a sharp gastric attack, and entering an old-fashioned
pharmacy, I asked for a popular shampoo mixture, consisting of olive oil and
flaked soap.
A: (a) DCBA
(b) DACB
(c) BDAC
(d) BCDA
CAT 1999

Q2:  A. If caught in the act, they were punished, not for the crime, but for allowing
themselves to be caught another lash of the whip.
B. The bellicose Spartans sacrificed all the finer things in life for military expertise.
C. Those fortunate enough to survive babyhood were taken away from their
mothers at the age of seven to undergo rigorous military training.
D. This consisted mainly of beatings and deprivations of all kinds like going around
barefoot in winter, and worse, starvation so that they would be forced to steal
food to survive.
E. Male children were examined at birth by the city council and those deemed too
weak to become soldiers were left to die of exposure.
A: (a) BECDA
(b) ECADB
(c) BCDAE
(d) ECDAB
CAT 2000

Q3: A. Passivity is not, of course, universal.

B. In areas where there are no lords or laws, or in frontier zones where all men go
armed, the attitude of the peasantry may well be different.
C. So indeed it may be on the fringe of the unsubmissive.
D. However, for most of the soil-bound peasants the problem is not whether to
be normally passive or active, but when to pass from one state to another.
E. This depends on an assessment of the political situation.
A: (a) BEDAC
(b) CDABE
(c) EDBAC
(d) ABCDE
CAT 2001

Q4: A. As officials, their vision of a country shouldn’t run too far beyond that of
the local people with whom they have to deal.
B. Ambassadors have to choose their words.
C. To say what they feel they have to say, they appear to be denying or ignoring
part of what they know.
D. So, with ambassadors as with other expatriates in black Africa, there appears at
a first meeting a kind of ambivalence.
E. They do a specialized job and it is necessary for them to live ceremonial lives.
A: (a) BCEDA
(b) BEDAC
(c) BEADC
(d) BCDEA
CAT 2002

Q5: A. To avoid this, the QWERTY layout put the keys most likely to be hit in rapid
succession on opposite sides. This made the keyboard slow, the story goes, but
that was the idea.
B. A different layout, which had been patented by August Dvorak in 1936, was
shown to be much faster.
C. The QWERTY design (patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to
Remington in 1873) aimed to solve a mechanical problem of early typewriters.
D. Yet the Dvorak layout has never been widely adopted, even though (with
electric typewriters and then PCs) the anti-jamming rational for QWERTY has been
defunct for years.
E. When certain combinations of keys were struck quickly, the type bars often
jammed.
A: (a) BDACE
(b) CEABD
(c) BCDEA
(d) CAEBD
CAT 2003
Q6: A. But this does not mean that death was the Egyptians’ only preoccupation.
B. Even papyri come mainly from pyramid temples.
C. Most of our traditional sources of information about the Old Kingdom are monuments of the
rich like pyramids and tombs.
D. Houses in which ordinary Egyptian lived have not been preserved, and when most people
died they were buried in simple graves.
E. We know infinitely more about the wealthy people of Egypt than we do about the ordinary
people, as most monuments were made for the rich.
A: (a) CDBEA
(b) ECDAB
(c) EDCBA
(d) DECAB
CAT 2004

Q7: A. Personal experience of mothering and motherhood are largely framed in relation to two
discernible or “official” discourses: the “medical discourse and natural childbirth discourse”. Both
of these tend to focus on the “optimistic stories” of birth and mothering and underpin stereotypes
of the “good mother”.
B. At the same time, the need for medical expert guidance is also a feature for contemporary
reproduction and motherhood. But constructions of good mothering have not always been so
conceived – and in different contexts may exist in parallel to other equally dominant discourses.
C. Similarly, historical work has shown how what are now taken-for-granted aspects of
reproduction and mothering practices result from contemporary “pseudo-scientific directives” and
“managed constructs”. These changes have led to a reframing of modern discourses that pattern
pregnancy and motherhood leading to an acceptance of the need for greater expert
management.
D. The contrasting, overlapping, and ambiguous strands within these frameworks focus to
varying degrees on a woman’s biological tie to her child and predisposition to instinctively know
and be able to care for her child.
E. In addition, a third, “unofficial popular discourse” comprising “old wives” tales and based on
maternal experiences of childbirth has also been noted. These discourses have also been
acknowledged in work exploring the experiences of those who apparently do not “conform” to
conventional stereotypes of the “good mother”.
A: (a) EDBC
(b) BCED
(c) DBCE
(d) EDCB
(e) BCDE
CAT 2007

Q8: A. Branded disposable diapers are available at many supermarkets and drug stores.
B. If one supermarket sets a higher price for a diaper, customers may buy that brand elsewhere.
C. By contrast, the demand for private-label products may be less price-sensitive since it is
available only at a corresponding supermarket chain.
D. So the demand for branded diapers at any particular store may be quite price sensitive.
E. For instance, only SavOn Drugs stores sell SavOn Drugs diapers.
F. Then stores should set a higher incremental margin percentage for private label diapers.
A: (a) ABCDEF
(b) ABCEDF
(c) ADBCEF
(d) AEDBCF
CAT 2002

Q9: A. Similarly, turning to caste, even though being lower caste is undoubtedly a separate
cause of disparity, its impact is all the greater when the lower-caste families also happen to be
poor.
B. Belonging to a privileged class can help a woman to overcome many barriers that obstruct
women from less thriving classes.
C. It is the interactive presence of these two kinds of deprivation – being low class and being
female – that massively impoverishes women from the less privileged classes.
D. A congruence of class deprivation and gender discrimination can blight the lives of poorer
women very severely.
E. Gender is certainly a contributor to societal inequality, but it does not act independently of
class.
A: (a) EABDC
(b) EBDCA
(c) DAEBC
(d) BECDA
CAT 2005
Q10: A. Call it the third wave sweeping the Indian media.
B. Now they are starring in a new role, as suave dealmakers who are in a hurry to strike alliances
and agreements.
C. Look around and you will find a host of deals that have been inked or are ready to be
finalized.
D. Then the media barons wrested back control from their editors, and turned marketing warriors
with the brand as their missile.
E. The first came with those magnificent men in their mahogany chambers who took on the world
with their mighty fountain pens.
A: (a) ACBED
(b) CEBDA
(c) CAEBD
(d) AEDBC
CAT 2003

Answers:

Q1: (a) Q2: (a) Q3: (d) Q4: (c) Q5: (b) Q6: (c) Q7: (a) Q8: (c) Q9: (b) Q10: (d)