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Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

  1. Although we are born with the gift of language, research shows that we are surprisingly unskilled when it comes to communicating with others.
  2. We must carefully orchestrate our speech if we want to achieve our goals and bring our dreams to fruition.
  3. We often choose our words without thought, oblivious of the emotional effects they can have on others.
  4. We talk more than we need to, ignoring the effect we are having on those listening to us.
  5. We listen poorly, without realizing it, and we often fail to pay attention to the subtle meanings conveyed by facial expressions, body gestures, and the tone and cadence of our voice.

Entered answer:

Solution

āœ… Correct Answer: 2

Step 1: Identify the main theme

  • Most sentences talk about communication problems
  • One sentence seems different in tone

Step 2: Group similar ideas

  • Sentence 1 -> introduces that we're bad at communication despite having language
  • Sentences 3, 4, 5 -> give specific examples of how we're bad at communication
  • Sentence 2 -> tells us what we should do (advice/solution)

From passage: "We must carefully orchestrate our speech if we want to achieve our goals" vs "We often choose our words without thought"

Thought Process:

Sentence 1 sets up the problem -> Sentences 3, 4, 5 explain the problem with examples -> But sentence 2 switches to giving advice instead of describing the problem


The Key Difference:

  • Sentences 1, 3, 4, 5 = Descriptive tone (describing what's wrong)
  • Sentence 2 = Advisory tone (telling us what to do)

Elimination Logic:

🟢 Sentences 1, 3, 4, 5 work together -> They all describe communication failures in a consistent, problem-focused way

šŸ”“ Sentence 2 is the odd one -> tone-shift -> It suddenly switches from describing problems to giving solutions, which breaks the flow

Answer: 2

The coherent paragraph describes our communication problems, while sentence 2 jumps to prescriptive advice about achieving goals.

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