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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 hard skills have traditionally ruled the roost, some companies are moving away from choosing prospective hires based on technical abilities alone.
  2. Companies are shaking off the old definition of an ideal candidate and ditching the idea of looking for the singularly perfect candidate altogether.
  3. Now, some job descriptions are frequently asking for candidates to demonstrate soft skills, such as leadership or teamwork.
  4. That's not to say that practical know-how is no longer required - some jobs still call for highly specific expertise
  5. The move towards prioritising soft skills "is a natural response to three years of the pandemic" says a senlor recrulter at Cenlar FSB.

Entered answer:

Solution

✅ Correct Answer: 2

Step 1: Find the main theme -> All sentences seem to be about hiring and skills, but we need to look closer.

Step 2: Group sentences by specific topic -> Most sentences talk about the shift from hard skills to soft skills in hiring.

From passage: "Although hard skills have traditionally ruled the roost, some companies are moving away from choosing prospective hires based on technical abilities alone."

Thought process: Sentence 1 introduces shift from technical abilities -> Sentence 3 explains what companies want now (soft skills) -> Sentence 4 clarifies hard skills still matter -> Sentence 5 gives reason for this change (pandemic)


The odd one out: Sentence 2 talks about something different - "shaking off old definition of ideal candidate" and "not looking for singularly perfect candidate." This is about changing hiring philosophy in general, not specifically about hard vs soft skills.

Coherent flow without sentence 2: 1 → 3 → 4 → 5

  • Companies moving away from technical abilities alone
  • Now asking for soft skills like leadership
  • Hard skills still needed for some jobs
  • This shift happened because of pandemic

Sentence 2 disrupts this specific narrative about skills by introducing a broader concept about ideal candidates that doesn't connect to the hard/soft skills discussion.

Answer: 2

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