Tricky Paragraph Completion Questions

In this type of questions, a small paragraph will be given  with deleted last sentence.  A student needs to identify the best sentence with completes the paragraph from the answer options.  Even though there are several general principles give us some idea about answering these questions, but most of the times a student finds the so called rules may not apply to these questions.  In several instances, Most interestingly, the test creator sets a different option than the actual line has been written by the author. This makes our job pretty tough. See the last two examples. 
Besides,  Identifying the author's style, way of thinking, tone will be difficult with just one paragraph.  So it requires a lot of concentration to answer the paragraph completion questions.

Example - 1

Age has a curvilinear relationship with the exploitation of opportunity. Initially, age will increase the likelihood that a person will exploit an enterpreneurial opportunity because people gather much of the knowledge necessary to exploit opportunities on the course of thier lives, and because age provides credibility in transmitting that information to others. However, as people become older, their willingness to bear risks declines, thier opportunity costs rise, and they become less receptive to new information.
(1) As a result,people transmit more information rather than experiment with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.  
(2) As a result,people are reluctant to experiment with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.   
(3) As a result,only people with lower opportunity costs exploit opportunity when they reach an advanced age.
 (4) As a result, people become reluctant to expliot entrepreneurial opportunities when they reach an advanced age.
Explanation: Options 1 and 2 are using a term "ideas" which is not mentioned in the paragraph.  Ideas and opportunities are two different things and are not same. Ruled out. 
Option 3 is against to the paragraph.  When authors says that the opportunity costs rise with age, how for "some people" it may not go up?
Option 4 is clearly completes the paragraph, saying that people at advance age are reluctant to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities.  So Option 4 is correct. 


Example - 2 

I am sometimes attacked for imposing 'rules'. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hate rules. All I do is report on how consumers react to different stimuli. I may say to a copywriter, "Research shows that commercials with celebrities are below average in persuading people to buy products. Are you sure you want to use a celebrity?" Call that a rule? Or I may say to an art director, "Research suggests that if you set the copy in black type on a white background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black background." 
1.   Guidance based on applied research can hardly qualify as 'rules'.
2.   Thus, all my so called 'rules' are rooted in applied research.
3.   A suggestion perhaps, but scarcely a rule.
4.   Such principles are unavoidable if one wants to be systematic about consumer behaviour.
5.   Fundamentally it is about consumer behaviour - not about celebrities or type settings.
Observe the tone of the paragraph.  Author is attacked for imposing rules, But author is clearly justifying that he hate rules. (3rd sentence).  So if his reports are not rules, then what could they be? In the authors opinion they are "Suggestions". Option 3
Options 2 and 4 are justifying the authors' reports as rules. Also 4 mentions about consumer behaviour which is no where mentioned in the paragraph. So ruled out.  
Option 1 and 5 are using new terms Applied research and Consumer behaviour. Ruled out. 


Example - 3


Trade protectionism, disguised as concern for the climate, is raising its head. Citing competitiveness concerns, powerful industrialized countries are holding out threats of a levy on imports of energy-intensive products from developing countries that refuse to accept their demands. The actual source of protectionist sentiment in the OECD countries is, of course, their current lackluster economic performance, combined with the challenges posed by the rapid economic rise of China and India – in that order.
(1) Climate change is evoked to bring trade protectionism through the back door.
(2) OECD countries are taking refuge in climate change issues to erect trade barriers against these two countries.
(3) Climate change concerns have come as a convenient stick to beat the rising trade power of China and India.
(4) Defenders of the global economic status quo are posing as climate change champions.
(5) Today’s climate change champions are the perpetrators of global economic inequity.
Option 1 is just rephrasing the first line of the paragraph. May not be the concluding sentence. 
Option 2 mentions only OECD countries while the paragraph mentions “powerful industrialized
countries” of which the OECD countries are only a part. Furthermore, the option is again a repetition of ideas presented in the paragraph.
The focus of option 3 is on China and India, while the focus of the paragraph is talking about developing countries as a whole.
Option 5 using a phrase "global economic inequity" which is just an assertion. No evidence could be found in the paragraph. 
Option 4 addresses the gist of the paragraph. Powerful countries, including the OECD countries are posing as climate change champions due to their lacklustre economic performance as compared to China and India which are growing rapidly. Climate change champions‟ in this option completes the paragraph, and addresses the point raised in the first sentence.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
(Use ctrl+F option and copy paste Trade protectionism to directly go to the paragraph)

Example - 4

We can usefully think of theoretical models as maps, which help us navigate unfamiliar territory. The most accurate map that it is possible to construct would be of no practical use whatsoever, for it would be an exact replica, on exactly the same scale, of the place where we were. Good maps pull out the most important features and throw away a huge amount of much less valuable information. Of course, maps can be bad as well as good - witness the attempts by medieval Europe to produce a map of the world. In the same way, a bad theory, no matter how impressive it may seem in principle, does little or nothing to help us understand a 
problem. 
1.   But good theories, just like good maps, are invaluable, even if they are simplified.
2.   But good theories, just like good maps, will never represent unfamiliar concepts in detail.
3. But good theories, just like good maps, need to balance detail and feasibility of representation.
4.   But good theories, just like good maps, are accurate only at a certain level of abstraction.
5.   But good theories, just like good maps, are useful in the hands of a user who knows their limitations.
Author is comparing Theoretical models with maps in the paragraph.  Here an accurate map is not so useful, but good maps have important features. So if bad theory is not useful, a good theory must be helpful.  option 1 is exactly in this lines.  
Option 2 is mentioning about "unfamiliar concepts"  and a qualifier "never". Author is hedging his tone while talking about good maps by using "would be" which is less intense. 
Option 3 is talking about the balance which is not mentioned about the maps
Option 4 is accuracy distinctions.  But authors clearly said that "how accurate the map is..."
Option 5 is talking about user which is out of the line of this paragraph. 
Tricky Example - 1

Most people at their first consultation take a furtive look at the surgeon’s hands in the hope of reassurance. Prospective patients look for delicacy, sensitivity, steadiness, perhaps unblemished pallor. On this basis, Henry Perowne loses a number of cases each year. Generally, he knows it’s about to happen before the patient does: the downward glance repeated, the prepared questions beginning to falter, the overemphatic thanks during the retreat to the door.
(1) Other people do not communicate due to their poor observation.
(2) Other patients don’t like what they see but are ignorant of their right to go elsewhere.
(3) But Perowne himself is not concerned.
(4) But others will take their place, he thought.
(5) These hands are steady enough, but they are large.
The paragraph gives an introduction about a surgeon, and talks about the qualities a prospective patient look at the surgeon.   It gives us some information about why the surgeon is losing out a lot of cases each year, and telling us that the reasons for losing patients are known to the surgeon.  

Most people at their first consultation take a furtive look at the surgeon’s hands in the hope of reassurance. Prospective patients look for delicacy, sensitivity, steadiness, perhaps unblemished pallor. On this basis, Henry Perowne loses a number of cases each year. Generally, he knows it’s about to happen before the patient does: the downward glance repeated, the prepared questions beginning to falter, the overemphatic thanks during the retreat to the door.

The author is talking about the importance of "hand" in getting patients, and suddenly talking about his other problems 
So this paragraph gives us an impression that the author is talking about not a successful surgeon just based on the backdrop of the details. 
Option 1: Their lack of communication is nothing to do with the loss of the case.  
Option 5: Why again the importance of hands comes into the picture? This may not complete the paragraph suitably.
Now we left with options 2, 3, 4
Option 4: If some patients leave, others will surely take their place.  But here there is tense incongruity.  It must be "he thinks"
Finally.........
Option 2: Other patients means, the patients who don't go away after looking at the surgeons hands.
Option 3: Here the word "each year" tells us that losing patients is not uncommon. So he may  not be bothering about losing patients. 
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/12/20/041220fi_fiction1?currentPage=1

Now click on the link and see the actual source.  !!!!
the official answer is option 3.  but the source says that it is option 2.  Which one is correct? 
I feel both the options perfectly fit. Although Option 3 is a starting sentence of another paragraph, in view of this small paragraph, it fits well.  Option 2 also fits well, as the author is mentioning about how he gets atleast some patients.  But option 3 is nicely ending the paragraph, but two leaves a doubt as to what perowne's own opinion is? He knows he is going to loose the patient, but what is the reaction? So option 3. 

Tricky Example - 2

Mattancherry is Indian Jewry’s most famous settlement. Its pretty streets of pastel coloured houses, connected by first-floor passages and home to the last twelve saree-and-sarong-wearing, white-skinned Indian Jews are visited by thousands of tourists each year. Its synagogue, built in 1568, with a floor of blue-and-white Chinese tiles, a carpet given by Haile Selassie and the frosty Yaheh selling tickets at the door, stands as an image of religious tolerance.
(1) Mattancherry represents, therefore, the perfect picture of peaceful co-existence.
(2) India’s Jews have almost never suffered discrimination, except for European colonizers and each other.
(3) Jews in India were always tolerant.  
(4) Religious tolerance has always been only a façade and nothing more.
(5) The pretty pastel streets are, thus, very popular with the tourists.
http://accidentalblogger.typepad.com/accidental_blogger/2008/11/a-pardesi-life.html
Option 3 is using a qualifier "always" which makes it a wrong option.  Option 4 is contradicting the paragraph. option 5 is not in tune with the trend of the paragraph which is one of synthesis of cultural items.  
Now we left with two options
There is no evidence in the preceding lines of peaceful co-existence with some other community.  Wearing sarees, and having chinese tiles, Carpet given by an orthodox christian Selassie is not an evidence of Co-existence with another community. It is adoption of a cultural item taken from another religion or community.  Take a note, Yaheh is the youngest women of child bearing age in the same jewish community. (see the source of the paragraph).  and "therefore" in the option 1 makes us  look for some evidence in the preceding lines, but none could be found. 
The officical answer is option 1
But I have to disagree.