Para Jumble questions confuse many as all the options look good. But the best way to attempt PJ questions is to identify the "Mandatory pair". A mandatory pair is a sequence that must exist in that order. To understand much more in detail what is a mandatory pair, let us have a look at different types of mandatory pairs.
Types of Mandatory pairs:
1. Names and pronouns: A pronoun always follow a proper noun or A name of a person.
Eg:
A. Mr Raman's personality sets him apart from the rest
B. Nothing is too small for his attention
C. He has a fanatical devotion to detail
D. This is what makes him a different guy.
a. ACBD B. ABCD C. BCDA D. DABC
Sol: It is clear from the above that the pronouns highlighted above should have some reference to previous sentences. Sentences B, C, D cannot stand on their own. So Statement A should be the starter. Next sentence should explain what is that personality trait sets him apart. Statement C should follow A and Statement B should follow statement C as it explains further. Statement D is concluding the paragraph.
So Option A is correct.
2. Assertion and Example: An assertion will be made and in the next sentence reason will be explained.
Eg:
A. One has to see if this is just a bubble and if it will burst
B. Biotech stocks have recently set the bourses on fire
C. Companies like Indrayani Biotech have quoted a 200 per cent rise
D. The latest craze for Biotech shares led to a spurt in their prices.
a. BDCA B. ACDB C. DCAB D. DABC
Sol: Statement C is an example of what is mentioned in statement D. So DC is an obvious pair. Options B and D ruled out. Statement A should not be the starter as "this" may not have any reference. So option B is correct.
3. General to Specific: Initial sentences give broad idea and subsequent sentences provide more details.
Eg:
A. Work done by Infosys in the US is called on site.
B. For traditional companies offshore work means work done abroad.
C. It is just the opposite in the software business
D. And work done in Bangalore is called Offshore.
a. BCAD B. ADCB C. ADBC D. BADC
Sol: Statement B is talking about traditional companies and introducing the topic. Statement C is stating only about software business. Statement A is talking about especially one company Infosys. So BCA is a mandatory pair. So Option A is correct.
How to identify the starting sentence:
Starting statements can be definitions, universal truths, facts or philosophical statements. Mostly, they may not contain any ambiguous pronouns and references to earlier sentences.
Eg:
A. Panther.com is poised to roll out its internet service
B. It will be the first ISP to offer - free service.
C. Free connnectivity will be offered from next month
D. Customers are waiting to avail of this service
a. BACD B. ABCD C. CADB D. BADC
Sol: Only A can start the paragraph as it is introducing the company and its service. So correct option is B.
Solved Examples: (level 2 and 3)
1.
A. This is now orthodoxy to which I subscribe - up to a point.
B. It emerged from the mathematics of chance and statistics.
C. Therefore the risk is measurable and manageable.
D. The fundamental concept: Prices are not predictable, but the mathematical laws of chance can describe their fluctuations.
E. This is how what business schools now call modern finance was born.
(1) ADCBE
(2) EBDCA
(3) ABDCE
(4) DCBEA
Sol: The best way to solve this one is not through the options. If you read the sentence several times there are two possibilities for the ‘it’ in statement B. The ‘it’ is either ‘The fundamental concept’ in D (i.e. BD) or ‘modern finance’ in E (i.e. EB). No other combination even as per the given options (CB and AB) would make sense if the ‘it’ is worked upon. BD is not in the options. Now, one has to merely check if EBDCA makes sense and there is no other option to compare with.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2
2.
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.
(1) EABDC
(2) EBDCA
(3) DAEBC
(4) BECDA
Sol: Statements B, C and D talk about class – which is introduced in statement E, along with gender. Hence E starts the paragraph.
‘A congruence of class deprivation and gender discrimination’ in statement D and ‘these two kinds of deprivation’ in statement C make DC a mandatory pair.
Statement B can be very easily placed before this pair because of the reference to class and women, making EBDC the best sequence.
The word ‘similarly’ in statement A and the reference to ‘caste’ something similar to class makes it easy to place statement A after EBDC.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.
3.
A. When identity is thus ‘defined by contrast’, divergence with the West becomes central.
B. Indian religious literature such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Tantric texts, which are identified as differing from secular writings seen as ‘western’, elicits much greater interest in the West than do other Indian writings, including India's long history of heterodoxy.
C. There is a similar neglect of Indian writing on non-religious subjects, from mathematics, epistemology and natural science to economics and linguistics.
D. Through selective emphasis that point up differences with the West, other civilizations can, in this way, be redefined in alien terms, which can be exotic and charming, or else bizarre and terrifying, or simply strange and engaging.
E. The exception is the Kamasutra in which western readers have managed to cultivate an interest.
(1) BDACE
(2) DEABC
(3) BDECA
(4) BCEDA
Sol: Comparing statements B and D for starters as per the options, statement B scores over statement D.
BD versus BC (as per the options) – By several reading of the sentences it is possible to see that BC is mandatory or that statement C cannot be placed next to any other statement available except immediately after statement B because of its ‘there is similar neglect. The neglect is mentioned only in statement B.
BCED and BCDE would have been very difficult to decide. Fortunately we are not required to decide this, because BCED is the only choice. Statement A then falls automatically at the end of the paragraph.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
In these examples, Statement A is starter. Find the logical sequence of the remaining 4 statements
4.
A. In America, highly educated women, who are in stronger position in the labour market than less qualified ones, have higher rates of marriage than other groups.
B. Some works supports the Becker thesis, and some appears to contradict it.
C. And, as with crime, it is equally inconclusive.
D. But regardless of the conclusion of any particular piece of work, it is hard to establish convincing connections between family changes and economic factors using conventional approaches.
E. Indeed, just as with crime, an enormous academic literature exists on the validity of the pure economic approach to the evolution of family structures.
(1) BCDE
(2) DBEC
(3) BDCE
(4) ECBD
(5) EDCD
Sol: When the four statements are studied well, it is very easy to establish that EC (records exist to verify both crimes and family structures) and BD are mandatory pairs.
Only statements E and C both contain the idea of ‘crime’. Hence one cannot place any other statement along with statement E, but statement C.
In the same way, statements B and D both have reference to written ‘piece of work’ and no other sentence, making BD in that order mandatory. Once this is noticed, placing EC and BD in that order with the help of A (fixed) is easy.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.
5.
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 “godmother”.
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 “pseudoscientific 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 with in 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”?
(1) EDBC
(2) BCED
(3) DBCE
(4) EDCB
(5) BCDE
Sol: The "two discernible" or "official discourses" makes it compulsory to place statement E after statement A, because statement E talks about "a third unofficial discourse". (In other words if not placed next to statement A, statement E cannot be placed anywhere else). AE is the first mandatory pair.
'These frameworks' in statement D is explained in statement E so that statement D unless placed next to statement E, will not make sense. (In other words ED too is mandatory.) The idea of motherhood from statement D (biological tie) is continued in statement B. Thus the links in EDB are most obvious.
Statements C and B too are clearly linked because statement B ends with reference to 'dominant discourse' and statement C begins with 'historical work' making EDBC most logical sequence.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.
6.
A. Indonesia has experienced dramatic shifts in its formal governance arrangements since the fall of President Soeharto and the close of his centralized, authoritarian "New Order" regime in 1997.
B. The political system has taken its place in the nearly 10 years since Reformasi began. It has featured the active contest for political office among a proliferation of parties at central, provincial and district levels; direct elections for the presidency (since 2004); and radical changes in centre-local government relations towards administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization.
C. The mass media, once tidily under Soeharto's thumb, has experienced significant liberalization as has the legal basis for non-governmental organizations, including many dedicated to such controversial issues as corruption control and human rights.
D. Such developments are seen optimistically by a number of donors and some external analysts, who interpret them as signs of Indonesia's political normalization.
E. A different group of analysts paint a picture in which the institutional forms have changed, but power relations have not. Vedi Hadiz argues that Indonesia's "democratic transition" has been anything but linear.
(1) BDEC
(2) CBDE
(3) CEBD
(4) DEBC
(5) BCDE
Sol: As per the options comparing statements B, C and D as the sentences to follow statement A, statement C gets eliminated.
Statements B and D are far better sentences to follow statement A than statement C. The next decisive point is the ‘such developments’ in statement D. As statements A, B, and C are talking about several developments statement D is best placed at the end of all, and will mar the structure of the paragraph if placed anywhere in between.
The choice then becomes very clear. Also, the link between statement D and statement E with their “some analysts’ (statement D) and ‘different analysts” (statement E) is also obvious.
Hence, the correct answer is option 5.
7.
A. I had six thousand acres of land, arid had thus got much spare land besides the coffee plantation. Part of the farm was native forest, and about one thousand acres were squatters' land, what [the Kikuyu] called their shambas.
B. The squatters' land was more intensely alive than the rest of the farm, and was changing with the seasons the year round. The maize grew up higher than your head as you walked on the narrow hard-trampled footpaths in between the tall green rustling regiments.
C. The squatters are Natives, who with their families hold a few acres on a white man's farm, and in return have to work for him a certain number of days in the year. - My squatters, I think, saw the relationship in a different light, for many of them were born on the farm, and their fathers befor them, and they very likely regarded me as a sort of superior squatter on their estates.
D. The Kikuyu also grew the sweet potatoes that have a vine like leaf and spread over the ground like a dense entangled mat, and many varieties of big yellow and green speckled pumpkins.
E. The beans ripened in the fields, were gathered and thrashed by the women, and the maize stalk and coffee pods were collected and burned, so that in certain seasons thin blue columns of smoke rose here and there all over the farm.
(1) CBDE
(2) BCDE
(3) CBED
(4) DBCE
(5) EDBC
Sol: Either by looking at the options or by reading the sentences in the given order, one can easily see that statement A has to followed either by statement B or by statement C because they talk about the ‘squatters’ introduced in statement A. (This eliminates options 4 and 5).
A more careful reading of statement B and statement C establishes that since statement C explains the identity of the squatters and statement B talks about their farming statement B has to follow statement C rather than precede it.
At his stage one has to evaluate/compare only options 1 and 3. Considering statement E and statement D to follow statement B, the link between statement B and statement E because of the “maize” conclusively makes option 3 the answer.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.
