CAT Questions | CAT Text Completion Questions

CAT Verbal Ability | CAT Text Completion

The following questions are from Text Completion for Verbal Ability for CAT. Text Completion questions often feature in the CAT. A couple of sentences with blanks are given, along with word options for each blank. You need to choose the right combination of words that make sense in the given context. If you would like to take these questions as a Quiz, head on here to take these questions in a test format, absolutely free.

  1. CAT Text Completion: Child Rearing

    More often than not, mothers are ____________ for oddities of behavior in their offspring. ____________, single mothers’ children, raised even in the most difficult of times, do not display ‘outrageous’ patterns of behavior, as do those of nuclear families.

    1. appreciated, consequently
    2. berated, therefore
    3. praised, in the same manner
    4. blamed, interestingly enough
    Choice D
    blamed, interestingly enough

  2. CAT Text Completion: Treating Depression

    In measuring electrical activity in different parts of the brain, researchers found that people who describe themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal lobe of their brains than do other people. Therefore, a medication for ____________ the left prefrontal lobe of the brain would be an ____________ treatment for clinical depression.

    1. suppressing, ineffective
    2. stimulating, effective
    3. improving, impressive
    4. challenging, practical
    Choice B
    stimulating, effective

  3. CAT Text Completion: Crossed Hands

    Researchers found that when people's hands were crossed to other side of their bodies, it confused the brain by ____________ the processing of information incoming from multiple regions. Lead researcher says the confusion results from a ____________ between the brain's external mapping of where it normally assumes the hands will be (on the appropriate side of the body) and its internal map of the physical source of the new pain information.

    1. quickening, alignment
    2. transmitting, connection
    3. interrupting, misalignment
    4. hindering, alignment
    Choice C
    interrupting, misalignment

  4. CAT Text Completion: Race, Gender and Religion

    ________around race, gender and religion sometimes seems to have gone beyond ___________ in academic circles. The world would do better if we could all speak with a lighter heart more often about these things.

    1. insensitivity, the pale
    2. sensitivity, parody
    3. sensitivity, the pale
    4. insensitivity, reality
    Choice B
    sensitivity, parody

  5. CAT Text Completion: Democracy

    Democracy is better ___________through the ballot box than it is through the crowding of main squares, which is a _______________ image, but a misleading representation of the “people’s will”

    1. focused, ineffective
    2. affected, moving
    3. effected, powerful
    4. realized, fleeting
    Choice C
    effected, powerful

  6. CAT Text Completion: Muhmud of Ghazni

    ______________ Muhmud of Ghazni made 17 raids of India, he did not make any_____________effort to capture India. ___________, he may be seen as the founder of Turkish rule in India to the extent that his expeditions opened India to conquest from the north-west.

    1. Because, systemic, therefore
    2. Although, systematic, however
    3. Albeit, repeated, consequently
    4. Even though, systemic, nevertheless
    Choice B
    Although, systematic, however

  7. CAT Text Completion: Economic Recovery

    Citing an improvement in exports and government spending, the nation’s central bank has said that an ________economic recovery is under way. However, many economists remain skeptical as to whether the economy is picking up after more than a year of ________ economic growth.

    1. incipient, anaemic
    2. slow, weak
    3. insipient, steady
    4. insipid, astounding
    Choice A
    incipient, anaemic

  8. CAT Text Completion: The Hold-Out Problem

    In measuring electrical activity in different parts of the brain, researchers found that people who describe themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal lobe of their brains than do other people. Therefore, a medication for ____________ the left prefrontal lobe of the brain would be an ____________ treatment for clinical depression.

    1. continuous, naive
    2. separate, crafty
    3. abutting, astute
    4. contiguous, less shrewd
    Choice D
    contiguous, less shrewd

  9. CAT Text Completion: Free Speech

    Unfettered free speech is good for humanity. Defending free speech means defending speech you __________________; otherwise it’s just _________________, not principle.

    1. like, dogma
    2. don't like, partisanship
    3. don't like, antipathy
    4. like, candor
    Choice B
    don't like, partisanship

  10. CAT Text Completion: Luxury

    The Western culture’s relationship with luxury is ____________ from that in emerging markets.___________ great shows of ostentatious wealth are considered crass in the UK, they are de rigueur in Russia.

    1. strikingly different, however
    2. not different, just as
    3. marginally different, whilst
    4. starkly different, whereas
    Choice D
    starkly different, whereas

  11. CAT Text Completion: Stone Tools

    It had long been presumed that stone tool-making was a hallmark of our ______________, Homo. _______________,the recent discovery, in northwestern Kenya, of 3.3-million-year-old stone tools that are 7,00,000 years older than any other such stone tools ever found suggests it was the more ancient human ancestors who made the cognitive leap needed for crafting such implements.

    1. genius, per contra
    2. genius, additionally
    3. genus, after all
    4. genus, however
    Choice D
    genus, however

  12. CAT Text Completion: Sharing Chores

    Even in the____________ Nordic countries, household chores are still not evenly distributed, but at least the language is changing. When a reporter asked a young Swedish father whether he helped with the child care, she was __________________ for asking the wrong question. He did not “help”: he did his share.

    1. elitist, reprimanded
    2. egalitarian, rebuked
    3. prejudiced, admonished
    4. non partisan, condemned
    Choice B
    egalitarian, rebuked

  13. CAT Text Completion: The Romans

    ___________ they gained control of Italy and defeated the Carthaginians, the Romans became the strongest power in the Mediterranean. They greatly benefited from the _____________ nature of Mediterranean politics, oftentimes getting help from local allies to defeat a far-off enemy.

    1. though, fractious
    2. after, facetious
    3. once, factious
    4. since, factitious
    Choice C
    once, factious

  14. CAT Text Completion: The Government Shutdown

    It is __________________ rhetoric that the government "shutdown" was devastating. In actuality only seventeen percent of the federal government was actually shutdown as a result of partisan _______________.

    1. efficacious, discord
    2. specious, disagreement
    3. spurious, comity
    4. facile, agreement
    Choice B
    specious, disagreement

  15. CAT Text Completion: Appreciating Sport

    Connoisseurs ____ sport know an uber moment when they have witnessed one. __________ greatness does not require a quorum, as the stands erupted that Friday on the Centre Court, Wimbledon welcomed with open arms Roger Federer, a player who can turn prose into poetry.

    1. into, since
    2. of, while
    3. in, though
    4. on, now
    Choice B
    of, while

  16. CAT Text Completion: Concept of Justice

    The belief in _______________justice is the expectation that the universe is designed to ensure that evil is punished and virtue rewarded. _______ being exclusive to traditional societies, these beliefs pervade large-scale modern societies.

    1. immanent, far from
    2. inherent, normally
    3. imminent, besides
    4. eminent, not
    Choice A
    immanent, far from

  17. CAT Text Completion: The Archaeological Treasures of Paris

    Archaeologists have unearthed 150 skeletons that they think may have been part of a "mass mortality crisis" like Bubonic plague beneath a Paris supermarket. The long-buried mass grave is a reminder that Paris, for all its surface grandeur, is still ___________ with undiscovered archaeological treasures, some grand, others much more __________.

    1. replete, grisly
    2. teeming, grizzly
    3. awash, gristly
    4. tempered, grizzled
    Choice A
    replete, grisly

  18. CAT Text Completion: Of Borrowers and Lenders

    Shakespeare’s tragedies may have drawn inspiration more from ancient Rome than Greece. Yet, in “Hamlet,” Polonius offers _____________advice: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Greece might have saved the Eurozone some grief had it followed Polonius' __________.

    1. fatuous, caution
    2. germane, council
    3. apposite, counsel
    4. opposite, consul
    Choice C
    apposite, counsel

  19. CAT Text Completion: Religion and Ideology

    Religious belief is fluid and protean, _________ ideology is procrustean, enforcing uniformity. Religion can be syncretic ________ ideology is restrictive.

    1. while, whereas
    2. hence, but
    3. similarly, yet
    4. by contrast, likewise
    Choice A
    while, whereas

  20. CAT Text Completion: George Orwell

    One writer who has, for more than half a century, been admired for his searing honesty is George Orwell. He is never ___________, but he is never __________. He says it as it is and yet says it as it has not been said before.

    1. candid, clichéd
    2. recondite, trite
    3. arcane, unorthodox
    4. lucid, singular
    Choice B
    recondite, trite

  21. CAT Text Completion: Language and Cognition

    The link between language and cognition is a ___________. ___________, the manifest reality of thinking by nonlinguistic creatures argues against the importance of language.

    1. can of worms, ironically
    2. grey area, yet
    3. elephant in the room, nevertheless
    4. red herring, indeed
    Choice D
    red herring, indeed

  22. CAT Text Completion: Childhood

    No parent would ___________ childcare for childhood. ________, seeing the world anew through a child’s eyes can be a powerful source of stimulation.

    1. mistake, still
    2. reject, yet
    3. conflate, however
    4. opt, besides
    Choice A
    mistake, still

  23. CAT Text Completion: Use of Adjectives in Reporting

    Reporters are ________________ to lending color and emotion to stories. Hence their temptation to _____________ to adjectives. But adjectives convert news into views.

    1. wont, resort
    2. accustomed, revert
    3. loath, recourse
    4. averse, turn
    Choice A
    wont, resort

  24. CAT Text Completion: Inflation and Growth Rates

    The argument by the Finance Minister that high inflation is the necessary price for high economic growth is clearly _____________. ______________China has been growing at close to double-digit rates for more than a decade, inflation has been either low or falling through most of these years.

    1. ingenious, while
    2. ingenuous, after all
    3. dissentious, considering
    4. disingenuous, though
    Choice D
    disingenuous, though

  25. CAT Text Completion: Sound Effects in Comics

    Comics are in the peculiar position of needing to ______________ sounds through images, making it the only medium where the audience regularly sees sound instead of hearing it. A comic with the sound effects removed might be a significantly different reading experience, almost as though a central character had been _______________.

    1. evince, purged
    2. imply, excised
    3. convey, revamped
    4. infer, expunged
    Choice B
    imply, excised

  26. CAT Text Completion: Covering Up a Shiny Pate

    For as long as men have had access to mirrors, they’ve been fretting about their scalps going ____________. It was a particular obsession of Julius Caesar; the wreath of laurels he wore was less a _____________ to Roman tradition than an attempt at covering up his shiny pate.

    1. barren, bow
    2. barred, blow
    3. bare, nod
    4. bared, note
    Choice C
    bare, nod

  27. CAT Text Completion: Cetus

    Cetus is a very large constellation that can be readily recognized from the peculiar ____________ of its _______________ stars.

    1. confirmation, predominant
    2. configuration, principle
    3. composition, prominent
    4. conformation, principal
    Choice D
    conformation, principal

  28. CAT Text Completion: Massive Agitation

    ________ of protesters joined the agitation and did not heed the repeated requests by the police not to ________ the barricades.

    1. Hordes, breach
    2. Hordes, breech
    3. Hoards, breach
    4. Hoards, breech
    Choice A
    Hordes, breach

  29. CAT Text Completion: Newspaper Editorials

    Even before newspaper editorials shrank into vestigial artifacts of a bygone era, their impact was ______________________. Editorial boards have long tended to have durable leanings which _________________ their persuasive power over partisan politics.

    1. formidable, underpin
    2. pronounced, subvert
    3. self-limiting, undermine
    4. negligible, bolster
    Choice C
    self-limiting, undermine

  30. CAT Text Completion: Laughter

    Laughter is a complex and __________________ social signal. People interpret laughter in a way that is _____________ with their interpretations of other people’s intentions.

    1. ambiguous, consistent
    2. ambivalent, compatible
    3. misleading, contrary
    4. misconstrued, accordant
    Choice A
    ambiguous, consistent

  31. CAT Text Completion: Experiential Purchases

    It's the ______________________ nature of experiential purchases that endears us to them. Often, they're not around long enough to become imperfect. And even if they are imperfect, our memories and stories of them get sweet with time. Even a bad experience becomes a _________________ story.

    1. ephemeral, engaging
    2. lasting, compelling
    3. fleeting, good
    4. enduring, disquieting
    Choice C
    fleeting, good

  32. CAT Text Completion: Climate Change

    In reality, most of us on this planet would rather preserve civilization than destroy it with climate change. To think of climate change as something that we are doing, instead of something we are being prevented from _____________, _______________ the very ideology of the fossil-fuel economy that we are trying to transform.

    1. accomplishing, bolsters
    2. undoing, perpetuates
    3. revoking, counters
    4. ratifying, thwarts
    Choice B
    undoing, perpetuates

  33. The following questions are from IPMAT Rohtak and Indore sample papers. If you want to take these questions as a mock please click below.

    IPMAT Rohtak Sample Paper Mock
    IPMAT Indore Sample Paper Mock

    Please note that the explanation button will take you to the IPMAT solution page.


  34. IPMAT 2020 Sample Paper - IPM Rohtak Verbal Ability

    His appearance is unsmiling but _________

    1. his heart is full of compassion for others
    2. he looks very serious on most occasions
    3. people are afraid of him
    4. he is uncompromising on matters of task performance
    Choice A
    his heart is full of compassion for others

  35. IPMAT 2020 Sample Paper - IPM Rohtak Verbal Ability

    In order to helpthe company attain its goal of enhancing profit, all the employees ____________

    1. urged the management to grant paid leave
    2. appealed the management to implement new welfare schemes
    3. voluntarily offered to work overtime with lucrative compensation
    4. voluntarily offered to render additional services in lieu of nothing
    Choice D
    voluntarily offered to render additional services in lieu of nothing

  36. IPMAT 2020 Sample Paper - IPM Rohtak Verbal Ability

    The manners and ____________ of the nouveau riche is a recurrent ____________ in the literature.

    1. style, motif
    2. morals, story
    3. wealth, theme
    4. morals, theme
    Choice D
    morals, theme

  37. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    Although he is recovering from his illness, he has to follow certain diet restrictions. He cannot eat junk food. Please do not pity him and _______________

    1. give him some snack
    2. cut him some slack
    3. be slack with his eating
    4. cut down the snacks
    Choice A
    give him some snack

  38. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    The problems may be difficult, but all you have to do is __________ as long as you can.

    1. hang in up there
    2. hang on there
    3. hang on to that
    4. hang in there
    Choice D
    hang in there

  39. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    The standards set by the examination board are so high that it would be difficult for poorly prepared students to __________

    1. pass most errors
    2. past muster
    3. get past most errors
    4. pass muster
    Choice D
    pass muster

  40. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    After all the alliances and arithmetic, the party is likely to ________ a majority in the assembly election.


    1. scrape through
    2. scrape together
    3. tape together
    4. shape together
    Choice B
    scrape together

  41. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    I'll have to _________ because I don't know how Sheila's parents are going to react to this offer.

    1. count on my fingers
    2. face the music
    3. break the ice
    4. play it by ear
    Choice D
    play it by ear

  42. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    If you had been more alert, this golden opportunity would not have __________

    1. escaped your fingers
    2. slipped off
    3. escaped away
    4. slipped through your fingers
    Choice D
    slipped through your fingers

  43. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    One who is ____________ gets on with his job in spite of obstacles, while the one who is __________ hardly shows any progress. The latter spends all his time ___________ about his troubles.

    1. artful, doubtful, speaking
    2. assiduous, querulous, whining
    3. hardworking, dishonest, gossiping
    4. hotheaded, scared, cryingQuestion
    Choice B
    assiduous, querulous, whining

  44. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    The ___________ of multiculturalism, in times of war or economic ____________ tribalism is what causes those in power to confine groups of people with different _________ into ghettos or in communes on the margins of their cities.

    1. rise, doldrums, ideologies
    2. tyranny, growth, habits
    3. antithesis, prosperity, persuasions
    4. opposite, distress, ethnicities
    Choice D
    opposite, distress, ethnicities

  45. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    That the artiste went about systematically to get traditional _________  back into the mainstream __________ and  a textile culture for dance is to be celebrated.

    1. practices, processed
    2. motifs, created
    3. totems, evolved
    4. stories, described
    Choice B
    motifs, created

  46. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    In response to my friend's request, I decided to write her a letter, which I hoped would be honest and practical, while also serving as a _________ of sorts for my own feminist thinking. This book is a  ______ of that letter, with some details changed.

    1. map, version
    2. chart, form
    3. base, fallout
    4. guide, precis
    Choice A
    map, version

  47. IPMAT 2020 Question Paper - IPM Indore Verbal

    Quantum Physics really begins to point to this discovery. It says that you can't have a Universe without mind __________  into it, and that the mind is actually __________ the very thing that is being

    1. getting, creating, acknowledged
    2. intruding, making, construed
    3. entering, shaping, perceived
    4. penetrating, forming, seen
    Choice C
    entering, shaping, perceived


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