CAT Questions | CAT Word Usage Questions

The question is from CAT Word Usage. Word Usage for Verbal Ability for CAT. Word Usage questions that appear in the verbal section of CAT look for the correct usage of words in a sentence. Have a look at this question from Word Usage. Solve CAT Questions from Word Usage to get more practice and 2IIMs CAT questions bank provides you with CAT questions that can help you gear for CAT Exam .

Question 17: Pretentiousness is never a felony in the first (A)/sensible (B) person.

You might grant the odd personality flaw; the occasional pirouette of hyperbole (A)/self-deprecation (B) is nothing if not good manners.

Most likely it is one of those foible (A)/imperfections (B) nobody minds owning up to, something that looks charming in the right circumstances.

But (A)/Nevertheless (B) being pretentious is something that happens "over there".

1. ABBA
2. BABA
3. BBAB
4. AAAA

Explanatory Answer

Method of solving this CAT Question from Word Usage:

Let us look at the sentences in order:

Sentence 1- Pretentiousness is never a felony in the first (A)/sensible (B) person.

Is pretentiousness never a felony in the first person or never a felony in the sensible person?

When you say pretentiousness is never a felony in the first person, the meaning would be that no one self-identifies with it. “First person� here is used in the grammatical sense – a point of view relating to the speaker. (I/me/we/us etc - first person, you/yours – second person, he/she/it- third person)

When you say pretentiousness is never a felony in the sensible person, the meaning would be that no sensible person is pretentious.

We can’t answer this one right away and need to look at the other sentences to answer.

Sentence 2- You might grant the odd personality flaw; the occasional pirouette of hyperbole (A)/self-deprecation (B) is nothing if not good manners.

This sentence states that one might admit to the odd personality flaw, because it is good manners.

‘Pirouette’ means turn and in this context, the occasional pirouette means occasional reference to something.

Self-deprecation or self-disparagement is the right word here, as we are told we do it because it is “good manners�.

Hyperbole or exaggeration does not make sense in this context, as it can hardly be due to a deference to good manners that we dramatize something.

Sentence 3- Most likely it is one of those foible (A)/imperfections (B) nobody minds owning up to, something that looks charming in the right circumstances.

A foible is an imperfection. So which word is the right choice here? Imperfections is, because the sentence says “one of the� before asking us to choose the word. “One of the� should be followed by a plural, not singular word. So the right word here is ‘imperfections’, not ‘foible’.

Sentence 4- But (A)/Nevertheless (B) being pretentious is something that happens "over there".

‘But’ is the right word choice for this sentence. ‘Nevertheless’ means even so. The sentence preceding this, the third sentence, only elaborates on the idea expressed in the second, that we wouldn’t mind admitting to imperfections that even look ‘charming’ in the right circumstances. But, we would never admit to being pretentious; it is a flaw that we spot in others but not in ourselves.

Now that we understand the general gist of what the writer wants to say, we can, for sure, eliminate ‘sensible’ as the word choice for sentence 1. Pretentiousness is never a felony in the first person.

Hence, the answer is ABBA

Choice A is the correct answer.