CAT Questions | CAT Sentence Elimination Questions

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Question 21: A. India is self-sufficient in strategic armaments – nuclear weapons and delivery systems, including advanced and accurate ballistic and cruise missiles, and nuclear-powered submarines.

B. By focusing militarily on Pakistan and ignoring China’s challenge, India inspires little confidence about its judgment, resolve, and prospects as a consequential power in the extended region.

C. While India wishes to stand up to China and emerge as the other nodal power in Asia, this ambition is undermined by diffidence and skewed capabilities.

D. But paradoxically, India has become the world’s largest importer of conventional weaponry, leaving its foreign policy hostage to the whims and interests of vendor states.

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D

Explanatory Answer

Method of solving this CAT Question from Sentence Elimination:

We can see straight away that both sentences B and C talk about India and its relations with its neighbors. Sentence B talks about India’s military focus on Pakistan over China “inspiring little confidence in its judgment, resolve, and prospects as a consequential power in the extended region�. Sentence C talks of India’s ambition to emerge as the other major power in Asia being undermined by its “diffidence and skewed capabilities�.

Again, the link between sentences A and D is obvious. Sentence A talks about India’s self-sufficiency in strategic armaments and sentence D about India’s dependence on other countries for conventional weaponry. It is also clear that D follows A, as it starts by observing the paradoxical nature of the situation.

So which sentence among these 2 groups has a common link with the other?

We see that sentence B refers to India’s military focus. Both sentences A and D talk of India’s military capabilities. However, a logical connection between these fails to emerge. If sentence B were to precede A and D, then the paragraph would start by saying that India’s military focus on Pakistan ignoring China shows poor judgment. But the sentence group A and D do not add to this: they talk instead of India’s capabilities, and do not substantiate the focus of sentence B, i.e. how the military stance is affecting India’s image in the world stage. What if B were to follow AD? Sentence D ends with a note on how India’s dependence on imports for conventional weaponry leaves “its foreign policy hostage to the whims and interests of vendor states�. There is nothing in sentence B to substantiate or add to this. In fact, sentence B goes on to talk of a totally different idea. So it does not make a good option to follow D.

Now, sentence C talks of India’s strategic ambitions being undermined by its “diffidence and skewed capabilities�. The word “skewed� provides a key link between this sentence and the sentence group AD. Clearly, sentences A and D talk about India’s asymmetrical capabilities in areas of strategic armaments and conventional weaponry. CAD makes a logical paragraph.

The question is " Choose the Sentence that does not fit in "

Hence, the answer is Sentence B

Choice B is the correct answer.