CAT Questions | CAT Text Completion Questions

The question is from CAT Text Completion. 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. Have a look at this question from Text Completion. Solve CAT Questions from Text Completion to get more practice and 2IIMs CAT questions bank provides you with CAT questions that can help you gear for CAT Exam .

Question 9: 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

Explanatory Answer

Method of solving this CAT Question from Text Completion:

Blank (1): The key to answering this blank is in the first sentence. That reads that unfettered or unrestricted free speech is good for humanity. It follows that defending free speech is more than just defending speech that you like. That is, it is defending speech that you don’t like as well. So the correct choice for blank (1) is don’t like. We hence rule out options A and D.

Blank (2): Our sentence now reads “Defending free speech means defending speech you don’t like; otherwise it’s just __________________, not principle.� The choices we have for this blank are partisanship (biased support) and antipathy (aversion).

You can be averse to speech you dislike. But the question here is defending speech you don’t like or not defending it. You may show antipathy to speech you don’t like, but still defending it is necessary to uphold the principle of unfettered free speech.

Partisanship is hence the correct word choice here- if you do not defend speech that you don’t like, it is just biased support for speech you like, not principle.

So the correct answer is choice B. don't like, partisanship

The question is "Choose the correct option to fill the blanks"

Hence, the answer is B

Choice B is the correct answer.