All 26 VARC questions in exam order, with the passage topic, what each question asks, the answer and the reasoning.
VA mix: 3 para summary, 3 para jumbles, 2 odd sentence out, 0 sentence placement. RC themes: Language, Arts & Literature; History, Politics & Society; Science & Nature.
TopicEurope's identity in a changing world order
AsksSummary of a paragraph on Europe's changing identity in the world order.
Correct option: Europe adapted to a multipolar world by reducing its internal political and economic diversity through a common currency and political union.
D keeps both the constant adaptation and how it was achieved. The closest option omits the means and links the union directly to rapid change.
TopicVoice recognition in forensic phonetics
AsksSummary of a paragraph on forensic voice identification and crime dramas.
Correct option: TV dramas have convinced people that forensic voice analysis is robust and foolproof.
The passage centres on the false expectations fiction creates (the "CSI effect"). The closest option questions the method's scientific basis, which the passage doesn't.
TopicSan folktales and shamans
AsksArrange four sentences on interpreting San folktales.
Logic: Narrative structure alone can't reveal the tales' meaning (1) → meaning emerges from key words in the original language (4) → selected tales show conflict with harmful shamans (3) → benign shamans resolve conflict (2).
Sentence 1 states the problem, and sentence 4 gives the method. Sentence 3 introduces the shamans, and sentence 2's "their" refers to the good ones.
Q4–Q8 · 5 questions · Except / NOT, Application & analogy, Main idea & summary, Author's view & tone
AsksWhich statement, if false, would support the passage.
Correct option: That complete sentences don't need nouns and verbs.
The passage holds that a sentence needs a noun and a verb, so this claim being false supports it. Denying the link between grammar and judging one's writing would undermine the passage.
AsksWhich statement is similar to "any noun with any verb makes a sentence" (the others are not).
Correct option: Vegetables combined with spices make a dish.
A pairs two basic elements into a larger whole, mirroring noun plus verb. The others place a single item in a setting, line up items of one kind, or describe a group defined by what it shares.
AsksThe quote that best captures the passage's concern.
Correct option: Grammar's rules make clear communication possible.
The passage argues that shared rules prevent confusion. Nouns and verbs are an illustration of that point, not the point itself.
AsksWhich statement cannot be inferred.
Correct option: That grammar's main goal is to keep sentences simple.
The passage presents grammar as organising communication, never as a push for simplicity. That sentences needn't always be complete, and that they pair subject and predicate, are supported.
AsksWhat the author would most likely support.
Correct option: Software that standardises grammar rules to help writers.
The author says knowing grammar lets writers judge their work. Bending rules is allowed only for writers who already master them, not as a general licence.
Q9–Q12 · 4 questions · Application & analogy, Except / NOT, Inference
AsksWhich way of paying for a small purchase worth an eighth of a bolt of cloth would be unsound.
Correct option: Cutting an eighth off a new bolt.
The passage says cutting textiles greatly reduces their value. A faded bolt of matching value is a workable payment.
AsksWhich meaning the author does NOT intend by calling textiles "steady and stable".
Correct option: Reliability in transport.
Steadiness refers to standard bolt sizes, a full bolt keeping its value, and dependable supply compared with coins. Transport is never mentioned.
AsksWhat the passage supports about money in the Tang period.
Correct option: Like the Tang system, modern money mixes forms: cash for small payments, other instruments for larger ones.
The closing paragraph draws this parallel. Grain was still used for taxes and salaries, so the option dismissing it fails.
AsksWhich feature of today's money is NOT shared with the Tang system, per the passage.
Correct option: Being in the midst of transformation.
Physical materials, several currencies for different payments and shifting values all appear in the Tang account too. Only the modern system is described as changing now.
TopicSpeech, slavery and power
AsksFive sentences on speech as resistance under slavery.
Logic: 1 → 2 → 4 → 5: speech as the main way to bend bondage → it couldn't be suppressed → slavery needed dialogue, so the enslaved weren't silenced → owners feared whispered plots.
The four sentences treat speech as resistance within slavery. Sentence 3 turns to the spiritual value of oaths in home cultures, a tangent.
TopicFeminist reading and the canon
AsksFive sentences on feminist criticism of reading and the canon.
Logic: 1 → 5 → 4 → 2: how we read is tied to what we read → feminist inquiry starts from the canon's male bias → documenting this was an early task → one critic's study as an example.
The four sentences describe feminist critics' work on the canon. Sentence 3 is a general claim about gender and reading with no link to that work.
TopicThe conventional view of intelligence
AsksSummary of a paragraph on the conventional view of intelligence.
Correct option: Biologists dispute that intelligence is a single entity and question estimates of its heritability.
A covers both challenges. The closest option makes the same points vaguely and garbles the second.
Q16–Q20 · 5 questions · Except / NOT, Inference, Main idea & summary, Detail
AsksWhich argument the author does NOT make.
Correct option: That the public sees anarchism as lawless because of mainstream distrust of collectivism.
The passage covers revolutions being betrayed, the state as the enemy and strands of individualist anarchism. It offers no causal account of public perception.
AsksHow the new ruling class betrayed the French Revolution.
Correct option: It used the masses' revolutionary anger to seize power, then oppressed them.
The passage describes terror, secret police and a standing army imposed after ordinary people paid for the uprising. A power-sharing deal with the old elite is never mentioned.
AsksHow American individualist anarchists and free-market liberals are alike and different.
Correct option: Both prize individual autonomy, but the anarchists also stress mutual dependence.
The passage says the anarchists add mutualism to autonomy. Views on the state, capitalist morality or altruism are not discussed in this comparison.
AsksThe set of concepts closest to the passage's central concern.
Correct option: Anarchism, state, individual, freedom.
These capture opposition to the state and the value of individual autonomy. Betrayal and power support the argument, and strikes and egoism are peripheral.
AsksThe one idea shared by every strand of anarchism.
Correct option: Opposition to concentrated state power.
The passage says anarchists see the state itself as the enemy. The primacy of the individual belongs to the individualist strand only.
TopicPoisons and biological weapons
AsksArrange four sentences on poisons and biological weapons.
Logic: Poison has been used to kill since ancient times (1) → microbiology made rational design of biological weapons possible (3) → "these" dangers led to bans in 1874 and 1899 (2) → "though" well meant, the treaties lacked enforcement (4).
Sentence 1 opens the topic, and sentence 3 adds the scientific foundation. Sentence 2's "these" refers to the dangers, and sentence 4 gives the flaw.
Q22–Q25 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Application & analogy, Main idea & summary, Inference
AsksWhich statement cannot be inferred from the seal study.
Correct option: That immigrants would soon push the colony's call rate above the founder colony's.
The passage says immigration pulls call rates toward the founder colony's average, not past it. That individual males keep their call signature for life is supported.
AsksWhich condition would have kept the local dialects from disappearing.
Correct option: Immigrant males adjusting their call tempo to the resident average.
Immigrants normally pull local averages toward the founder colony, erasing differences. Residents shifting toward immigrants would speed that convergence instead.
AsksHow male seal calls changed over time.
Correct option: From simple calls with strong regional dialects and little individual variation, to complex calls with wide individual variation and weaker dialects.
B matches the passage's account. The other options reverse part or all of the trend.
AsksWhy call pulse rates were faster at the southern colonies.
Correct option: Faster-calling seals from the founder island may have happened to settle them first.
The passage attributes local averages to the chance order of arrival. The option about modern calls' complexity concerns a different change.
TopicSecurity in Southeast Asia
AsksArrange four sentences on security in Southeast Asia.
Logic: Security has stayed the same yet changed deeply since the 1990s (3) → tensions persist among the eleven states (1) → China's power and claims worry many (2) → "these" worries draw in outside powers (4).
Sentence 3 frames the theme, and sentence 1 gives the continuing tensions. Sentence 2 offers China as a specific concern, and sentence 4's "these" explains outside involvement.
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