All 24 VARC questions in exam order, with the passage topic, what each question asks, the answer and the reasoning.
VA mix: 3 para summary, 0 para jumbles, 2 odd sentence out, 3 sentence placement. RC themes: Economics & Business; Technology & Society; Science & Nature.
TopicThe Silk Roads
AsksWhere a sentence saying Central Asia's story illuminates events far beyond Asia fits.
Logic: Blank 4.
Just before blank 4 the Silk Roads are called the world's connecting network, and the next sentence's "it" refers to the wider view the missing sentence introduces. At blank 1 the following "these countries" would lose its reference, and blank 3 would break the link between the account of disasters and the nervous-system metaphor.
TopicAnimal intelligence and emotion
AsksSummary of a paragraph on animal intelligence and emotion.
Correct option: Animals feel emotions like ours because we share the brain structures behind emotion.
B keeps the passage's key reason: a common neural basis. The closest option states the emotional overlap but drops the brain-structure explanation.
TopicPeter Singer and animal rights
AsksFive sentences on Peter Singer and animal rights.
Logic: 4 → 2 → 3 → 5: Singer's 1975 book → his direct, utilitarian theory → his argument about animals' interests → the conclusion about duties.
The four sentences follow Singer's book and argument to their conclusion. Sentence 1 is a general claim about animals, not about Singer, and repeats what sentence 3 already says, so it is the odd one.
TopicDecline of urban public transport
AsksFive sentences on falling public-transport use in Western cities.
Logic: 5 → 3 → 4 → 1: an unexpected fall → the usual explanations → a structural squeeze → new alternatives.
The four sentences explain a decline. Sentence 2 makes a general point about how rising ridership improves service, which runs against that theme, so it is the odd one.
Q5–Q8 · 4 questions · Inference, Except / NOT
AsksWhat medieval craft guilds had in common with mass production.
Correct option: Neither necessarily promoted creativity.
Guilds' rigid entry rules and long apprenticeships could stifle innovation, just as mass production's focus on efficiency can. The passage never links mass production to entry restrictions, and the other options are not discussed.
AsksWhich statement is consistent with the passage.
Correct option: Artisan markets that become over-organised could dampen craft creativity.
The passage says crafts thrive only when they avoid excessive organisation, pointing to the rigid guilds. The other options overstate the case, reverse the history of the Arts and Crafts movement, or wrongly equate agile working with the guilds.
AsksWhy the author doubts that crafts can create many jobs today.
Correct option: Regulatory requirements favour large firms, making it hard for small craft businesses to scale.
The author notes that big companies hold the edge where products must clear regulations. Resistance to newcomers belongs to the medieval guilds, not to today's obstacle.
AsksWhich is NOT a cause of the recent revival of interest in crafts.
Correct option: A preference for one-off handmade goods over factory-made ones.
The passage names premium buyers, environmental concern and a taste for buying local as drivers. It praises the human touch, but never gives it as a cause of the revival.
TopicModern cartographers
AsksSummary of a paragraph on cartographers and demanding map users.
Correct option: Because technology has changed what users expect, cartographers must now examine how usable their maps are.
A captures the shift from making maps to testing their usability. The closest option adds "a series of experiments", which the passage never mentions.
TopicArchitecture of the brain
AsksWhere a sentence saying the brain isn't laid out like a tidy cabinet where things go anywhere fits.
Logic: Blank 1.
The sentence sets up the analogy that the very next sentence, about not being able to put things where you like, builds on. At blank 3 it would repeat the disorder point right after the "old house" image.
Q11–Q14 · 4 questions · Main idea & summary, Strengthen / weaken, Inference, Purpose of example
AsksWhich statement about art best captures the passage.
Correct option: Digital distribution makes access to art more fragile, because platforms and technology can remove it.
Films vanishing from services, files decaying and regional rights limiting access all point to fragile access. The cultural-commons option overstates the case into a demand that art stay available forever.
AsksWhat would most weaken the passage's central claim about digital media.
Correct option: Guaranteed, permanent, platform-independent access to digital purchases.
The argument rests on owners losing access through rights changes or platform decisions, and B removes that risk. The option about the durability of physical discs misses the passage's focus on control of access.
AsksWhat the remark about cinema's past ephemerality suggests.
Correct option: Today's audiences expect films to remain available after their theatrical run.
The contrast with an era when films disappeared after release implies that viewers now expect lasting access. The option about past attitudes claims more than the remark supports.
AsksWhy the passage cites a streamer editing old episodes of a show.
Correct option: To back the worry that streaming platforms can't be trusted to preserve cultural works.
A platform altering a released work supports the concern about platform control. Claiming that all digital art is now open to change overreaches from one example.
Q15–Q18 · 4 questions · Inference, Author's view & tone
AsksWhat the term "homo economicus" describes, per the passage.
Correct option: A rational agent whose choices reveal pre-existing personal preferences.
The passage presents a person whose interests come before action and show up in choices, such as food versus warmth on a tight budget. The options saying preferences are shaped by others, or that the concept borrowed from other disciplines, contradict the passage.
AsksThe attitude behind the remark that the "once almighty" discipline has changed.
Correct option: Gentle mockery of economics' former self-importance, now that it reaches out to other fields.
The contrast between the old imperial style and today's economists who seek out historians and psychologists supports a mildly ironic reading. The author welcomes the change, so a critical reading fails.
AsksWhat the author faults in the behavioural "narrative" approach.
Correct option: It links perceptions straight to behaviour and outcomes, leaving out the institutions that once mediated them.
The author notes that parties, lobby groups and media, which shaped how perceptions became outcomes, are missing from the account. The complaint is that institutions are omitted, not that they are belittled.
AsksThe point of the first paragraph about economists like Becker.
Correct option: They applied economic tools to non-market life, such as crime and family, without drawing on other disciplines.
The paragraph says this approach expanded economics' reach but borrowed nothing from anthropology or history. The option claiming they borrowed from other fields reverses it.
TopicCodes and naturalisation
AsksSummary of a paragraph on codes that become "naturalised".
Correct option: Some codes are so widespread that they seem natural, hiding the fact that they are constructed.
C keeps both halves: codes seeming natural, and that concealing their coding. The closest option overstates by making the concealment deliberate.
Q20–Q23 · 4 questions · Detail, Except / NOT, Word / phrase in context, Main idea & summary
AsksWhy the bandicoot earned its flattering nickname.
Correct option: Its digging traps moisture and helps seeds sprout, restoring degraded desert.
The nickname is tied to how the animal reshapes its habitat. Population growth is mentioned separately and is not the reason for the name.
AsksWhich description does NOT fit the bandicoot.
Correct option: That the animal itself uses camouflage (only its shelters are camouflaged).
The passage says it digs camouflaged shelters, not that it camouflages itself. The digging, long snout, striped back and backward-facing pouch are all described.
AsksWhy the text uses the word "exclosures".
Correct option: The fenced areas keep invasive animals out.
The areas were cleared of rabbits and feral cats and fenced to bar them, the reverse of an enclosure. The option tying the term to islands confuses it with the separate island population.
AsksThe gist of the passage.
Correct option: Introduced predators nearly wiped out the species, and conservationists are reviving it from a surviving island population.
D covers both the near-extinction and the recovery effort. The tempting option says the species went fully extinct, but a small population survived on predator-free islands.
TopicRenaissance music
AsksWhere a sentence on Renaissance music expressing emotion in a balanced, moderate way fits.
Logic: Blank 3.
It continues the description of the music's general character and leads straight into the statement that extreme contrasts don't occur. Blank 4 would separate that statement from the sentence on rhythm that explains it.
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