All 24 VARC questions in exam order, with the passage topic, what each question asks, the answer and the reasoning.
VA mix: 2 para summary, 2 para jumbles, 2 odd sentence out, 2 sentence placement. RC themes: Science & Nature; Technology & Society; Language, Arts & Literature.
Q1–Q4 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Inference, Strengthen / weaken
AsksWhich statement does NOT describe a cavefish adaptation.
Correct option: The point about overfilled fat cells bursting, which is about inflammation in general, not a cavefish trait.
The other statements describe cavefish traits or the pressures behind them, including heavy fat as a response to erratic food. The fat-cell remark only sets up the inflammation discussion.
AsksWhy cavefish can't skip the wasteful step of first forming an eye.
Correct option: Early eye and brain development are intertwined, so building and then losing the eye disrupts the least.
D explains the constraint: skipping eye formation would disturb the brain. The scarce-food option explains why wasted tissue is costly, not why the step is unavoidable.
AsksWhich cross-breeding result would overturn the conclusion that carotenoid build-up is unrelated to eye loss.
Correct option: Yellow fat appearing only in eyeless offspring.
That would tie carotenoids to eye loss, contradicting the conclusion. Fish with eyes also showing yellow fat would support the conclusion instead.
AsksThe likely role of carotenoids in cavefish.
Correct option: Controlling inflammation, important because cavefish gorge when food arrives.
The researcher proposes an anti-inflammatory role, linked to the earlier point about overfilled fat cells. The eye-substitute idea was rejected by the cross-breeding results.
TopicDhaka muslin
AsksWhere a sentence on Westerners doubting that Dhaka muslin was handmade, and inventing myths about it, fits.
Logic: Blank 1.
Blank 1 follows the claim that the cloth was the world's most prized, and the disbelief leads naturally into the next sentence, which explains how it was really spun by hand. A later blank would cut the description of the spinning process off from the cotton's origin.
TopicMonopoly and the Landlord's Game
AsksSummary of a paragraph on the woman who invented the game that became Monopoly.
Correct option: It is ironic that the creator of an anti-monopoly game lost its credit and royalties to a man who sold a version for a small sum.
A keeps the irony, the creator's lost credit and the meagre payment. The closest option centres the company's motives and leaves out both the man who sold it and the anti-monopoly message.
TopicA stand-up comedy show
AsksFive sentences describing a comedian's seated, crayon-illustrated show.
Logic: 4 → 1 → 5 → 2: the show's format → his look → his curious ideas → his relaxed delivery.
Sentences 4, 1, 5 and 2 describe the show's format and the performer's look, mind and style. Sentence 3 brings in an unresolved side-quest and the reviewer's own reaction, which breaks that descriptive run.
Q8–Q11 · 4 questions · Purpose of example, Except / NOT, Author's view & tone
AsksWhich chatbot example serves a different purpose from the others.
Correct option: The chatbot describing its own trust-building tone, while the others show distorted outputs.
B, C and D each show a concrete biased or altered output (spelling, an image skewed toward men, a flattering CEO portrait). A is the chatbot explaining its style, not a faulty output.
AsksWhich statement does NOT show a gap between AI companies' claims and their systems' behaviour.
Correct option: The author's hedged guess that the chatbot might favour big tech.
The other statements show promised neutrality producing biased or false output, or promised benefits flowing elsewhere. A self-admitted guess offers no evidence of a gap.
AsksWhich is NOT a reason for comparing AI text to a beige office building.
Correct option: Blaming training data for biases, a point about how chatbots respond to criticism, not about tone.
The comparison is about generic, safe, professional-sounding language, which the other options describe. The training-data remark appears in the passage, but in a different context.
AsksThe claim the author is least likely to accept.
Correct option: That AI's neutral tone encourages critical thinking.
The author argues that the polished, neutral tone lulls users into accepting biased or false answers, the opposite of A. On the other claims she is cautious or sceptical, not opposed.
TopicLiterature on screen
AsksArrange four sentences on adaptation studies and "literature on screen".
Logic: The hybrid idea (1) → the assumption beneath it (4) → that bias in practice (2) → why it persists (3).
Sentence 1 introduces the phrase and its hybrid sense, and sentence 4's "beneath this" points back to it. Sentence 2 ("even though...") shows the literary bias in practice, and sentence 3's "it" explains why the field keeps it: borrowed prestige.
Q13–Q16 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Inference, Application & analogy
AsksThe one statement that, if true, contradicts the passage.
Correct option: That mathematics is only now developing a scientific culture.
The passage holds that every science has its own culture, with only the instrument-based trend being new for mathematics. The microscopy option seems to clash, but the passage never limits microscopes to visible light.
AsksThe statement that is a valid inference (all the others can be rejected).
Correct option: Astronomy is mostly receptive in its use of instruments, biology mostly interventional.
The passage presents exactly this contrast. The option about Newton fails because the "new astronomy" begins with radio astronomy, not with improved optical telescopes.
AsksWhich object fits the passage's account of instruments least.
Correct option: A milestone: a fixed marker that neither receives information nor acts on anything.
The passage treats instruments as active, either receiving (telescopes) or intervening (biotech tools); an oven, a scalpel or a saxophone all act on something through skilled use. A milestone does neither.
AsksThe conclusion that follows from "sciences need constantly improving instruments to progress".
Correct option: Progress in both astronomy and microbiology depends on better instruments.
C applies the claim directly to the passage's two examples. The other options add a moral demand or bring in "scientific constants", which the passage never discusses.
TopicHuman impact on biodiversity
AsksSummary of a paragraph arguing that human land use has often enriched biodiversity.
Correct option: Human activity has been as likely to boost biodiversity as to reduce it, creating varied habitats, contrary to the view that nature thrives only without people.
D keeps both the historical record and the rejection of the human-free ideal. The closest option narrows the claim to one period and one landscape type.
Q18–Q21 · 4 questions · Inference, Except / NOT, Purpose of example
AsksThe conclusion that follows from the claim that combining arts and sciences deepens our understanding of humanity.
Correct option: Merging the two is the best route to a fuller grasp of the human condition.
C restates the link the claim makes. The other options swap means and ends, reverse the relationship, or turn it into a call for disciplined study.
AsksWhich statement is NOT true of the second paragraph's argument.
Correct option: That the emotional sense of a place replaces the surveyor's map (it only adds to it).
The paragraph says literature adds an emotional layer that records lack, which complements the physical record rather than replacing it. The paragraph does call that layer as real as a map, so the option saying so is true, not the exception.
AsksWhy the author cites literary descriptions of a place.
Correct option: To show that people of different race and class experience the same place differently.
The example traces how social position shapes experience of one location. The author calls science and literature complementary and does not rank one as more accurate.
AsksWhich statement, if false, would NOT contradict the passage.
Correct option: The claim that people relate to places without emotion or subjectivity.
The passage insists that places carry emotional meaning, so this claim is already against the passage, and its being false agrees with the passage. The falsity of each other option would contradict a point the passage makes.
TopicPFAS "forever chemicals"
AsksFive sentences on PFAS chemicals and new health research.
Logic: 2 → 1 → 4 → 5: new studies link PFAS to disease → what PFAS are → more diseases may emerge → the findings aid detection and treatment.
The four sentences stay on health research. Sentence 3 switches to why the chemicals persist in the environment, so it is the odd one.
TopicTaste versus judgment
AsksWhere a sentence on taste staying tied to pleasure, the body and particularity, even as it relates to judgement, fits.
Logic: Blank 3.
Just before blank 3 the paragraph shows taste becoming a central aesthetic and ethical category, and the sentence after it ("also") turns to recovering neglected thinkers. The earlier blank comes before taste's development has been described.
TopicThe scent of old books
AsksArrange four sentences on why old books smell the way they do.
Logic: The smell (2) → its cause is chemical breakdown (4) → paper releases compounds as it ages (1) → the compounds named (3).
Sentence 2 introduces the familiar smell, and sentence 4's "this" explains its cause. Sentence 1 describes the decay releasing compounds, and sentence 3's "these" names them, giving 2-4-1-3.
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