Sentence Placement: every CAT question since 2020

Logic: Blank 1.

The sentence before blank 1 says the sisters follow their great-grandfather's methods, and the one after describes building an instrument by hand, so the remark about tradition bridges the two. The later blanks come after the discussion moves to tools, tone and fame, where the remark no longer connects.

Logic: Blank 1.

The next sentence says lighting and kitchen dining wore away "this need", so the need must be described first, at blank 1. Later blanks come after the paragraph has moved to the trade's survival, leaving "this need" without anything to refer to.

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.

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.

Logic: Blank 3.

The sentence before blank 3 lists the behaviours seen, and the one after names the exact mutation in the MAOA gene, so the chromosome location bridges them. Blank 2 would separate the behaviour list from what is meant to follow it.

Logic: Blank 4.

The sentence before blank 4 says wages stagnated while capital income was deliberately boosted, and the missing sentence states the outcome of that trend. Blank 3 would break the link between "wealth depends on political choices" and the point that follows it.

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.

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.

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.

Logic: Blank 3.

Before blank 3 the paragraph describes how connected the world already was around the year 1000, and the next sentence's "they" (the Europeans) changed what already existed, which needs this sentence to introduce them. At blank 4 the "they" would come before its referent, and blank 2 would cut the trade routes off from the voyage that follows.

Logic: Blank 3.

The paragraph sets up the farm-boy's puzzles: hens pecking at mica, which then vanishes from their gizzards. The calcium-shell mystery adds a second puzzle that the same hidden process must explain, so it sits after the mica puzzle and just before the closing line on Kervran's conclusion that elements were being transformed.

Logic: Blank 2.

Just before blank 2, night owls are said to be getting the last laugh, and the next sentence adds a caveat, so the superiority claim belongs in between. At blank 3 the verdict would come before the study that supports it is introduced.

Logic: Blank 3.

Just before blank 3 the paragraph describes soldiers walking behind the children, and right after it come the picture's title and nickname, which the sentence's "the picture" leads into. Other blanks would split the description of the scene or interrupt the closing lines on the title.

Logic: Blank 4.

The sentence before blank 4 describes farmers and herders losing income and livestock, and the next continues with pastoralists who may never return home, so the sentence bridges them. Blank 3 would cut the drought's wider damage off from the economic losses that follow.

Logic: Blank 3.

Before blank 3 the paragraph notes that wages trail inflation, and after it comes "this is especially jarring", so the personal strain belongs in between. Blank 4 would sit between the savings point and the anecdote that illustrates it.

Logic: Blank 2.

Blank 2 follows the point that outdated beliefs may need replacing, and the sentence sums up how hard that is before the "what's worse" point about philosophers offering no comfort. Blank 1 comes before the idea it would sum up.

Logic: Blank 3.

Blank 3 comes after the scientists' surprise at the Japanese genetic link and before the description of the groups making matching stemmed stone points, so the sentence sets up that archaeological detail. Earlier blanks come before the genetic links are fully described.

Logic: Blank 2.

The sentence before blank 2 defines productive dualism, and the next says "this distinction" mattered in the 1950s–60s but less now. The missing sentence supplies the developing-versus-developed distinction that "this distinction" refers to.

Logic: Blank 2.

The sentence before blank 2 says written sources show kissing established 4,500 years ago, and the missing sentence extends that timeline. The following sentences, on clay tablets and cuneiform, would be cut apart at the later blanks.

Logic: Blank 3.

Before blank 3 come the ways premises can support a conclusion, and after it a "but" sentence says studying arguments in real communication is also valuable. The abstract view must come first for that "but" to contrast with it.

Logic: Blank 3.

Before blank 3 the paragraph shows crime's profits fuelling conflict, and the missing sentence adds the reverse direction, completing the two-way link. After it comes the "criminalised peace" left by surplus weapons.

Logic: Blank 2.

Before blank 2 the paragraph gives Covid and living costs as reasons couples avoid invitations, and after it a "plus" adds that celebrities make secret weddings fashionable. The sentence adds a further reason in that chain.

Logic: Blank 4 (the end).

The sentence sums up the whole paragraph's argument, so it belongs after the last point, that online sources reinforce existing views and weaken serious reading. Placed earlier, it would interrupt the list of effects.

Logic: Blank 4.

"Most" needs a group already in view, and the only one is the 400 rural women in the pilot, introduced just before blank 4. After it, the paragraph notes the strong interest the app sparked. At earlier blanks no users have yet been mentioned.

Logic: Blank 3.

The sentence's "he" needs the speaker introduced first, which happens just before blank 3, where his interest is tied to a return to basics. It then leads into the following point about slow, mindful eating.

Logic: Blank 2.

It explains what the "second line of inheritance" mentioned just before means in practice, and the next sentence describes how people choose whom to copy. Blank 1 comes before the idea is introduced, and blank 3 would separate copying from the choice of model.

Logic: Blank 2.

The sentence opens with "this", which needs the preceding description of the slow, uneven trickle back. It also leads into the point that firms are still working out policies. Blank 4 comes after the paragraph has moved on.