In the first three questions, find the sentence that does not belong with the others. In the last two, choose the sentence that best completes the paragraph.
Question 1 · Type in the answer (+3 / 0)
Five sentences are given below. Four of them, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not fit and type its number.
1. During sleep, the brain replays patterns of activity that were first recorded while the sleeper was awake.
2. This replay appears to strengthen the connections that encode new memories, moving them from short-term to longer-term storage.
3. Many people find it harder to fall asleep after looking at a bright screen late in the evening.
4. Students who sleep after learning a list of words recall more of it the next day than those who stay awake for the same period.
5. Sleep, in other words, is not idle time for memory but an active stage in how memories form.
Show the solutionSolution
Answer: 3
Sentences 1, 2, 4 and 5 form a paragraph about sleep and memory: the mechanism (1-2), the evidence (4) and the conclusion (5).
Sentence 3 is about sleep, but about falling asleep, not about memory. It shares the topic word without serving the argument, so it is the misfit.
Question 2 · Type in the answer (+3 / 0)
Five sentences are given below. Four of them, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not fit and type its number.
1. Supermarkets are laid out with far more care than most shoppers realise.
2. Staples such as milk and bread are usually placed at the back of the store, so that customers must walk past many other products to reach them.
3. Sweets and magazines sit beside the tills, where people waiting in a queue are most likely to pick them up on impulse.
4. Online grocery shopping has grown rapidly, though many customers still prefer to choose fresh produce in person.
5. Each of these choices is designed to turn a quick errand into a longer visit with more purchases.
Show the solutionSolution
Answer: 4
Sentence 1 makes a claim about deliberate store layout, 2 and 3 give examples, and 5 ('each of these choices') ties the examples to their purpose.
Sentence 4 is about online shopping and customer preference, not about how physical stores are arranged to raise spending. It has no place in the 1-2-3-5 chain.
Sentence 3 might look like a stray detail, but it is a second layout example, and 5's 'each of these choices' needs more than one example.
Question 3 · Type in the answer (+3 / 0)
Five sentences are given below. Four of them, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not fit and type its number.
1. Corals depend on tiny algae that live inside their tissues and supply most of their food through photosynthesis.
2. Healthy reefs draw divers from around the world, many of whom come mainly to see their vivid colours.
3. When seawater stays unusually warm for several weeks, this partnership breaks down and the corals expel the algae.
4. Without them, the corals lose their colour, which is why the process is called bleaching.
5. A bleached coral is not yet dead, and it can recover if temperatures fall soon enough for the algae to return.
Show the solutionSolution
Answer: 2
Sentences 1, 3, 4 and 5 explain the biology of bleaching: the coral-algae partnership (1), its breakdown in warm water (3), the loss of colour (4) and the chance of recovery (5).
Sentence 2 is the trap: it shares the word 'colours' with 4, but it is about tourism, not about how bleaching happens. Nothing before or after it refers to divers.
Sentence 5 may look like a change of direction, but it continues the process by describing what happens after bleaching, so it belongs.
Question 4 · Multiple choice (+3 / −1)
Choose the sentence that best completes the paragraph.
Many cities have tried to ease traffic congestion by building wider roads. For a while, journeys do become quicker. But faster roads make driving more attractive: people who once took the bus, travelled at quieter times or avoided certain trips altogether start to drive at peak hours. Within a few years, the new lanes are as crowded as the old ones were. ____
Show the solutionSolution
Answer: C. Adding road space, it turns out, tends to create new traffic rather than relieve the old.
The paragraph describes a cycle in which new road space draws in new drivers until congestion returns. Option C states the general lesson of that cycle.
Option A jumps to a drastic policy the paragraph does not build towards. Option B introduces a new topic, the cost of public transport.
Option D draws the opposite conclusion: if extra lanes simply fill up, building even more of them is not the lesson.
Question 5 · Multiple choice (+3 / −1)
Choose the sentence that best completes the paragraph.
A literal translation can be accurate word for word and still mislead. Idioms, jokes and forms of politeness rarely survive a direct transfer between languages, because their meaning depends on shared habits rather than on dictionary definitions. A phrase that sounds warm in one language may sound stiff or even rude in another. ____
Show the solutionSolution
Answer: B. Good translators therefore aim to reproduce the effect a passage has on its readers, even when that means departing from its exact words.
The paragraph argues that word-for-word accuracy can distort meaning and tone. Option B gives the natural conclusion: translate for effect, not for exact wording.
Option A brings in machines versus humans, which the paragraph never discusses, and 'never' is too strong.
Option C moves to language learning in childhood. Option D fixes on dictionaries, although the paragraph's point is that dictionary meanings are not enough.
Full worked solution
Odd one out: first find the pair or chain of sentences that clearly link (a pronoun, a 'this', an example and its conclusion). The paragraph usually forms around them.
Name the paragraph's precise focus, not just its topic. The misfit often shares a keyword with the others (sleep, colour, shopping) but talks about a different aspect.
Before choosing a misfit, check that the other four really can be ordered into a paragraph. A sentence that looks like a change of direction may be the conclusion.
Paragraph completion: the right sentence follows from the last few lines and stays within the paragraph's scope. Reject options that introduce a new subject or a recommendation the argument has not earned.
Watch for options that reverse the argument or overstate it with words such as 'never' or 'altogether'.