All 24 VARC questions in exam order, with the passage topic, what each question asks, the answer and the reasoning.
4
RC passages
16
RC questions
8
VA questions
VA mix: 3 para summary, 3 para jumbles, 2 odd sentence out, 0 sentence placement. RC themes: Science & Nature; Language, Arts & Literature; Philosophy, Psychology & Culture.
RC question types in this slot
Inference 3Except / NOT 5Purpose of example 1Main idea & summary 5Author's view & tone 1Strengthen / weaken 1
Why no passages? CAT's VARC passages and sentences come from published books and articles, so we don't reproduce them. Each question is analysed instead: its type, the passage topic, what it asks, the answer and why. For full practice, use the original CAT-style practice sets.
AsksArrange four sentences on relationships, discourse and power.
Answer: 2314
Logic: Relationships depend on communication and shared knowledge (2) → a Foucauldian view goes further, to regimes of truth (3) → "it is" these regimes that decide what can be said (1) → reconsidering everyday practices reveals power/knowledge (4).
Sentence 2 opens with the basic idea, and sentence 3 moves beyond "these" views. Sentence 1 explains the regimes' role, and sentence 4 closes with the practical implication.
Reading comprehension · Science & Nature
Clocks and entropy
Q2–Q5 · 4 questions · Inference, Except / NOT, Purpose of example, Main idea & summary
AsksThe one statement that can be inferred (none of the others can).
Answer: B
Correct option: Quantum computers, which demand very accurate clocks, will likely produce more heat and entropy.
The study found that raising a clock's accuracy raised the entropy it produced. Whether the arrow of time has been tested on atomic clocks isn't stated, and one option reverses cause and effect in the experiment.
Correct option: That heat is the price paid for accuracy.
The passage ties the cost of accuracy to entropy (ordered energy becoming disorder), not explicitly to heat. Remarks on untested clock types and on clocks for quantum computers are in the passage.
Logic: 2 → 1 → 4 → 5: how they differ from Western schools → they teach capitalism with Chinese cases → students want access to private-sector leaders → courses serve a booming domestic business sector.
The four sentences describe Chinese schools. Sentence 3 is about Western schools' joint degrees, a shift in focus.
Reading comprehension · Language, Arts & Literature
Correct option: That it draws on behavioural psychology.
The passage names cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and speech therapy. It contrasts Chomsky's dense prose with Pinker's accessible style.
AsksSummary of a paragraph on growth and inequality in Brazil.
Answer: C
Correct option: Most Brazilians feel better off, but the state still treats the poor unfairly through taxes and services.
C keeps both the sense of improvement and the continuing unfairness. The closest option adds a forecast of destabilisation that the passage doesn't make.
AsksArrange four sentences on European museums returning colonial artefacts.
Answer: 3214
Logic: Museums face their colonial past, returning some pieces (3) → pressure from countries seeking looted objects (2) → many museums are legally barred from giving them up (1) → "legal hurdles notwithstanding", France and Germany back returns (4).
Sentence 3 introduces the topic, and sentence 2 gives the cause. Sentence 1 sets out the obstacle that sentence 4's "notwithstanding" explicitly refers back to.
Reading comprehension · Science & Nature
Nano-robots
Q15–Q18 · 4 questions · Main idea & summary, Except / NOT, Strengthen / weaken
AsksWhich scenario, if false, would support the passage.
Answer: D
Correct option: That such tiny robots will be used to take over people's bodies.
The passage says real nano-robots won't invade bodies in that way, so the claim's falsity agrees with it. The other options describe features the passage reports, so disproving them would contradict it.
Correct option: Nano-robots, once science fiction, now feature in cutting-edge research.
The passage moves from a comic storyline to real research on molecular and soft robots. The options about sticky feet or water-reactive molecules are details.
Correct option: How scattered ideas and practices came together under the single term "unconscious".
The central point is that the term's adoption in the late nineteenth century unified many loosely related threads. Describing the unconscious as a part of the mind, or focusing on vocabulary or psychical research, misses this.
Correct option: That new nineteenth-century ideas yielded knowledge because new specialised fields were founded.
The passage credits new concepts linking unrelated practices and the growth of language, not the founding of fields. The other statements are supported.
AsksArrange four sentences on automation and jobs.
Answer: 3412
Logic: Politicians blame trade, offshoring and immigration (3) → research says automation is the bigger threat (4) → firms value automation for efficiency (1) → "but" it increasingly destroys white-collar jobs too (2).
Sentence 3 states the old view, and sentence 4 counters it. Sentences 1 and 2 form a pair, with "but" turning from automation's benefits to its job losses.
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