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: History, Politics & Society; Economics & Business.
Q1–Q4 · 4 questions · Detail, Except / NOT, Application & analogy
AsksWhat archaeology contributes to the historian's work, per the passage.
Correct option: It is one of the auxiliary sciences that help establish basic facts accurately.
The passage lists archaeology among the aids historians use to get the facts right. Accuracy is a precondition, not the historian's main duty, and interpretation is the historian's own work.
AsksWhich option, if true, would NOT weaken the claim that facts don't speak for themselves.
Correct option: That facts are relative to the person handling them.
This fits the passage's stress on the historian's selection and interpretation, so it supports the claim. The other options restore objectivity or deny that selection matters, which weakens it.
AsksWhat a book on the Battle of Hastings by this author would focus on.
Correct option: An interpretive account of the battle's causes and context, built on the facts the historian selects as significant.
For the author, getting basic facts right is necessary but not the historian's real job. The option centred on the auxiliary sciences describes only that precondition.
AsksWhich option does NOT describe the "common-sense" view of history.
Correct option: History as a selective system, like science.
The common-sense view treats history as a body of established facts found in records, approached facts-first and objectively. Selection and framing describe the author's own position.
TopicBook bans
AsksFive sentences on book bans in the United States.
Logic: 4 → 1 → 5 → 3: a fantasy novel banned and contested → what this may foreshadow → record challenges in 2022 → bans at an all-time high.
The four sentences move from one case to the national trend. Sentence 2 is a broad value judgement about silencing brave authors, not part of that factual run, so it is the odd one.
TopicCounterfactual thinking
AsksSummary of a paragraph on counterfactual ("what if") thinking.
Correct option: People generate alternatives to the past for many purposes, and the ability develops through childhood.
C covers both the range of functions and the developmental angle. The closest option gets the variety of purposes but drops the development point.
TopicProductive dualism
AsksWhere a sentence saying dualism long marked developing economies off from advanced ones fits.
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.
Q8–Q11 · 4 questions · Strengthen / weaken, Except / NOT, Inference
AsksWhich scenario would undermine the passage's central idea.
Correct option: Second-hand stores selling only high-quality clothing.
The author's worry is that cheap second-hand clothes shed microfibres and soon end up as waste, which durable stock would largely remove. Less landfill waste would support the passage, not undermine it.
AsksWhich is NOT a reason given for resale firms like ThredUP not taking off in the UK.
Correct option: That Britons don't buy second-hand clothes.
The passage cites recycling costs, luxury brands guarding their image, and their reluctance to sell stock cheaply. It even notes that thrifting is fashionable in London.
AsksWhat the opposite of fast fashion would look like.
Correct option: High-quality, durable clothing that lasts.
The author recommends well-made items that shed fewer fibres and stay out of landfill, the reverse of fast fashion's disposability. Cheap, trend-driven, quickly discarded clothing describes fast fashion itself.
AsksWhy thrifting is described as ironic.
Correct option: It's meant to be green, yet it can cause environmental harm.
Older garments shed more microfibres in the wash, polluting rivers and seas. Retail costs, luxury pricing and anti-consumerism are not what makes it ironic.
TopicHeatwaves in the media
AsksSummary of a paragraph on heatwaves and the news media.
Correct option: Heatwaves are a serious, growing threat, and the media have a key role in alerting people.
C has both the threat and the media's role. The closest option claims news coverage must improve, a criticism the passage never makes.
Q13–Q16 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Author's view & tone, Application & analogy, Strengthen / weaken
AsksWhich statement is NOT supported by the passage.
Correct option: That Netflix has fully become a European company.
The passage notes Netflix's European offices but says key decisions are still taken by American executives. European hits travelling, the falling share of American originals and broadcasters' dominance of viewing hours are all supported.
AsksHow the author sees Netflix's rise in Europe.
Correct option: As a unifying force that gives Europeans a shared cultural experience.
The author argues that shared shows across borders build the common culture European integration needs. The worry about cultural threat belongs to European politicians and executives, which the author dismisses.
AsksWhich hypothetical show would travel best across EU audiences, judging only by the passage.
Correct option: A murder-mystery drama.
The passage says whodunits and conflict-driven stories travel well, while comedy often doesn't. Science fiction is never discussed.
AsksWhich finding would undermine the claim that Netflix unites Europe through shared viewing.
Correct option: That Netflix viewing differs widely from one EU country to another.
Shared viewing across borders is the premise, and big national differences would undercut it. Differences by age or gender don't bear on cross-border unity.
TopicLatchkey children
AsksFive sentences on "latchkey" children.
Logic: 2 → 4 → 5 → 1: who latchkey children are → the preferred modern term → parents may think it helps, research suggests not → its links to loneliness and poor outcomes.
The four sentences build a consistent case about documented negative effects. Sentence 3 adds a caveat about unstudied long-term effects that breaks that focus, so it is the odd one.
TopicAfrican cultural tradition
AsksArrange four sentences on Western and African traditions in African fiction.
Logic: Western Christian ideas dismiss indigenous tradition (4) → "however", that tradition is rich and visible (3) → a recent novel contrasts the cultures (1) → its author shows the West's condescension (2).
Sentence 4 sets up the conflict, and sentence 3's "however... these beliefs" pushes back on it. Sentence 1 introduces the novel, and sentence 2, naming its author, explains how it handles the conflict.
TopicEmergence in the brain
AsksArrange four sentences on consciousness as an emergent property.
Logic: Consciousness is called emergent (4) → like an ant colony, no single neuron holds such traits (1) → yet neurons together produce emotions (3) → though the mechanism is unknown, the whole has what parts lack (2).
Sentence 4 opens the topic, and sentence 1's "like" offers the analogy. Sentence 3's "nonetheless" turns to what neurons achieve together, and sentence 2 closes with the general principle.
Q20–Q23 · 4 questions · Purpose of example, Except / NOT, Author's view & tone
AsksWhy the author mentions the Davos elite.
Correct option: As wealthy people who preach liberal ideals while hoarding wealth and privilege.
The passage contrasts talk of a shared future with the private jets that carried attendees there. The author blames liberalism's decline on its contradictions and hubris; the example isn't about insulation from hardship.
AsksWhich statement is NOT evidence of liberalism's decline.
Correct option: That technology is turning more work into drudgery.
The other options describe failures of liberal ideals: a new aristocracy, a malfunctioning democracy, broken promises. The technology point is a challenge liberalism could take on, not proof of its decline.
AsksThe statement the author would NOT disagree with.
Correct option: Liberalism succeeded because it could reform itself.
The author points to liberalism reinventing itself in the late nineteenth century. He rejects reducing liberalism to a single idea, since it holds many traditions.
AsksWhich is NOT a reason the author faults the book's conclusions.
Correct option: Its appeal to older ideas of liberty, which the author actually values.
The author criticises the book for overstating the decline, ignoring liberalism's self-correction and defining it too narrowly. He credits the premodern ideas of liberty as worth considering.
TopicKissing in ancient Mesopotamia
AsksWhere a sentence saying kissing's recorded history may go back another 1,000 years fits.
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.
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