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CAT 2025 Lesson : Odd One Out - Key Messages
1. Solving strategies
1.1 Key message
Try to understand the central idea/key message of the passage and arrange the sentences coherently. This is especially important for Odd-one-out type of para-jumble questions. The sentence not in line with the central premise can easily be eliminated.Let us consider some examples.
For instance,
Aristotle practically invented half a dozen fields of study across philosophy. One of the reasons Aristotle created so many sub-fields of philosophy and early forms of science is because these fields were so young back then. They were branches of the same underlying tree trunk, and Aristotle had a deep enough understanding of what was contained in that trunk to then divide it into different parts and make his early contributions. Even so, however, the questions he asked and the answers he provided are still up for debate, and he is still a highly influential figure in philosophy.
You can see that the first three sentences are about Aristotle's huge contribution to philosophy. However, the last sentence brings in a somewhat negative issue, which is why it can be eliminated.
For instance,
Last week, OpenAI released something called GPT-3, which represents a huge, promising leap for Artificial Intelligence. OpenAI wants to ensure that the technology is developed safely and its benefits distributed evenly to the world. Deep Learning allows machines to do anything that they’ve been trained to do, and apply it to completely unrelated fields. Think of it as the ability to write poetry, or maybe give it Shakespeare as input and it will be able to write sonnets. This is huge. We’re talking about something that works similar to the human brain. Something that has the ability to learn on its own.
The paragraph explains how GPT-3 is revolutionary, but the second sentence is about sharing its benefits with the world. This sentence is not contributing to the key message of the paragraph.
Let us solve a couple of examples.
Example 4
Six sentences related to a topic are given below. Five of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
1. On any given day, there could be a half dozen autonomous cars mapping the same street corner in Silicon Valley.
2. These companies converge where the law and weather are welcoming—or where they can get the most attention.
3. Whoever owns the most detailed and expansive version of these maps that vehicles read will own an asset that could be worth billions.
4. They especially need up-to-the-minute maps of every conceivable roadway to move.
5. Autonomous cars require powerful sensors to see and advanced software to think.
6. These cars, each from a different company, are all doing the same thing: building high-definition street maps, which may eventually serve as an on-board navigation guide for driverless vehicles.
We can see that the author is talking about autonomous (self-driving) cars, which are working on building detailed street maps.
The sentence which does not add details for this key message is statement 2 – it seems unrelated to the autonomous cars, their requirements and activities. Thus, we can eliminate statement 2.
The correct sequence is 16543 – statement 1 introduces the topic of autonomous cars, statement 6 brings up the street maps, statements 54 answers why street maps are required and statement 3 concludes with the importance of building these maps now.
Answer: 2. These companies converge where the law and weather are welcoming—or where they can get the most attention.
1. On any given day, there could be a half dozen autonomous cars mapping the same street corner in Silicon Valley.
2. These companies converge where the law and weather are welcoming—or where they can get the most attention.
3. Whoever owns the most detailed and expansive version of these maps that vehicles read will own an asset that could be worth billions.
4. They especially need up-to-the-minute maps of every conceivable roadway to move.
5. Autonomous cars require powerful sensors to see and advanced software to think.
6. These cars, each from a different company, are all doing the same thing: building high-definition street maps, which may eventually serve as an on-board navigation guide for driverless vehicles.
Solution
Let us try to understand the key message in the paragraph.We can see that the author is talking about autonomous (self-driving) cars, which are working on building detailed street maps.
The sentence which does not add details for this key message is statement 2 – it seems unrelated to the autonomous cars, their requirements and activities. Thus, we can eliminate statement 2.
The correct sequence is 16543 – statement 1 introduces the topic of autonomous cars, statement 6 brings up the street maps, statements 54 answers why street maps are required and statement 3 concludes with the importance of building these maps now.
Answer: 2. These companies converge where the law and weather are welcoming—or where they can get the most attention.
Example 5
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
1. Instead, every day the corporation provides an unchallenged platform to those who promote this power: lobbyists, trade associations, opaquely funded think-tanks.
2. Its partiality is fundamental, and calamitous for democracy.
3. The BBC’s bias is not trivial or inconsequential: throughout the modern era, the primary political conflict has been between democratic power and the power of money.
4. These newspapers do not report the news: they create it.
5. With a few rare and brave exceptions, the BBC avoids explaining how economic power comes to dominate and direct political power.
Statement 4, on the other hand, is referring about newspapers creating news, and is not the same as the key message of the rest of the paragraph. Therefore, it has to be the odd one.
The first sentence in this paragraph should be statement 5, which speaks about the BBC's omissions. This is taken forward by statement 1, which tells us more about how the BBC is unethical. The bias itself is analysed in statement 3, and the impact comes about in statement 2. Therefore, the correct sequence is 5132, and statement 4 is the odd one out.
Answer: 4. These newspapers do not report the news: they create it.
1. Instead, every day the corporation provides an unchallenged platform to those who promote this power: lobbyists, trade associations, opaquely funded think-tanks.
2. Its partiality is fundamental, and calamitous for democracy.
3. The BBC’s bias is not trivial or inconsequential: throughout the modern era, the primary political conflict has been between democratic power and the power of money.
4. These newspapers do not report the news: they create it.
5. With a few rare and brave exceptions, the BBC avoids explaining how economic power comes to dominate and direct political power.
Solution
The author of this paragraph is criticising media house BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) for being biased or partial. This is mentioned in statements 1, 2, 3 and 5.Statement 4, on the other hand, is referring about newspapers creating news, and is not the same as the key message of the rest of the paragraph. Therefore, it has to be the odd one.
The first sentence in this paragraph should be statement 5, which speaks about the BBC's omissions. This is taken forward by statement 1, which tells us more about how the BBC is unethical. The bias itself is analysed in statement 3, and the impact comes about in statement 2. Therefore, the correct sequence is 5132, and statement 4 is the odd one out.
Answer: 4. These newspapers do not report the news: they create it.
Example 6
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a meaningful and coherent short paragraph. Identify the odd one out.
1. It’s hard not to get almost hypnotised by our faces as we bounce from Zoom call to Zoom call.
2. Despite the years of selfies, we’re not quite used to so much relentless live footage of our own faces.
3. We’re supposed to be listening to a colleague or a family member, but our gaze starts to fall on the box with our own head in it.
4. Broadcasting from our makeshift little home offices with nowhere to go, there isn’t much else to distract us.
5. The pandemic brought an end to stuttering, overly long, in-person meetings, and gave us stuttering, overly long, video gatherings on Zoom.
Statements 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all about this – statement 1 introduces this phenomenon (getting almost hypnotised by our faces over Zoom calls). Statements 43 have the explanation (no other distractions, noticing our own image).
Statement 2 explains the hypnotism, explaining that we are not used to seeing our own face for so long.
All of these statements contribute to this key message, but statement 5 is speaking about migrating from physical meetings to online discussions. Therefore, we can eliminate this sentence as it is not about the key message.
Answer: 5. The pandemic brought an end to stuttering, overly long, in-person meetings, and gave us stuttering, overly long, video gatherings on Zoom.
1. It’s hard not to get almost hypnotised by our faces as we bounce from Zoom call to Zoom call.
2. Despite the years of selfies, we’re not quite used to so much relentless live footage of our own faces.
3. We’re supposed to be listening to a colleague or a family member, but our gaze starts to fall on the box with our own head in it.
4. Broadcasting from our makeshift little home offices with nowhere to go, there isn’t much else to distract us.
5. The pandemic brought an end to stuttering, overly long, in-person meetings, and gave us stuttering, overly long, video gatherings on Zoom.
Solution
This paragraph is about people focussing on their own images during videoconferencing (Zoom calls).Statements 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all about this – statement 1 introduces this phenomenon (getting almost hypnotised by our faces over Zoom calls). Statements 43 have the explanation (no other distractions, noticing our own image).
Statement 2 explains the hypnotism, explaining that we are not used to seeing our own face for so long.
All of these statements contribute to this key message, but statement 5 is speaking about migrating from physical meetings to online discussions. Therefore, we can eliminate this sentence as it is not about the key message.
Answer: 5. The pandemic brought an end to stuttering, overly long, in-person meetings, and gave us stuttering, overly long, video gatherings on Zoom.
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