CAT question of the Week: 74 Days to CAT 2015

The sentences below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter.
Choose the most logical order.
a. Some of the educators remain wary–they don’t want to undertake careless experiments with children’s education.
b. The debate has shifted to how and when a PC should be used, how to pay for it and what new demands using PCs will make on teachers.
c. Although the educational establishments have been less receptive to change than the profit-minded business world has been, few educators now question whether PCs can contribute to progress in education.
d. But this conservatism, combined with the exceptional job security many educators enjoy, can foster resistance to the positive opportunities that technology can bring to education.

What is the right sequence to form a coherent paragraph? 
1. abcd                       2. bcda                    3.cadb                4. cbad

Solution: In these kind of questions, it is advisable to use the elimination technique to get the answer. There are two ways of eliminating options to derive the answers. They are as follows: 
Identify the introductory sentence
Identify links between sentences to eliminate options
Let’s try and use these two steps to solve the above question:

Step 1: Identifying the introductory sentence
Option a refers to ‘some of the educators’ i.e. part of a larger group of educators, which seem to have been previously introduced, due to the use of the definite article ‘the’ before educators. Hence, this cannot be the introductory sentence. 

Once again, in option b, the use of the article ‘the’ before ‘debate’ indicates that the debate has been introduced in some other sentence; hence b cannot begin the sequence. 

A sequence cannot begin with a conjunction; hence option d  cannot begin the sequence. [Conjunctions can help to choose the introductory sentence as well as in identifying links]
This leaves us with option c as the introductory statement. 
 
Step 2: Identifying the links 
Since we now know that c has to begin the sequence; we can either find a sentence that can be a link with c or check whether there is any other link possible in the above sentences.
The part in c, ‘few educators now question whether PCs can contribute to progress in education’ could refer to the debate mentioned in b; hence cb could be a link. This would give us the answer; option 4
Now, ‘this conservatism’ discussed in ‘d’ could refer to the ‘wariness’ mentioned in a; making ‘ad’ would be another link. Since option 4 is the only one with both the ad and the cb link; option 4 would be our answer.
 Ans: 4. cbad