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Transferring Tradition

CAT 2017 Slot 1 · Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension · Hard · Verbal Ability

This is a hard Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension question from the CAT 2017 Slot 1 paper. It tests Verbal Ability. The full answer key and a step-by-step explanation are below — try it yourself first, then reveal the solution.

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The five sentences (labelled 1,2,3,4, and 5) given in this question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper order for the sentence and key in this sequence of five numbers as your answer.

  1. The process of handing down implies not a passive transfer, but some contestation in defining what exactly is to be handed down.
  2. Wherever Western scholars have worked on the Indian past, the selection is even more apparent and the inventing of a tradition much more recognizable.
  3. Every generation selects what it requires from the past and makes its innovations, some more than others.
  4. It is now a truism to say that traditions are not handed down unchanged, but are invented.
  5. Just as life has death as its opposite, so is tradition by default the opposite of innovation.
Answer

54132

Explanation

Sentence 5 sets up the general relationship between tradition and innovation. 4 states that traditions are invented rather than handed down unchanged. 1 elaborates on 'handing down'. 3 explains how each generation selects from the past, and 2 adds the example of Western scholars selecting from the Indian past. Thus, 54132 is the correct sequence.

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