Odd Sentence Out - Oxygen Production

CAT 2025 Slot 3 · Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension · Medium · VARC

This is a medium Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension question from the CAT 2025 Slot 3 paper. It tests VARC. The full answer key and a step-by-step explanation are below — try it yourself first, then reveal the solution.

Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

  1. About half of all the oxygen we breathe is made near the surface of the ocean by phytoplankton that photosynthesize just like land-dwelling plants.
  2. A team of scientists that includes Boston University experts has discovered they also produce oxygen on the seafloor.
  3. The research team used deep-sea chambers that land on the seafloor and enclose the seawater, sediment, polymetallic nodules, and living organisms.
  4. The discovery is a surprise considering oxygen is typically created by plants and organisms with help from the sun—not by rocks on the ocean floor.
  5. The deep-sea rocks, called polymetallic nodules, don't only host a surprising number of sea critters.
Answer

3

Explanation

The paragraph centers on a new scientific discovery: oxygen being produced on the ocean floor by deep-sea rocks (polymetallic nodules), challenging the traditional belief that oxygen comes only from photosynthesis. Sentences 5 and 2 link together ('don't only' ... 'they also produce oxygen'). Sentence 4 follows by explaining why this discovery is surprising, while sentence 1 provides context about traditional surface oxygen generation. Sentence 3 describes the methodology/apparatus used by the research team rather than the central discovery theme, making it the odd sentence out.

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