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.
- 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.
- A team of scientists that includes Boston University experts has discovered they also produce oxygen on the seafloor.
- The research team used deep-sea chambers that land on the seafloor and enclose the seawater, sediment, polymetallic nodules, and living organisms.
- 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.
- The deep-sea rocks, called polymetallic nodules, don't only host a surprising number of sea critters.
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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