Question

The following is a scrambled sentence with the segments marked 1, 2, 3 and 4. Choose the alternative with the order of segments that best reconstructs the sentence.

1. For all the padre's rhetoric about the English as God's Chosen People, the padre had a whole tribe of Anglo-Indian first cousins.
2. Padre Rotton was an even more striking case.
3. By various Indian wives, all of whom were at that moment engaged in fighting on the rebel side in Avadh, where they took an active part in besieging the British Residency in Lucknow.
4. These included James Rotton who could not speak English and the twenty two Muslim sons of his convert cousin, Felix Rotton.

• A. 1, 2, 3, 4
• B. 2, 1, 4, 3
• C. 1, 4, 2, 3
• D. 2, 4, 1, 3

Hint:

Start with the sentence that introduces Padre Rotton by name, then follow the "these included" reference chain.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

To reorder a scrambled passage, find the sentence that can stand as a natural opening (it introduces the subject without relying on a pronoun or connector that needs an earlier sentence), then follow the chain of "this refers to that" links between the remaining sentences.

1. Sentence 2 ("Padre Rotton was an even more striking case.") reads like the first line of a new paragraph, it names the person under discussion and signals that a comparison is coming, so it opens the passage.
2. Sentence 1 ("For all the padre's rhetoric... a whole tribe of Anglo-Indian first cousins.") directly follows sentence 2, unpacking why Padre Rotton is "a striking case": despite his own preaching, he was surrounded by mixed-race relatives.
3. Sentence 4 ("These included James Rotton... twenty two Muslim sons of his convert cousin, Felix Rotton.") picks up the word "these" from "a whole tribe of Anglo-Indian first cousins" in sentence 1 and lists them by name, so it must sit right after sentence 1.
4. Sentence 3 ("By various Indian wives... besieging the British Residency in Lucknow.") explains how those cousins came about (through various Indian wives) and adds the closing detail about the rebellion, so it comes last.

Checking the answer choices against this chain: 1, 2, 3, 4 breaks the "these included" link between 1 and 4. 1, 4, 2, 3 opens with sentence 1, but sentence 1 needs sentence 2 to establish who "the padre" is. 2, 4, 1, 3 puts the named list before the general statement it explains, which reverses the logic. Only 2, 1, 4, 3 keeps every link intact.

Let's summarize:

• Sentence 2 introduces Padre Rotton as the subject.
• Sentence 1 explains the irony of his many Anglo-Indian cousins.
• Sentence 4 names those cousins, following on from "a whole tribe."
• Sentence 3 closes with how they came about and the rebellion detail.

So the correctly ordered sentence follows the sequence 2, 1, 4, 3, which is option B.