Question

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) given below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Read the sentences and decide on the correct order for the paragraph.

1. The fact all contribute only to setting the problem, not to its solution.

2. How things are in the world is a matter of complete indifference for what is higher. God does not reveal himself in the world.

3. To view the world sub specie aeterni is to view it as a whole, a limited whole. Feeling the world as a limited whole, it is this that is mystical.

4. It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists.

Which of the following is the correct order?

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

Hint:

Statement 3's word 'this' must refer to something named just before it; find which statement introduces that idea directly, since those two form a fixed, unbreakable pair.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

This para-jumble has four statements about the mystical and what makes something mystical. Rather than building the order forward from a guessed opening line, it is quicker here to spot the one pair of statements that must sit next to each other, and use that pair to test the given options.

1. 1-2-3-4 (option A): This opens with statement 1, 'The fact all contribute only to setting the problem, not to its solution.' The phrase 'the fact all' reads like it is referring to facts that were already named earlier, which cannot be true if this is the opening sentence of the paragraph. This option is weak right from its first line, and it also fails to place statement 4 next to statement 3.
2. 2-1-3-4 (option B): This opens well, statement 2 (the higher thing is indifferent to the world, God does not reveal himself in it) followed by statement 1 (facts only set the problem) reads smoothly, since 1 explains why the indifference mentioned in 2 cannot be resolved by facts alone. But this option then places 3 before 4, meaning statement 3's word 'this' would have nothing specific to point back to yet, since the idea it refers to, from statement 4, has not appeared. This breaks the required 4-then-3 link.
3. 2-1-4-3 (option C): This keeps the same strong opening, 2 followed by 1, and then moves to 4, which draws the real contrast: it is not the details of the world that are mystical, but that the world exists at all. Statement 3 then follows immediately, using 'this' to refer to exactly that idea, closing the paragraph with the definition of what mystical means. Every connection here holds without contradiction.
4. 3-1-4-2 (option D): This opens with statement 3, the sentence built to conclude and restate an idea using 'this,' which cannot logically be the very first line of the paragraph since it has nothing to restate yet. It also separates 4 and 3, which need to sit together.

The only option where statement 4 is followed directly by statement 3, and where the opening pair 2-1 also reads logically, is option C: 2-1-4-3.

Let's summarize:

• A statement using a referring word like 'this' or 'it' must come right after the statement that introduces the idea it refers to.
• Spotting this kind of mandatory pair is often faster than trying to guess the opening line directly.
• Once the pair is fixed, only options that keep the pair together and open logically can survive.

The correct order is 2-1-4-3, which is option C.