Question:medium

The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the four sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.
1. It can in fact be integrated into any function (education, medical treatment, production, punishment); it can increase the effect of this function, by being linked closely with it; it can constitute a mixed mechanism in which relations of power (and of knowledge) may be precisely adjusted, in the smallest detail, to the processes that are to be supervised; it can establish a direct proportion between ‘surplus power’ and ‘surplus production’.
2. It’s a case of ‘it’s easy once you’ve thought of it’ in the political sphere.
3. The panoptic mechanism is not simply a hinge, a point of exchange between a mechanism of power and a function; it is a way of making power relations function in a function, and of making a function function through these power relations.
4. In short, it arranges things in such a way that the exercise of power is not added on from the outside, like a rigid, heavy constraint, to the functions it invests, but is so subtly present in them as to increase their efficiency by itself increasing its own points of contact.

Show Hint

For para-jumbles, look for:

the definition or introduction of the central idea (usually first),
examples or elaborations (middle),
summary markers like “in short” (near the end),
reflective comments or opinions (often last).
Updated On: Jul 1, 2026
  • 3142
  • 1432
  • 4123
  • 3241
Show Solution

The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Approach: Drive the sequence purely by opening words, which act like signposts: a full noun starts, 'In short' summarises, and a meta-comment ends. Match each signpost to its slot.

Step 1: Scan first words. Sentence 3 is the only one that states the topic by name ('The panoptic mechanism'); 1, 2 and 4 all open with a back-pointer ('It can', 'It's a case', 'In short'). A back-pointer cannot lead, so 3 takes position one.

Step 2: 'In short' (sentence 4) is a summary tag, so it must come after the material it compresses \(-\) it cannot sit right after the bare definition in 3. The detailed body that 4 summarises is sentence 1, with its list of functions. So the body 1 precedes the summary 4, giving 3 then 1 then 4.

Step 3: Sentence 2 is a detached evaluation ('it's easy once you've thought of it'), the kind of line a writer drops only after the idea is on the table. It fits nowhere but the end.

Step 4: Reading 3-1-4-2 gives define, illustrate, summarise, comment \(-\) a clean shape, and it matches option 3142.

Answer: 3142
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