CAT Verbal Ability Questions and Answers for Practice

Shiksha.com brings to you CAT Verbal Ability questions and answers for practice. If you want to get high scores in the CAT 2024 exam, then practice these questions from verbal ability, parajumbles and reading comprehensions. These CAT practice questions will help in preparation for other MBA entrance exams as well.

Verbal Ability or VA is the sub-part of CAT VARC section. The number of questions on verbal reasoning in the CAT exam is usually between 8-10. The CAT Verbal Ability questions are in both MCQ and non-MCQ i.e. Type In The Answer (TITA) format. The CAT Verbal Ability topics range from parajumbles, out of context sentence in a para, error correction in a para, vocabulary usage and sentence completion to analogies and critical reasoning. Verbal Ability questions are similar to solving a riddle. To crack CAT questions on Verbal Ability, the key is to look at them critically and find out the logic. Stick to the information provided in the CAT exam paper to determine the right answer.

Since there is no formula to be memorized for verbal reasoning topics, preparation of this section is largely dependent on practice of CAT previous year question papers and CAT mock tests. A good performance in the VARC section of CAT is also completely based on practice. Solve as many VARC questions as you can during CAT 2024 preparation. The more you practice, the better you get. The ideal time to practice CAT questions is now as the exam is just over a month away. Practice VARC questions of various difficulty levels to be prepared for every situation in the CAT 2024 exam. Aim for both speed and accuracy while solving the CAT Verbal Ability questions. 

As part of solved CAT questions series articles, here are some VARC CAT questions for practice. Solve these questions as part of your preparation for CAT 2024 and other MBA entrance exams aspirants.

CAT Verbal Ability Questions for Practice 

CAT Parajumble Questions

Directions for question 1: In the following questions, there are sentences that form a paragraph. Identify the sentence(s) or part(s) of sentence(s) that is/are correct in terms of grammar and usage (including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency). Then, choose the most appropriate option.

A. Wren was standing just outside the High Council doors, staring absently at patches of bright, star-filled sky
B. and thought that she could barely remember her life before the beginning of her quest, when Gavilan came up to her.
C. The others had already gone, all but Garth, who lounged against a tree some distance over, looking out at the city.
D. Earlier, Wren had searched for Eowen, hoping to speak with her, but she has disappeared.
E. Now she turned as Gavilan approached, thinking of speaking with him instead, of asking him the questions she was still anxious to have answered.

1] A & C           2] A & E           3] B & E           4] C & D

Also Read: CAT questions for practice with answers (VARC, DILR, QA)

Odd Sentence

Directions for question 2: In the following questions, a word has been used in sentences in four different ways. Choose the option corresponding to the sentence in which the usage of the word is incorrect or inappropriate.

2. HEART

1) She used to wear her heart on her sleeve when she was younger, but life taught her to be more reserved.
2) He met his heart of hearts when he was just a teenager, and they have been together ever since.
3) He had his heart set on becoming a musician, so he was miserable when his parents forced him to study engineering instead.
4) Though our father was always strict and stern, we knew his heart was in the right place. 

CAT Word Usage Questions

Directions for question 3: In each question, there are four sentences. Each sentence has a pair of words that are italicized and highlighted. From the italicized and highlighted words, select the most appropriate words (A or B) to form correct sentences. The sentences are followed by options that indicate the words that may be selected to correctly complete the set of sentences. From the options given, choose the most appropriate ones.

3. The lower classes were not powerful enough to come out from under the yolk (A) / yoke (B) of oppression.
The servant returned after a long time, abased (A) / abashed (B) that he had been unable to find his master and convey the message to him.
The defendant is liable (A) / libel (B) to be found guilty, unless he can produce some evidence that he did not threaten the victim.
Electromagnetic signals tend to attenuate (A) / accentuate (B) over a distance, so over the large interstellar distances, much information is lost.

1) BBAA           2) BBAB           3) ABAB           4) AABB

Also Read:

• VARC CAT questions and preparation tips-1
• VARC CAT questions and preparation tips-2
• CAT Pronouns questions and exercises
• CAT Parajumble questions and exercises
• CAT Prepositions questions and exercises

CAT Odd Sentence Questions

Directions for question 4: Each question has four sentences pertaining to a subject, which may or may not be in sequence. One of the sentences is contextually/logically incorrect. Choose the option corresponding to the sentence that is incorrect or inappropriate.

1) Many alchemists believed that all matter was a mixture of four elementary substances: water, air, earth and fire.
2) The transmutation of the elements was pursued in medieval laboratories in a quest called alchemy.
3) The defining objectives of alchemy included the creation of the fabled philosopher’s stone, which among other things, could create an elixir of life conferring youth and longevity.
4) By altering the relative proportions of earth and fire, say, you would be able, they thought, to change copper into gold.

Parajumbles for CAT

Directions for question 5: The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences, from among the given choices, to construct a coherent paragraph.

1) These creation myths insist on a continuum, or at least a negotiable boundary, between animate and inanimate matter.
2) That is usually regarded as the work of the gods.
3) Many creation myths insist that the first people were fashioned from clay, mud, dirt: primal matter given a life-soul by supernatural means.
4). Who made humans?
5) That continuity is also demanded by any purely scientific theory of life’s origins on earth, but in myth this usually takes the form of a kind of animism in which life is immanent in all matter.
6) The Egyptian god Khnum made humankind this way from the clay of the Nile basin; the goddess Nuwa formed the Chinese people from yellow earth; in the Book of Genesis, the Judaeo-Christian god ‘created man of the dust of the ground’.

1) CFADBE      2) DFCAEB      3) CAEDBF      4) DBCFAE

Directions for question 6: Each question has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the sentence that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

6. Our embrace of the idea that computer databases provide an effective and even superior substitute for personal memory is not particularly surprising. It culminates a century-long shift in the popular view of the mind. As the machines we use to store data have become more voluminous, flexible and responsive, we’ve grown accustomed to the blurring of artificial and biological memory. But it’s an extraordinary development nonetheless. The notion that memory can be ‘outsourced’ to machines would have been unthinkable at any earlier moment in our history.

For the Ancient Greeks, memory was a goddess: Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses. To Augustine, it was ‘a vast and infinite profundity’, a reflection of the power of God in man. Now, his words seem old-fashioned. Not only has memory lost its divinity, it’s well on its way to losing its humanness.

1) Now memory is outsourced to machines.
2) God is no longer in the machine.
3) Mnemosyne has become a machine.
4) Mnemosyne is irrelevant in the information age.

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CAT Reading Comprehension Questions for Practice

 Directions for questions 7 to 10: The passage given below is followed by a set of questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

Two of the four main physical forces are familiar ones: electromagnetism and gravity. Even though it is the most obvious force we experience in everyday life, gravity is by far the weakest of the four. The reason why it is so important to us is that our weight is caused by the pull of the entire Earth, almost six million billion billion kilograms of matter (6 × 10²⁴ kg), acting together.
It takes the gravitational pull of all that mass put together to hold us down on the surface of the Earth with the weight we feel.
This can be put in perspective by comparing the strength of gravity with the strength of the electromagnetic force, or with one aspect of electromagnetism: the electric force. The electric force of repulsion between two protons is 10³⁶ times stronger than the strength of the gravitational attraction between the same two protons the same distance apart.

On the nuclear and atomic scales, gravity is utterly insignificant, and molecules are held together by electric forces without any complications caused by the gravitational interactions between atoms.

These electric forces can, of course, produce attraction, not just repulsion, which is what holds electrons and nuclei together in atoms, and holds atoms together to make molecules.

On the surface of the Earth, there is constant competition between electric forces holding things together and gravitational forces tending to break things apart. Because of this smaller bodies can survive more easily if they suffer a fall. But a large animal is likely to suffer broken limbs even by falling over, let alone in a fall from a tree or over a cliff. We humans are close to the limit of how big an active animal can be and survive on Earth. In order to be much larger than a human being, you have to be sturdy and ponderous, like an elephant, or live in the sea, like a whale, where the water offers support. Roughly speaking, the rule of thumb is that the volume of a body (and therefore its mass) is proportional to the cube of its linear size (its height), but the strength of its bones is only proportional to its cross-section, which depends on the square of the linear size. Since mass is proportional to volume, and the force of gravity pulling on a body (its weight) is proportional to its mass, as bodies get bigger the forces operating when they fall increase more than the ability of their bones to withstand a fall.

This puts the seemingly incredible weakness of gravity in a different perspective. Suppose gravity were a million times stronger (which would still leave it 10³⁰ times weaker than the electric force). This would not be enough to affect atomic and molecular processes, so everything on the scale of atoms and molecules – in particular, chemistry – would operate the way it does in our Universe.

But because of the volume rule, anything living on the surface of a planet in such a Universe would also have to be very small, in order not to break apart when it fell over. There could not be anything as large as us, and nothing with the same sort of complexity as us.

Most important of all, in this high-gravity universe, the stars would live for only about 10 thousand years before they had used up all their fuel, instead of living for about 10 billion years, as stars like the Sun do in our Universe. Since the chemistry in such a universe would be no different from that in our Universe, there would be no time for evolution even to begin. Gravity has to be as weak as it is for us to exist. A truly cosmic coincidence!

7. What is the main point of this passage?
1) Gravity is far weaker than the other physical forces like electromagnetism.
2) It’s a cosmic coincidence that gravity is as weak as it is.
3) Gravity has to be as weak as it is in order for life to exist.
4) If gravity hadn’t been as weak as it is, humans would never have evolved.

8. Would an elephant have an advantage over a human being in a universe in which gravity was a million times stronger than in ours?

1) Yes, as it would be better able to withstand a fall, because it is sturdy and massive.
2) Yes, as its bones would be proportionally stronger in comparison to its mass.
3) No, as it would be too heavy to survive for long.
4) No, as neither would be likely to evolve in the first place.

9. Which of the following is true about the electric force, as per this passage?
I. The electric force is the strongest of the four main physical forces.
II. The electric force of repulsion between two protons is 1036 times stronger than the strength of the attraction between the same two protons.
III. Atoms and molecules are held together by the forces of electric attraction.

1) Only II          2) Only III        3) I and II         4) I and III

10. This passage describes a hypothetical high-gravity universe. Which of the following is likely to be true, as per the information given in the passage, in a hypothetical universe in which gravity is a million times weaker than it actually is?
1) Chemistry would work very differently from that in our Universe.
2) More animals would evolve to be as large as or even larger than whales.
3) Stars and planets would never form, as gravity would not be strong enough to pull enough material together.
4) None of the above.

Refer below for ANSWERS to all the above questions [1 to 10]:

CAT VARC Practice Questions Sets by Shiksha

For complete set of CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension questions and answers download the PDFs below:

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