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Five jumbled up 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 and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

  1. Socrates told us that 'the unexamined life is not worth living' and that to 'know thyself' is the path to true wisdom
  2. It suggests that you should adopt an ancient rhetorical method favored by the likes of Julius Caesar and known as 'illeism' – or speaking about yourself in the third person.
  3. Research has shown that people who are prone to rumination also often suffer from impaired decision making under pressure and are at a substantially increased risk of depression.
  4. Simple rumination – the process of churning your concerns around in your head – is not the way to achieve self-realization.
  5. The idea is that this small change in perspective can clear your emotional fog, allowing you to see past your biases.

Entered answer:

Solution

✅ Correct Answer: 1

From passage: "Simple rumination – the process of churning your concerns around in your head – is not the way to achieve self-realization."

Let us trace the logical flow step by step:

Step 1: Find the main topic -> The passage is about methods of self-realization

Step 2: Look for connecting words -> "It" in sentence 2, "this small change" in sentence 5

Step 3: Build connections:

  • Sentence 4 says rumination is not the way to achieve self-realization
  • Sentence 3 gives research proof why rumination is bad (depression, poor decisions)
  • Sentence 2 says "It suggests" an alternative method called illeism (the "It" refers to the research in sentence 3)
  • Sentence 5 explains benefits of "this small change" (referring to illeism from sentence 2)

Logical flow: 4 → 3 → 2 → 5 (rumination is bad → research proves it → research suggests illeism instead → illeism has benefits)


The odd one out:

🔴 Sentence 1 -> context-shift -> talks about Socrates and general wisdom, but the other four sentences discuss specific methods (rumination vs illeism) for self-realization. While sentence 1 is about self-knowledge, it doesn't connect to the rumination-illeism comparison that forms the core argument.

The four sentences that work together (4-3-2-5) create a clear argument: rumination is bad → here's proof → try illeism instead → here's why illeism works.

Sentence 1 stands alone as a philosophical quote that doesn't fit this specific methodological discussion.

Answer: 1

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