The following sentences form a paragraph. The second and fifth sentences of the paragraph are given. The rest are numbered as P, Q, R, S and T. These five parts are not given in their proper order. Arrange them in the correct order to make the paragraph meaningful and then answer the questions given below.
P. The first translation into modern English was made by J. M. Kemble in 1837.
2. Two years later Nicolai Grundtvig made the first translation into a modern language, Danish.
Q. The English translation done by Francis B. Gummere in 1919 is out of copyright and freely available on several websites.
R. The more recent of these, in both prose and verse form, are also available today.
5. Since 1919, there have been many modern English translations.
S. Originally written in Old English, the first translation of the poem was into Latin by Thorkelin, in connection with his transcription of 1818.
T. In total, it is estimated that the epic poem has been translated about 65 times in English alone.
Which of the following should be the FOURTH sentence in the correct order?
- AOption (a)
P
- BOption (b)
Q
- COption (c)
R
- DOption (d)
S
- EOption (e)
T
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Correct answer
Q
Why this answer is correct
The correct answer is Q.
Key Points
The first sentence of a paragraph introduces a topic. The second sentence usually provides more information about the first.
- Here, the second sentence talks about 'translation of something'; so the first sentence must talk about the original version of something. This is only shown by sentence S. So, S must be the first sentence.
- The third sentence must logically follow from the second sentence. When time-related references are made in the paragraph, close attention must be paid, as they can give clues regarding the order. Here, the first sentence mentions 1818 while the second mentions 'two years later', i.e., 1820. So, out of the remaining two time-related references, 1837, given by P must come first. P also talks about the first English translation, logically tying with the second sentence. So, P must be the third sentence.
- The fifth sentence is given. The fourth, then, must be a preamble to it. Here, no other sentence but the other time-related reference, 1919 can be appropriate, as the fifth also mentions 'since 1919'. So, Q must be the fourth sentence.
- The sixth and seventh sentences would follow the earlier sentences, with the last giving some kind of conclusion to the above sentences. Out of the remaining sentences R and T, R uses the pronoun 'these' to refer to the translations mentioned before while T uses the phrase 'in total', summing up the whole paragraph. So, R must be the sixth sentence while T is the last sentence of the paragraph.
The correct order is SPQRT or S2PQ5RT.