16 Para Jumbles MCQs from the English Comprehension section, with answers and short explanations.
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Q1. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: With mechanical printing, identical copies could be produced quickly and cheaply.
Q: As a result, literacy spread and ideas travelled faster than ever before.
R: The printing press, developed in fifteenth-century Europe, transformed the spread of knowledge.
S: Before it, books were copied by hand, which made them rare and costly.
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Answer: B. RSPQ
R introduces the printing press; S ('Before it') describes the earlier situation; P describes the change; Q ('As a result') gives the outcome.
Q2. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: Faced with an unpleasant task, we put it off to escape the discomfort it causes.
Q: Thus the habit feeds on itself, trading momentary ease for lasting stress.
R: Procrastination is often mistaken for laziness, but psychologists see it as a problem of managing emotions.
S: The relief is short-lived, however, as the deadline draws closer and anxiety returns with greater force.
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Answer: A. RPSQ
R introduces the topic; P explains the emotional escape; S ('The relief') refers to the escape in P; Q ('Thus') concludes the cycle.
Q3. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: Coral reefs are built by colonies of minute animals called polyps.
Q: This phenomenon, known as bleaching, can kill entire reefs if it persists.
R: These tiny organisms depend on algae living within their tissues for food.
S: When sea temperatures rise, the algae are expelled, and the coral turns white.
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Answer: D. PRSQ
P introduces polyps; R ('These tiny organisms') describes their dependence on algae; S explains what happens when the algae are expelled; Q names this phenomenon.
Q4. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: However, a theory that survives repeated attempts at refutation earns our provisional trust.
Q: Science does not prove its theories in the way mathematics proves theorems.
R: Instead, it subjects them to tests that could, in principle, show them to be false.
S: Even such a theory, though, remains open to revision should new evidence emerge.
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Answer: A. QRPS
Q introduces the idea; R ('Instead') contrasts with it; P ('However') qualifies the testing process; S ('Even such a theory') refers back to the theory described in P.
Q5. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph. The first sentence is fixed.
(1) The monsoon is the lifeline of Indian agriculture.
P: When it fails, crops wither and rural incomes collapse.
Q: Nearly half the country's farmland still depends on rain rather than on irrigation.
R: This, in turn, depresses the demand for industrial goods across the economy.
S: Hence even a modest shortfall in rainfall causes widespread anxiety.
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Answer: C. QPRS
Q explains the dependence mentioned in (1); P describes what happens when the rain fails; R ('This, in turn') follows from the fall in rural incomes; S ('Hence') draws the conclusion.
Q6. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph. The first sentence is fixed.
(1) Urban flooding has become an annual ritual in many Indian cities.
P: Lakes and wetlands that once absorbed excess rain have been encroached upon.
Q: The causes, however, are largely man-made.
R: Meanwhile, drains choked with plastic cannot carry the water away.
S: Heavy downpours are usually blamed.
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Answer: D. SQPR
S gives the common explanation; Q ('however') contrasts it with man-made causes; P and R ('Meanwhile') list those causes.
Q7. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: He was turned away by several publishers, one of whom told him he had no talent.
Q: Undeterred, he continued to write late into the night.
R: As a young man, the author worked as a clerk but spent his evenings writing stories.
S: Years later, his first novel became a bestseller, and the same publisher begged for his next book.
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Answer: A. RPQS
R introduces the author; P describes the rejection; Q ('Undeterred') shows his persistence despite it; S ('Years later') gives the outcome.
Q8. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: Surprised, the king asked why he was planting a tree whose fruit he would never taste.
Q: One morning, a king saw an old man planting a mango sapling.
R: Pleased with the answer, the king rewarded him with a bag of gold.
S: The old man replied that he was merely repaying the debt he owed to those who had planted trees for him.
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Answer: B. QPSR
Q sets the scene; P is the king's question; S is the old man's reply; R ('Pleased with the answer') is the king's response.
Q9. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: More significant still, the routes carried ideas, religions and technologies across continents.
Q: Spices, glassware, paper and precious metals also changed hands along the way.
R: Although it is known as the Silk Road, silk was only one of the many goods it carried.
S: For centuries, a network of caravan routes linked China with the Mediterranean world.
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Answer: B. SRQP
S introduces the routes; R names them and notes silk was only one good; Q lists other goods ('also'); P, 'More significant still', ends with the most important cargo: ideas.
Q10. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: A placebo is a substance with no therapeutic ingredient, such as a sugar pill.
Q: This finding complicates clinical trials, since a new drug must outperform not nothing but a placebo.
R: Researchers attribute this to expectation, which can trigger the brain's own pain-relieving chemicals.
S: Remarkably, patients who receive one often report genuine relief from pain.
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Answer: C. PSRQ
P defines a placebo; S ('receive one') reports its surprising effect; R ('this') explains the cause; Q draws the implication for clinical trials.
Q11. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: Forming vast swarms, they can then strip entire fields bare within hours.
Q: Desert locusts are normally solitary insects that avoid one another.
R: After heavy rains, however, abundant vegetation allows their numbers to multiply rapidly.
S: Crowded together, they undergo a startling change in colour, behaviour and appetite.
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Answer: D. QRSP
Q describes locusts' normal solitary nature; R ('however') introduces the population boom; S describes the transformation caused by crowding; P ('then') gives the destructive result.
Q12. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: He noticed that milkmaids who had caught cowpox seemed to be immune to smallpox.
Q: In the late eighteenth century, smallpox killed hundreds of thousands of Europeans every year.
R: To test his hunch, he infected a boy with cowpox and later exposed him to smallpox.
S: Against this grim backdrop, a country doctor named Edward Jenner made a crucial observation.
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Answer: B. QSPR
Q sets the historical scene; S ('this grim backdrop') introduces Jenner; P states his observation; R describes how he tested that 'hunch'.
Q13. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: There it performs a curious figure-of-eight movement known as the waggle dance.
Q: The duration of the waggle, meanwhile, tells its sisters how far they must fly.
R: The angle of the dance relative to the vertical indicates the direction of the food with respect to the sun.
S: When a forager bee discovers a rich source of nectar, it returns to the hive to share the news.
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Answer: C. SPRQ
S introduces the bee and the hive; P ('There') follows, naming the waggle dance; R explains what the angle of the dance shows; Q, with 'meanwhile', adds the second piece of information (distance).
Q14. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: When prices rise too quickly, a central bank typically raises interest rates.
Q: Higher rates make borrowing costlier for households and businesses alike.
R: With demand thus cooled, the pace of price rise gradually eases.
S: As a result, spending on homes, cars and new factories begins to slow.
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Answer: A. PQSR
P states the central bank's action; Q gives its immediate effect on borrowing; S ('As a result') describes reduced spending; R ('demand thus cooled') gives the final outcome.
Q15. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: The practice reflects a philosophy that treats damage as part of an object's history rather than something to disguise.
Q: Instead of being hidden, the repair thus becomes the most striking feature of the object.
R: In Japan, broken pottery is sometimes repaired by a method called kintsugi.
S: The cracks are filled with lacquer mixed with powdered gold.
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Answer: B. RSQP
R introduces kintsugi; S describes the method (gold-filled cracks); Q ('thus') states the visible result; P generalises to the philosophy behind 'the practice'.
Q16. Rearrange the sentences P, Q, R and S to form a coherent paragraph.
P: Over time, these utilitarian structures were adorned with elaborate carvings and became places of social gathering.
Q: Communities responded by building stepwells, deep structures that reached down to the groundwater.
R: In the arid regions of western India, securing water through the long dry season was a matter of survival.
S: Descending flights of steps allowed people to reach the water even as its level fell during the dry months.
Show answer
Answer: C. RQSP
R states the problem of water scarcity; Q gives the response (stepwells); S explains how the steps worked; P, beginning 'Over time', describes their later development.
