All 26 VARC questions in exam order, with the passage topic, what each question asks, the answer and the reasoning.
VA mix: 3 para summary, 3 para jumbles, 2 odd sentence out, 0 sentence placement. RC themes: Technology & Society; Economics & Business; Language, Arts & Literature; Philosophy, Psychology & Culture.
Q1–Q4 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Inference, Detail
AsksWhich claim about screen time the author would least accept.
Correct option: That screens increase human contact.
The author argues that screens displace face-to-face contact, making it rare. Screens filling a social void describes a need they try to meet, not more real contact.
AsksWhich other line best supports "the richer you are, the more you pay to stay off screens".
Correct option: The line making comfort with human engagement a new class marker.
It ties offline interaction to class status. The line about the wealthy using ad-supported platforms less concerns platforms, not the cost of avoiding screens.
AsksHow tech companies mislead the public about screens, per the author.
Correct option: They push screens into public schools while keeping their own children largely screen-free.
The passage contrasts one-laptop-per-child campaigns with how tech workers raise their own kids. Hiring psychologists is to keep users engaged, not to hide findings.
AsksWhich cause of rising screen time the author would least accept.
Correct option: Cheaper streaming.
Falling prices and streaming are never mentioned. Screens filling the void left by vanished gathering places is supported.
TopicThe central nervous system and exaptation
AsksArrange four sentences on the nervous system and evolutionary "exaptation".
Logic: Adaptation and exaptation in animals (2) → these ideas apply to the central nervous system (4) → organisms are structured like nested dolls (3) → the CNS's parts are nested and constantly reorganise (1).
Sentence 2 introduces the evolutionary concepts, and sentence 4 extends them to the CNS. Sentence 3 adds the nested-doll picture, and sentence 1 applies it to the CNS.
TopicGender and femininity
AsksFive sentences on womanhood, femininity and appearance.
Logic: 5 → 1 → 2 → 4: womanhood seen as biological, femininity as a process → looks taken to reveal inner traits → appearance signals conduct, judged by beauty skills → women who fail the norms are disparaged.
The four sentences trace the appearance-based ideal and its consequences. Sentence 3 turns to makeover media's messages, a separate thread.
TopicJapanese deities
AsksArrange four sentences on Japan's seven lucky gods.
Logic: Seven deities believed to bring fortune (3) → each represents a kind of luck (1) → although in the Shinto pantheon, only two are native (4) → the others came from other religions (2).
Sentence 3 introduces the group, and sentence 1's "each" refers to it. Sentence 4 notes only two are native, and sentence 2's "the others" covers the rest.
TopicThe origin of language
AsksSummary of a paragraph on the origin of language.
Correct option: Two views coexist: language arose to share facts, or to build social bonds that aided survival.
C presents both hypotheses side by side. The closest option invents a shift in scholarly opinion from one view to the other.
Q9–Q13 · 5 questions · Inference, Main idea & summary, Author's view & tone, Except / NOT
AsksA valid inference from the opening line about how long the author has followed the crisis.
Correct option: His preoccupation with the crisis is at least two years old.
The opening says he has followed it for more than two years. The other options invent reasons or claims about the crisis's length or his travels.
AsksThe central point of the final paragraph.
Correct option: Individualism must be set aside, because the crisis shows we are all connected and must act together.
The paragraph says the crisis exposed individualist ideology. The option saying the crisis strengthens individualism reverses it.
AsksThe programme the author would most likely support.
Correct option: Building financial literacy among the general public.
The author wants finance to be understood by outsiders, not to stay a closed field. Science education and economic research are side points.
AsksWhich statement would NOT support the passage's arguments.
Correct option: That failed economic systems don't necessarily mean their ideologies have failed.
The passage argues that the individualist ideology behind the crisis needs rethinking, so A cuts against it. Changing dominant beliefs to avert crises fits the author's view.
AsksWhich statement, if false, would support the author.
Correct option: That the crisis was not a failure of collective action.
If this is false, the crisis was a collective failure, matching the author's view that everyone shares the consequences. The falsity of the claim that most people don't understand finance would contradict the author.
Q14–Q18 · 5 questions · Except / NOT, Detail, Inference
AsksWhich factor did NOT shape feminist scholars' understanding of Victorian women travellers.
Correct option: Their grasp of class conflicts in the period.
The passage links the scholars' reading to their own research perspective, to gender inequality and to how identity was negotiated at home and abroad. Class is mentioned only in passing and is never presented as shaping the scholars' understanding.
AsksWhat 1920s American travel writing (road narratives) celebrated.
Correct option: The freedom of road travel.
The passage says road narratives stressed independence on the road. The option borrowing "independence" misstates what the protagonists discover.
AsksWhy Victorian women developed themselves through travel, according to scholars.
Correct option: Away from home, their gendered identities could be negotiated differently.
The passage ties self-development to identities being reshaped abroad. Fragmented identities are what later studies describe, not the cause.
AsksWhat Said's book on Orientalism did, per the passage.
Correct option: Showed how cultural imperialism in travel texts helped legitimise colonial rule.
The passage says Said showed how political dominance relied on legitimating discourses in travel writing. Ranking culture above colonial rule, or judging Westerners' character, misreads it.
AsksWhich genre travel writing most resembles.
Correct option: Autobiography.
Travel writing recounts the writer's own experiences and perspective. Feminist criticism is a lens applied to travel writing, not a genre it resembles.
Q19–Q22 · 4 questions · Detail, Purpose of example, Author's view & tone
AsksThe one view the passage does express (none of the others is).
Correct option: Most people hold a pessimistic, Hobbes-like view that others are selfish and dangerous.
The opening describes this pessimism. The two philosophers are presented as opposites, not as sharing a belief in a strong state.
AsksHow the book's author regards the collapse of civilisations.
Correct option: As a chance for change, such as freedom for the enslaved and cultural flourishing.
He presents collapse as a reprieve, not decline. The "dark ages" view is the traditional one he contrasts with his own.
AsksWhy the book contrasts pre-agricultural with agricultural life.
Correct option: To argue that people are basically decent but progress can make them selfish.
He idealises the nomadic past and blames farming for property, greed and conflict. Population growth is raised by the reviewer as a critique, not as the purpose.
AsksWhere the reviewer differs from the book's author.
Correct option: The reviewer rejects the view that civilised society is inherently coercive; human nature has both good and bad.
The closing calls the either/or framing a false choice. The reviewer doesn't dispute that pathogens spread disease or that farming aided knowledge.
TopicDetecting hate speech
AsksPick the sentence that doesn't fit a paragraph on automated detection of hate speech.
Logic: Sentence 3, the point that current systems ignore the context in which words are used.
The paragraph runs: the campaign against abusive content online, how software catches it faster than people, the problem that algorithms absorb human bias from training data, and an example of that bias with group-naming words. The point about missing context starts a different thread, so it is the odd one out.
TopicAesthetic political representation
AsksSummary of a paragraph on aesthetic political representation.
Correct option: It grants representatives autonomy, grounded in a disinterestedness that is not indifference.
B covers both points without adding a relationship. The closest option says the autonomy is "manifested through" disinterestedness, which the passage doesn't state.
TopicGenetic and metabolic theories of life
AsksSummary of a paragraph on genetic and metabolic theories.
Correct option: Genetic theory's many models underpin evolutionary biology; metabolic theory could do the same for ecology.
B keeps both halves and the tentative tone. The closest option says metabolic theory must replicate that success, which overstates it.
TopicAntitrust and big tech
AsksArrange four sentences on antitrust law and big tech.
Logic: The consumer-welfare standard (4) → "it" favoured cautious enforcement (1) → industries consolidated and tech giants grew (2) → "that" weak enforcement drives calls for new laws (3).
Sentence 4 introduces the standard, and sentence 1's "it" describes its stance. Sentence 2 gives the outcome, and sentence 3's "that" draws the conclusion.
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