All 24 VARC questions in exam order, with the passage topic, what each question asks, the answer and the reasoning.
VA mix: 3 para summary, 0 para jumbles, 2 odd sentence out, 3 sentence placement. RC themes: Technology & Society; Science & Nature; History, Politics & Society.
Q1–Q4 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Inference
AsksWhich benefit of publishing peer-review data the passage does NOT mention.
Correct option: Helping journals pick suitably qualified reviewers.
The passage cites catching fake reviews, exposing under-representation of some reviewers, and curbing fraud and inefficiency. It never mentions choosing reviewers.
AsksWhich reason for doing peer review the passage does NOT give.
Correct option: Gaining influence in the academic community.
Staying current with the field, earning credit for reviews and a sense of duty to the discipline are all mentioned. Influence is not.
AsksThe position the author would most likely support.
Correct option: More openness throughout peer review, with confidentiality kept only where truly needed.
The author argues that sharing review data exposes fraud, inefficiency and bias, and wants secrecy limited to necessary cases. The option making data-sharing a substitute for publishing reviews misreads it as the author's goal rather than a fallback.
AsksWhich objection to publishing reviews the passage does NOT mention.
Correct option: Shielding reviewers from unfair criticism.
The objections given are that reviewers may soften critiques, be deterred from reviewing, or take longer. Protecting reviewers from unjust criticism is never raised.
TopicThe DIME model and information warfare
AsksSummary of a paragraph on information warfare in the DIME model.
Correct option: States monitor communication networks and deploy online "cyber troops" to shape opinion, typically before any military action.
D includes both monitoring and online manipulation. The closest option says information warfare runs alongside military action, while the passage says it comes first.
Q6–Q9 · 4 questions · Detail, Inference, Except / NOT, Application & analogy
AsksWhat makes carnivores grow used to humans.
Correct option: Relying on human food erodes their natural wariness.
Animals that feed at campsites or bins lose their caution, making encounters more dangerous. Natural aggression and climate change are discussed, but not as causes of lost fear.
AsksWhat follows about landscape and conflict from the researchers' findings.
Correct option: Mixed rural landscapes, where farmland adjoins carnivore habitat, raise the chance of encounters.
The passage links patchwork working landscapes to more opportunities for contact. Options claiming that diversity lowers risk, or that conflict is rarer in poorer rural areas, reverse it.
AsksWhich statement, if false, would contradict the passage.
Correct option: That carnivores relying on human food lose their fear of people.
The passage asserts exactly this habituation, so denying it clashes with the text. Negating the other options either agrees with the passage or touches points it doesn't make.
AsksThe scenario most likely to increase conflicts.
Correct option: Letting pet dogs roam off-leash where large carnivores are common.
The passage links loose dogs to many attacks, because they chase carnivores or draw them into confrontations. The option about reducing food scarcity would lower risk, not raise it.
Q10–Q13 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Main idea & summary, Purpose of example
AsksWhich example is NOT presented as an unintended consequence of an invention.
Correct option: Air-conditioning cooling and drying factories: its intended purpose.
Carrier built air-conditioning for exactly that use. CFC build-up, the phonograph's music market and the loom's link to programming all went beyond what the inventors intended.
AsksThe main point of the opening paragraph.
Correct option: Major inventions have hard-to-predict ripple effects that reach well beyond their original purpose.
The printing-press example stresses unforeseen consequences. The option calling the side effects beneficial misreads the emphasis on unpredictability.
AsksWhy the inventors Carrier, Babbage and Edison are mentioned.
Correct option: Their inventions had far-reaching effects they could not have foreseen.
Each invention ended up reshaping life or industry beyond its creator's aims. The option about varied uses captures only part of the point and misses the limits of foresight.
AsksWhich view the author would NOT support.
Correct option: That past technologies had harmless or helpful effects while only newer ones threaten the world.
The passage's own examples, leaded fuel and CFCs, show older technologies causing serious harm, so the author doesn't see past innovation as benign. His point is that innovation is now open to many small actors, not that new inventions are inherently more dangerous.
TopicCultivated meat in the UK
AsksFive sentences on Britain's approval of cultivated meat.
Logic: 1 → 5 → 3 → 2: Britain leads and has approved cultivated pet food → this shows innovation can ease livestock harm → human-food applications are under review → realising the benefits needs public funding.
The four sentences move from the current milestone to what's pending and what's needed next. Sentence 4 is a backward-looking aside about what a former government once considered, so it is the odd one.
TopicPhysicists working across fields
AsksSummary of a paragraph on physicists collaborating with other disciplines.
Correct option: Despite clashing research cultures, physicists' collaborations with other fields have produced important findings.
A keeps both the friction and the productive outcome. The closest option credits data sets and models for the success, when the passage mentions them mainly as points of friction.
TopicEarly globalisation
AsksWhere a sentence saying Europeans did not start globalisation, they built on earlier exchanges, fits.
Logic: Blank 3.
Before blank 3 the paragraph describes how connected the world already was around the year 1000, and the next sentence's "they" (the Europeans) changed what already existed, which needs this sentence to introduce them. At blank 4 the "they" would come before its referent, and blank 2 would cut the trade routes off from the voyage that follows.
TopicHens and mica
AsksWhere a sentence on hens laying calcium-shelled eggs despite calcium-free land fits.
Logic: Blank 3.
The paragraph sets up the farm-boy's puzzles: hens pecking at mica, which then vanishes from their gizzards. The calcium-shell mystery adds a second puzzle that the same hidden process must explain, so it sits after the mica puzzle and just before the closing line on Kervran's conclusion that elements were being transformed.
Q18–Q21 · 4 questions · Except / NOT, Inference, Application & analogy
AsksWhich factor did NOT contribute to the decline in spices' appeal.
Correct option: Greater availability of spices.
Refrigeration, changing medical ideas and new cooking habits all reduced the need for spices. The passage never names a larger supply as a cause, and it ties spices' value to their perceived scarcity.
AsksWhat listeners of the pepper-and-snakes myth would be least likely to conclude.
Correct option: That the story explains why pepper tastes hot.
The myth explains the danger of the harvest and the look of the peppercorns, not their flavour. A dangerous harvest naturally suggests a high cost and a scarce supply, so those conclusions are likely.
AsksWhich conclusion cannot be drawn from the passage.
Correct option: That India was colonised for its spices and gold.
The passage ties spice demand to colonial networks and contrasts spices with the lasting value of gold, but it never links colonising India to gold. The passage does say spice demand helped drive empire, so that option is supported.
AsksThe likely result if a trader brought white peppercorns to medieval Europe.
Correct option: Europeans would start doubting the burnt-tree harvesting story.
The myth explained only the shrivelled black peppercorns, so white ones would expose it. A drop in price doesn't follow, since the passage implies spices stayed rare and costly.
TopicComedy and creative freedom
AsksSummary of a paragraph on comedians and self-censorship.
Correct option: Creativity in comedy needs freedom, and fear of giving offence chokes originality.
D captures both the need for freedom and the chilling effect of fear. The closest option limits the point to what comedians may say and overstates it as the death of the art.
TopicNight owls and cognition
AsksWhere a sentence saying science now ranks night owls above early risers fits.
Logic: Blank 2.
Just before blank 2, night owls are said to be getting the last laugh, and the next sentence adds a caveat, so the superiority claim belongs in between. At blank 3 the verdict would come before the study that supports it is introduced.
TopicBiology and gender
AsksFive sentences on biology, upbringing and gender.
Logic: 1 → 3 → 5 → 4: researchers reject pure nature or pure nurture → many dislike any biological role → politics prefers a wholly social view → despite the evidence, such researchers face opposition.
The four sentences discuss resistance to biological explanations of gender. Sentence 2 turns to whether we should still fight sexism, a separate concern, so it is the odd one.
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