Given below are six sentences taken from a paragraph. The first and the last sentences are numbered S1 and S2 and are placed in the first and last positions respectively and are fixed in their positions. The other four sentences between the first and last sentences are jumbled up and are numbered A, B, C, and D. Rearrange the jumbled sentences in a logical sequence keeping the unity and coherence of the paragraph intact. Choose the correct alternative that best describes the sequence.
S1. But he drove on and on, and Jadrino was not to be seen; there was no end to the wood.
A. Despair took possession of him.
B. He whipped the horse; the poor animal broke into a trot, but it soon slackened its pace, and in about a quarter of an hour it was scarcely able to drag one leg after the other, in spite of all the exertions of the unfortunate Vladimir.
C. Vladimir discovered with horror that he had entered an unknown forest.
D. Gradually the trees began to get sparser, and Vladimir emerged from the forest, but Jadrino was not to be seen.
S2. It must now have been midnight.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Correct Answer
CABD
Explanation
The paragraph describes Vladimir's harrowing journey through a forest as he gets lost trying to find Jadrino, a sequence taken from Alexander Pushkin's famous short story The Blizzard. To reassemble this text into a logical order, you can follow the emotional and chronological progression of the character's journey.
Sentence S1 starts by establishing that Vladimir is driving continuously through an endless wood with no sign of Jadrino. Sentence C must follow immediately because it reveals the shocking realization explaining this situation: he discovers with horror that he has entered an entirely unknown forest.
Once he realizes he is truly lost, his emotional reaction follows naturally in sentence A, where despair takes possession of him. This sudden despair prompts his desperate physical reaction in sentence B, where he whips his horse to speed up, though the exhausted animal quickly slows down over the next fifteen minutes.
Sentence D represents the resolution of that exhausting stretch of driving, showing that the trees finally become sparser as he emerges out of the forest, though Jadrino is still missing. This brings the paragraph to sentence S2, concluding with the sudden realization of how late it has become. Following this chain of cause and effect locks in the arrangement CABD.
Key Points
When working through narrative jumbles, look for the immediate cause-and-effect loop between a character's internal realization and their outward actions. Vladimir first makes a terrifying discovery (C), which causes an emotion (A), which pushes him into an action (B), which leads to a change in the physical scenery (D). Tracking this natural human response chain makes it much easier to connect the fragments correctly.