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GATE 2023 XH2 (English) – Question 23

Reasoning and Comprehension · Verbal reasoning and comprehension · 2 marks · Multiple choice

Five segments of a sentence are given below. The first and fifth segments are at their correct positions, while the middle three segments (represented by 2, 3, and 4) are jumbled up. Choose the correct order of the segments so that they form a coherent sentence:

1. Consumed multitudes are jostling and shoving inside me

2. and guided only by the memory of a large white bedsheet with a roughly circular hole some seven inches in diameter cut into the center,

3. clutching at the dream of that holey, mutilated square of linen, which is my talisman, my open-sesame,

4. I must commence the business of remaking my life from the point at which it really began,

5. some thirty-two years before anything as obvious, as present, as my clock-ridden, crime-stained birth.

  1. 2 – 3 – 4
  2. 3 – 2 – 4
  3. 4 – 2 – 3
  4. 4 – 3 – 2

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (B) 3 – 2 – 4

Explanation

The multitudes are “clutching at the dream of that holey ... square of linen” (3), “and guided only by the memory” of it (2), and then comes the main clause “I must commence ... the point at which it really began” (4), which leads to “some thirty-two years before ...” (5). This is the opening of Rushdie's Midnight's Children.