CAT Paragraph Summary Question 13

Question 13:

The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

A distinguishing feature of language is our ability to refer to absent things, known as displaced reference. A speaker can bring distant referents to mind in the absence of any obvious stimuli. Thoughts, not limited to the here and now, can pop into our heads for unfathomable reasons. This ability to think about distant things necessarily precedes the ability to talk about them. Thought precedes meaningful referential communication. A prerequisite for the emergence of human-like meaningful symbols is that the mental categories they relate to can be invoked even in the absence of immediate stimuli.

  1. Thoughts are essential to communication and only humans have the ability to think about objects not present in their surroundings.
  2. The ability to think about objects not present in our environment precedes the development of human communication.
  3. Displaced reference is particular to humans and thoughts pop into our heads for no real reason.
  4. Thoughts precede all speech acts and these thoughts pop up in our heads even in the absence of any stimulus.
Option: 2
Explanation:

Everything is good with option 1 except that it says only humans have the ability to think, something that is nowhere to found in the passage. 1 can be ruled out.

Option 3 goes out because displaced reference is a distinguishing feature of language, not of humans. Option 3 can be ruled out.

Option 4 goes out because the passage says that thought precedes all meaningful communication, while option 4 says that thought precedes all speech acts, something that may not always be the case. Thus option 4 too goes out.

Option 2 is succinct and does not have any distortions or misrepresentations.

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