Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the correct order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph. A. More children go to school than at any time in the past. But more children today are out of school than any time in the past. B. But it is not enough to blame the high birth rate for this state of affairs. C. Indeed, it can be reasonably argued that continued mass illiteracy is not the result but the cause of the high birth rate. D. There are more literate people in India today than ever before. But there are also more illiterates than ever before.

Correct — B. Work from the sentences that cannot move.

C opens with 'Indeed' and with 'the high birth rate' — an intensifier and a definite article that both need something earlier. C cannot start, and it must follow B, where the birth rate is first raised.

B opens with 'But ... this state of affairs', so a situation must already be described. D describes it for literacy, A repeats it for schooling.

D needs nothing before it, so the chain runs D to A to B to C — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  ABCD — ABCD strands D at the end, where the general literacy paradox arrives after the argument it was supposed to open. It also starts with A, the narrower school version of the same point.
• (c)
  CBAD — CBAD opens with 'Indeed', a word that strengthens a claim already made, and with 'the high birth rate' on first mention. Neither can begin a paragraph.
• (d)
  BADC — BADC opens with 'But' and with 'this state of affairs', a phrase pointing back to a situation that nothing has yet described.

Paragraph jumbles are settled by backward-pointing words, not by which sentence sounds most important.

Four kinds point backwards: pronouns, 'this/these' phrases, connectives such as But and Indeed, and a definite article on a noun that has not been introduced. Any sentence carrying one cannot open.

That rules out B ('But', 'this state of affairs') and C ('Indeed', 'the high birth rate'). D and A both open cleanly, so the tie is broken on scope: the general claim precedes its illustration.

Key facts

• A sentence beginning with a connective such as But or Indeed cannot be the opening sentence of a jumbled paragraph.
• A definite article on a noun not yet mentioned marks its sentence as a follower rather than an opener.
• 'This state of affairs' in sentence B is anaphoric, so B must come after the sentences that describe the situation.
• Indeed strengthens the claim immediately before it, which fixes C directly after B.

Common traps

• Ordering by which fact is most striking rather than by which sentence can stand without a predecessor.
• Treating 'Indeed' as an opener because it sounds emphatic, when it can only intensify a claim already made.

No directly related past PYQ was found.