2021 CSAT — Q72

Locate. This is a locate-the-detail question: retrieve the exact line the stem points to — here “the first part of the passage.” That part reads: “most people would agree that telling deliberate lies is wrong.” The operative word is agree, and the topic is telling lies.

Test (qualifier-match). Match the option to that line word for word: an agreement about telling lies. (a) “agreement about telling lies” matches both the relation (agreement) and the object (lies).

Eliminate by anatomy. (b) flips the relation to “disagreement about telling lies” — the first part says agree, not disagree. (c) flips both the relation and object (“disagreement about telling the truth”). (d) compounds the flip with the harm clause (“disagreement about the harm in telling the truth”). All three are half right, half wrong and reversed: they keep a real word from the passage (lies / truth / harm) but attach the wrong relation (disagreement) the first part never uses. The transferable rule: on a locate-the-detail question, the answer preserves the line’s exact relation word — “agree” stays “agreement,” not “disagreement.” Key: (a).

”… most people would agree that telling deliberate lies is wrong, except perhaps in certain special situations where more harm will be done by telling the truth.” — the first part of the passage reports an agreement (most people agree) about telling lies → (a). The other options each substitute “disagreement,” which the first part does not state.

The passage’s first part states that most people agree deliberate lying is wrong (with a special-case exception). The “idea mentioned” is therefore an agreement about telling lies.

• (a) matches “most people would agree… about telling [deliberate] lies.” Correct.
• (b)/(c)/(d) each substitute “disagreement,” which the first part does not assert.

Answer: (a).

This is a pure relation-word retrieval. The first part says people agree; three distractors quietly swap “agree” for “disagree” and shuffle the object (lies → truth → harm). The discipline is to fix on the single relation word in the cited line and reject any option that inverts it, however familiar its nouns. On a locate-the-detail question, a flipped relation word is the most common trap — read the verb, not just the topic.