Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out.
1. The human gut hosts trillions of microorganisms that are essential for digesting food and synthesizing vitamins.
2. Recent research has revealed that these gut microbes also communicate directly with the central nervous system.
3. The diversity of gut microbial species varies significantly across populations with different dietary habits and geographical locations.
4. This “gut-brain axis” influences everything from mood regulation to stress response and cognitive function.
5. Consequently, medical researchers are now exploring whether probiotics can be used to treat conditions like anxiety and depression.
1. The human gut hosts trillions of microorganisms that are essential for digesting food and synthesizing vitamins.
2. Recent research has revealed that these gut microbes also communicate directly with the central nervous system.
3. The diversity of gut microbial species varies significantly across populations with different dietary habits and geographical locations.
4. This “gut-brain axis” influences everything from mood regulation to stress response and cognitive function.
5. Consequently, medical researchers are now exploring whether probiotics can be used to treat conditions like anxiety and depression.
Answer and solution
Correct answer: 3
Solution
Sentences 1, 2, 4 and 5 form the paragraph: 1 introduces the gut microbiome and its digestive role; 2 reveals that gut microbes communicate with the central nervous system; 4 defines the gut-brain axis and its effects on mood, stress and cognition; 5 follows with the practical implication of probiotics as treatment for anxiety and depression. Sentence 3 is about population-level variation in microbial diversity across diets and geographies, a factual observation about the microbiome that has no bearing on the gut-brain axis or its therapeutic implications. The odd sentence out is 3.