Directions: For the following question, choose the option that fills up the blank most correctly.

In a way, science might be described as _________ thinking applied to nature, we are looking for natural conspiracies, for connections among apparently _________ data.

Here again, the second missing word is easier to spot. ‘Looking for connections among apparently – data’ indicates that the author is implying that the data, at first look, do not appear to have any connections. The missing word must therefore mean disconnected. Among the choices for the second missing word, it is disparate that has this meaning. Paranoid means a mental state in which one has a fixation that there is conspiracy against him all around. This word logically completes this ironic sentence, in which the author means that ‘scientists think that nature is indulging in conspiracies against them, hiding the connection that they are looking for in apparently disconnected data’. So, (4) is the answer