Numerical answer
Five sentences related to a topic are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent, meaningful and unified paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not fit and key in its number as your answer.
1. Double-entry bookkeeping, developed by Italian merchants in the late medieval period, requires that every transaction be recorded in at least two accounts, as a debit in one and a credit in another.
2. This dual recording creates a powerful internal check: if the books are kept correctly, total debits must always equal total credits, making many kinds of arithmetic error immediately visible.
3. Venice's merchant families were among the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of the system, using it to track complex trading voyages spanning the length of the Mediterranean.
4. Some historians argue that the discipline imposed by double-entry bookkeeping helped cultivate the systematic, calculating mindset later associated with capitalist enterprise.
5. Modern spreadsheet software has made manual bookkeeping largely obsolete for small businesses, which now automate most routine accounting tasks.
1. Double-entry bookkeeping, developed by Italian merchants in the late medieval period, requires that every transaction be recorded in at least two accounts, as a debit in one and a credit in another.
2. This dual recording creates a powerful internal check: if the books are kept correctly, total debits must always equal total credits, making many kinds of arithmetic error immediately visible.
3. Venice's merchant families were among the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of the system, using it to track complex trading voyages spanning the length of the Mediterranean.
4. Some historians argue that the discipline imposed by double-entry bookkeeping helped cultivate the systematic, calculating mindset later associated with capitalist enterprise.
5. Modern spreadsheet software has made manual bookkeeping largely obsolete for small businesses, which now automate most routine accounting tasks.
Show answer and solution
Answer: 5
Sentences 1, 2, 3 and 4 form a coherent historical account of double-entry bookkeeping: its mechanics (1, 2), its early adoption in Venice (3), and its broader cultural significance (4). Sentence 5 shifts abruptly to modern spreadsheet software replacing manual bookkeeping, a different topic (contemporary technology) that does not continue the historical thread. The odd one out is sentence 5.
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