Numerical answer
The four sentences below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the correct order and key in the sequence of numbers as your answer.
1. A city's official language policy, in other words, is only ever part of the story; the languages that actually survive on its streets are shaped as much by migration, commerce and informal social networks as by any government decree.
2. Singapore officially recognises four languages, English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, for use in government, education and public signage.
3. Beneath this tidy official quartet, however, dozens of other languages and dialects continue to circulate in markets, homes and places of worship, sustained by immigrant communities the formal policy does not name.
4. Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and Tagalog, none of them official languages, are nonetheless heard daily across the city-state's older neighbourhoods and newer migrant enclaves alike.
1. A city's official language policy, in other words, is only ever part of the story; the languages that actually survive on its streets are shaped as much by migration, commerce and informal social networks as by any government decree.
2. Singapore officially recognises four languages, English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, for use in government, education and public signage.
3. Beneath this tidy official quartet, however, dozens of other languages and dialects continue to circulate in markets, homes and places of worship, sustained by immigrant communities the formal policy does not name.
4. Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and Tagalog, none of them official languages, are nonetheless heard daily across the city-state's older neighbourhoods and newer migrant enclaves alike.
Show answer and solution
Answer: 2341
Sentence 2 states the official policy baseline (four recognised languages). Sentence 3 immediately complicates this by noting unofficial languages persisting "beneath this tidy official quartet." Sentence 4 gives concrete examples of these unofficial languages. Sentence 1 then draws the general conclusion about language policy versus lived reality, forming the natural closing statement. The order is 2-3-4-1.
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