Rearrange the parts to form a meaningful sentence: "Only a country not yet rid ___ of its colonial hangover ___ and controls, labels dissent as seditious ___ of a government that commands."

Introduction / Context:
This sentence rearrangement question tests your ability to understand complex political or social commentary and to logically connect sentence fragments. The fragments describe a country with a "colonial hangover" whose government labels dissent as seditious. Your task is to choose the correct order of the parts P, Q, and R so that the whole sentence becomes meaningful and grammatically correct.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Starting phrase: "Only a country not yet rid"
• Part P: "of its colonial hangover"
• Part Q: "and controls, labels dissent as seditious"
• Part R: "of a government that commands"
• We assume the final sentence criticises excessive state control and the colonial mentality behind it.

Concept / Approach:
The sentence begins with "Only a country not yet rid", which clearly calls for a phrase beginning with "of" to complete the idea, such as "of its colonial hangover". Then the text wants to specify whose hangover it is, likely "of a government that commands and controls". Finally, it concludes with what such a government does: labels dissent as seditious. By understanding this meaning, we can correctly link the pieces: first describe the colonial hangover, then identify that it is a hangover of a government that commands and controls, and then state what that government does.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Start with the base: "Only a country not yet rid ...". This strongly suggests that the next phrase should be "of its colonial hangover", which is part P. Step 2: Combining the start and P, we get "Only a country not yet rid of its colonial hangover ...". The next logical idea is to describe the kind of hangover, that is, the hangover of a certain type of government. Step 3: Part R reads "of a government that commands". If we attach this, we get "Only a country not yet rid of its colonial hangover of a government that commands ...". So far this clearly describes a hangover of a command style government. Step 4: We now need a phrase that tells us what such a government does. Part Q is "and controls, labels dissent as seditious". Joining this gives "Only a country not yet rid of its colonial hangover of a government that commands and controls, labels dissent as seditious." Step 5: This sentence is grammatically and logically coherent. Therefore the correct order is P, then R, then Q, which is PRQ.

Verification / Alternative check:
Check other sequences quickly. For PQR we would get "Only a country not yet rid of its colonial hangover and controls, labels dissent as seditious of a government that commands." This is clumsy and ungrammatical because "of a government that commands" is poorly placed at the end, separated from "hangover". For QPR we would start with "and controls", which cannot logically follow "Not yet rid" without a direct reference to a subject. Other orders similarly break the natural flow from cause (colonial hangover) to description (a government that commands and controls) to effect (labeling dissent as seditious).

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
In PQR, the phrase "of a government that commands" is separated from "colonial hangover", which makes the sentence hard to interpret. In QPR and QRP, starting with "and controls" after "not yet rid" produces an ungrammatical structure because there is no earlier "commands" clause to justify "and controls". In RPQ, placing "of a government that commands" directly after "not yet rid" without first mentioning "its colonial hangover" breaks the logical connection. Thus, only PRQ preserves both grammatical structure and intended meaning.

Common Pitfalls:
Many students read the fragments too quickly and base their choice only on partial matching of words like "commands and controls". A better approach is to first find the phrase that naturally completes the beginning of the sentence, then search for logical continuations. Words like "of", "and", and prepositional phrases often signal the correct sequence when read carefully. Paying attention to who is doing the action and what is being described is essential for sentence rearrangement questions.

Final Answer:
The correct order of parts is PRQ, giving: "Only a country not yet rid of its colonial hangover of a government that commands and controls, labels dissent as seditious."