IPMAT Indore 2026 Question Paper

Read the following passage and choose the answer that is closest to each of the questions that are based on the passage.

Who has not often observed two dogs, members of the same household, communicating with each other? Pug and Gyp were two animals that belonged to the family where I spent a summer vacation. They thought much of each other when romping together in the yard, or in foraging the neighbouring woods and fields for rabbits and groundhogs. Never would they start out on an expedition for game without having previously laid their plans. It was interesting and amusing to watch them. They would bring their heads into close contiguity, remaining in this position for two or three minutes, when, by mutual consent, they would separate, look each other in the eyes, and then start off in different directions for the scene of their projected enterprise. Times out of number I have observed such behaviour and have always discovered that they meant something of the kind. There were no audible utterances, no visible gestures, yet there was an interchange of ideas. Through the medium of the eye were the thoughts conveyed. It was spirit speaking directly to spirit, conveying by a single glance of the eye thoughts which whole volumes would fail to express.

Each species of animal has its own dialect. Yet there is another language, a sort of animal lingua franca, which is common to all. A cry of warning, no matter from what bird or animal it emanates, is understood by them all, as is well known to many a sportsman who has lost his only chance of a shot by reason of an impertinent crow, jay or magpie which has espied him, and has given its cry of alarm. There is not a bird of garden or orchard, or a fowl of the barnyard or door-side, that does not understand the peculiar cry of the rooster when a hawk is seen careering overhead or perched upon the summit of a nearby tree. With one accord they flee to their coverts, and there remain until the danger is past.

No more quarrelsome and pugnacious species of bird exists than the English sparrow. It appropriates every available locality for nesting purposes, and our native species are driven to the necessity of fighting for their rights, or of seeking quarters in the rural districts which these birds do not infect. Thus, it is that many a useful robin, bluebird or martin is driven from our midst. Many have witnessed encounters between these birds and the robins. The author once saw a contest between a pair of sparrows and a pair of robins for the possession of a certain tree that grew in his yard. Now the robin, single-handed, is more than a match for a sparrow. In the engagement referred to, the robins were getting the better of the sparrows, which the latter were not slow in perceiving. Instantly the sparrows set up the wild, ear-piercing harangue for which they are peculiarly noted, when more than a score of friends from the immediate vicinity gathered to their assistance. But the war cry which they sounded not only summoned help to their standard, but it was equally understood by all the other birds of the neighbourhood, who flocked to the defence of their brethren against the alien. The battle waged warm and fiercely for some minutes, when the sparrows were forced to seek safety in retreat.

Read the following passage and choose the answer that is closest to each of the questions that are based on the passage.

Anger can be a useful emotion. It can play a key role in building a strong individual psyche, as also a just society. But the algohacking of our brains to keep them in a state of incessant anger? That’s pure poison. Some companies and individuals draw colossal profits from it, but at terrible cost to general well-being. That rage bait has been declared Oxford English Dictionary’s word of 2025 is indicative of the spread of this poison. In 2024, it was brain rot that came on top. Both speak of the same diseased online ecosystem. All of this is bad enough for adults, but what it’s doing to children is a great nightmare.

Specifically, rage bait refers to online content designed to elicit anger or outrage. Once tech platforms figured out how this kind of content spirals user engagement, the algorithms got tweaked to feed us more and more of the same, activating a diabolical incentive structure of hate. Of course, in this swamp, reality is completely distorted. You could take any major event of recent times as an example and the difference between your newspaper’s reportage and your online feed would be dramatic. Reading responsible accounts of pollution, a terror attack, an election result etc. would give you food for thought. On social media, you would be targeted with stuff doctored to send you into troll mode.

If you block the accounts that most inflame you, you deprive them of your attention, you refuse to buy the hate they are selling. Blocking even hurts them with the algorithm. David did defeat Goliath. And make no mistake, this is a civilisational battle. We must fight against the atrophy of our attention, its capture by the most terrible types of things that human nature can be drawn to, and to regain our sense and sensibility.

Complete the following sentences by choosing the most appropriate word/phrase from the options given below.