IIM B UG (B.Sc-Hons.)- Sample Paper 2026 · English Comprehension · Question 13

IIM B UG (B.Sc-Hons.)- Sample Paper 2026 question on Fill in the Blanks, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Fill in the BlanksVerbal AbilityMultiple choiceEasy

Each of the questions has one or more sentences with two blank spaces. Below each sentence, there are four options, each consisting of a pair of words. Choose the option with words that best fill the blank spaces.

The true story is that economic _____ began even before the pandemic. It is also a story of _____ productivity growth, insufficient investment, fragile institutions, and policy frameworks that have too often favoured short-term firefighting over long-term transformation.

  1. A
    Boom; Rising
  2. B
    Slowdown; Weak
  3. C
    Slowdown; Rising
  4. D
    Boom; Weak
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

The second sentence lists problems: insufficient investment, fragile institutions, short-term firefighting. Productivity growth in that list must also be a problem – 'weak'.

A story of problems fits an economic 'slowdown' that began before the pandemic, not a 'boom'.

Shortcut: the list is all negative, so both blanks must be negative words.

Hence, the answer is option 2.

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