IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 22

**Blank 1 — “in an anthropocentric ___“.** Anthropocentric means human-centred, and the phrase describes a framework of thinking:

worldview ✔ — the standard collocation; one speaks of an anthropocentric worldview.

universe (c) ✘ — a physical thing, not a way of seeing.

belief (a) and construct (b) are possible but weaker; “in an anthropocentric belief” is not idiomatic.

Blank 2 — pair it with ‘humane’ treatment. The sentence puts two quoted concepts side by side: “‘humane’ treatment and ‘necessary’ ___“. In animal-welfare debate the standard pairing is humane treatment and necessary suffering — the two notions used to justify what may be done to animals.

well-being (a) ✘ — you would not speak of “necessary well-being”; the adjective necessary only makes sense of something undesirable.

comfort (b) ✘ — same problem.

gain (c) ✘ — unrelated to the humane-treatment framework.

Blank 3 — how does the idea rest on that premise? The final clause names a “widely accepted idea” that directly supports the claim:

explicitly ✔ — the dependence is stated outright, not partial or hedged.

partially (a) and somewhat (b) weaken the link, contradicting “widely accepted”.

entirely (c) is plausible in strength but belongs to an option already dead on blanks 1 and 2.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. Blank 2 is the sharpest test: which noun can take “necessary”? Necessary suffering is a real and much-debated phrase; necessary well-being and necessary comfort are incoherent, because you would never describe something desirable as merely necessary in this frame.

That single check removes (a), (b) and (c).

Blank 1 confirms it by collocation — anthropocentric worldview is the established pairing.

The content is worth knowing too: this is the standard philosophical argument that treating animals as property makes welfare rules economic rather than moral. Recognising the debate makes the vocabulary fall into place.