IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 24

The word pair being tested: collaborate vs corroborate.

collaborate — to work jointly with someone on a shared task (and, in a second sense, to cooperate traitorously with an occupying power).

corroborate — to confirm or support a statement, theory or finding with evidence.

Checking each option:

(a) “refused to collaborate” ✔ — declining to work with others on the protest.

(b) “relatives… collaborated with the British Empire” ✔ — the traitorous sense, signalled by “treacherous”.

(d) “The policeman collaborated with the film makers” ✔ — working jointly on the shoot.

(c) “interviewed many teens to collaborate her thesis” ✘ — interviewing people gathers evidence to support a thesis. That is corroborating it, not collaborating with it.

Note the grammatical tell as well: collaborate takes with a person; here the word is followed directly by a thing (“her thesis”), which is the pattern corroborate takes.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Use the preposition as the test. Collaborate is almost always followed by with; corroborate takes a direct object. Scan the four options:

Answer (c), found by grammar alone — and the meaning confirms it, since evidence corroborates a claim.

Memory hook: co-labor-ate = work together (labour); co-robor-ate = strengthen (Latin robur, strength).