IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 31

Step 1 — find the opener. Sentence 5 defines the phenomenon and names it: “Human eyes perform jiggles, more formally called saccades, in response to a change in the field of vision.” A sentence that introduces a technical term is almost always the opener.

The others all presuppose it: 1 begins “This means”, 2 refers to “jiggle” as already known, 3 says “those eyes”, and 4 describes the mechanism without having introduced it.

Step 2 — the mechanism. Sentence 4: “Our eyes quickly scan the surroundings and then send the data to the brain.” This explains what the jiggling accomplishes, and it introduces the brain, which the paragraph needs later.

Step 3 — the youthful case. Sentence 2: “Youthful eyes jiggle regularly to take in new or unfamiliar stimuli.” The baseline, against which ageing will be contrasted.

Step 4 — the ageing case. Sentence 3: “As the person attached to those eyes ages…” The phrase those eyes points directly back to the youthful eyes of sentence 2 — a mandatory pair, 2\to 3.

Step 5 — the consequence. Sentence 1: “This means the brain receives less input over the course of a day.” This refers to the slowed muscles and damaged pathways of sentence 3, and it closes the paragraph by returning to the brain.

The sequence:

5\to 4\to 2\to 3\to 1

Answer: 54231

Shortcut. The sentence that defines a technical term opens the paragraph. “jiggles, more formally called saccades” is a definition, so 5 is first — before any other analysis.

Then the youth/age contrast is an unbreakable pair: “those eyes” in 3 has no referent except the “youthful eyes” of 2, so 2\to 3.

And “This means…” (1) is a consequence, which can only come after the cause it summarises.

Three structural facts — definition first, pronoun pair in the middle, consequence last — fix the whole order without reading for content.